Meditation May Protect Your Brain

AlterNet

For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering.

Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention -- an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise.
Full Article

The World's First Global Peace Intention Experiment

Over 11,000 people from over 65 countries took part in a global peace intention experiment in September 2008, focusing their peace towards the Wanni (north) region of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has experienced a prolonged, savage civil war with more suicide bombings than anywhere else on the planet. Thousands have been displaced and the recent tsunami has had added toil to a once settled people.

Lynne McTaggart established the Intention Experiment to scientifically verify, via statistical feedback, the effect that individual thought can have on our external physical reality. Working in conjunction with Jessica Utts, Professor of Statistics at the University of California - the data will be analysed and assessed in further detail.

The Experiment involved eight days of thoughts using the following intention:

"My intention is for peace and cooperation to be restored in the Wanni region of Sri Lanka and for all war-related deaths and violence to be reduced by at least 10 per cent"
Full Report at Natural News.com

Related Sites:
Lynne McTaggart - The Intention Experiment

Recommended Reading:
The Intention Experiment: Use Your Thoughts to Change the World

Global Peace Meditation

The Chopra Center for Wellbeing

Wednesday, October 29
3:30 to 4:30pm (Pacific Daylight Time)
10:30 to 11:30 PM (GMT)

Wherever you are on the planet, please join us for a one-hour meditation for the collective intent of peace in the world. This Wednesday, October 29 from 3:30 to 4:30 pm (PDT) 10:30-11:30pm (GMT), Deepak and David will be leading this meditation with the Seduction of Spirit participants in Carlsbad, California, and we will be broadcasting it via live audio. We invite you and all the members of the extended Chopra Center family throughout the world to join us in this global meditation for peace.

For more information, go to the Chopra Center website

Stressed out? Take a "mooment"

Reading Evening Post

Let's face it; we all get stressed out. Whether it’s the pressure of a looming deadline or our inability to get the coffee machine to work, things can get rough.

But if you’ve ever sat at your desk feeling that you can’t go on, the answer, apparently, is to moo like a cow.

Yes, it sounds like an ‘udderly’ bizarre April fool, but a group of organic dairy farmers claim to have come up with a stress-busting meditation technique inspired by their bovine friends.

The new technique, called ‘Taking a mooment’ is a five-minute exercise based on making the “natural relaxing meditative sound of a moo”.

It was thought up by farmer Graham Vallis, of Highdown Farm near Exeter, who says he found himself naturally meditating to the sound of his contented cows gently mooing in the background.
Full Story

October Global Peace Meditation

The Chopra Center for Wellbeing

We are excited to lead another Global Peace Meditation during our upcoming Seduction of Spirit retreat. Join us from wherever you are the week of October 27-Nov 1 in this global meditation. We will have a live audio feed of Deepak's guided meditation from the event.

For more information visit Deepak Chopra's site