Archive for the ‘Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain)’ Category
14
May
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ACTION, ANALOGY, anxiety, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, PTSD, THOUGHTS. 8 Comments
Repeated SNS/HPAA (sympathetic nervous system/hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis) makes the amygdala more reactive to apparent threats, which in turn increases SNS/HPAA activation, which sensitizes the amygdala further.
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The mental correlate of this physical process is an increasingly rapid arousal of state anxiety (anxiety based on specific situations).
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Additionally, the amygdala helps form implicit memories (traces of past experiences that exist beneath conscious awareness); as it becomes more sensitized, it increasingly shades those residues with fear, thus intensifying trait anxiety (ongoing anxiety regardless of the situation).
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24
Mar
Posted by Marty in My Favorites, Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: C-PTSD, MINDFULNESS, STATISTICS, SUPPORT, THE BRAIN, THOUGHTS, TOOLS, TRAUMA. 7 Comments
Celestial Tree by Robert Venosa
We all have the same chance at happiness, look at how many zeroes are behind our minute by minute choices.
From the book Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom by Rick Hanson:
The brain is the primary mover and shaper of the mind.
It’s so busy that, even though it’s only 2 percent of the body’s weight, it uses 20–25 percent of its oxygen and glucose. Like a refrigerator, it’s always humming away, performing its functions; consequently, it uses about the same amount of energy whether you’re deep asleep or thinking hard.
The number of possible combinations of 100 billion neurons firing or not is approximately 10 to the millionth power, or 1 followed by a million zeros, in principle; this is the number of possible states of your brain.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder limits our choices to trauma thoughts exclusively on some days.
But there are too many choices to settle for a few.
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22
Mar
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ACTION, ANALOGY, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, DISASSOCIATION, PTSD. 7 Comments
Meanwhile, frequent SNS/HPAA activation wears down the hippocampus, which is vital for forming explicit memories—clear records of what actually happened.
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Cortisol and related glucocorticoid hormones both weaken existing synaptic connections in the hippocampus and inhibit the formation of new ones.
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Further, the hippocampus is one of the few regions in the human brain that can actually grow new neurons—yet glucocorticoids prevent the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, impairing its ability to produce new memories.
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Our childhood trauma, ignites this mechanism over and over when we leave this moment to dissociate.
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C-PTSD fuels itself with this mechanism and convinces us that our thoughts are real, really!
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20
Mar
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, C-PTSD, MINDFULNESS. 1 Comment
barn owl web
from Buddhas Brain:
Don’t argue unless you have to. Inside your own mind, try not to get swirled along by the mind-streams of other people. Reflect on the neurological turbulence underlying their thoughts: the incredibly complicated, dynamic, and largely arbitrary churning of momentary neural assemblies into coherence and then chaos. Getting upset about somebody’s thoughts is like getting upset about spray from a waterfall. Try to decouple your thoughts from the other person.
Thinking and thoughts about the other person are the issue. Decoupled or maybe observe the thoughts, like they exist on an island, alone, separate from you and me.
If you desire to be symptom free, surrender to the thoughts and follow the sensations in the body to discover the illusion. The illusion that thoughts are solid, concrete, real in this moment of now is not real.
Being here without thought is the only real concrete, solid existence we have as humans. When you realize this, maybe directing attention will be importnt to you.
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26
Feb
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ANALOGY, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, MINDFULNESS, PTSD, TOOLS. 2 Comments
When you take things personally—or hunger for approval—what happens? You suffer. When you identify with something as “me” or try to possess something as “mine,” you set yourself up for suffering, since all things are frail and will inevitably pass away.
When you stand apart from other people and the world as “I,” you feel separate and vulnerable—and suffer. On the other hand, when you relax the subtle sense of contraction at the very nub of “me”—when you’re immersed in the flow of life rather than standing apart from 
it, when ego and egotism fade to the background—then you feel more peaceful and fulfilled.
You may have experienced this under a starry night sky, at the edge of the sea, or when your child was born. Paradoxically, the less your “I” is here, the happier you are.
Or, as both Buddhist monks and inmates on death row sometimes say: “No self, no problem
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6
Nov
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ACTION, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, HAPPINESS, PTSD, THOUGHTS, TRAUMA. Leave a Comment
Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)
As the saying goes, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. If you can simply stay present with whatever is arising in awareness—whether it’s a first dart or a second one—without reacting further, then you will break the chain of suffering right there.
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Over time, through training and shaping your mind and brain, you can even change what arises, increasing what’s positive and decreasing what’s negative. In the meantime, you can rest in and be nourished by a growing sense of the peace and clarity in your true nature.
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These three processes—being with whatever arises, working with the tendencies of mind to transform them, and taking refuge in the ground of being—are the essential practices of the path of awakening. (Healing).
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In many ways they correspond, respectively, to mindfulness, virtue, and wisdom—and to the three fundamental neural functions of learning, regulating, and selecting.
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As you deal with different issues on your path of awakening, you’ll repeatedly encounter these stages of growth:
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5
Nov
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: C-PTSD, Happimess, Parasympathetic nervous system., PTSD, Sympathetic nervous sytem. 1 Comment
godfrey-blow-
“Happiness, love, and wisdom aren’t furthered by shutting down the SNS (sympathetic nervous system), but rather by keeping the autonomic nervous system as a whole in an optimal state of balance:
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***Mainly parasympathetic arousal for a baseline of ease and peacefulness.
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***Mild SNS activation for enthusiasm, vitality, and wholesome passions.
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***Occasional SNS spikes to deal with demanding situations, from a great opportunity at work to a late-night call from a teenager who needs a ride home from a party gone bad.
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This is your best-odds prescription for a long, productive, happy life. Of course, it takes practice.”
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In plain English, the SNS is the gas and parasympathetic is the brakes. Live with the parasympathetic nervous system activated, which means not judging, not engaging the ego in thought. In other words follow the breath to activate our brakes, stopping worry, doubt and fear. Use the SNS for activities or defense.
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3
Nov
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ACTION, ANALOGY, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, EGO, PTSD, TOOLS, TRAUMA, TRIGGERS. 8 Comments
margareta-snyders by Sir Anthony van Dyck
One way the self grows is by equating itself to things—by identifying with them. Unfortunately, when you identify with something, you make its fate your own, and yet, everything in this world ultimately ends.
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So be mindful of how you identify with positions, objects, and people.
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A traditional inquiry is to ask questions like these: Am I this hand? Am I this belief? Am I this sense of “I”? Am I this awareness?
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Perhaps follow the question with an explicit answer, such as: No, I am not this hand.
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My goal is to operate without the ego as much as possible. I try to show up without thought to experience all of this moment. Things, people, situation exist without my involvement, just observation.
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2
Nov
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ACCEPTANCE, ANALOGY, AWARENESS, C-PTSD, HAPPINESS, Loss, MINDFULNESS, PTSD. 2 Comments
Anneli Wiberg
“Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, and blame ourselves for the present. We get frustrated when we can’t have what we want, and disappointed when what we like ends.
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We suffer that we suffer. We get upset about being in pain, angry about dying, sad about waking up sad yet another day.
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This kind of suffering—which encompasses most of our unhappiness and dissatisfaction—is constructed by the brain. It is made up. Which is ironic, poignant—and supremely hopeful.
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For if the brain is the cause of suffering, it can also be its cure.”
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Remember, we are speaking of trauma and happiness and concentrating on our trauma thoughts and mind work. Happiness is not found in impermanent things. Desires lead to loss and the need for more desire and then regret and loss, follow.
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28
Sep
Posted by Marty in Rick Hanson(Buddhas Brain). Tagged: ANALOGY, ARTICLE, C-PTSD, DISASSOCIATION, FEAR, PTSD, THE BRAIN, THOUGHTS, TOOLS, TRAUMA, TRIGGERS. 1 Comment
charles-pfahl
- Control of out thoughts, emotions or life is a delusion. We are not manipulating or overcoming our fears or anxiety. We are acknowledging they exist and trying to spend less and less time engaged with them.
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- Thoughts have a mind of their own, the ego I believe wants control. That is wants to direct our mind through thoughts, emotions and our self image. If we believe we are flawed and need to get rid of things, we suffer and healing is stymied.
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For me, random thoughts still invade my consciousness daily. The jolt of trauma is long over with. Now, I let go of anything that arrives randomly without effort for the most part. Random thoughts are the curse of trauma.
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Let go and trust that you are fine, perfect as a true self without judgment or doubt. Practice little things (breathing track) and let worry go. Place all your doubt and worry, fear and guilt energy into effort to heal.
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Turn around the fear and move take mental action and start to heal.
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