Posts Tagged ‘contemplative practices’

yoga by Western doctors

Why More Western Doctors Are Now Prescribing Yoga Therapy

With a growing body of research proving yoga’s healing benefits, it’s no wonder more Western doctors are prescribing this ancient practice. Learn what’s behind the trend.

SUSAN ENFIELDFEB 3, 2016

https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/western-doctors-prescribing-yoga-therapy

With a growing body of research proving yoga’s healing benefits, it’s no wonder more doctors—including those with traditional Western training—are prescribing this ancient practice to their patients.

Yoga therapy is now recognized as a clinically viable treatment, with established programs at major health care centers, such as The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, and many others. In 2003, there were just five yoga-therapy training programs in the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) database. Today, there are more than 130 worldwide, including 24 rigorous multi-year programs newly accredited by IAYT, with 20 more under review. According to a 2015 survey, most IAYT members work in hospital settings, while others work in outpatient clinics or physical therapy, oncology, or rehabilitation departments (and in private practice).

Some therapists focus on physical mechanics, while others bring in Ayurvedic healing principles and factor in diet, psychological health, and spirituality to create a holistic, customized plan.

“Researchers take blood samples before and after yoga practice to see which genes have been turned on and which were deactivated,” says Khalsa. “We’re also able to see which areas of the brain are changing in structure and size due to yoga and meditation.” This kind of research is helping take yoga into the realm of “real science,” he says, by showing how the practice changes psycho-physiological function.

+++++++++++
more on contemplative practices in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=contemplative

Support For Mental Health Care

Report: World Support For Mental Health Care Is ‘Pitifully Small’+

October 15, 20183:12 PM ET 

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/15/656669752/report-world-support-for-mental-health-care-is-pitifully-small

comprehensive report from the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, three years in the making, released this past week at a London summit

In the mid-1990s, the first Global Burden of Disease study noted that of the top ten causes of disability worldwide, five were mental illnesses. Mental health researchers had little to offer at the time in terms of proven inexpensive treatments. But researchers since then have demonstrated that diseases such as depression and substance abuse can often be accurately identified and treated by community health workers with talk therapy.

++++++++++
more on mindfulness in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness

meditative practices help the body

Harvard Study: Clearing Your Mind Affects Your Genes And Can Lower Your Blood Pressure

new study indicates that people who meditated over an eight-week period had a striking change in the expression of 172 genes that regulate inflammation, circadian rhythms and glucose metabolism. And that, in turn, was linked to a meaningful decrease in their blood pressure.

“This is a major step to overcome the innate bias that has developed in medicine over the last hundred years or so,” says Dr. Herbert Benson, who started promoting what he called “the relaxation response” more than four decades ago. “Going back to penicillin in the 1920s, we have been inexorably dependent on medication, surgery and procedures.”

His goal is to establish the relaxation response and other techniques that calm the brain — yoga, t’ai chi, breathing exercises, repetitive prayer and other meditative practices — as a “third leg” of medical treatment, along with medication and surgical procedures.

Previous studies of other diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis, have suggested improvement after meditation. But, “this is the first study where we have a nice, clean, clinical read-out,” says Towia Libermann,
 +++++++++++
more on meditation in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=meditation
more on mindfulness in this IMS blgo
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness

Cultivating Awareness and Resilience for Educators

Why Teachers Say Practicing Mindfulness Is Transforming The Work

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/46150/why-teachers-say-practicing-mindfulness-is-transforming-the-work

Christa Turksma, is one of the co-founders of Cultivating Awareness and Resilience for Educators, or CARE for Teachers.

In the last few years, teacher job satisfaction has reportedly plummeted to a 25-year low, and turnover is high — almost 50 percent for new teachers.

In a soon-to-be published study, Jennings and her co-authors provided an extended version of CARE training to 224 teachers in high-poverty schools in New York City, with several two-day sessions spaced over the course of a year.

CARE TECHNIQUES TO TRY IN THE CLASSROOM
Mindfulness for students and teachers

1. Calmer Transitions

2. Take 5

3. Quiet Corner Or Peace Corner

4. Mindful Walking And Centering

Quit social media

Yes, Quitting Facebook May Make You Happier

By

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/11/yes-quitting-facebook-may-make-you-happier.html

Published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and highlighted by the canny and pseudonymous Neuroskeptic, Danish researcher Morten Tromholt recruited 1,095 participants (by way of Facebook, naturally) and put them into two groups. One pledged to not sign onto the social network for a full week (87 percent made it) and a control group used the platform the same way as they always did.

++++++++++++++++++++++
more on mindfulness, contemplative practices, contemplative computing, disconnect in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=contemplative+

mindfulness in the classroom

Calming the teenage mind in the classroom

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/08/health/mindfulness-teenagers-schools-stress/

Lexxi Seay, a senior, was skeptical. “I actually never believed really in meditation. … I thought it was a joke,” she said during an interview.

Students “are just craving for ways to handle and cope with their stress” in healthy and nondestructive ways, said Gueritault. “It becomes sort of like instinctive and intuitive for them to just search for alternative ways to cope with their stress that have nothing to do with drugs or alcohol or whatever destructive behavior.”

More on mindfulness in education in this IMS blog:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=mindfulness&submit=Search

mindfulness programs in school

What Changes When a School Embraces Mindfulness?

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/30/what-changes-when-a-school-embraces-mindfulness/

The program is a blend of neuroscience, social and emotional tenets like empathy and perspective taking, and mindfulness, a practice which many schools have already started exploring. Several programs teach mindfulness in schools, including Mindful Schools.

More on mindfulness in education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=mindfulness&submit=Search
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=contemplative&submit=Search

engagement and contemplative practices

The On Course National Conference

http://oncourseworkshop.com/national-conference-overview/

has several sessions of interest:

Padlet Possibilities – Using Their Phones to Keep Their Attention in Class
Presenters: Kathy Magee and Paul Phillips, Faculty, Occupational Health and Safety, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
Summary: Tired of fighting your students’ phones for their attention? Maybe it’s because the phone is more interesting than the lesson (or worse, than you). Why not use those phones to encourage participation in the day’s classroom activities and keep the on the learning and lessons you have planned. This session will have participants using their Ipads, tablets, and phones to access Padlet in order to identify, discuss, and adapt ways that this free software can be used in multi-disciplines.

Using PBL, and Active and Collaborative Techniques in Science Teaching
Presenter: Stamatis Muratidis, Faculty, Chemistry, Palo Alto College, TX
Summary: Participants interested in tips for successfully involving students by developing Active and Collaborative Learning (ACL) techniques will be engaged by use of a variety of topics, models and tools. Most of the workshop will take place in a collaborative group format and best practices for forming, molding and nurturing collaborative groups will be emphasized. Along the way the presenter will be promoting data-driven best practices, while identifying and mitigating some of the common pitfalls of implementing PBL and ACL activities.

Relax, Reflect, Relate: 3 R’s of Contemplative Practice
Presenter: William H. Johnson, Jr., Student Success Coordinator/Personal Development Coach, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
Summary: Is life moving too fast? Are you busy beyond belief? Well, slow down! Would you attend a session that allows you to take the time to relax and be still, reflect on your life, and relate your thoughts and feelings to others? If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, then this workshop is for you. Research has shown that people applying some type of contemplative practice in their lives are likely to be more engaged, and are healthier and happier in life. Attendees in this session will participate in two forms of contemplative practice – meditation and reflective writing – that enhance personal growth. By the end of the session, you will learn strategies to quiet the mind, engage the spirit, and connect with others!

Study Smarter, Not Just Harder!
Presenter: Amy Munson, Director of Instructional Design, United States Air Force Academy
Summary: The United States Air Force Academy Science of Teaching and Learning program is conducting a study on how students learn about their own learning. The research team hypothesizes that students learn more from peers than from “outsiders” such as faculty members and has set out to develop a peer training and messaging program alongside a faculty training and messaging program using the same three highly successful learning/self-management strategies. On Course structures and strategies were implemented for the training components as researchers shared the benefits of practice testing, spaced practice and successive relearning as defined in Dunlosky and Rawson’s meta-analysis of learning strategies. This workshop will give participants an opportunity to learn more about those three strategies while also learning about how to implement a student “train the trainer” program.

 

Mindfulness and contemplative practices for educational purposes

Calming the teenage mind in the classroom

Why More Western Doctors Are Now Prescribing Yoga Therapy

http://www.yogajournal.com/article/health/western-doctors-prescribing-yoga-therapy/

More on contemplative practices and mindfulness in this IMS blog:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=contemplative&submit=Search

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=mindfulness&submit=Search

1 2 3 4 5