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.

Introduction to Yoga

As has already been suggested, although the term “yoga” has become associated in the West solely with flexing the body into various postures, it is far more than that. Put into general terms, the practice of yoga asanas came about to enable monks to sit for longer periods in meditation without moving. The essential tools for bringing about stillness are discovered in balancing flexibility and strength; openness and stability. Therefore all of the postures are aimed at developing this balance so that the body can move away from its restless tendencies and the stresses imposed by the external, material world. The intention is not to disassociate the body from space and time, but to re-orientate it so that priority can be given to what is often referred to as the “narrow path”, the “choiceless choice”; what is eternal and lasting, rather than what is passing away. In other words, the spiritual path.

Although the mainstream popularity of yoga may fluctuate, there is an increasing interest in its capacity to point towards an essential understanding of life in an increasingly disconnected world. The practice brings about an embodied sense of inhabiting the body, which in turn allows the practitioner to be more “present” and therefore more grounded in the reality of the moment. The healing, restorative qualities of yoga stem from this fact: once we allow the body to release, the mind can free itself from its rigid perceptions and so interpret each moment of life as something new, with endless potential.

Yoga is a great science, exactly because it is a journey of self-discovery. It provides a frame through which we can discover more fully our human potential. Our limitations work alongside this to teach us humility, dependency on each other, and our place within the universe. We learn what it means to live happily within the restrictions of gravity, and simultaneously to tap into forces beyond our human understanding. For this reason, all authentic schools of yoga uphold an element of the ritualistic and the symbolic.xx The following yoga asanas or postures can be practiced by anybody, of any age, shape or experience in yoga. They follow the tradition of Iyengar Yoga. Though simple, these postures are very dynamic and intense. They are practised with great precision and each posture offers endless possibility for adaptation, because when practiced they activate every cell in the body. They also channel the concentration of the mind into the direction of the posture, spreading this consciousness throughout the whole organism. The result is an intense quietness of the mind, which points to a sense of emotional stability and the inner silence we discover through meditation. A number of props may be used by people who are not so flexible and/or strong so that they can experience the beneficial opening effects of the yoga poses.

For more information about yoga in general, and its possible uses in children and adolescents, please click here to read an article by Lisa Kaley-Isley in the journal Psychiatry.

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