mindfulness

We often use the left hemisphere of our brain. That means we use language, linear thinking and thinking of details. We also use the left  hemisphere when we make plans for the future and think of the past. We are trained to use the left hemisphere. We need that, but we also need to see the greater picture and live in the the now. We also need feelings and sometimes we need to stop thinking, stop comparing and judging. We probably use the left hemisphere of the brain too much. We need a balanced mind. The Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who had a stroke, knows something about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

We are influenced by our expectations - if we think that a pill will make our better, we probably will have that result and vice versa. If you are afraid of getting sick, the higher the risk that you really will get ill. Mindfulness can be a method to examine thoughts and worries about sickness. Thoughts are just thoughts and they don't have influence you. Let them pass as clouds do in the sky. Here's an article in NYT about nocebo; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/beware-the-nocebo-effect.html?_r=0

To be mindful is NOT to have Alzheimers. The man who named the disease, Alois Alzheimer, discovered the it when he talked to an elderly woman. It was hard to talk with her, her answers to his question "What would you do if you had six eggs" was "brood them". But once a while she could say things like like; "In a way I have lost my self". But even if you loose the illusion of a permanent self, you don't loose yourself. You still have a will and a direction. Alzheimers is recognised as a bi loss of memory. But what you most of all loose is the capacity to be here and now and to use your brain in a adequate way.  Instead you get lost en memories and thinking. Yes, you think too much, and are too less mindful. When my mother got the disease she could remember the names of the horses that her grandfathers had in the stall - but she didn´t know where she was at the time....

Mindfulness is NOT about positive thinking. It´s not to produce fortune and wealth for your self. It´s not about suppress bad thoughts and turn them to productive thoughts. It´s not like in the film The Secret. It´s not about You at all! Since no one has an autonomous and separate self. It´s NOT about ending suffering - that  is impossible. Suffering can be a teacher. If suffering not existed, happiness would neither exist. They are dependent of each other. What you can do is not let suffering let you down, you can accept it but not let it get worse by thought. So in a way, suffering can be less powerful by mindfulness. You will not be overwhelmed by it...

Matthieu Ricard It is said he is the happiest man in the world. Anyway, when they scanned his brain, they saw big differences compared to ordinary people. Born in France, he became a doctor in molecular genetics, then he moved to Nepal, became a Buddhist monk and has practised meditation for many decades: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZwnXj0Ck1k