Digital Bin:

"Art is the conversation between lovers. Art offers an opening for the heart. True art makes the..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:37:23 -0700

“Art is the conversation between lovers. Art offers an opening for the heart. True art makes the divine silence in the soul break into applause.”

- Hafiz (via photoencounters)

"There are only two energies at the core of the human experience; love and fear. Love grants freedom,..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:30:16 -0700

““There are only two energies at the core of the human experience; love and fear. Love grants freedom, fear takes it away. Love invites full expression, fear punishes it. Love invites you always to break the bonds of ignorance.””

- Neale Donald Walsch

( via sunlit-dreamer )

“love invites full expression, fear punishes it”

(via stepsonmysunlitfloor)

rashidagokcebag: “You cannot take up the sea with a glass but...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:29:01 -0700

rashidagokcebag:

“You cannot take up the sea with a glass but whatever you take up is also the sea.”

― Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn ‘Arabi (qaddasAllahu Ta’ala sirrahu)

pleoros: Julieanne Kost Window Seat

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:58:13 -0700

pleoros:

Julieanne Kost

Window Seat

neuromorphogenesis: Social Connections Drive the ‘Upward...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:57:46 -0700

neuromorphogenesis:

Social Connections Drive the ‘Upward Spiral’ of Positive Emotions and Health

People who experience warmer, more upbeat emotions may have better physical health because they make more social connections, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research, led by Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Bethany Kok of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences also found it is possible for a person to self-generate positive emotions in ways that make him or her physically healthier.

“People tend to liken their emotions to the weather, viewing them as uncontrollable,” says Fredrickson. “This research shows not only that our emotions are controllable, but also that we can take the reins of our daily emotions and steer ourselves toward better physical health.”

To study the bodily effects of up-regulating positive emotions, the researchers zeroed in on vagal tone, an indicator of how a person’s vagus nerve is functioning. The vagus nerve helps regulate heart rate and is also a central component of a person’s social-engagement system.

Because people who have higher vagal tone tend to be better at regulating their emotions, the researchers speculated that having higher vagal tone might lead people to experience more positive emotions, which would then boost perceived positive social connections. Having more social connections would in turn increase vagal tone, thereby improving physical health and creating an “upward spiral.”

To see whether people might be able to harness this upward spiral to steer themselves toward better health, Kok, Fredrickson, and their colleagues conducted a longitudinal field experiment.

Half of the study participants were randomly assigned to attend a 6-week loving-kindness meditation (LKM) course in which they learned how to cultivate positive feelings of love, compassion, and goodwill toward themselves and others. They were asked to practice meditation at home, but how often they meditated was up to them. The other half of the participants remained on a waiting list for the course.

Each day, for 61 consecutive days, participants in both groups reported their “meditation, prayer, or solo spiritual activity,” their emotional experiences, and their social interactions within the last day. Their vagal tone was assessed twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of the study.

The data provided clear evidence to support the hypothesized upward spiral, with perceived social connections serving as the link between positive emotions and health.

Participants in the LKM group who entered the study with higher vagal tone showed steeper increases in positive emotions over the course of the study. As participants’ positive emotions increased, so did their reported social connections. And, as social connections increased, so did vagal tone. In contrast, participants in the wait-list group showed virtually no change in vagal tone over the course of the study.

“The daily moments of connection that people feel with others emerge as the tiny engines that drive the upward spiral between positivity and health,” Fredrickson explains.

These findings add another piece to the physical health puzzle, suggesting that positive emotions may be an essential psychological nutrient that builds health, just like getting enough exercise and eating leafy greens.

“Given that costly chronic diseases limit people’s lives and overburden healthcare systems worldwide, this is a message that applies to nearly everyone, citizens, educators, health care providers, and policy-makers alike,” Fredrickson observes.

"I begin my work at about nine or ten o’clock in the evening, and continue until four or five in the..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:54:37 -0700

“I begin my work at about nine or ten o’clock in the evening, and continue until four or five in the morning. Night is a more quiet time to work. It aids thought.”

- Alexander Graham Bell, who was evidently a late chronotype, on creativity, innovation, and success.

Pair with the daily routines of famous creators.
(via explore-blog)
I relish the late hours… -Farida

startwithaseed: nortonsimon: Happy Birthday, Henri Rousseau!...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:49:29 -0700

startwithaseed:

nortonsimon:

Happy Birthday, Henri Rousseau! Rousseau is celebrated for his magical landscapes with their vivid, lush vegetation, exotic flowers, and wild animals, but did you know he was a customs inspector who didn’t begin to paint until after the age of forty?

40? I still have hope?

*pumps fist*

"What is it about the moment you fall in love? How can such a small measure of time contain such..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:49:11 -0700

“What is it about the moment you fall in love? How can such a small measure of time contain such enormity? I suddenly realize why people believe in déjà vu, why people believe they’ve lived past lives, because there is no way in the years I’ve spent on this earth could possibly encapsulate what I’m feeling. The moment you fall in love feels like it has centuries behind it, genetations — all of them rearranging themselves so that this precise, remarkable intersection could happen. In your heart, in your bones, no matter how silly you know it is, all the secret arrows were pointing here, the universe and time itself crafted this long ago, and you are just now realizing it, you are just now arriving at the place you were always meant to be.”

- David Levithan, Every Day (via ajarfullofdreams)

stanfordbusiness: Many people have great plans but they take...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:42:53 -0700

stanfordbusiness:

Many people have great plans but they take way too long to put them into action, says Kiva cofounder Jessica Jackley (MBA ’07). Entrepreneurs need to just jump in and get started. http://stnfd.biz/lgAx8

theatlantic: Life as One of the Most-Persecuted Ethnic Groups...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:36:27 -0700

theatlantic:

Life as One of the Most-Persecuted Ethnic Groups on the Planet

You are a Hazara, and you’ve been on the run for centuries. Now you’re in Syria, and things aren’t looking up.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

"Matched, as we know from the dating world alone, is a coded word. My spouse and I were matched with..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:34:37 -0700

“Matched, as we know from the dating world alone, is a coded word. My spouse and I were matched with birthmothers not once, not twice, not three times, but a total of five times. The most horrible things kept happening: Birthmothers and those posing as birthmothers, birthfathers and those posing as birthfathers lied to us. Birthmothers are doing a very selfless and generous thing when they decide they are unable to parent and place their child with wanting parents. It is a decision made out of big, big love for that child. Adoption, when it is successful, is a wonderful thing. But everyone coming to it is grieving in some way. It would be wrong not to acknowledge this.”

- from “The Dark, Sad Side of Domestic Adoption” by today’s guest, Jennifer Gilmore. Gilmore’s new novel about a couple trying to adopt, The Mothers, is largely autobiographical. (via nprfreshair)

fotojournalismus: A woman sits beside an unnamed grave holding...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:28:06 -0700

fotojournalismus:

A woman sits beside an unnamed grave holding a photograph of her missing daughter at a graveyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 21, 2013. Over 290 unclaimed bodies were buried after DNA samples were taken, all victims of the worst tragedy in the history of the global garment industry which claimed 1,127 lives.

[Credit : A.M. Ahad/AP]

"When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:19:20 -0700

“When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.”

- Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (via erraticintrovert)

psvcopath: asikhlife: dirtystache: no-i-shant-its-christmas: ...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:19:04 -0700

psvcopath:

asikhlife:

dirtystache:

no-i-shant-its-christmas:

benedict—cumberbitch:

chanel-smokes:

someoneisstrugglingtobefree:

eatmekissmefuckme:

THIS.

This should be on every billboard across the world until people truly understand it’s meaning and everyone accepts everyone else as equals

yes^

This is perfect wow

Guy on the left isn’t even a Muslim, he’s a Sikh…

…That moment when people are STILL confused on the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh…Wow.

LOL when will people understand that other people wear turbans too not just muslims

"In the solitude of your mind are the answers to all your questions about life. You must take the..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:13:41 -0700

“In the solitude of your mind are the answers to all your questions about life. You must take the time to ask and listen.”

- Bawa Mahaiyaddeen (via unconditionedconsciousness)

"The US government is turning migrants into criminals by prosecuting many who could just be deported...."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:10:12 -0700

“The US government is turning migrants into criminals by prosecuting many who could just be deported. Many of these migrants aren’t threats to public safety, but people trying to be with their families.”

- Grace Meng, US researcher at Human Rights Watch (via humanrightswatch)

mindfulwellness: neurosciencestuff: Clouds in the Head: New...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:09:15 -0700

mindfulwellness:

neurosciencestuff:

Clouds in the Head: New Model of Brain’s Thought Processes

A new model of the brain’s thought processes explains the apparently chaotic activity patterns of individual neurons. They do not correspond to a simple stimulus/response linkage, but arise from the networking of different neural circuits. Scientists funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) propose that the field of brain research should expand its focus.

Many brain researchers cannot see the forest for the trees. When they use electrodes to record the activity patterns of individual neurons, the patterns often appear chaotic and difficult to interpret. “But when you zoom out from looking at individual cells, and observe a large number of neurons instead, their global activity is very informative,” says Mattia Rigotti, a scientist at Columbia University and New York University who is supported by the SNSF and the Janggen-Pöhn-Stiftung. Publishing in Nature together with colleagues from the United States, he has shown that these difficult-to-interpret patterns in particular are especially important for complex brain functions.

What goes on in the heads of apes

The researchers have focussed their attention on the activity patterns of 237 neurons that had been recorded some years previously using electrodes implanted in the frontal lobes of two rhesus monkeys. At that time, the apes had been taught to recognise images of different objects on a screen. Around one third of the observed neurons demonstrated activity that Rigotti describes as “mixed selectivity.” A mixed selective neuron does not always respond to the same stimulus (the flowers or the sailing boat on the screen) in the same way. Rather, its response differs as it also takes account of the activity of other neurons. The cell adapts its response according to what else is going on in the ape’s brain.

Chaotic patterns revealed in context

Just as individual computers are networked to create concentrated processing and storage capacity in the field of Cloud Computing, links in the complex cognitive processes that take place in the prefrontal cortex play a key role. The greater the density of the network in the brain, in other words the greater the proportion of mixed selectivity in the activity patterns of the neurons, the better the apes were able to recall the images on the screen, as demonstrated by Rigotti in his analysis. Given that the brain and cognitive capabilities of rhesus monkeys are similar to those of humans, mixed selective neurons should also be important in our own brains. For him this is reason enough why brain research from now on should no longer be satisfied with just the simple activity patterns, but should also consider the apparently chaotic patterns that can only be revealed in context.

@ mlthomas

x-enial: 0rient-express: Admiring the view | by Roger...

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:04:47 -0700

x-enial:

0rient-express:

Admiring the view | by Roger Nelson.

"Cooking gave us not just the meal but also the occasion: the practice of eating together at an..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:04:28 -0700

“Cooking gave us not just the meal but also the occasion: the practice of eating together at an appointed time and place. This was something new under the sun, for the forager of raw food would have likely fed himself on the go and alone, like all the other animals. … But sitting down to common meals, making eye contact, sharing food, and exercising self-restraint all served to civilize us.”

- Michael Pollan on how cooking civilized us. (via explore-blog)

"How long then will you seek for beauty here? Seek the unseen, and beauty will appear. When the last..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:02:11 -0700

“How long then will you seek for beauty here?
Seek the unseen, and beauty will appear.
When the last veil is lifted neither men
Nor all their glory will be seen again,
The universe will fade — this mighty show
In all its majesty and pomp will go,
And those who loved appearances will prove
Each other’s enemies and forfeit love,
While those who loved the absent, unseen Friend
Will enter that pure love which knows no end.”

- Farid ud-Din Attar (via ajarfullofdreams)