What Is Mindfulness?

[ArunCannan]

Love this video explaining these 3 core concepts and how they are related. In a way this is life. You live a life of purpose; with intention. You pay attention to that and act/live your life; aligning actions with intent. Occasionally you fall off the wagon, but that's okay. You get back right up and try again and you keep getting better at it.

[alinoboy]

Yes it’s Message was a simple one and that’s why it’s was so poignant and easy to understand and Adapt into our life.

The frog was perfect for its usage without being distracting for me.

[khalidh]

This an excellent video, which does a great job explaining what is mindfulness.

[mmorin]

Génial! Amazingly profound yet so simple, brilliant, Merci

[heewonkim]

Pretty good animation with explanations. Thank you.🙏

[ajmarr]

Mindfulness, Meaning, and Neuroscience
Mindfulness, for all its undeniable virtues, can nonetheless be boring, as ‘acting non-judgmentally in the moment’ cannot inhibit the basic human need to perceive future novel and positive outcomes. But one can indeed act non-judgmentally and still pursue singular and meaningful ends, and not only extend daily mindfulness, but enhance positive affect to boot. The procedure is easy, simply follow your usual mindfulness protocols, and simultaneously pursue or anticipate pursuing meaningful behavior (e.g. cleaning house, writing poetry, exercise, etc.). Do this continuously for standard sessions of a least a half hour and chart your progress. You will be more pleasurably alert, engaged, and incented to continue being mindful. Neurologically, this is due to ‘opioid-dopamine’ interactions, or the fact that mindfulness induces a state of deep rest, which is pleasurable due to the induction of opioid activity in the brain. Meaningful activity on the other hand induces dopaminergic activity, which is felt as a state of alert arousal. Opioid and dopamine neurons are located proximally in the midbrain, and when both are simultaneously activated will also co-stimulate each other, resulting in enhanced feelings of arousal and pleasure. Indeed, when rest is accompanied by highly meaningful behaviors (creating art, athletic prowess), pleasure and alertness are highly accentuated, resulting in ‘peak’ or ‘flow’ experiences.
So there is my procedure and prediction, which of course you can prove or falsify for yourself, give or take an hour!

(and best of all, no need here for web apps, books, seminars, or lessons. The best things in life, and lessons in life, should be free!)

This interpretation is based on the work of the distinguished neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan, a leading theorist on emotion and incentive motivation, who was kind to vet the work for accuracy and endorse the finished manuscript.
Berridge’s Site

I offer a more detailed theoretical explanation in pp. 47-52, and pp 82-86 of my open source book on the neuroscience of resting states, ‘The Book of Rest’, linked below.

also:
Meditation and Rest
from the International Journal of Stress Management, by this author

[ajmarr]

Mindfulness and Happiness: a different perspective from affective neuroscience.

Being in the moment, or being mindful, has as its major entailment a state of rest, which affectively is a pleasant state. However, happiness, if defined ‘affectively’ as a combination of pleasure and arousal, requires but a simple modification of mindfulness practice to elicit both affective states, and can easily be mapped to simple neurologic processes.

Hypothesis and proof below.

HYPOTHESIS: Dopaminergic activity will stimulate endogenous opioid systems when the latter are in a non-suppressed state.
EXPLANATION AND ‘PROOF’: Activity that involves continuous positive act/outcome discrepancy or novelty (productive or meaningful behavior) while the covert musculature is inactive (a resting state) will result in heightened feeling of pleasure and arousal, or ‘eudaemonia’, ‘flow’, or ‘peak’ experience. This derives from the observation that neuro-muscular tension (or stress) inhibits endogenous opioid (pleasure) release, while relaxation accentuates it, the latter permitting opioid systems to be further stimulated by dopaminergic activity (arousal) elicited by meaningful behavior.
The reason this explanation does not appear evident from general observation is that its counterpart as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience is described through literary metaphor and not scientific language and obscures the independent and dependent measures that accurately describe it. The virtue of this explanation is that it is easily testable by anyone. Just get into a relaxed state (mindfulness protocols are the best way to do this) and then exclusively pursue or anticipate pursuing productive activity for periods of a half hour or so, and voila, you will have a flow or eudaemonic experience. It is that simple.

I offer a more detailed explanation in pp. 47-52, and pp 82-86 of my open source book on the neuroscience of resting states, ‘The Book of Rest’, linked below.

This above book is based on the research of the distinguished neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan, a preeminent researcher and authority on dopamine, addiction, and motivation, who was kind to vet the work for accuracy and endorse the finished manuscript.
Berridge’s Site and his article from ‘Scientific American’ magazine on the neuroscience of happiness

also:
Meditation and Rest
from the International Journal of Stress Management, by this author