Positive thinking – converting a good idea into reality

Positive thinking is very different to wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is where you hope for the best and do nothing about it. Positive thinking is where you hope for the best and do a lot about it! It usually takes commitment, determination, perseverance, resilience – a fair degree of focused attention and hard work.

I am speaking in Pt Stephens, Liz Schiemer’s hometown, on Saturday July 12th as Ruth and I continue our tour up the East Coast. Liz is deeply concerned about the health of her community. High levels of cancer, heart disease, mental illness, even suicide.

However, Liz is a genuine positive thinker. Not one to sit back just simply worrying, what Liz has accomplished is truly inspiring. So this week, as a model of what positive thinking can look like in reality, we share some of the initiatives Liz has taken that are making a significant difference in many lives, but first

Thought for the day

Mental health is 
       “a state of well-being 
       in which every individual realises his or her potential, 
       can cope with the normal stresses of life, 
       can work productively and fruitfully, 
       and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”
                            
                                           The World Health Organisation


During the road trip Ruth and I are on we will be hosted by quite a number of remarkable “positive thinkers” – people who have had the wish to make a difference to the health of their community and then dedicated their lives to that end.

Could have chosen any number to highlight, but for some reason here is Liz’s story.

Liz Schiemer retired from her nursing career to focus on a more natural approach to health and wellbeing. She studied hypnosis, NLP, Life Coaching and meditation – which is how we came to meet.

But not content “just” to develop her own new style of practice, Liz has become actively involved with the Port Stephens Complementary Health Services Association Inc. and the PS Suicide Prevention Network of which she is secretary.

At her clinic, Liz sees people privately and brings to this her professional experience with addictions, epilepsy, disability and a wide range of health issues from stress management to major illness and wellness. Liz also leads a regular meditation group that starts with Qigong, and she hosts regular meetings for Women with Cancer.

The Port Stephens Complementary Health Services Association is an Association of leading healthcare practitioners with a common vision for the ongoing education, nurture and wellbeing of their society. The group is drawn together by their dedication to the promotion of natural healing, and to enabling their community to better manage and enhance their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

To achieve this they work on a shoe string budget with volunteers and any money they make goes back into promotions. You might like to check out their website, CLICK HERE or like their Facebook page CLICK HERE

The PS Suicide Prevention Network (you may want to Like this page too, CLICK HERE) has its main focus on public education. But Liz is also secretary of her local parks and reserves committee that is sponsored by  Council. That group are working with PS Suicide Prevention to establish a dedicated memorial park at Boat Harbour. Several local groups, including youth groups, are working together on that project which it is hoped will be opened during International Suicide Prevention week in September.

So I guess the trick with some of these exceptional “Positive Thinkers” is not to be overwhelmed or intimidated by what they do! Just writing this I marvel at how much Liz does accomplish and want to celebrate it.

However, knowing Liz I have to say how modestly and easily she carries all this. She has a natural enthusiasm – perhaps obviously! – but a natural ease as well. Things just seem to get done with a minimum of fuss and with the people involved having a good time; happy to be a part of it all.

Maybe Liz is just lucky. Maybe it is the meditation. Maybe it is the commitment to service – and the associated commitment to her own good health that is the essential ingredient in providing an ongoing service on such a scale.

Whatever it is, I know it has not been easy for Liz. There have been plenty of ups and downs like there are for most of us. What I delight in with Liz is her commitment to do all she can for the betterment of her community – and the fact that in reality she does it. A true positive thinker. More power to you Liz .

RELATED BLOG
Relaxation in daily life

NOTICEBOARD

1. THE EAST COAST TOUR 
HEALTH, HEALING and the MIND 

Our first talks in Sydney and Katoomba were well attended. Lovely to meet a man who attended the 10day cancer residential program with Ruth and myself 15 years ago due to stage 4 melanoma; yet there he was cancer free and very well. Delightful!

Saturday July 12th is the next day workshop in Pt Stephens before we continue up to Coff’s harbor Tuesday the 15th and Brisbane for 4 days of events starting Thursday 17th. Then right on up to Cairns with a few talks along the way, across to Mt Isa and Alice Springs, and down to Adelaide. A road trip with a difference.

Know someone who might benefit from attending? See you there?

For full details, CLICK HERE

Hope to see many of you along the way. There will be the chance for a refresher, to help get back on track if needed; but also exciting new information and the opportunity to meditate together and to deepen the experience of what meditation really is.

A good opportunity to share what we do with family, friends and colleagues.

FULL DETAILS – CLICK HERE  and please do share the link.


2. Meditation in the Desert : August 29 – September 7 

Still a few spaces available, so come, join Ruth and myself along with like-minded people for 7 days of meditation in the extraordinary atmosphere of the Central Australian desert, followed by several days of close contact with senior local indigenous leaders.

Secure your place with a deposit. For details CLICK HERE




Ian Gawler Blog: Change your mind, change your genes

Aahhh….  The Relaxation Response. 

That wonderful feeling of letting go of tension, relaxing deeply and returning to our natural state of balance. Feels great, but did you know that a particular type of relaxation, along with a particular type of happiness (yes, there are 2 main types and the other is actually harmful!) can change your genes for the better?

How does that work? How can we benefit?

Fascinating new research shows that genes when relaxed and happy in the right way change their expression - leading to better energy levels, immune function, stress management capacities, healing and more!

So this week we find out how by delving into some great new science, plus there is news of a very useful training by world authority Christine Longacre on compassionate care for the dying, but first

Thought for the day

Confess your hidden faults.

Approach what you find repulsive.

Help those you think you cannot help.

Anything you are attached to, give that away.

Go to the places that scare you.
       
                 Machig Labdron, Tibetan lama









Dr Herbert Benson has been one of the great pioneers of therapeutic meditation. 
A cardiologist with a personal and professional interest in meditation, Benson was founding the Mind-Body Centre at Harvard in the mid seventies around the time Dr Ainslie Meares was helping me use meditation to recover from my cancer. They corresponded and I used to speak with Dr Meares about Benson’s work.

Benson initiated a great deal of research in this field and wrote the highly influential bestseller, The Relaxation Response.

As a reader of this blog I do not imagine you need any convincing about the myriad of mind-body benefits the research demonstrates that follow on from learning to relax, to regain our balance and to have a calm and clear mind.

However, in 2008, Benson and a colleague Towia Libermann led a study finding that long-term practice of the relaxation response changed the expression of genes involved with the body's response to stress.



Now, another of their ground breaking studies has combined advanced gene expression profiling and systems biology analysis to both identify genes affected by relaxation response practice and determine the potential biological relevance of those changes.

In this study, they examined changes produced during a single session of relaxation response practice, as well as those taking place over longer periods of time. This research revealed that the relaxation response produces immediate changes in the expression of genes involved in immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion.

Significant changes in the expression of genes were seen in beginners, with even more pronounced changes in the long-term practitioners.

Benson, who has a very egalitarian approach, notes that the long-term practitioners in this study elicited the relaxation response through many different techniques – various forms of meditation, yoga or prayer – but those differences were not reflected in the gene expression patterns.

"People have been engaging in these practices for thousands of years, and our finding of this unity of function on a basic-science, genomic level gives greater credibililty to what some have called 'new age medicine,' " he says.

Reference: Bhasin MK et al. (2013) Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(5): e62817. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062817

And then there is mindfulness.
A growing body of research shows that mindfulness meditation specifically can alter neural, behavioral and biochemical processes. In another major recent study, Prof. Richard Davidson and colleagues explored the impact of one day of intensive practice of mindfulness meditation in experienced meditators on the expression of circadian, chromatin modulatory and inflammatory genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

The researchers found that after the brief intervention they detected reduced expression of histone deacetylase genes (HDAC 2, 3 and 9), alterations in global modification of histones (H4ac; H3K4me3) and decreased expression of pro-inflammatory genes (RIPK2 and COX2) in meditators compared with controls. They found that the expression of RIPK2 and HDAC2 genes was associated with a faster cortisol recovery to the TSST in both groups.



This may sound a trifle technical, but what the researchers said was that the regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of mindfulness-based meditations. Also, these findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions.
Science is catching up.

Reference: Kaliman, P et al. Rapid changes in histone deacetylases and inflammatory gene expression in expert meditators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, vol 40, Feb 2014, Pages 96–107

Now for how happiness and meaning are good for your genes
A recent study from UCLA has shown that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on our genes.

People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being - the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life - showed very positive gene-expression profiles in their immune cells. They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes.

However, people who had relatively high levels of hedonic wellbeing - the type of happiness that comes from self-gratification and high levels of consumption - actually showed just the opposite.


This was despite the researchers claiming that both groups seemed to have the same high levels of positive emotion. They commented "What this study tells us is that doing good and feeling good have very different effects on the human genome, even though they generate similar levels of positive emotion. Apparently, the human genome is much more sensitive to different ways of achieving happiness than are conscious minds."

Reference: Frederickson, B L et al. A functional genomic perspective on human well-being PNAS 2013 110 (33) 13684-13689

RESOURCES
BOOK 
Meditation an In-depth Guide

CDs and DOWNLOADS
Meditation – a Complete Path

Relaxation for Everyone

RELATED BLOG
Learn to relax and change your life

NOTICEBOARD

1. Meditation in the Desert  : August 29 – September 7 

A REMINDER THIS RETREAT IS CLOSE TO FULLY BOOKED, SO IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO JOIN IN, PLEASE DO LET US KNOW SOON

                                        Ruth leading gentle yoga in the morning light

Come, join us with Mike Tyrell and Julia Broome, along with like-minded people for 7 days of meditation in the extraordinary atmosphere of the Central Australian desert, followed by several days of close contact with senior local indigenous leaders.

Secure your place with a deposit. For details CLICK HERE

2.  HEALTH, HEALING and the MIND 

The East Coast Tour  –  from JULY onwards

Starting in early July Ruth and I will be travelling right up the East Coast to Cairns, across to Mt Isa and Alice Springs, then down to Adelaide. A road trip with a difference, giving talks along the way.

Hope to see many of you along the way. There will be the chance for a refresher, to help get back on track if needed; but also exciting new information and the opportunity to meditate together and to deepen the experience of what meditation really is.

A good opportunity to share what we do with family, friends and colleagues.

FULL DETAILS – CLICK HERE  and please do share the link.

3. 

Ian Gawler Blog: Mind-Body Medicine in daily life – the big 3

We hear so much about the wide-ranging benefits of Mind-Body Medicine these days. Relief from stress and anxiety, mind made healing, the power of the mind. So many possibilities.

The recurring question I have been asked over many years is “How do I apply this in daily life? What works best? Where do I start? What next?”

Well, it comes down to three things. So this week we examine the big three with the intention of making clear how Mind-Body Medicine can bring comfort and ease, along with chronic good health into a busy, modern life.

Then details of new events along these lines in Melbourne and around New Zealand; but first

Thought for the day
Recent definition of meditation

Learning to focus our attention 
and suspend the stream of thoughts 
that normally occupy our mind

from the (USA) National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine 





The Big 3 of Mind-Body Medicine
Number 1. RELAXATION
Yes, simple old relaxation. Well perhaps quite not so simple in that Mind-Body relaxation involves relaxation of body and mind.

But a major principle. Based on many years of experience, it is my view that many people, books, even institutions fail to recognize the importance of physical relaxation. The point?

The basic tenet of Mind-Body Medicine is that the mind and the body are connected. A tense body equates with unhealthy changes in the body’s biochemistry and physiology. If we want to have a healthy body, we need to be free of physical tension.

Now, it is possible to be mindful in a tense body. It is possible to do creative imagery or meditation in a tense body. And yes, maybe enough mindfulness, imagery or meditation does enable us to let go of tension. But in my experience it can take years and some never seem to get there. What about you? Ever met a tense meditator?

The answer? Take time to learn, practice and become proficient at relaxing the body and the mind. Start with the body, allow it to flow into the mind. Number 1 taken care of!

Number 2. MEDITATION
For simplicity we will include mindfulness, contemplation, and imagery in this process of training the mind. All are useful. All warrant serious attention with more time dedicated to learning, practicing and become proficient.

Number 2 taken care of in 3 lines! Could take a little longer in practice, but well worth the effort.

Number 3: POSITIVE THINKING
Yes, good old positive thinking. So under-rated. So misunderstood.

When I speak of positive thinking I speak of studying how the mind works and using it intelligently to best advantage.

Clearly it is the mind that changes everything and in Mind-Body Medicine we recognise that the mind decides what we eat and how much of it, what we drink, whether we smoke or exercise, how we manage our relationships, our own mind and our spiritual life.

At the very least, positive thinking is about how we make decisions and how we follow them through. So there is a huge difference between “wishful thinking”, which is when you hope for the best and do nothing about it; and “positive thinking” which is when you hope for the best and do a lot about it.

Positive thinking is not just a state of mind, commonly it is an invitation to quite a deal of focused hard work!

So Number 3 is using the thinking mind intelligently.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER.
Again the common question: Where to start? Well, I usually suggest meditation. Meditation that takes Mind-Body Medicine into account and so begins with a focus on relaxing the body and calming the mind. Instant relief from stress and anxiety. A rapid calming and clearing of the mind so that decisions seem easy to make and the confidence is there to follow them through to conclusion.

Sure it makes good sense to develop all three, but meditation is at the heart of Mind-Body Medicine.

COMING EVENTS
Ruth and I are fortunate to be hosting a world authority in Mind-Body Medicine during October. Dr Nimrod Sheinman has taught mindfulness and creative imagery techniques in a wide range of settings – including Universities, schools and hospitals. He and I will present a day seminar in Melbourne, then combine with Ruth for a 5 day retreat/training for individuals and health practitioners in the Yarra Valley.

In November and December, Ruth and I travel to beautiful New Zealand for a series of seminars, evening talks and retreats – see below for details.

We hope to re-connect with those of you who live locally at one of these events. Please help others know about them by sharing this blog post.

NOTICEBOARD - for full details, CLICK on the highlighted sections

1. With Dr Nimrod Sheinman
i) MIND-BODY MEDICINE in DAILY LIFE. Sunday, October 20th - day seminar
Relaxation, meditation and creative imagery for health, business, healing and wellbeing

ii) IMAGES, WORDS and SILENCE  October 28th - November 1st
Five day training/retreat for those interested in mind made healing – either for personal use or as a health professional.
With Dr Nimrod Sheinman, Ruth and myself in the Yarra Valley.

2. NEW ZEALAND
i) AUCKLAND
       Evening Public Lecture: Medicine of the Mind.  Thursday November 14th.
Let go of stress, activate healing, maximise performance in all you do. The power of the mind at work in everyday life.
       Weekend workshop: A New Way of Living
Saturday November 30th: Meditation and the power of the mind
Sunday December 1st: Living Well, Being Well –
A way of living that generates good health, profound healing and log-term wellbeing.

iii) Rotorua: Health, Healing and Wellbeing – Saturday November 16th - day seminar
The essence of what Ian has found most helpful.

iv) Christchurch: Inner peace, Outer health. Sunday November 24th.
A free event - find peace and clarity amidst troubled times.

v) Nelson: Mind-Body Medicine in Daily Life. Evening of November 26th.
Relaxation, meditation and creative imagery for health, business, healing and wellbeing

vi) Meditation Under the Long White Cloud. December 2nd – 8th. Seven day meditation retreat – the first from Ian and Ruth in New Zealand - at Mana Retreat Centre.
Ian will detail how to deepen your understanding and experience of relaxation, mindfulness and meditation; then he and Ruth will guide you into the direct experience of inner peace.

vii) Five day follow-up cancer program.
Specifically for people who have attended a CanLive program in NZ, or Gawler Foundation program. November 18 – 22 at Wanaka out of Queenstown - one of the most beautiful environments there is.

RESOURCES
My books, CDs and CD downloads are all now available once more on line: CLICK HERE
Downloads going to all parts of the world!





Ruth and I are leading
Meditation in the Desert
in the incredible, meditative
Central Australian Desert
so there will be no new post for 2 weeks.

Ian Gawler Blog: Learning, money and Four Corners

I have to confess to being a little excited this week as Ruth and I launch our new webstore. To celebrate we have some great specials featuring discounted meditation CDs, a great new concept with Starter Packs, and for the first time, all our CDs are now available as MP3 downloads and on special for 2 weeks! Postage is free for all Australian orders over $70. To connect, CLICK HERE

And then it does seem timely to have some discussion around the financial issues involved with teaching a person to fish – metaphorically that is. Plus there is news of a Four Corners program that I had some part in that will go to air Monday, 19th August. But first,

Thought for the day
If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. 
If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime
Chinese Proverb






The camellias and magnolias in the garden 
are spectacular, so here are a few: 






It is an interesting thing to work in the “Health Industry”. I remember back in 1973 when I first began working as a veterinarian in my own practice, how confronting some of the money issues were. What to charge? What to do when owners say “we cannot afford to pay”, or did not want to pay, or thought things too expensive? How do you put a price on an animal’s health, or even moreso, their life?

I was caring for people’s pets, often the embodiments of their emotional lives, as well as for those magnificent, compliant yet powerful creatures we know and love as horses, plus a few farm animals that bore the brunt of food production.

And then courtesy of my own illness I moved into human health, most particularly the charged atmosphere of cancer medicine. And here I was, not handing out a metaphorical fish to eat, like a drug or some other possibly very valid external form of treatment. No, here I was attempting to teach people “how to fish”, how to manage their own health, healing, recovery and long-term wellbeing.

How do you price that? People have told me that they believed my book “You Can Conquer Cancer” saved their life. How do you price that? $34.95. Seems reasonable enough!

But now, here is a little known secret. When I began to run cancer groups in 1981, I wanted to do it using a donation system. I discussed this at length with my main mentor of the time, Dr Ainslie Meares, and he convinced me that in our culture, people put little value on what they get for free; that they relate price to value and even to meaning and significance.

I often wonder how this work would have developed if we had charged twice as much? What about four times? But I opted to charge at the minimal end of the scale and while people may not be aware, for many years the Gawler Foundation programs have been subsidised by fundraising in a way that reduces everyone’s fees by around 25 to 30%.

The Transcendental Meditation group provide an interesting contrast, charging a large amount for their TM courses and being very successful both in making TM widely used and having a stable and sustainable financial system. Another thing their extra income enabled was the funding of major research which in turn has played a formative role in establishing the credibility of meditation in the scientific world.

Anyway, in the early days I wrote books and recorded tapes then CDs to help people learn and be supported in applying what I valued. In the beginning I was very shy about recommending my own material. It actually took years to get over that hang-up and realise that was acting like a schoolteacher who was not telling their students about the textbooks they needed. Like asking people to learn to fish without the manual to refer back to. Or if you prefer, how to grow carrots without a good gardening reference book.

So, being over that, Ruth and I are excited to be able to offer our resources on line again. We used to do this through the Gawler Foundation, but they upgraded their website some months back and dropped their webstore.

Creating our own has been a 3 month process and we have had terrific help from Joel Whitford – very skilled web developer, designer; great with words, highly systematic and thoughtful, creative, great communicator. Made the process a creative delight.

Creating our own store has meant we can offer more detailed suggestions for people with specific interest or needs around meditation, nutrition, the power of the mind and healing. One reminder, if you do download an MP3, the process is relatively easy via computer or android phone (especially if you are under or have access to someone under 30!), but if you want to listen on a Mac device like iPhone or iPad, you need to download via computer, transfer into iTunes and then sync with your device. There is a pdf available on the site and that is sent with each download that explains all this in detail.

 So please do check it out, we hope you find it helpful and that proverbially you catch many good quality, sustainable fish; or if you prefer, grow heaps of excellent organic carrots!

Anyway, do have a look, maybe take advantage of a bargain and do give us your feedback; we are always keen to do things even better. Postage is free for all Australian orders over $70.

To connect CLICK HERE

NOTICEBOARD

1. Next workshop in the Melbourne region: 
Mt Macedon on Saturday August 24th, 10am (arr 9.30) to 4.30pm

Duneira is an exquisite heritage hill station property on the slopes of Mt Macedon. The garden is like a meditative space, so beautiful and filled with majestic trees. I love being there!

Then the house itself is grand enough to host good sized but still quite intimate events. There is a tradition now at Duneira of hosting community events that range from music to personal development and Ruth and I have become regulars.

So, fancy a nice drive to a beautiful place for a meaningful event? If so, CLICK HERE



2. Retreats / Trainings filling 
MEDITATION in the DESERT
If anyone is still thinking of joining us in the desert, we could take a couple more, so let us know very soon. Details: CLICK HERE

IMAGES, WORDS and SILENCE 
Training/retreat with Dr Nimrod Sheinman, Ruth and myself in the Yarra Valley is filling steadily, so if interested, book directly with the Gawler Foundation. Details: CLICK HERE

MEDITATION UNDER the LONG WHITE CLOUD
Ruth and I are leading our first meditation retreat in New Zealand in December at the beautiful Mana Retreat centre that has a similar high reputation for a good environment and great food as the Foundation. Details: CLICK HERE

5 DAY FOLLOW-UP CANCER PROGRAM
Specifically for people who have attended a CanLive program in NZ, or Gawler Foundation program. November 18 – 22 at Wanaka out of Queenstown - one of the most beautiful environments there is. Details: CLICK HERE

NEWS
The ABC documentary program Four Corners is planning to screen what could be a very significant program on Monday 19th August (available via streaming shortly thereafter). Initially the program was to investigate current mainstream cancer research and treatment, and compare costs and outcomes with the more integrative approach.

Early in the program’s development I was told “we want to look at the costs, over-utilization and efficacy of drugs; and the influence of pharmaceutical companies on research findings and promotion of cancer medicines. We also want to have a look at the most up-to-date research on integrative medicine in cancer treatment.

“As always, to tell this story we will be hoping to engage with real people grappling with decisions about their own cancer treatments. We would very much like to engage with the Gawler Foundation and film with cancer patients taking part in your program - people who may have experienced conflict in deciding about their own treatments, or tried one way and then gone another who could help us illustrate the complex issues our audience can engage with. We are very mindful of telling a balanced story, as I know are you.”

I was very enthusiastic, helped connecting Four Corners with relevant patients and their families, and was filmed by them presenting some of my recent Sydney workshop.

Unfortunately, as the program developed, the focus needed to narrow. It seems that covering the cost/benefits of new cancer drugs adequately is big enough! So again I was told “It is a disappointment that our thesis has gone in a direction that doesn't allow for inclusion of the Gawler program and lifestyle medicine in the story… We still very much hope to provide a forum for discussion about where we are going in future with cancer treatments, their cost to the community and the individual, and the bar we set for acceptance of new drugs onto the market…. I remain hopeful that we will do another story around these issues, and I hope you would be prepared to be as generous again with your time if we can do so.”


So do watch the program, do be a little socially active. Give the program feedback. Encourage them. Say what you do like about the program. Say we want to see Lifestyle Medicine in cancer investigated. Ask why is it that something that is so cost-effective, that is so empowering and that has so many benefits as Lifestyle Medicine does, is not part of the mainstream treatment of cancer everywhere? By contrast, why do expensive treatments with high side-effect profiles and often small gains get so much support from the medical world and the wider community?


Hopefully the Four Corners program will break the apparent taboo that has existed for too long around discussing in public the cost/benefits of modern oncology and it will beg the question, what else is there that can help people to manage their cancer, their treatments, and their recoveries? This may well be a good time to speak up.

Ian Gawler Blog: Geeks turn to meditation – the three top reasons why

It is lunchtime in Google’s main office and all is profoundly quiet, bar the occasional sounding of a meditation bell. Yes, the computer whizzes have left their machines silent, taken the lead from the renowned Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh and are enjoying a moments peace; a moment of mindfulness during one of their bi-monthly “mindful lunches”.

This week we investigate why the geeks here at Google, and across the way at the Facebook and Twitter offices, are turning increasingly to mindfulness and meditation and how they are benefiting. Then what to eat to offset Alzheimer’s, while Beyond Blue features meditation against anxiety. But first

Thought for the day

Before one studies Zen,

mountains are mountains and waters are waters;


After a first glimpse into the truth of Zen,

Mountains are no longer mountains 
and waters are no longer waters;

After enlightenment,


Mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.

                                                                                    Old Zen saying

Personal peace, company productivity, community altruism. Quite a package. But it does seem that the real purpose of meditation is beginning to dawn in the major hi-tech companies. Sure it helps with inner peace. Sure there is lots of research now that confirms how significantly meditation can improve everything from raw intelligence to creativity, productivity and social behavior in the workplace. But what is the point? Is it only about making more money? Where does it all lead to?

David DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in the USA. Speaking in a recent New York Times article, he comments

“Gaining competitive advantage on exams and increasing creativity in business weren’t of the utmost concern to Buddha and other early meditation teachers. As Buddha himself said, “I teach one thing and one only: that is, suffering and the end of suffering.” For Buddha, as for many modern spiritual leaders, the goal of meditation was as simple as that. The heightened control of the mind that meditation offers was supposed to help its practitioners see the world in a new and more compassionate way.”

So in Silicon Valley, where meditation and mindfulness have become the new rage, it is not just about inner peace and getting ahead. There is the realisation that more is on  offer. Meditation is about developing compassion and altruism. It is about finding meaning and purpose at work and in life.

We can all take heart. At Google, more than a thousand staff have been through their "Search Inside Yourself" mindfulness training program developed by Chade-Meng Tan, one of their engineers. Another 400 are on a waiting list and in the meantime take classes like "Neural Self-hacking" or "Managing your Energy". A labyrinth for walking meditation, similar to the one by the river at the Foundation has also been built.

Next, the cofounders of Twitter and Facebook have incorporated contemplative exercises and meditation sessions into normal working hours. Around 1,700 people attended the Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco recently, lured by the promise that meditation "can be used to augment individual performance, leadership and productivity". Top executives from Linkedin, Cisco and Ford featured among the keynote speakers.

Examining the question of compassion, DeStano, and colleagues conducted an experiment soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science. They took first time meditators through an 8 week meditation course and found that the meditation increased the compassion response threefold.

DeSteno adds “recent findings by the neuroscientists Helen Weng, Richard Davidson and colleagues confirm that even relatively brief training in meditative techniques can alter neural functioning in brain areas associated with empathic understanding of others’ distress — areas whose responsiveness is also modulated by a person’s degree of felt associations with others”.

So perhaps meditation is coming back to its roots. Sure, all its benefits for very real day-to-day things like training the mind to be better at whatever we do makes every good sense, but there is more on offer – becoming better at who we are, and how we be!

REFERENCES

1. New York Times: 5^th July 2013, GRAY MATTER: The Morality of Meditation - Focusing the mind makes us more likely to help others in pain.

2. Wired: Enlightenment Engineer

RESEARCH NEWS

Eat smart, avoid Alzheimer’s

There is a growing body of research that suggests meditation and other mind training exercises can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but now a new study demonstrates that a high-fat, high-glycemic-index diet increases the risk significantly. Happily, a low-fat, low GI diet protected against the disease according to a new study published by the American Medical Association.

Researchers assigned 47 older adults, some of whom already had mild cognitive impairment, to either a high-fat, high-GI diet or a low-fat, low-GI diet.

Within four weeks, the high-fat diet increased the production of lipid-depleted Aβ, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s risk. The low-fat diet had the opposite effect. An accompanying commentary in the journal supports the finding that dietary choices can affect brain chemistry quickly and effectively.

References

1. Hanson AJ, et al. JAMA Neurol. Published ahead of print June 17, 2013.

2. Blacker D. Food for thought. JAMA Neurol. Published ahead of print June 17, 2013.

IN THE NEWS

Beyond Blue gives Meditation a plug – read the quote and smile! Times are changing, often in rather cute small steps!

Meditation: Studies show meditation can reduce stress, help put you in control of your thoughts, help you find a purpose in life and bring peace of mind. And if it doesn't work for you, at least you'll have yourself a nice nap.



REFERENCE: Beyond Blue Man Therapy: Click here and go to M for meditation

Ian Gawler Blog: Why the Dalai Lama thinks you are so special - a photographic essay

It is a fact. Maybe The Dalai Lama has not even met you, but he is in no doubt; he thinks you are really special and has good reasons for thinking so. He made all of this very clear in Melbourne last week.

So let us go “Out on a Limb” once more, investigate how it is that the Dalai Lama could know you well enough to say he likes you so much, and share some great photos that convey something of the man and his message.

Also, a fabulously interesting new study from Herbert Bedson showing how the Relaxation Response alters genes for the good, and a reminder I am in Brisbane next weekend presenting seminars, then Coffs Harbour,  Katoomba and Sydney. If you are local, hope to see you there. But first

Thought for the day
Happiness is a skill,
emotional balance is a skill, 

compassion and altruism are skills, 
and like any skill they need to be developed. 

That is what education is about.
                                 Matthieu Ricard


Last week, Ruth and I along with nearly 6,000 others had the good fortune to attend the Dalai Lama’s public talk in Melbourne, following up next day with more formal teachings on the Heart Sutra and The 8 Verses of Mind Training.






So why is it that the Dalai Lama respects you so much and is so confident you are so special?


His answer is simple.

It is because in so many ways you are just the same as the 7 billion other people on this planet.

We all share much in common.

Physically we all eat, drink and … you know the rest!

He thinks it is funny too!

But then again, we all have emotions and minds that can be beset by one trouble after another, but we all (well most anyway) have minds that are coherent enough that if we decide to, we can train them and go beyond ordinary human difficulties and confusions and sufferings, and find long-lasting happiness.











However, of even greater significance, the Dalai Lama is in no doubt that as a human being what you undoubtedly share with the other 7 billion of us is that we all have fundamental goodness.

The inner potential for full enlightenment - as he would put it.

This is what he really admires in you.

Fundamental goodness.

This is what he sees in you.

This is what he bows to.











This is why he travels the world speaking wherever he can, and giving his life to teaching everyone who will listen.










For this message, when taken to heart, when realized, is a direct antidote to any personal misgivings we may have about our selves. A direct antidote to any feelings of low self-esteem or self-hatred. When we know that in our hearts, in our essence, there is this fundamental goodness, this intrinsic purity, then how can we do anything but respect who we really are?

My sense of it is that the root cause of so many of the current maladies that affect people, and I see this over and over in young and old, is low self-esteem. An uncertainty about fundamental worth. Confusion about "who I really am?" and "what I am really worth?"

With low self-esteem comes low self-love and then comes recrimination. Guilt, shame, self-abuse in both obvious and subtle ways. 

So much chronic, degenerative disease has low self-esteem at its heart.

With a healthy sense of self-worth comes self-love and self-care. How could you not look after yourself if you have a sense of this fundamental goodness? Dare I say it, this self-love is like having a direct and unshakeable sense of the sacred within. What follows has to be self-care. So much good health has high self-esteem at its heart.

But then of course there is a major bonus. When we recognise the essential goodness in our self, we naturally recognise the essential goodness in others - all 7 billion of them. While we also can recognise that on the outer level people stuff up, we stuff up, we know that in our hearts we are all pure and good; so there is a basic respect for the potential of each and every person. By finding peace in our heart, we naturally generate peace towards others and contribute to peace in our world.

Peace will never be imposed on the world. A peaceful world can only ever be made up of a world full of people at peace in their own hearts. Recognising our fundamental goodness brings "a peace that passes all understanding". Deep, natural peace.

How do we deal with the fact that we stuff up (well just occasionlly maybe)? How do we develop our own confidence in this fundamental goodness?

The Dalai Lama is clear about the answer to these questions as well: train the mind and practice meditation.



Of the specific teachings he gave, the Heart Sutra is a famous teaching that brings out the essence or the heart of the Buddha's teachings. Through the gradual process of cultivating wisdom, it points out that we can develop the ability to cut through delusions and understand the ultimate nature of the way in which 'I' and all phenomena exist.

The Eight Verses of Mind Training shows us how, through generating compassion, loving kindness and altruism, we can transform our ordinary mind into attaining enlightenment.





It being 2 years since his last visit, one of the first things His Holiness said in Australia was:

I’m very happy to be here once more, having the opportunity of meeting with long-time friends. So, two years have passed, I’m wondering, among our old friends, in the last two years, how many have progressed, in your mental quality? 

Physically we have become older and older, no force can stop that… so it is really worthwhile day by day, week by week, that there is some improvement to mental quality, so that our life can become more meaningful.

With thanks to the official photographer for the following picture with its insert
(for more official photos LINK HERE)

So there is the challenge: What have we done recently to improve our “mental quality”?

What have we done to train our mind? How much meditation have we been practising? This is one of the great benefits of a visit from someone like the Dalai Lama, he reminds us, he re-inspires us to do what we know is so good for us.

If interested, you can view the Public Talks and Sydney/ Darwin Teachings on the Dalai Lama in Australia You Tube Channel (There were some technical issues in Melbourne, but the audio is available) LINK HERE

If you feel motivated to support the Dalai Lama’s work and help the Tibetan cause, go to the Australia Tibet Council and see what inspires you: LINK HERE 

NOTICEBOARD
SEMINARS COMING SOON in Queensland and NSW
This will be my 30th year presenting at the Relaxation Centre in Brisbane.

Ruth and I love these events where we get to meet up with people we know, make new friends, to remind ourselves and others of what works and to share the latest in our field of health, healing and wellbeing.

Please do forward the details to those you may know in any of these places and if you live nearby, we hope to see you at one of the events. Bring your family (we had 5 members from the same family share a day seminar recently), come with a friend, tell your colleagues.


These seminars are interactive, a great way to review what you already know, to be re-inspired and re-enthused, and to learn exciting new things, like the latest breakthroughs in epigenetics, the neurosciences, telomeres and nutrition.

Something for everyone!

Brisbane
June 27; Evening Public Lecture: Health, Healing and Wellbeing
29 – 30; Weekend seminar: A New Way of Living

Coffs Harbour
July 6; Day seminar: Medicine of the Mind

Katoomba
July 9; Day seminar: Health, Healing and Wellbeing

Sydney
July 13 - 14, Weekend seminar: A New Way of Living

RELATED BLOG
On enlightenment

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Famous Harvard Professor demonstrates that the Relaxation Response positively changes gene expression – even in a single session!

Herbert Benson (author of the highly recommended The Relaxation Response) first described the relaxation response – the physiologic opposite of the fight-or-flight response – almost 40 years ago, and his team has pioneered the application of mind/body techniques to a wide range of health problems.

Studies in many peer-reviewed journals have documented how the Relaxation Response alleviates symptoms of anxiety and many other disorders and also affects factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen consumption and brain activity.

In 2008, Benson and Libermann led a study finding that long-term practice of the relaxation response changed the expression of genes involved with the body's response to stress.  The current study examined changes produced during a single session of Relaxation Response practice, as well as those taking place over longer periods of time.

Both short-term and long-term practitioners evoked significant temporal gene expression changes with greater significance in the latter as compared to novices. Relaxation Response practice enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance, and reduced expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways.

The published results for the first time indicate that Relaxation Response elicitation, particularly after long-term practice, may evoke its downstream health benefits by improving mitochondrial energy production and utilization and thus promoting mitochondrial resiliency through upregulation of ATPase and insulin function.

Benson stresses that the long-term practitioners in this study elicited the relaxation response through many different techniques – various forms of meditation, yoga or prayer – but those differences were not reflected in the gene expression patterns.

"People have been engaging in these practices for thousands of years, and our finding of this unity of function on a basic-science, genomic level gives greater credibility to what some have called 'new age medicine,' " he says.


The full reference is : Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang B-H, Joseph MG, Denninger JW, et al. (2013) Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways.
To read it, CLICK HERE