Blog | Mindfulness, Meditation, Journaling & Walking in Nature
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Writings and Readings Blog

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Posted on May 26, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
2 Comments

Once the Dalai Lama urged the neuroscientist, Dr. Richard Davidson to test meditation rigorously and extract its value for the benefit of the world. For such a task, Davidson needed the help of advanced yogis in Tibet. Though kind and cordial, they flatly declined the invitation to get tested in a faraway land. However, one American monk they respected and trusted was Matthieu Ricard. He had abandoned his promising career in biology and become an advanced yogi in Tibet. At his recommendation they agreed to participate in the mapping of their brains.  In 2002, the first Tibetan yogi tested in the lab was Mingyur Rinpoche. The number of his lifetime meditation practice hours were 62,000. His qualities of endless patience and gentle kindness truly impressed the researchers and were useful during...

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Thursday, May 22, 2025

Posted on May 21, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Flourishing, Meditation
2 Comments

By now you know that there are variety of meditations. Different meditations train different kinds of mental habits. We practice loving kindness meditation; full body scan; and guided meditations. I strongly suggest that at home you either practice Analytical Meditation (as we discussed in the Mindful Creators Class) or Focus on the Breath Meditation to monitor thoughts without getting swept away by them. Whatever you practice, will improve.  Mindfulness as you know is awareness or attention, becoming conscious of our consciousness. When we pay attention to the in-flow and the out-flow of our breathing, it connects us to the present moment. Mindfulness unfolds. The brain’s executive center, prefrontal cortex, located behind the forehead, gives us ability to anticipate the future, and recall the past. Neither past nor future events have power...

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Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Posted on May 19, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Flourishing, Meditation, Well Being
1 Comment

Here’s some food for the mind: An EEG (Electroencephalogram) waves represent the synchronous firing of neurons, primarily in the cerebral cortex and are detected through electrodes placed on the scalp. There are five main types of EEG waves: delta occur during deep sleep; theta during drowsiness; alpha when we relax or are awake with eyes closed; beta when we are alert, actively thinking or concentrating. Finally, gamma, the fastest brain waves occur during the moments when differing brain regions fire in harmony, such as moments of insight.  Gamma waves occur when the elements of mental puzzle click together. To get some sense of how it feels, try this: What one word can change each of these into compound words: sauce, pine, crab?OR imagine biting into a ripe juicy sweet peach. Suddenly your senses of sight, smell, taste, feel and sound mesh into a single...

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Thursday, 15 May, 2025

Posted on May 14, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation, Flourishing, Well Being
2 Comments

A mind free from disturbance alleviates stress and suffering, a goal shared by science and meditative paths alike. Apart from contemplative calm and composure there is more practical potential within each and every one of us. Such a life is best described as flourishing or a life of Utter Wellness. Aristotle proposed the goal of life as the “Right Mean,” a quality between extremes such as risk-taking and cowardice, between self-indulgence and ascetic denial. He also stated that we are not virtuous by nature but we can become so by self-monitoring. Self-monitoring means the practice of noting our thoughts and acts in silence and solitude. This is something we are learning to practice when we focus on the breath.             Our feeling about life’s events determines our happiness. We find calm and clarity by distinguishing what...

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Tuesday, 13 May, 2025

Posted on May 13, 2025
in #Neuroscience and Meditation
2 Comments

Did you know that an experience repeated over and over again changes and reshapes your brain? That’s what a ballerina or a pianist or an Olympic swimmer does. Practice. Brain rewires itself in response to anything that is practiced over and over again. This is called “neuroplasticity.” Such an experience expands parts of brain and leave lingering neural marks on it.  Previously “neuroplasticity” was thought to occur only in children. In 1990’s intensive research showed that adult brain can also rewire itself. This finding challenged a long-standing dogma. The new discovery offered a scientific basis for how repeated training could create lasting mental traits in any field including contemplative practices such as meditation. The aim of our Meditation and Journaling Practice is to cultivate wholesome mental states and weaken unwholesome ones. And...

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Thursday, May 8, 2025

Posted on May 7, 2025
in Meditation, Spirituality
4 Comments

Practicing meditation frequently can produce pleasant states but real payoffs are lasting traits that result from practicing it diligently. Altered traits shape how we behave in our daily lives. The most compelling impact of meditation is not better health but a development of better nature. With years of practice it cultivates selflessness, equanimity, a loving presence, and compassion.  In 1987 the Dalai Lama organized meetings of leading scientists at Mind and Life Institute he has established in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India where he now lives. Its mission “to alleviate suffering and promote flourishing or utter wellness by integrating science with contemplative practices.” To debate, discuss and engage in serious research on meditation, he brought together a community of like-minded scholars and scientists from around the world who share this quest. The graduates...

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Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Posted on May 5, 2025
in Meditation, Spirituality
4 Comments

This month we’ll focus on Mindfulness and Neuroscientific research related with meditation. Mindfulness is part of an ancient tradition with countless benefits. It teaches how to calm down and pause, instead of reacting with your anger or irritability, you act without getting stressed or anxious. But originally the practice was not intended for such purposes. These are simply its side-effects. Easy and brief meditations are its spinoffs that have been adopted only recently. The original aim of meditation, still embraced in some cultures and circles, focusses on deep exploration of the mind to get insights into human consciousness.  A woman undergoing electroencephalography. Using fMRI and EEG (explained below) and a battery of cutting-edge data analysis for the last thirty years or so neuroscientists have been studying minds of Tibetan monks by...

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Thursday, May 1, 2025

Posted on April 30, 2025
in Reading
5 Comments

Reading to Heal In December 2023, I had my left knee replacement surgery. The pain was unbearable. For a few days post-surgery I experienced a few spurts of awakenings. These pikes of wisdom must have been due to the pain pills and the adjustment my leg was making with its new bionic part. I was in a state of deep consciousness that felt devoid of ego, spacious. And in those awakenings here’s what I realized: That billions of people around the world, similar to the health care workers I was surrounded with, are going about doing what they do each day – toil and struggle to make lives better for their families and themselves. And that majority of people are good. Through media – printed, visual, verbal – we are kept informed about...

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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Posted on April 28, 2025
in Reading
3 Comments

Our brain can adapt, master new skills, store memories and information, and even recover after a traumatic brain injury. This is called neuroplasticity. The lifelong capacity of the brain to change and rewrite itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience. One of the skills that contributes to brain’s neuroplasticity is reading. It allows our brain to grow, expand, learn, and relearn.  Some older individuals in their eighties or nineties, even if they were avid readers when younger, lose their ability to recall. A short story may be easier to comprehend but reading a novel and remembering all they read until the end eludes them. “Research shows that along with diet and exercise, reading can stave off signs of dementia. Reading, journaling, meditation and other mentally stimulating activities, no matter the...

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Thursday, April 24, 2025

Posted on April 23, 2025
in Being in Nature, Reading
5 Comments

Did you know that stress stimuli can be deflated by reading a well-written book? Reading someone else’s made-up world is a release and a relief. Reading offers your mind the opportunity to recreate a world and in journaling you may expand it beyond the confines of your personal imagination. In children’s literature, stories explain the world using pictures and simple words. When I read Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax to my five-year-old grandson, he viscerally understood the meaning of “deforestation,” “sustainability,” and “protecting the environment.” This story beloved by children teaches kids to treat the planet with kindness and stand up and speak up for others.  With lessons on the beauty of nature, especially imaginary Truffula Trees, it speaks of the danger of taking our earth for granted. Written fifty years ago by this visionary, the story is timely,...

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