Brains On Purpose™

How do you listen attentively? Well, first you grab a paint brush, a pencil, or a piece of chalk

Being able to draw well can be somewhat like attentive and complete listening. For many people, learning a certain kind of drawing helps them to be better listeners. A receptive state that enables this kind of drawing, once learned, can be transferred to listening.

Good news: (Almost) anyone can master this state.

Today I will recommend two books to help you practice being receptive in drawing. In a later post, we will look at how to transfer that receptivity to situations in which you want to listen deeply. However, many of you probably will be able to transfer the skill as soon as you use it during drawing.

The first book is Your Artist's Brain: Use the right side of your brain to draw and paint what you see - not what you think you see. Don't worry. Despite the title, the author Carl Purcell does not include much of the inaccurate left brain/right brain "science." From the book:

I initiated a seven-year search to discover which functions of the brain artists use when drawing and the causes of the more common problems experienced by my students. I discovered that the right tools for drawing (and painting) are present in everyone's brains but we have other mental processes that subvert the activity of drawing.

The second book is a classic: Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation. The author Frederick Franck writes:

It is in order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call 'The Ten Thousand Things' around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world.

I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.

One might paraphrase the two authors and say:

• The right tools for listening are present in everyone's brain but we have other mental processes that subvert the activity of listening.
• Listening is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world.
  

Both drawing and listening can be vehicles for mindfulness and discovery, and I have found that the underlying state for one can be a door to the other. Moving easily between the vehicles will be the focus of another post later this month.

 

Posts about the brain and also about mindfulness/meditation often on my other blog

Once in a while, I run into someone who follows this blog but does not know that I also blog at idealawg. At that other blog, I often post about the brain or about mindfulness/meditation. Those posts are typically more general and, unlike most posts here, not specifically related to conflict resolution. Click for idealawg posts about the brain and posts about mindfulness/meditation.

Forthcoming Events in Mindfulness, Law & Dispute Resolution

From an e-mail compiled by Professor Leonard Riskin:

The Initiative on Mindfulness in Law and Dispute Resolution, University of Florida Levin College of Law
April 1, 2012
 
Forthcoming Events, News, and Resources Related to Mindfulness in Law and Dispute Resolution
(Note: This is not a comprehensive (or systematically prepared list of events related to mindfulness in law and dispute resolution. Other resources for information on events dealing with mindfulness in law and dispute resolution are listed at the end of this document.)
 
April 26-29, 2012, International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, Denver, Colorado. http://www.mindandlife.org/research-initiatives/sri/sri12/ [This is a better link.]
 
June 16-20, 2012. Mind and Life Summer Research Institute: The Embodied Mind, Garrison, N.Y. The Embodied Mind. http://www.mindandlife.org/research-initiatives/sri/sri12/
 
Tools of Mindful Awareness for Lawyers, Mediators, Negotiators, Judges, Arbitrators, and Managers
June 21-23, 2012. Malibu, CA
Oct. 14-16, 2010, Woodstock, VT.
Mar. 14-16, Baltimore, MD.
 
Sponsored by Pepperdine University School of Law, Institute for Dispute Resolution. Led by Leonard Riskin, Professor, University of Florida College of Law and Visiting Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, and Rachel Wohl, Director, Maryland Supreme Court Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office . See http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training-and-conferences/  or contact Lori Rushford at lori.rushford@pepperdine.edu.  [Note: Full-time law school professors may be able to attend for a nominal fee.]
 
June 27-29, 2012, Chicago (Downtown). Summer Institute on Negotiation: Critical Skills for Effective Negotiating.Northwestern University, School of Continuing Studies.  Led by Leonard Riskin, Chesterfield Smith Professor, University of Florida Levin College of Law and Visiting Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, and Daniel Shapiro, Harvard Law School & Harvard Medical School; and Director, Harvard International Negotiation Program. This course, offered for the seventh time, integrates instruction and practice in mindfulness with the teachings of Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro’s award-winning Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate (Viking 2005).  For more information, see http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/summernu/programs/negotiation.cfm
 
July 29-August 3, 2012. Annual Summer Session on Contemplative Pedagogy. Northampton, MA, Smith College.    Sponsored by the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education. http://www.acmhe.org/
 
NEW: Spring 2013.  Second Annual Mindful Lawyer Conference, University of California-Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, California.  Sponsored by the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law,  http://www.law.berkeley.edu/mindfulness.htm
 
 
Recent and Forthcoming Publications
Richard J. Davidson with Sharon Begley, The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live--and How You Can Change Them (Penguin Group, 2012).
(Congressman) Tim Ryan, A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit (Hay House 2012).
Leo F. Smyth, Escalation and Mindfulness, _28 Negotiation Journal 45 (Jan. 2012)
Symposium, The Mindful Lawyer, Journal of Legal Education, May2012)
Articles by Charles Halpern, Angela Harris, Katherine Larkin-Wong, Leonard Riskin,, & David Zlotnick
 
Once published, these articles will be publically available at (http://www.swlaw.edu/jle)
 
 
Other News:
The University of California at Berkeley School of Law has announced the formation of the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law. Charles Halpern is the Director.  http://www.law.berkeley.edu/mindfulness.htm.
 
Other Resources

Do you think fast or slow? Typically most of us are fast most of the day

That I have not yet mentioned one of last year's books is surprising. I thought I had recommended it to you, but noticed this evening that I haven't. It was for me a must-read, so my omission is not minor. Below I link to an interview of its author Dr. Daniel Kahneman which may help you decide if you want to read Thinking, Fast and Slow.

From "The Truth About How We Think" (Gallup Management Journal):

Thinking, Fast and Slow explains that people use two methods of thinking -- System 1 and System 2. System 1 is fast, automatic, and context oriented. It accepts as true whatever seems coherent to your worldview at the moment. If you're worried about your work performance and your boss walks by looking angry, for instance, System 1 will tell you that your boss is mad at you.

System 2 is slower, deliberative, and analytical. System 2 would tell you that your boss' commute is an hour long on a heavily congested road, and his drive might have been horrible that morning. The problem with System 2 is that

Interview of authors of new book EMOTIONAL LIFE OF YOUR BRAIN

Click to watch Charlie Rose conduct a short interview of Richie Davidson and Sharon Begley about their book Emotional Life of Your Brain. In reading the book, I particularly appreciated that it reminds the reader of two things:

• We each are unique and thus one size does not fit all
• We can change our brains (and thus behavior) if we want to.

Note (added March 15, 2012): Click for an interview  of the authors by Diane Rehm of NPR.

Reminder that studies may not be measuring what we think: Research merely provides clues

Do the expectations of researchers have an effect on the outcome of their studies? Sometimes, yes. That's the topic of a new post in one of Discover Magazine's blogs. From "Primed by expectations: why a classic psychology experiment isn't what is seemed":

We’ve known for over a century that scientists can very easily bias their own experiments, even in the most carefully controlled cases. “It’s a neat paper ["Behavioral Priming: It's All in the Mind, but Whose Mind?"] that re-emphasises some highly important and widely relevant warnings for everyone who might want to conduct experiments with people,” says Stafford. “Expectations – participants’ and experimenters’ – and inaccurate measurement can combine to give you biased results.” Ackerman adds, “It’s a lesson that behavioural researchers are all trained in, but one that bears repeating from time to time.”

“Our results don’t completely rule out the possibility of unconscious priming,” says Doyen, “but they point to the fact that the (generally weak) effects may also be influenced by many other factors that are almost never controlled in such studies.”

The study also serves as a good reminder about how important it is for scientists to try and repeat each others’ results. ...

Bottom line: Although I am probably sounding like a broken record, proceed with caution and skepticism when learning about research results. Find out if the research has been replicated. Read the original study yourself; you will often find a mismatch between what you are reading and what the media have reported. When you read the study, do so with a critical eye to all factors, including the procedures, the groups and numbers used as subjects and controls, the conclusions drawn. Consider yourself a detective in sleuthing out all the possible problems with any research you read.

The post is also a good reminder that objectivity is difficult. How often do you think mediations are subtly (or not so subtly) influenced by the unconscious biases of the mediator? Probably often, especially when the parties are not in the same room. This is one reason why I think mediators have a professional obligation to engage in some kind of practice that keeps their metacognition, their self-awareness, in fine, sharp condition.

Past posts on priming:

• Scent of fairness in the air? Mediation running hot or cold? The importance of subtle environmental cues
• Can forming implemention intentions counteract priming on your road towards goals?
• Music may cause an attitude: A clue about conflict resolution?
• At the mercy of our brains? An antidote to priming is metacognition

"A Role for Volition and Attention in the Generation of New Brain Circuitry"

What's the role of volition and attention in reshaping our brains through self-directed neuroplasticity? Here's the answer straight from the mouth of the man who coined the term "self-directed neuroplasticity." This article to which I link below focuses on treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) but its author Dr. Jeff Schwartz in his new book You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life has shown how volition and attention can be used to make other changes in one's life.

Excerpt:

The use of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) as a means of enabling people suffering from OCD to overcome their repetitive responses to bothersome intrusive conscious phenomena offers a valuable source of data to those interested in the study of the mind-brain interface. Because there is strong evidence that the core experience common to essentially all OCD symptoms — a gnawing, intrusive, inescapable and predominantly passively experienced sense that ‘something is wrong’ — is generated by faulty brain circuitry (for review see Schwartz, 1997a; 1998a), a close examination of the mental processes used by people learning how to wilfully alter their behavioural responses to OCD can yield significant insights about the processes whereby changes in the meaning or value one places on distressing conscious phenomena can result in active changes in how one responds to those phenomena. The training techniques which are used to accomplish that clinical goal explicitly encourage OCD sufferers to arrive at a new understanding of the relationship between their brain, their conscious experience, and their choice of behavioural responses to that experience (Schwartz, 1996). Since an understanding of the basic brain circuitry involved in OCD forms a key part in the theoretical basis of the cognitive training techniques we utilize at UCLA, and since significant alterations in the metabolic activity of those circuits occurs in response to successful treatment, a brief review of the basic brain mechanisms of OCD seems in order.

Click to read the rest of "A Role for Volition and Attention in the Generation of New Brain Circuitry: Toward A Neurobiology of Mental Force" (Journal of Consciousness Studies) [posted with the author's permission].

Does finding your "true self" help you rewire your brain? Interview of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz

Click to listen to an excellent interview of Jeff on Achieve Radio in which he talks about rewiring your brain and changing habits. He begins by describing how he lowered his blood sugar using his "mind alone." He talks about self-transparency, the benefits of finding your true self, your animal brain and how to talk back to it, his 4-step method, the 15-minute rule, the toxicity of all-or-none thinking, deceptive brain messages, focusing of attention, the difference between us and animals, the placebo effect, Hebbs Law, the difference between the mind and the brain, and much more.

Less than 120 seconds from Amishi Jha on mindfulness, attention, & the myth of multi-tasking

Calmness is the cradle of power.

-- JG Holland

Click to watch neuroscientist Amish Jha talk about her work. The video is a quick take (very short), so it's a nice and tiny reminder for this lovely fall morning. Click to learn more about Dr. Jha.

Dan Siegel: The Human Mind & the Cultivation of Well-Being

Click to watch Dr. Dan Siegel speaking at USC School of Policy, Planning & Development. The presentation's title: "The Human Mind & the Cultivation of Well-Being." Click to go to Siegel's Web site.

September issue of Mindfulness Research Monthly now available

From the current edition of the monthly newsletter:

In this issue

33 new studies including:

9 Intervention & Application studies

11 Etiology & Association studies

3 Theory & Processes studies

5 Review & Meta-analysis studies

5 Method & Measures studies

1 New NIH Research Trial

Interview with Jeffrey Schwartz, MD, on how to rewire your brain, problems with materialism in science, and his new book

Click to listen to an excellent interview [link is also below] in which Dr. Jeff Schwartz talks with Michael Ray Dresser about the new book You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life, and the many problems with thinking your brain controls who you are, what you think, and how you act.

Jeff says, "The brain can control your entire life if you let it." He then talks about why you would not want your brain to be in control, how to make sure you are not living a rat-like, habit-driven life, and the benefits of living life in a conscious, discerning, and mindful way.

The interviewer is very skilled and knowledgeable, and Jeff is articulate, passionate, and clear. Highly recommended!

Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz-6-30-2011-Track 1