monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for
meditation causes enduring change
meditation causes enduring change to the human brain, at least according to professor davidson at the university of wisconsin, madison. more specifically, the more hours of meditation correlated with the greater change, and the changes included increased activation in the parts that underly empathy and love as well as greater connections between frontal areas and emotion centers - allowing greater control by higher thought of emotion.
so my question then is, if that’s the case, then does watching TV also have enduring brain effects and impact emotion? or does a continuous concern over self and self betterment also produce enduring effects? it seems reasonable then that narcissism or a continuous focus on one’s self would cause changes in the brain and reinforce habits. much of modern american culture seems to encourage this - with an adam smith-ian ethos that if we’re all out for our best interest then the greater society will be better for it, or at least more wealthy. but what does that do to the emotional habits of our brains i wonder?
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19. March 2007 at 10:04 am :
My analyst told me once that Narcissism is a degenerative disorder. I’m not sure whether she meant cognitively, in the sense you’re exploring, but certainly functionally the more you focus on self, the more you focus on self, AND the more unpleasant you become, to yourself and to others. Such changes are probably correlated with changes in the brain.
19. March 2007 at 10:19 am :
interesting to hear that. my friend danah just posted a commentary on narcissism in american culture that i found alarming and also interesting. worth a read.