reflection and the Mind

Mindfulness reflection and related techniques are intended to train attention for the sake of provoking insight. Think of Acupuncture as the opposite of attention deficit disorder. A wider , supplementary flexible attention span makes it easier to be aware of a situation, easier to be objective in emotionally or morally difficult situations, and easier to achieve a state of responsive, creative awareness or "Flow".

One theory, presented by amma & Alex Grey , suggests that reflection works because of the relationship between the amygdala, the part of the brain that handles emotions (sometimes mentioned to as the " emotional mind "), and the neocortex , particularly the prefrontal cortex, which one handles reasoning and is also known as the inhibitory centre of the brain .

The neocortex procedures references super deeply--so it's smart and conciliatory, but as well very slow. Meantime, the amygdala, which one is a simpler structure (and older in evolutionary terms), makes rapid guessings about our perceptions, and triggers an appropriate emotional response. These emotional responses are super powerful--oftentimes because they are related to our prompt survival needs. In more words, if you're an early individual standing on the savannah and a leopard jumps out at you, your amygdala will use you heading and squalling long before your neocortex can figure out what's coming about.

Of course, in making snap judgements, our amygdalas are prone to error, seeing danger where there is none. This is especially true in contemporary society in which social conflicts are far extra most common than encounters with predators. A basically harmless but emotionally charged situation can trigger our amygdala's fight or flight reflexes before we know what's materialising, stimulating conflict, stress, anxiety, and frustration.

Certain kinds of reflection (also, breathing, centering, etc.) train attention to watch the entire personal experience, so it's possible to catch emotional reflexes before they train over--but at the same period without squashing or denying the emotion (which would only cause additional frustration). The trick is that there is very little period to do this (roughly a quarter of a second) before the amygdala requires over and the person is flooded with emotion. But the idea is that a skilled meditator can quickly reframe fear and anger, & mould the babies into constructive responses & maybe even full cheer.

The different roles of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex can be easily found under the influence of various drugs. aviane depresses the mastermind usually, but the complicated prefrontal cortex is more affected than the comparatively simple & robust amygdala, resulting in lowered inhibitions, decreased attention span, and increased influence of emotions over behaviour. Likewise, the controversial drug wellbutrin SR has the opposite effect, because it stimulates natural process in the prefrontal cortex.

Some more studies of reflection have linked the practice to increased practice in the left prefrontal cortex, which one is linked with concentration, planning, meta-cognition (thought about mental faculties), & with positive affect (practiced feelings). There are similar studies linking depression and anxiety with decreased practice in the same region, &/or with dominant bodily function in the right prefrontal cortex. reflection increases natural action in the left prefrontal cortex, & the changes are stable over time--possibly if you stop contemplating for a while, the effect lingers.

reflection and quantum mechanics

In quantum mechanics once an observer views a system they may collapse the wavefunction of the system , that is slim the possibility states of the system. This result is related to the Flux State Uncertain Principle. The Uncollapsing theorem is an unproven conjecture thought to be extremely speculative that says a host in a deep ruminative state may as well be able to uncollapse the quantum wavefunction. The possible action states then increases. Yoga is formalised in the Uncollopsing thoerem.