I rewired my brain in six weeks

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230912-how-i-hacked-my-brain

by dabinat • 3 years ago

45 65 3 years ago

jj999• 3 years ago

I had brain trauma. No amount of new-age brain rewiring bullshit will unfuck me. This is /r/thankimcured material, not HN.

ddorian43• 3 years ago

What damage if I may ask?

Loocid• 3 years ago

I don't think they were claiming it would undo brain trauma.

mdp20217• 3 years ago

Of course there is little margin against a shotgun wound, and of course even light damage can leave some scars. This is a matter of margins. The article seems to stick to that.

sooheon2• 3 years ago

In other news, exercise benefits thoroughly debunked after quadruple amputee points out “that doesn’t help me”.

syncbehind• 3 years ago

Then obviously this isn't for you. There will always be edge cases where things don't work. Even if you take away "new-age brain rewiring bullshit" and turn to trusty ol' western medicine, it doesn't work for everyone.

You may as well be a bald person complaining about a hairstylist's article - "Ah! but I'm bald! No amount of styling will give me hair!"

corn13read2• 3 years ago

tldr on this?

moscoe• 3 years ago

Practicing mindfulness/meditation is good for the brain

isaacfung• 3 years ago

It seems to me the interesting thing is that they showed there was some measurable change in the brain scan after six weeks. Her amygdala has reduced in size while the cingulate cortex has increased in size, although they didn't say by how much.

bsder• 3 years ago

I thought that there has also been some research that these kinds of "mindfulness" exercises can enhance existing tendencies toward mental illness--depression, dissociation, paranoia, etc.

Of course, that doesn't get reported in every new age social media channel.

hellotheretoday• 3 years ago

*maybe

Apocryphon• 3 years ago

Research has shown that mindfulness is a simple but powerful way to enhance several cognitive functions. It can improve attention

jmholla• 3 years ago

Also, there's a link to the mindfulness course they used: https://caring-mindfulness.thinkific.com/

smokel• 3 years ago

A final note of caution – it is important to acknowledge that any brain changes we had seen could also be random. The brain is constantly changing anyway.

Well, at least they're honest about that :)

guntherhermann5• 3 years ago

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is.

Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes.

The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

igor473• 3 years ago

Ugh this is so dismissive. I'm glad learning gratitude helped you. How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"?

Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

sooheon2• 3 years ago

I guess gratitude != generosity

bheadmaster8• 3 years ago

Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

Different people have different opinions. Why not leave it at "I think the other stuff is not new age hippy trash"?

gonzo41• 3 years ago

You're taking that offense. He's not giving it. He's only giving his singular 1 in 8 billion opinion.

guntherhermann5• 3 years ago

How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"?

I would say: "I don't care what you think. It works for me, if it doesn't for you then it doesn't."

scns• 3 years ago

Maybe because being grateful and acceptance/tolerance (in contrast to being judgemental) are to different things?

lelanthran• 3 years ago

How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"?

Directing the putdown "trash" to an idea and presenting it as a subjective opinion ("The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash") is quite different to applying the putdown "trash" to a person and presenting it as a fact ("your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash").

"Felt like" means "It feels like this to me, your experience may be different"

while

"is actually" means "This is objective fact, regardless of how I feel about it".

It's the difference between saying "that idea is idiotic" and saying "you are idiotic".

mdp20217• 3 years ago

hippy

The origin of this wave of academical interest comes from that: a few mates in Harward - including K-Z, who butchered the concept introducing the absurd naming which uses the reverse of the concept of 'mind' - were intrigued by suggestions from the Orient. Events such as the fall into disgrace of Leary have been relevant (creating difficulties to said wave as a reaction - a general reaction with the crisis of its parent "hipster" wave).

bheadmaster8• 3 years ago

Grateful/thankful to whom, exactly?

It seems to me that the popular (American) practice of gratitude is just a substitute for Christianity, filtered out not to mention any deities explicitly, but still containing references to them implicitly.

I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense.

guntherhermann5• 3 years ago

For being able to see

For having all of my digits

Clean drinking water

Effectively infinite light at my fingertips (most of humanity couldn't do much when it got dark).

The world's knowledge.

So much food that I have to monitor how much I eat so I don't get too fat.

For having a loving family, friends.

For being given the opportunity to go to university.

For having a career that pays well.

That's just on the top of my head, but there's many more reasons to be grateful. That kind of thing. I have some physical disabilities, but reminding myself of the good things I do have grounds me, makes me realise all the things I used to stress about aren't really that important.

keyrat• 3 years ago

Serious question: are you making this comment to justify being cynical? I can’t tell if you’re being neutral or not.

vidarh2• 3 years ago

Gratitude does not require an object. You can have the feeling without feeling it towards anyone or anything.

n3storm• 3 years ago

Thank you.

You have always been this honest? or is this something you realize you have to be after being exposed to "mindfulness" mumbojumbo?

guntherhermann5• 3 years ago

I have always been a fairly direct person, possibly to the detriment of my career :)

mdp20217• 3 years ago

hip

I just realized that "hippie", "hip", "hep" make more sense, for the area in context, than the disgraceful label K-Z introduced.

'Hippie' was used for those who wanted to be "hip", i.e. "up-to-date", because "aware". Originally, the term was used in the underground and was 'hep'.

Now, it is pretty clear from the sound why 'hep' can be related to "awareness". And it would make more sense, in reference to that "zone", than using terms that refer to the "mind".

vidarh2• 3 years ago

The "new-age hippy trash" impression kept me away for years. What finally got me to try was "Mindfulness in Plain English" which is available both for free and paid versions, and Gil Fronsdals audio recordings (his introductory series), which are also available for free.

They're both more like "how to" guides than spiritual, and mention Buddhism or other practices only in passing (both have much more explicitly spiritual material too for those who want that), and Fronsdal jokes about the "B-word".

What I get out of it varies, going from just 5-15 minutes of calm and relaxation to multi-hour deeper meditation, to tumultuous sessions where I get no calm but all kinds of issues or ideas force themselves to the surface. I feel I benefit from all of it, but it's a method or a tool for me, not spiritual.

kcartlidge• 3 years ago

Seconding Gil Fronsdal's audio. He's very clear and reasonably concise.

tlb• 3 years ago

I did the same, and found a different subset of techniques useful, and the rest new-age nonsense.

There are studies showing mindfulness works, but they've only tested the whole smorgasbord of techniques vs. placebo. I guess it would cost a lot more to test each one individually.

atoav2• 3 years ago

I can't help but feel that obsessively mindful people always seem to have some deeper underlying issues that they need to cope with. I know a guy who for years went into all kind of new-age seminars, practised mindfulness constantly and then in a moment he told me about his traumatic event that has plagued him since childhood.

All the mindfullness was practised because deep down he felt at unease. Don't get me wrong, it is good to be observant and mindfull, but it is unnatural to be it all the time.

Our minds also need daydreaming, dull phases, excitement, the whole package.

mdp20217• 3 years ago

all the time

In order to correct a bad tendency, you have to exercise effort (as resistance) in all the spans in which the tendency may show.

Suppose for example you are standing: you have consolidated the function and the effort is optimal - but if you tended to fall you would have to spend more.

atoav2• 3 years ago

I don't think so. If you want to be more sporty, because you are overweight the lasting solution isn't going to be to try to be sporty all the time, because that is a too big jump. It is going to be to move more when you can and have make a small sustainable habit of doing a sport acrivity — and you do this on top of adressing other root causes of your overweight, which may be psychological and have to do with the food you're eating.

Don't fet me wrong, I have nothing against mindfulness, as I said it can be very good to be mindful. But as I said I have met quite some people who talk about practising it who do not come across as the balanced individuals they believe themselves to be.

I still don't believe being mindful all the time is good. Maybe being "meta-mindful" — so to be aware when it is also good to tap into other modes of perception — is better.

Karrot_Kream2• 3 years ago

You're definitely not wrong. Mindfulness tends to appeal to three types of people: people who want to "hack" their consciousness (these types often experiment with drugs, usually psychadelics), people who have mental health issues and don't want to use drugs, and spiritual/religious sorts who are looking for some form of spiritual meaning. Often you'll find people with some mix of these desires in the community. I think this makes sense though; the kind of people who are going to deliberately cultivate some property of the mind is generally someone who cares a lot about their mind for some reason or the other.

Karrot_Kream2• 3 years ago

Here's a timely article. I've been meditating regularly for a little bit now (not that long), in a mindfulness/insight ("vipasana" maybe?) style. I had a spill on my bike today and got some obnoxious road rash, took some fall trauma, and had to wfh; nothing I couldn't dress at home, but enough that my arm has been pussing and stinging and I've had to cover it all up in gauze for a lot of the day. It's "known" among medidators that focusing the attention on pain can cause its displeasure ("suffering") to decrease. Sure enough, I spent a bit of time focusing my meditation on the pain and it caused me less displeasure. I mean, of course I'm also cleaning the road rash, airing it, and then covering it up and using all the tools modern medicine gives us, but it's a cherry on top to be able to be able to decrease the displeasure from the pain. Cool stuff! Now to work up to being able to hold this state at will...

absrec• 3 years ago

Just the simple practice of regularly inquiring where your focus is has helped me a lot. Helps to detect when you're too tired from work and when you're not really relaxing in your downtime.

rockbruno• 3 years ago

I think it's really sad that despite all of the evidence that meditation is good for you, people still treat it as some kind of pseudo-science hippie non-sense.

It makes sense why people would think that since this started as a religious exercise (and also because to this day there are still lots of people who connect the two in their practice), but you can simply not do that. I treat it simply as an exercise to make my brain calm down from stress and anxiety and it has been extremely helpful for me.

anon848736283• 3 years ago

Most people are allergic to any sort of effort, so having excuses not to do something beneficial yet challenging is very convenient.

I rewired my brain in six weeks

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