Blissful Brain
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Ordering The Blissful Brain

The Blissful Brain is published by Gaia Thinking. For more information on how to order your copy, please click here.

 

Guardian G2: Mind over matter by Andy Darling

"Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja has proven meditation does more than clear your head, it can put both halves of your brain to work, improving your concentration, memory, and decision-making...". To read more, please click here.

 

The Times: Calm down dear by Angela Pertusini

"Claims by the neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja regarding the benefits of meditation have been backed up by rigourous scientific research and are explained in her acclaimed book The Blissful Brain: Neuroscience and Proof of the Power of Meditation". To read more, please click here.

 

Just this Day event: A Day of Silence and Stillness at St Martin's in the Field on 23rd of November 2011

Shanida Nataraja will be participating in this exciting event that aims to explore the power of silience and stillness in our busy world. For more information, please click here or visit the Just This Day website.

 

Mindfulness in the Workplace: Brain based approaches to improving employee resilience and productivity at Robinson College, Cambridge on 10 February 2012

Shanida Nataraja will be speaking at this day event that brings together leading experts in mindfulness to discuss how it could help organisations improve productivity & resiliance. Speakers include Professor Mark Williams, Michael Chaskalson, Ruby Wax, Margaret Chapman, and more (for more information, please see click here.

About The Blissful Brain

The Blissful Brain is a guide to the scientific evidence supporting the role of practices such as meditation, tai chi and yoga in our everyday lives. Our world is a stressful place, and these practices appear to go some way towards offering an antidote to this stress. Furthermore, stress, and stress-related diseases, place an increasing burden on our Western healthcare systems, and there is a clear need for a shift in our approach to health and well-being, both as individuals and as a society as a whole. The widespread acceptance of meditation as a crucial component of everyday life, as well as an essential component of effective patient management, has, until recently, been hindered by a lack of knowledge about the effects of meditation on the brain and on measurable health outcomes.

However, recent research has revealed specific brain regions and processes involved in meditation, as well as those involved in generating religious and mystical experiences. Furthermore, numerous studies have explored the health benefits of meditation, from its effects on blood pressure and cardiovascular health to its impact on mental health disorders and coping mechanisms in disease. Not only does this research provide a concrete explanation of how and why meditation works, but it also reveals both the potential benefits of long-term practice and the possible strategies that can be used to facilitate meditative practice.

The Blissful Brain therefore provides the scientific explanation of how meditation works, and outlines the scientific rationale for including meditation in our everyday lives as a means by which to optimise the performance of our brains and our state of health and well-being.

To see The Blissful Brain's table of content, please click here.

Please click on the links below to read a short summary of each of The Blissful Brain's chapters:

Chapter 1: Meditation: what is it and why do we need it?
Chapter 2: Peering beneath the skull: how the brain works?
Chapter 3: Meditation and mystical experiences
Chapter 4: Bridging science and spirituality
Chapter 5: Hard-wired: a high performance mind
Chapter 6: Meditation and health
Chapter 7: Meditation and our everyday lives

The Blissful Brain forms part of brand new series called Gaia Thinking, which draws on the authority of experts to take a clear-eyed look at the key environmental and health issues we face today. Filled with practical advice, the titles outline how we can improve the health of both ourselves and our planet.

Shanida Nataraja © 2011