Brain Plasticity

Once upon a time people spent most of their efforts finding food and shelter. But life has become so complex that we need to deal with a large array of situations and problems that our ancestors could not have imagined. The pace of our lives seems to keep speeding up and causing problems.  These problems can seem to outweigh our ability to understand and act accordingly. So we need to develop some strategy to cope. In just the last few decades we are facing what seems like an onslaught of big problems that are profoundly affecting the quality of life globally. Many believe that our entire species could be at risk. Yet this topic is conspicuously missing in even the most important political campaigns.  We seem dazed and ineffectual as if we lack the will or understanding to even discuss making necessary changes. Such personal distress and withdrawal behavior needs to be examined. But what goes on inside us often seems mysterious or hidden. Biofeedback is a technique using signals from our bodies to find out about the internal mysteries. Fast brainwaves are associated with stress-related hormones such as cortisol,  and a high level of anxiety causes decreased learning ability, inhibits the immune system and increases homocysteine and bad cholesterol levels. Slower brainwaves associate with "feel good" hormones such as serotonin. Chronic stress can be viewed as a delicate balance between the demands presented to us as we grasp them, and how we conceive our resources, our ability to react to those demands. It is the perception of these components that apparently triggers the release of cortisol to mobilize the body's physiological processes against attack or infection. Prolonged or chronic stress can cause various health problems, addictions, dissociation, and alienation. Demands that are perceived as overwhelming may cause us to enter into a vicious feedback loop. Our thoughts play tricks on us, leading to anxiety, which in turn brings about a new wave of disturbing and depressed thoughts leading to erratic behavior, causing unfulfilled demands, which leads to a new wave of disturbing thoughts, etc. If we change our thoughts, our perception of the demands or of our resources we can break this loop and engage the relaxation response. Fear, vulnerability and insecurity are part of the nature. Often our fear produces a withdrawal into a protection mode . Our fear may have come from our personal trauma and wounding that we carry, or from the cultural traumas that we live with. Without understanding fear, we build fortress of walled off relationships, all as attempts to find security or protect ourselves. To want to protect ourselves is an understandable thing which can help in some situations. But we can’t really protect ourselves fully from insecurity and so we also need the wisdom of insecurity and compassion. If fear is up - compassion down, and vice versa, so to cultivate compassion learn to work with your fears and to learn emotion regulation strategies as well as positive compassionate feelings. This could have enormous implications for society as a whole. This ability to relax and live in the face of uncertainty is learned a little bit at a time. As you befriend your fear, you say, “oh, this is fear.”  After many times of noticing it or  working with it, you start to say, “oh I know you, I know what fear is like, I know what insecurity is like” and you begin to relax. Eventually you understand that it is possible to be present and that awareness and compassion are bigger than the fear. So there comes a shift of identity from being lost in the fear to being able to be present with our insecurity and the tenderness of vulnerability. When we accept our genuine vulnerability we open in a way that allows for a wise and much more fully lived life. Compassion arises when someone brushes up against suffering and is a combination of empathy, feeling what another is feeling, and also an opening of the heart where there is a wanting to help in some way. As science reveals the benefits of cultivating compassion, it is starting to gain more prominence as something that could have a positive impact not just in our personal lives, but around the globe. One study has shown that experienced meditators show more activity in the Insula in response to stimuli that were meant to generate compassion. The Insula is part of the brain that is responsible for the awareness of our embodied emotions. This suggests that we can take advantage of the brain’s plasticity and by generating compassion, we can change our brain. It seems that a continued and intentional practice of compassion can not only change our lives individually, but the ripple effect can be significant. People do this every day by giving donations, making sandwiches for people on the street, helping someone across the street, visiting those who are dying, or even just offering a smile to someone who seems to be having a tough day. This intentional attention not only primes your mind to be more compassionate, but apparently can take advantage of your brain’s plasticity and change your brain Neuronal plasticity describes the capacity of neurons to grow and build new connections throughout our lives, depending on what we pay attention to.  Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples' mental states, say researchers. The use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) indicates that positive emotions such as loving-kindness and compassion can be learned in the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport. The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation. "Many contemplative traditions speak of loving-kindness as the wish for happiness for others and of compassion as the wish to relieve others' suffering. There is pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute. Human happiness and mental well-being doesn’t come from avoiding these changing circumstances, they happen to all of us. True happiness comes from the openness of heart, compassion, resiliency and mindfulness, the wisdom that we bring to it, that gives perspective and meaning. Our sufferings don’t define us. Most psychological suffering is optional. Empathy is a necessary precondition for compassion to arise but it is hard to pick up the distress of others when you are distressed. Compassion is a mixture of a feeling of love for another person, a wish to see that person happy. So if that person is suffering there is a desire to do something about it and to have a motivation to help. Compassion moves to pain and is  a way of unconditional love which is love that is not conditioned to getting something back, or even wanting something back. If you feel compassion, your out of the way, and it's good for you, like a heroic act where there is a feeling close to real freedom. Compassion and Brain Plasticity The Cutting Edge Working with the Shadow Self Meditation