Contemplating learning styles, mindful meditation, compassion and happiness

I’ve just been on one of those fascinating trails of discovery one is able to undertake through the incredible rabbit-hole that is YouTube. For those of you who enjoy watching/listening to some of the great minds of our time, you might like to have a look/listen while you play on your laptop or phone.

My curiosity was activated through an online discussion (in LinkedIn) about the validity/currency of theories of learning preferences and styles. I followed a link into YouTube to look at work being done around learning, personality and brain activity: Authors@Google: Dario Nardi – Neuroscience of Personality.  Dario Nardi has discovered that people of different personality types don’t merely rely on different brain regions — they use their brains in fundamentally different ways http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGfhQTbcqmA

This led me to another on the brain and emotion The Neuroscience of Emotions by Dr. Phillippe Goldin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tShDYA3NFVs&feature=related, from a  Google series Search inside yourself (SIY), Google’s Mindfulness-based emotional intelligence course. It begins with a background on emotions, and then examines the neural bases of emotion, emotion regulation, emotional reactivity and emotional intelligence. His talk includes the increasing interest neuroscience has with emotional intelligence, cognitive behavioural therapy and practitioners of mindfulness meditation as they study the impact each has on emotional reactivity and behaviour in individuals. The questions and answers at the end of his presentation contain fabulous reflections on the value of compassion and stillness in life – work, personal and family. Living consciously as we engage with life. For more information about Dr Goldin’s work on meditation, see Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6Q0G1iHBI

Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain. Richard J. Davidson explores recent scientific research on the neuroscience of positive human qualities and how they can be cultivated through contemplative practice. The evolving field of contemplative neuroscience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tRdDqXgsJ0&feature=relmfu

My final treasure was from a biologist turned Buddhist monk, author and photographer Matthieu Ricard (interestingly, referred to in the previous YouTube), who speaks about the inner state of happiness – Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peA6vy0D5Bg&feature=relmfu

 My hope is that one of these contains a treasure for you