Do you find yourself exhausted and mentally overstimulated? Have you considered cutting the cord? Well, here’s a wonderful article from Lifehacker that looks at exactly what happened for Tony Schwartz after he decided to go off the digital map for 10 days.

I Completely Disconnected for 10 Days. Here’s What Happened

I woke up one morning about four weeks ago and realized in a flash that I’d hit a wall. Most days I can’t wait to get to work. On this day, I struggled to get myself out of the house.

This is a guest post by Tony Schwartz via HBR.org.

The first three months of the year had been intensely demanding, between hiring a series of new employees for a rapidly growing business, working with colleagues to develop several new products, traveling frequently, and taking on multiple writing assignments. One of the primary principles of the work we teach at [my company] the Energy Project is that the greater the performance demand, the greater the need for recovery. I needed a vacation, but what I needed most of all was a period of total digital disconnection. My brain felt overloaded and I needed time to clear it out.

My wife and I made reservations to go to our favorite hotel for nine days. But I knew that getting away from my office wouldn’t be enough if I remained tethered to my online life and my work. I decided not to bring my laptop, my iPad, or my cellphone. I left an away message that made it clear I wouldn’t be checking email. I was determined to eliminate temptation to the maximum extent possible. I had learned from past experiences how easy it is for me to succumb, given the opportunity.

As Daniel Goleman writes in Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, a fascinating new book he’ll publish this fall: “Overloading attention shrinks mental control. Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control.”

From the moment I boarded the plane for our trip, I noticed a shift. Ordinarily, I would have skittered between reading the newspaper, magazines, answering email, and surfing the web (if it was available). I’d brought along a pile of books, mostly novels, and none of them related to work. I began reading the first one, and I very quickly became absorbed. For once, nothing else was competing for my attention.

The first time I felt a distracting impulse, it was to Google something I’d read. The initial pull was compelling, but I let it pass. Over the next several days, it happened perhaps a half-dozen more times, and on each occasion I simply observed the feeling without responding to it. By mid-week, that impulse evaporated, and I realized how much richer and more satisfying any experience is when it’s not interrupted—even if the interrupter is me.

It turned out there were no newspapers at our hotel. My first response was a bit of panic— I’ve read The New York Times daily since I was a teenager—but soon, I realized I was giving up the fix of more information that I didn’t really need. Instead, I became increasingly aware that the relentless diet of information I ordinarily consume leaves me feeling the same way I do after eating a couple of slices of pizza or a hot dog and French fries—poorly nourished and still hungry.

Continue reading here for the entire article.

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In an exciting announcement out of Stanford, researches have been able to treat mouse brains with a special technique that allows for a “transparent” view of the inside of the brain. This is pretty big news! I refer you to Integral Options Cafe for more on the subject.

Enjoy!

~Marsha

Breakthrough – Transparent Brain Imaging

This is a huge breakthrough in brain imaging, as reported in Nature earlier this week. The whole article is available as a PDF online. Eventually, we figure out to do this in a living body, so that we can’t “real” images of the living, thinking brain. [click to continue…]

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Belleruth Naparstek is a gifted clinician and teacher (and an absolutely lovely human being), who is THE expert on guided imagery, IMHO. Here, she very succinctly answers the VFAQ (“v” for “very”), “What’s the difference between mindfulness meditation and guided imagery?”

What’s the Difference between Mindfulness Meditation and Guided Imagery?

Question:

Over the past couple of weeks I have read articles bragging on the benefits of mindfulness meditation.  Can you help me understand how and what mindfulness can and can’t do, as compared to guided imagery?

My impression is that the end result of the two techniques is pretty much the same.  It’s just the process of getting there that is different  – is that true?

Thanks.
Alex [click to continue…]

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Check out this article in the upcoming issue of Mindful magazine: “What’s Sex Got to Do With It?” — in which I talk about orgasm, genital friction, mindfulness, and other fun stuff.

~Marsha

What’s Sex Got To Do With It?

All that friction is nice, but what we and our partners are really craving is connection, attention, a little wild abandon­—and better use of our tongues.

If mindfulness can make us happier, healthier, and more compassionate (that is, if the raft of current scientific research is to be believed), what can that same moment-to-moment awareness do for our sex lives? Imagine the possibilities.

On the face of it, having enjoyable, loving sex seems like the last thing we might be inclined to tune out. But we all know the kind of mind-wandering that can strike even in the midst of great pleasures. From a mental replay of the staff meeting earlier in the day to obsessing about the final luscious peak of the sex you’re having in that very moment, in lovemaking, as in life, tuning out is a part of being human that’s very difficult to turn off.

That’s where mindfulness comes in. [click to continue…]

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Mindfulness is entering the lives of many new young people as it’s added to school curriculums around the world. This victory is even more relevant as studies show that mindfulness helps reduce teen depression. Now that’s a wonderful thing!

Mindfulness Programs In Schools Reduce Symptoms Of Depression Among Adolescents: Study

Mindfulness, the practice of cultivating focused awareness on the present moment, has been shown to have a number of benefits, including emotional stability and improved sleep. Now, some schools have started incorporating mindfulness programs into their curriculums, teaching kids as young as five years old how to use body scans, mindful breathing and attention to their thoughts and emotions to become more focused. According to a recent study, such programs could be successful in leading to reduced depression-related symptoms among adolescents. [click to continue…]

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