"Takes you inside the amazing science of how the body affects the mind, and shows how to use that wisdom to live smarter and maximize what your body teaches your mind"--

How the Body Shapes the Mind is an interdisciplinary work that addresses philosophical questions by appealing to evidence found in experimental psychology, neuroscience, studies of pathologies, and developmental psychology. There is a growing consensus across these disciplines that the contribution of embodiment to cognition is inescapable. Because this insight has been developed across a variety of disciplines, however, there is still a need to develop a common vocabulary that is capable of integrating discussions of brain mechanisms in neuroscience, behavioural expressions in psychology, design concerns in artificial intelligence and robotics, and debates about embodied experience in the phenomenology and philosophy of mind. Shaun Gallagher's book aims to contribute to the formulation of that common vocabulary and to develop a conceptual framework that will avoid both the overly reductionistic approaches that explain everything in terms of bottom-up neuronal mechanisms, and inflationistic approaches that explain everything in terms of Cartesian, top-down cognitive states. Gallagher pursues two basic sets of questions. The first set consists of questions about the phenomenal aspects of the structure of experience, and specifically the relatively regular and constant features that we find in the content of our experience. If throughout conscious experience there is a constant reference to one's own body, even if this is a recessive or marginal awareness, then that reference constitutes a structural feature of the phenomenal field of consciousness, part of a framework that is likely to determine or influence all other aspects of experience. The second set of questions concerns aspects of the structure of experience that are more hidden, those that may be more difficult to get at because they happen before we know it. They do not normally enter into the content of experience in an explicit way, and are often inaccessible to reflective consciousness. To what extent, and in what ways, are consciousness and cognitive processes, which include experiences related to perception, memory, imagination, belief, judgement, and so forth, shaped or structured by the fact that they are embodied in this way?

Happiness isn't just a state of mind. It's also a state of body. Standing straight can give you a shot of confidence and forcing a smile might improve your mood. But do you know why? We generally believe that the brain is the big computer telling our bodies how to respond, but new research shows that the system often works in reverse. Your body reacts first, and your brain then interprets the physical signals. As you walk by a dark alley, your heart starts pounding and only then does your brain get the message I'm scared! The body can also send messages about positive emotions, allowing you to experience more happiness, love, and joy. In What Your Body Knows About Happiness, Janice Kaplan, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gratitude Diaries, explores the startling new evidence showing that our feeling bodies are often smarter than our thinking minds. Talking to experts in a wide range of fields, she brings her distinctive brand of conversation, humor, and storytelling to scientific research, drawing unexpected links that reveal the power of body-mind connections. Learn how to use your body to be more creative and how changing your environment can improve your mood. Discover how your brain resolves bodily pain, why blue and green are the happiest colors, and even why wine tastes better when you're drinking it in Paris. You'll also get tips and strategies for knowing your body in a whole new way—leading to greater happiness and pleasure every day.

Knowing Body, Moving Mind investigates ritualizing and learning in introductory meditation classes at two Buddhist centers in Toronto, Canada. The centers, Friends of the Heart and Chandrakirti, are led and attended by Western (sometimes called "convert') Buddhists: that is, people from non-Buddhist familial and cultural backgrounds. Inspired by theories that suggest that rituals impart new knowledge or understanding, Patricia Campbell examines how introductory meditation students learn through formal Buddhist practice. Along the way, she also explores practitioners' reasons for enrolling in meditation classes, their interests in Buddhism, and their responses to formal Buddhist practices and to ritual in general. Based on ethnographic interviews and participant-observation fieldwork, the text follows interview participants' reflections on what they learned in meditation classes and through personal practice, and what roles meditation and other ritual practices played in that learning. Participants' learning experiences are illuminated by an influential learning theory called Bloom's Taxonomy, while the rites and practices taught and performed at the centers are explored using performance theory, a method which focuses on the performative elements of ritual's postures and gestures. But the study expands the performance framework as well, by demonstrating that performative ritualizing includes the concentration techniques that take place in a meditator's mind. Such techniques are received as traditional mental acts or behaviors that are standardized, repetitively performed, and variously regarded as special, elevated, spiritual or religious. Having established a link between mental and physical forms of ritualizing, the study then demonstrates that the repetitive mental techniques of meditation practice train the mind to develop new skills in the same way that physical postures and gestures train the body. The mind is thus experienced as both embodied and gestural, and the whole of the body as socially and ritually informed.

Your body has a mind of its own. You know it’s true. You can sense it, even though it may be hard to articulate. You know that your body is more than a vehicle for your brain to cruise around in, but how deeply are mind and body truly interwoven? Answers can be found in the emerging science of body maps. Just as road maps represent interconnections across the landscape, your many body maps represent all aspects of your bodily self. Your self doesn’t begin and end with your physical body but extends into the space around you. When you drive a car, your personal body space grows to envelop it. When you play a video game, your body maps automatically track and emulate the actions of your character onscreen. If your body maps fall out of sync, you may have an out-of-body experience or see auras around other people. The Body Has a Mind of Its Own explains how you can tap into the power of body maps to do almost anything better: play tennis, strum a guitar, ride a horse, dance a waltz, empathize with a friend, raise children, cope with stress. Filled with illustrations, wonderful anecdotes, and even parlor tricks that you can use to reconfigure your body sense, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own will change the way you think about what it takes to have a conscious mind inside a feeling body. Praise for The Body Has a Mind of Its Own NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD “You’ll never think about your body–or your mind–in the same way again.” –Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence “A fascinating exploration of senses we didn’t even know we had.” –Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to Our Senses “A delightfully original, understandable, and mind-stretching work.” –William Safire, columnist, The New York Times Magazine “A marvelous book.” –V. S. Ramachandran, M.D., director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego “[An] accessible, practical overview of an important scientific story.” –Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes’ Error

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Ask yourself Have you searched for an easy to read guidebook that explains the many different ways to explore awareness in a more practical way? Did you ever attend a healing workshop and wished you had written more notes to bring home? Are you looking for some inspiration to bring into your own workshops? If you answered 'Yes' to any of these questions then this book is for you. Come along on a wanderlust ride that will help reawaken your senses to your true journey in life. Liven up your spirit with comprehensive aspects you hold close to your heart--lasting spiritual awareness. Being able to transform internal awareness into dynamic energy used by yourself or offered to others will be the greatest gift you will discover when using this magical guidebook.

"In school, we're taught that the central nervous system, including the brain, is the big computer telling our bodies how to respond to a trigger. But there's a growing body of research proving that in fact the system often works in reverse, that it's our body programming the brain by acting without being told what to do. For example, the act of smiling can improve your mood. Or when you pass a dark alley and your body tenses and your heart starts pounding, your cardiovascular system is sending a message to your brain to be scared. In this book, Janice Kaplan, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gratitude Diaries, will explore the mind-body connection and show that our feeling bodies are often smarter than our thinking minds, by weaving together new scientific research from experts from around the globe and from various disciplines, including psychologists, neuroscientists, and environments. And she'll provide tips and strategies for discovering this vital mind-body connection so they can work together to make you happier"--