Video Series - The Compassionate Brain with Dr. Rick Hanson

http://vimeo.com/49922173

This is a great video series really on point with this blog. I encourage you to check it out. You'll first need to register at: http://live.soundstrue.com/compassionatebrain/

Here's a run-down of the whole series with some heavy-hitters in this field:

Session 1: How the Mind Changes the Brain Recorded on Monday, October 8, 2012 With Dr. Richie Davidson, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin and co-editor of The Asymmetrical Brain

Session 2: Mindfulness of Oneself and Others Recorded on Monday, October 15, 2012 With Dr. Daniel Siegel, executive director of the Mindsight Institute and author of Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation

Session 3: Cultivating a Forgiving Heart Recorded on Monday, October 22, 2012 With Dr. Tara Brach, founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and author of Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

Session 4: The Evolution of Compassion: From Gene to Meme Recorded on Monday, October 29, 2012 With Dr. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

Session 5: Balancing Compassion and Assertiveness Recorded on Monday, November 5, 2012 With Dr. Kelly McGonigal, senior teacher and consultant for the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and author of The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

Session 6: The Power of Self-Compassion Recorded on Monday, November 12, 2012 With Dr. Kristin Neff, professor of human development and culture at the University of Texas, Austin and author of Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind

Session 7: Compassion in the Wider World Recorded on Monday, November 19, 2012 With Dr. Jean Houston, co-founder of The Foundation for Mind Research and author of The Possible Human: A Course in Enhancing Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities

Session 8: At Home in the Heart—Practical Takeaways from This Series Recorded on Monday, November 26, 2012 With Dr. Rick Hanson

Learn from a 3D Brain/Einstien's Brain Facts

Learn from a 3D Brain/Einstien's Brain Facts

A LITTE GROUND WORK FIRST - Over the next while, I'll be posting some information that will talk about different brain structures. Its always hard learning about something if you don't actually have an idea about what the structure does, what the structure looks like, where its located, and what is beside it!

If you want to follow along or go back and reference this post, I'd suggest this tool from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a fun way to learn about structures and functions. 

Just hover over the brain to identify structures and use the dialog box to the right to learn about the features of 29 different structures.

Check it out here: http://www.g2conline.org/

........Ready?....Ok....Now that you've learned about some of the structures, here are two facts about Einstein's brain. Go find these structures on the map!

• Einstein's parietal lobes were wider than normal parietal lobes. In addition, he had extra grooves and ridges in his parietal lobes (perhaps related to his advanced visual, mathematical, and spatial thinking)
  
• Einstein had knoblike structures on his motor cortex. (perhaps related to Einstein's musical ability)

Welcome to The Meditative Brain - Some Interesting Links

How exciting! This blog will be dedicated to my journey through all things (contemplative science, neuroscience, Buddhist and technology related) that I'm doing and finding interesting at the moment. While I'm figuring it out, it will help me organize my thoughts, and maybe it will let my readers discover interesting questions (and hopefully some answers!) of their own. I'll be posting things from all over the web. But for now, I thought I'd post my favourite, most-visited sites! Please share some of your own favourite sites! Or let me know what awesome content I may have been missing on any of my favourite sites....Maybe they'll become yours too:

• http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/ (Learn about the interface between Technology + Buddhism (+podcasts))
• http://secularbuddhism.org/the-secular-buddhist-podcasts/ (Learn about Secular Buddhism and their related podcasts)
• http://www.dharmaoverground.org/ (Excellent resource for the support of "hardcore" meditation practice)
• http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ (Huge database of Readings in Theravada Buddhism, learn from the beginning!)
• http://web.archive.org/web/20120509192326/http://www.alchemicaltaoism.com/ (Learn all about how your bodies energies flow)
• http://aimwell.org/Books/Mahasi/Practical/practical.html#One (Insight meditation instructions)
• http://www.mindandlife.org/ (Learn what the Dalai Lama and science are doing together)
• http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/ (Learn how to build your own EEG on the cheap and learn what's going on in your brain while you meditate)
• http://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience (If you can handle the reading, this is where you'll you can see what's really happening in neuroscience. YAY FOR OPEN ACCESS TO JOURNAL ARTICLES!)

That's probably good to get started....back to practice....

[contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]