Interesting & Useful Things to Know, Consider & Practice

Below you will find several links to various websites, You Tube videos, and articles that may provide you with interesting and useful things to know about health and well-being and the inner resources we all have for self-regulation and self-exploration to foster our resilience and well-being regardless of what life brings us:

  • Dan Siegel is a child Psychiatrist & Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA as well as  the founder of the Mindsight Institute and a leading force in the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology.  This video clip entitled “Interpersonal Connection, Self-Awareness and Well-Being: The Art and Science of Integration in the Promotion of Health” is the keynote address from a Stanford University Medicine X educational program and is a very good summary of Interpersonal Neurobiology and its critical importance to Medicine, Health and Well-being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP9bT6xfhNE
  • Thich Nhat Hanh is a world renowned Zen Monk who has written many books and invited thousands of people to open their hearts and minds and live more consciously.  This You Tube link introduces the nature of Mindfulness.
  • “The Training Effect Principle“, as I call it for simplicity, or better known as experience dependent Neuroplasticity, Reinforcement Learning, or Evolution, is, I think, the most important piece of natural science for us all to understand and make use of as it is fundamental to how we are and how we can be.  Learn more about this wonderful phenomenon and how you might engage in an intentional, consciously chosen self-directed neuroplasticity for your own healing and well-being by watching this CBC Nature of Things documentary on neuroplasticity.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4-3dj9PT6c
  • Willoughby Britton PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Research), Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences (Research), Brown University) is a researcher who’s work I have followed for a number of years and would encourage you to look into some of it yourself. Click this a link to a TedTalk by Dr. Britton on why a neuroscientist would want to study meditation … understand more about your happiness and suffering and what is behind war and peace.
  • Dr. Herbert Benson, Harvard University, on the Relaxation Response, Mind-Body connection, MindBody Medicine and the possibilities of healing though the use of these practices.
  • Rick Hanson PhD is a neuropsychologist and Rick Mendius MD is a neurologist and together they have written books and articles and founded the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. This website will provide you excellent resources for understanding more about how you can help yourself be happier and suffer less. there is also a huge listing of research resources that can help you in your own study and development.
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  • Stephen Proges Polyvagal Theory and the link between feeling safe, making change and living fully … from plantyourself.com and also explore reflections on Safe and Sound Protocol
  • Polyvagal Theory – a Must know, understand and make use of … Deb Dana soundstrue.com podcast 
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  • More things are possible than we might think but we need to be willing to explore the upper end of our thresholds in all domains of self. This is a good example of working with the psychology of possibility: “Never, Ever Give Up. Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation!” …
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448
  • You might find this video from Brown University on the neurobiological workings of mindfulness of interest. It is about an hour long if you skip the Q & A.  Click on or copy this link,  http://www.brown.edu/academics/contemplative-studies/videos and paste it in your search engine.  Scroll down until you find the video for Judson Brewer, “Please Pay Attention Now, It May Affect Your Brain”
  • Brene Brown is a researcher and professor of social work who studies the nature of vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame and how embracing these can foster our capacities for self-regulation and resilience, love and understanding. She has written several books covering her research and thoughts on these and you can hear her explanations on the Power of Vulnerability and Listening to Shame by going to the “Videos & Press” blog of her website.
  • Matthew Sanford, author and yoga teacher, offers an incredible invitation to wholeness through mind-body awareness. He has been paralysed since the age of 13  and  shares his history in his book Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEdJICyhUrU
  • Here is a link to some of the presentations at a recent Neuroplasticity in Education Conference held in Vancouver October 24, 2014.  These presentations may help you deepen your understanding of the importance of  neuroplasticity or what I simply refer to as “the training effect principle” in all aspects of our lives.
  • Here’s a link to Contemplative Mind in Life, a blog by neuroscientist David Vago  that provides “a global collection of mindfulness and meditation research resources” that could help foster contemplative practice as a life expanding way of being.  It will provide other links to guided practice that could help you develop and build your own practice as well as peer reviewed scientific studies …  http://contemplativemind.wordpress.com/how-to-meditate-links-for-guided-meditation-practice/