Aspire Therapy Blog

Understanding Buddha's Brain - With The Help Of Neuroscience

The Practical Neuroscience of Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson is an accessible self-help book which combines the latest ideas from brain science with the ancient wisdom of Buddhist tradition.

As we have already noted in other articles, neuroscience is now providing evidence of our capaicity to deliberately re-shape the physical workings of our own brains.

By getting into better patterns of thinking and feeling we not only alter our habitual mental responses. We can actually bring about permanent change in the neural networks that govern our experience of the world.

What therefore is initially a deliberate or imposed change in our thinking, can in time become a natural inclination that can improve our feeling of well-being.

The Power Of Mindfulnesss: Promoting A Healthy State of Mind Not a Religion

Cutting-edge developments in psychotherapy, coupled with the latest research findings of brain scientists, are providing irrefutable support for the view that the mental state described as mindfulness can be used to treat a wide range of psychological problems.

We believe at Aspire Therapy that hypnotherapy and mindfulness go hand in hand. Mindfulness approaches are central to our approach to weight-loss, but they have an even more fundamental role to play in the treatment of stress, anxiety and related conditions such as phobias, panic, pain relief and OCD.

We are successfully using hypnotherapy for mindfulness approaches as part of our treatment for dealing with clients with all of these conditions. So what exactly is mindfulness?

Hypnotherapy For MIndfulness: A Long-Term Solution Rather Than Just A One-Off Cure

Rather than just offering a one-off cure we aim through our sessions to equip clients with a set of skills which can help them in the long-term to deal with stress and worry in their lives.

Central to this is the cultivation of the ability access a sense of inner calm and resourcefulness and the development of brain states that promote 'mindfulness'.

Neuroscience is now showing that a mindful state can help to change a person's brain chemistry permantly, resulting in lower stress and anxiety levels and more positive patterns of thinking.

When Thinking Can Have Its Disadvantages – Mindfulness and Other Approaches

Because we put such a premium on thinking in Western Civilization it is difficult for us to understand that thinking also has its disadvantages.

This was never so much the case in the East, where the highest form of mental attainment was traditionally associated by some religions or philosophies with states of mind which involve thoughtlessness.  

Whereas for us a person who is thoughtless is someone who has a disregard for the feelings of others, in the East it can refer to the mind of an individual who is moving towards spiritual enlightenment.

Using Mindfulness to Overcome Anxiety

Feelings of anxiety about ourselves and our lives can all too easily become habitual. We can find ourselves living in a constant state of worry about things such as what people think of us or how upcoming events will turn out.

Even when things are going well we may be reluctant to acknowledge or make too much of it. Perhaps we are hampered by the superstition that by raising our hopes we are setting ourselves up for a fall.

This kind of superstition is not unnatural. We live in a world where anything can happen at any time. But what is the point of torturing ourselves over future possibilities? And where does it get us to worrying excessively about what people think of us? In other words, what is the benefit to us of such kinds of thinking?

By adopting a more 'mindful' approach to living we can shed some of this thinking, bring ourselves more fully into the present and learn to appreciate the simple pleasures of life.