Wise words : Make time to let your mind wander

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/24/want-to-learn-faster-stop-multitasking-and-start-daydreaming?CMP=fb_gu

Students
Use your head
Want to learn faster? Stop multitasking and start daydreaming
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains how students can avoid letting social media and multitasking ruin their study time

Make time to let your mind wander
Healthy breaks can hit the reset button in your brain, restoring some of the glucose and other metabolic nutrients used up with deep thought. A healthy break is one in which you allow your brain to rest, to loosen its grip on your thoughts.

Activities that promote mind-wandering, such as reading literature, going for a walk, exercising, or listening to music, are hugely restorative. Many students find that a work-break cycle of 25 minutes work followed by five minutes rest, or even two hours of work followed by 15 minutes of rest promotes efficiency to the extent that they get back the time they spent resting, and then some. A 15 minute nap is even better.

TM article (one of those slightly hysterical celeb ones, but hey)

It all started about a year ago when a friend took a five-day course in the Oprah-approved practice of transcendental meditation (TM). “You’ve got to try it,” she told me. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

How Meditation Halted My Weight Gain and Cured My Anxiety
One editor’s experience.
STYLECASTER.COM

Not TM, but very good & relevant Radio 4 phone in on “happiness.” Dalai Lama inspired

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06bnq0t

 

 

Relevant to meditation

Researchers say taking forty winks in the middle of the day could reduce blood pressure and stave off heart attacks.

The findings of the study were unveiled at a conference of the European Society of Cardiology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34101263

Celebrity TM chat in US

http://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/the-chef-the-doctor-the-hedge-fund-manager-and-transcendenta#.vs169Dm1B

The Chef, The Doctor, The Hedge Fund Manager, And Transcendental Meditation
Mario Batali can “comfortably meditate” on his Vespa. Batali, Ray Dalio, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Dr. Oz, and other famous practitioners make the case for…
BUZZFEED.COM

This echo’s studies done 30 years ago on the effects of TM on biological ageing

Ageing rates vary widely, says study
A study of people born within a year of each other has uncovered a huge gulf in the speed at which their bodies age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33409604

All of this really connects to transcendental meditation, something I’ve been practicing since I was 22, and the goal to try to be the best version of yourself.

The CEO of a $2.6 billion company shares his favorite piece of advice

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/tupperware-ceo-shares-the-best-piece-of-advice-he-ever-received-2015-6?r=US&IR=T#ixzz3h6O4rBqF

Tim Burgess of the Charlatans on Manchester, music and meditation

“The drink and drugs have been replaced by transcendental meditation.”

‘It’s a northern thing’: Tim Burgess of the Charlatans on Manchester, music and meditation
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/06/tim-burgess-charlatans-free-tickets-surprise-gig-manchester-international-festival

“I Meditated Before I Hosted the Oscars,” Says Hugh Jackman

For Hollywood actor and Golden Globe winner Hugh Jackman, Transcendental Meditation has been a “life-changer.” Before he learnt in 2012, Jackman described how his mind had previously been on a constant lookout for something to do, and this had led to bizarre habits. For example, while driving, he would raise his left foot every time a telegraph pole went past the window: “There was no fear of something bad happening, just the need to ceaselessly occupy the mind,” he said.

“In meditation, I can let go of everything … Nothing has ever opened my eyes like Transcendental Meditation has. It makes me calm and happy, and, well, it gives me some peace and quiet in what’s a pretty chaotic life!” he says.

“Anyone can do it. You can be an atheist who meditates, a Christian who meditates, a Muslim who meditates. It’s like saying. Is walking a religious thing?  No. It’s available to anyone, and the quality of your life is changed forever.”