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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
 Posted - 12/17/2006 : 01:33:26
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A subtitle in an article I just read is "The Changeable Brain." I found what it says interesting and thought I'd pass it on, since that's been a subject of discussion here recently.
It says: "Weirdly enough, we now know that devoting gentle attention to one's own thoughts...may literally restructure our neuroanatomy..."
"For instance, Jeffrey Schwartz, MD, is a psychiatrist who treats those with obsessive compulsive disorder....Schwartz knew that his OCD sufferers' brains showed excessive activity in a region associated with fear. So he gave them PET scan images of their brains, showing synapses in this area firing away like tiny power plants. When a hand-washing urge arose, Schwartz had them look at the pictures and tell themselves, 'It feels like I should wash my hands, but it's really a short circuit in my brain.' Then they'd do something else (gardening, waltzing, whatever) for 15 minutes.
"The more they did this exercise, the more these people's urges and anxiety dropped. Amazingly, follow-up scans showed that the structure of their OCD brains had changed." (Well, maybe not so amazing if you've read Sarno's statements that our mental state drives our brain chemistry, not the other way around. It seems that the same can apply to our brain circuitry. Change your focus, change your brain.) "Schwartz is just one of many scientists who are using new technology to demonstrate that we can alter the physical configurations of our brains by observing their impulses closely and calmly without obeying them."
The author of the article mentions the use of a journal as a means of devoting attention to one's thoughts.
(The article, written by Martha Beck, is in the January issue of Oprah magazine.) |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2006 : 09:14:10
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"Weirdly enough, we now know that devoting gentle attention to one's own thoughts...may literally restructure our neuroanatomy..."
Interesting article LB, thanks. In the modern era there are so many distractions that make this difficult to do and easy to avoid. |
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h2oskier25
USA
395 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2006 : 14:44:05
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quote:
Originally Posted by LittleBird
The author of the article mentions the use of a journal as a means of devoting attention to one's thoughts.
Hmmm. Very Interesting. Thanks for this post, Little Bird. |
Edited by - h2oskier25 on 12/18/2006 14:44:27 |
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"The Changeable Brain"
