According to Dr. Barbara Frederickson’s research, positive emotions open our minds and enable us to see the bigger picture. When we feel positive emotions, it’s like a water lily opening at sunrise, nourishing our minds to expand our perspective and enabling us to see interconnections. Positive emotions enhance our ability to collaborate and develop creative solutions to pressing problems.
Dr. Frederickson also discovered positive emotions transform us at the cellular level. On average, at the cellular level 1% of our cells are renewed each day, so the human body is regenerated every 100 days or the length of a season. One of the most effective ways to increase our “daily diet” of positive emotions is to practice the loving-kindness meditation, which Dr. Frederickson has studied. When loving-kindness meditation is practiced for 3 months, it leads to profound transformations in our mindset and well-being, which also come through at the cellular level. The degree to which people experience positive emotions determine whether they languish or flourish!
Another recent study found that people who practice loving-kindness meditation over a long-term period have chromosomes with longer telomeres, a marker associated with longevity and lower risk for cancer.
In 2012, when I was in the midst of traveling through India to study meditative and contemplative traditions, I was struck by the diversity of opinions and perspectives within one school of thought and between traditions. Even within Buddhism, there were three major branches, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, and each consisted of myriad sects and approaches. Then as I came to look more broadly at yoga traditions, there were even more schools and approaches. The various teachers I encountered inevitably contradicted each other and themselves from day-to-day.
When I learned of the Kalama Sutra, I realized 2500 years ago, a tribe of people called the Kalamas were perplexed by similar observations. There were many gurus (contemplatives) that visit them with teachings but each seemed to disparage other teachers and traditions. When the Buddha Siddartha Gautama came to visit their town, they asked him for advice how to distinguish for truthfulness and reliability among the gurus. This is an extract of how he responded:
“‘Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, “This contemplative is our teacher.” When you know for yourselves that, “These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering” — then you should abandon them.'”
“‘Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.”
Thanks to scientific knowledge, it is much easier today than ever before to follow his advice. Over the last 50 years, researchers have collected substantial evidence on the qualities and practices (such as gratitude, compassion, altruism) that when adopted and carried out, lead to well-being and happiness and on which qualities and practices lead to ill-health and suffering (such as worry, anger, unforgiveness).
The aim of the Calm Clarity program is to provide a synthesis of scientific discoveries in order to support people to cultivate habits and qualities that lead to well-being and happiness.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Jul 1;24(7):1123-32. doi: 10.1177/0956797612470827. Epub 2013 May 6. Kok, Beth E & Frederickson, Barbara L.
The mechanisms underlying the association between positive emotions and physical health remain a mystery. We hypothesize that an upward-spiral dynamic continually reinforces the tie between positive emotions and physical health and that this spiral is mediated by people’s perceptions of their positive social connections. We tested this overarching hypothesis in a longitudinal field experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group that self-generated positive emotions via loving-kindness meditation or to a waiting-list control group. Participants in the intervention group increased in positive emotions relative to those in the control group, an effect moderated by baseline vagal tone, a proxy index of physical health. Increased positive emotions, in turn, produced increases in vagal tone, an effect mediated by increased perceptions of social connections. This experimental evidence identifies one mechanism-perceptions of social connections-through which positive emotions build physical health, indexed as vagal tone. Results suggest that positive emotions, positive social connections, and physical health influence one another in a self-sustaining upward-spiral dynamic.
Brain Behav Immun. 2013 Aug;32:159-63. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2013.04.005. Epub 2013 Apr 19. Hoge, Elizabeth A.
Relatively short telomere length may serve as a marker of accelerated aging, and shorter telomeres have been linked to chronic stress. Specific lifestyle behaviors that can mitigate the effects of stress might be associated with longer telomere lengths. Previous research suggests a link between behaviors that focus on the well-being of others, such as volunteering and caregiving, and overall health and longevity. We examined relative telomere length in a group of individuals experienced in Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), a practice derived from the Buddhist tradition which utilizes a focus on unselfish kindness and warmth towards all people, and control participants who had done no meditation. Blood was collected by venipuncture, and Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes. Quantitative real time PCR was used to measure relative telomere length (RTL) (Cawthon, 2002) in fifteen LKM practitioners and 22 control participants. There were no significant differences in age, gender, race, education, or exposure to trauma, but the control group had a higher mean body mass index (BMI) and lower rates of past depression. The LKM practitioners had longer RTL than controls at the trend level (p=.083); among women, the LKM practitioners had significantly longer RTL than controls, (p=.007), which remained significant even after controlling for BMI and past depression. Although limited by small sample size, these results offer the intriguing possibility that LKM practice, especially in women, might alter RTL, a biomarker associated with longevity.
J Trauma Stress. 2013 Aug;26(4):426-34. doi: 10.1002/jts.21832. Epub 2013 Jul 25. Kearney, David J.
Loving-kindness meditation is a practice designed to enhance feelings of kindness and compassion for self and others. Loving-kindness meditation involves repetition of phrases of positive intention for self and others. We undertook an open pilot trial of loving-kindness meditation for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Measures of PTSD, depression, self-compassion, and mindfulness were obtained at baseline, after a 12-weekloving-kindness meditation course, and 3 months later. Effect sizes were calculated from baseline to each follow-up point, and self-compassion was assessed as a mediator. Attendance was high; 74% attended 9-12 classes. Self-compassion increased with large effect sizes and mindfulness increased with medium to large effect sizes. A large effect size was found for PTSD symptoms at 3-month follow-up (d = -0.89), and a medium effect size was found for depression at 3-month follow-up (d = -0.49). There was evidence of mediation of reductions in PTSD symptoms and depression by enhanced self-compassion. Overall, loving-kindness meditation appeared safe and acceptable and was associated with reduced symptoms of PTSD and depression. Additional study of loving-kindness meditation for PTSD is warranted to determine whether the changes seen are due to the loving-kindness meditation intervention versus other influences, including concurrent receipt of other treatments.
A dear friend just told me about Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist and author whose work is highly convergent with the Calm Clarity Program. Through his books and lectures, he has been expounding on how to drive self-directed neuroplasticity to “hard-wire happiness”.
It’s beautiful to keep discovering validation from scientific experts that what I am putting together in Calm Clarity is on the right track.
I found his Google Talk lecture fascinatingly similar to the lessons in the Calm Clarity Program.
There is now a sizable body of scientific research capturing how spirituality, especially meditation practices, propel neuroplasticity in the remodeling of the brain. A lot of this work is being done at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Spirituality and Mind and the Center for the Integrated Study of Spirituality and the Neurosciences, under Dr. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman. I was introduced to the above video lecture by Waldman at a meditation workshop and decided to read their book, “How God Changes Your Brain”. It turns out to be less about God and more about how thinking of God and spiritual practices activates the brain and molds brain structure (and vice versa).
I have excerpted some of the most interesting paragraphs on the mechanisms:
“The cultural evolution of God follows the neurological evolution of the brain. The circuits that generates images of a wrathful God are closely tied to the oldest structures in the brain, and the circuits that allow us to envision a compassionte and mystical God are in the newest part of our brain. We can’t get rid of our old limbic God, which means that anger and fear will always be part of our neural and spiritual personality. However, we can train the new structures in our brain to suppress our biological tendency to react with anger and fear. (p. 123)
“The emotional circuits of our limbic brains have less plasticity than the frontal lobe. For example, we all get angry or frightened in the same way, but everyone experiences love in surprisingly different ways. Still, it’s not fair to call our reptilian brain primitive, for it too has co-evolved with the frontal lobe and now as the ability to adapt and respond with increased appropriateness to new situations and stress…(p. 123-124)
“To bridge the gap between our “old” and “new” brains, a special structure appears to have recently evolved–the anterior cingulate…it connects our emotions with our cognitive skills, playing a crucial role in emotional self-control, focused problem-solving, and error recognition. Most important, it integrates the activity of different parts of the brain in a way that allows self-consciousness to emerge, especially as it applies to how we see ourselves in relation to the world.” (p. 124)
“Based on our research and that of others, it seems the more you activate your anterior cingulate, the less you’ll perceive God as an authoritarian or critical force.” (p.126)
“Since meditation stimulates this circuit, we believe there is also a coevolution of spirituality and consciousness, engaging specific neural circuits that allow us to envision a benevolent, interconnecting relationship between the universe, God, and ourselves. The circuit that extends from the frontal lobe to the limbic system has a rich interconnection of neurons centered in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is activated whenever we see someone who is suffering, and this allows us to feel empathy and compassion…” (p. 124)
“The anterior cingulate also contains a class of spindle-shaped cells called von Economo neurons, which are found only in humans, great apes, and whales. These neurons have an extensive array of connections with other parts of the brain and are believed to be intimately involved with the development of social awareness skills by integrating our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They guide us toward positive emotions and away from negative ones. But they are also disrupted by stress. If you expose yourself to ongoing stress, their functioning is reduced, but if you place yourself in an enriched environment–with a lot of love, communication, and sensory and intellectual stimulation–you strengthen the effectiveness of the von Economo neurons and the anterior cingulate. Since meditation simultaneously reduces stress while stimulating activity in the anterior cingulate, this supports our premise that spiritual practices enhance social awareness and compassion.” (p. 124-125)
“For example, in one recent study, advanced meditators were shown to have superior skills at discerning subtle changes in the environment… The majority of studies also have found that even brief periods of meditation significantly improve your ability to cope with a wide variety of psychological problems and physical disease. Perhaps this may explain why the practice of meditation has increased in popularity in recent years. in 1993, five million people said they meditated. By 2003, the numbers soared to ten million, and in 2007, fifteen million. Church involvement in America is declining, but spiritual practices are on the rise.” (p. 128-129)
“Today, for many people, God has become a metaphor for our search for ultimate truths and our ability to imagine a better future for all. And as a recent UCLA study found, this search for meaning is usually viewed as a spiritual pursuit, not a religious one.” (p.123)
“The funny thing is that the philosophy behind New Thought religion and materialism comes very close to several fundamental neurological truths:
Your thoughts clearly affect the neurological functioning of your body.
Optimism is essential for maintaining a healthy brain.
When you change the way you think, you begin to change your outward circumstances.
Consciousness, reality, your mind, and your spiritual beliefs are profoundly interconnected and inseparable from the functioning of your brain.” (p. 123)
“Our neurological findings have shown that different types of meditation and prayer affect different parts of the brain in different ways, and each one appears to have a beneficial effect on our neurological functioning and physical and emotional health. Some techniques increase blood flow to the frontal, parietal, temporal and limbic areas of the brain, while others decrease metabolic activity in these areas. Intensive meditation may also trigger an unusual form of neural activity–deafferentation–in which one part of the brain ignores the information being sent to it by other parts. When this happens, we radically alter our everyday perception of the world.” (p. 63)
“By manipulating our breath, body, awareness, feelings, and thoughts, we can decrease tension and stress. We can evoke or suppress specific emotions and focus our thoughts in ways that biologically influence other parts of the brain. From a neuroscientific perspective, this is astonishing because it upsets the traditional view that we cannot voluntarily influence non-conscious areas in the brain. Only human being can think themselves into happiness or despair, without any influence from the outside world. Thus, the more we engage in spiritual practices, the more control we gain over our body, mind, and fate.” (p. 63)
Calm Clarity 