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I rewired my brain in six weeks

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Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#31

Post by bheadmaster »

guntherhermann wrote: post #30
bheadmaster wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grateful/thankful to whom, exactly? It seems to me that the popular (American) practice of gratitude is just a substitute for Christianity, filtered out not to mention any deities explicitly, but still containing references to them implicitly. I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense.

For being able to see For having all of my digits Clean drinking water Effectively infinite light at my fingertips (most of humanity couldn't do much when it got dark). The world's knowledge. So much food that I have to monitor how much I eat so I don't get too fat. For having a loving family, friends. For being given the opportunity to go to university. For having a career that pays well. That's just on the top of m…

I'm not asking for reasons. I'm asking: whom are you grateful to?

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#32

Post by jmholla »

Apocryphon wrote: post #5
corn13read2 wrote: post #3

tldr on this?

> Research has shown that mindfulness is a simple but powerful way to enhance several cognitive functions. It can improve attention

Also, there's a link to the mindfulness course they used: https://caring-mindfulness.thinkific.com/

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#33

Post by mdp2021 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #31
guntherhermann wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For being able to see For having all of my digits Clean drinking water Effectively infinite light at my fingertips (most of humanity couldn't do much when it got dark). The world's knowledge. So much food that I have to monitor how much I eat so I don't get too fat. For having a loving family, friends. For being given the opportunity to go to university. For having a career that pays well. That's just on the top of m…

I'm not asking for reasons. I'm asking: whom are you grateful to?

You are misunderstanding the idea. You can be in some internal posture without an excuse. There is no need to have an "eternal reference".

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#34

Post by guntherhermann »

bheadmaster wrote: post #31
guntherhermann wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For being able to see For having all of my digits Clean drinking water Effectively infinite light at my fingertips (most of humanity couldn't do much when it got dark). The world's knowledge. So much food that I have to monitor how much I eat so I don't get too fat. For having a loving family, friends. For being given the opportunity to go to university. For having a career that pays well. That's just on the top of m…

I'm not asking for reasons. I'm asking: whom are you grateful to?

I don't believe in a "creator/higher being" if that's what you're getting at, with that in mind - as I said above - the other people I'm grateful for are my family and my friends.

Thinking about it more, I suppose I'm also grateful for the individuals in this world who have had an incredible impact on this world. e.g. Jonas Salk, the guy who invented penecillin, etc.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#35

Post by [deleted] »

bheadmaster wrote: post #18
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Grateful/thankful to whom, exactly? It seems to me that the popular (American) practice of gratitude is just a substitute for Christianity, filtered out not to mention any deities explicitly, but still containing references to them implicitly. I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense.

[deleted]

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#36

Post by igor47 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #29
igor47 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your correction wasn't my point. I would prefer to live in a kinder world. I explicitly appealed to the parent's likely desires for same. If you prefer to live in a world where people are casual dicks to one another, then I guess there's nothing to take away from my original comment.

And I would prefer to live in a world where people can say what they mean, without having to censor or sugarcoat their speech because someone else prefers not to hear their words. Different people have different preferences. Can't you just leave it at that? Why do you have to go around telling people not to say stuff you dislike in a public forum?

If you truly believe what you just wrote, why did you write it? Didn't you, in effect, dislike what I said and tell me not to say it?

The whole point of forums is to productively disagree and hopefully learn something. It's not sugar coating to avoid being casually mean or dismissive -- it's advancing the very reason we're supposedly here.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#37

Post by bsder »

moscoe wrote: post #4
corn13read2 wrote: post #3

tldr on this?

Practicing mindfulness/meditation is good for the brain

I thought that there has also been some research that these kinds of "mindfulness" exercises can enhance existing tendencies toward mental illness--depression, dissociation, paranoia, etc.

Of course, that doesn't get reported in every new age social media channel.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#39

Post by DoreenMichele »

bsder wrote: post #37
moscoe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practicing mindfulness/meditation is good for the brain

I thought that there has also been some research that these kinds of "mindfulness" exercises can enhance existing tendencies toward mental illness--depression, dissociation, paranoia, etc. Of course, that doesn't get reported in every new age social media channel.

Probably should say it "can be" good for the brain.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#40

Post by vidarh »

guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

The "new-age hippy trash" impression kept me away for years. What finally got me to try was "Mindfulness in Plain English" which is available both for free and paid versions, and Gil Fronsdals audio recordings (his introductory series), which are also available for free.

They're both more like "how to" guides than spiritual, and mention Buddhism or other practices only in passing (both have much more explicitly spiritual material too for those who want that), and Fronsdal jokes about the "B-word".

What I get out of it varies, going from just 5-15 minutes of calm and relaxation to multi-hour deeper meditation, to tumultuous sessions where I get no calm but all kinds of issues or ideas force themselves to the surface. I feel I benefit from all of it, but it's a method or a tool for me, not spiritual.

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