Meditation: Does it Alter the Mind and the Body? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Meditation: Does it Alter the Mind and the Body? BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!! 9:00 am starts flashing on your alarm clock and you immediately run through your "to do list" for the day. It's a long list, filled with classes, meetings, homework, meals, exams...etc. Being the master of multitasking, I have a tendency to perform various tasks at once. As a result, my concentration level decreases while my stress level increases. How can this lack of concentration and stress level be fixed? Many people turn to meditation, but does this practice actually work? And if so, how does meditation work to change the mind and the body? Meditation is defined as "...engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature...an attempt to concentrate mind on a single form or an idea or an aspect of divinity at the exclusion of all other forms and the ideas. The mind is focused inwards, and this effort of concentration acts as stimulus to gain access to the knowledge of the object of meditation" (1). The practice of meditation involves both psychological and physiological changes. For example, the altering of breathing patterns and thought processes. But does meditation guarantee mental and physical change? Meditation forces an individual to gain complete control of their inner self. But, what exactly is the inner self? The subconscious is an integral constituent of the internal mind. It is located deep in the core of the mind, acting as the center of emotions, behavior, creativity, and imagination. In addition, subconscious maintains good health (2). Does meditation allow an individual to open the hidden doors of the subconscious mind? What is the difference between the subconscious and conscious mind? You can think of the conscious mind as known knowledge while the subconscious mind is unknown knowledge. Meditation taps into the subconscious mind and uncovers veiled realities about the inner self. To investigate whether meditation affects the mind, studies were performed on subjects practicing meditation techniques. In conclusion, the experimenters discovered an increase in productivity, improved relations at work, increased inner potential, increased strength of self-concept, and red uced anxiety (3). All these factors can be thought of as being an element of an individual's subconscious mind because it involves behavior and thought procedures. Moreover, the focus of one image steers an individual away from multitasking and toward greater concentration. In a sense, an individual becomes more aware of their inner self as a result of focused attentiveness.

Left For Dead Essay

It was a horrific experience that I would never want to go through again. At first it was just a normal night, a little rough but nothing too major. We were just off the coast of Leyte and Guam when we were hit by two missiles. At first I was just lying in bed and thought it was a problem with the engines until the abandon ship order was given. The abandon ship order is the worst nightmare for any seamen. There was nothing I could do except follow procedures, I woke all the other men that hadn’t been woken up yet and we rushed to the deck, grabbed a life jacket and waited until the ship was close enough to the water so that when we jumped we would not die on impact. Hitting water from high enough up is like hitting concrete. We dove into the water and swam as fast as we can could away from the sinking ship so that we didn’t get pulled under from the under tow. Once we were a safe distance away we hung onto the raft like our life depended on it. We had been told that a distress signal had been sent out and that it would only be a couple of hours before help arrived. Several hours later there was still no help and the first sign of sharks was when one of the singles was attacked and taken down within a matter of seconds. I tried not to think about the dangers lurking around but with so much time you could not help but run it through your mind. The hardest part was deciding whether to let the injured go or to keep them and risk the fact that they were attracting the sharks. After two days there was still no sign of help and many of us were beginning to get delusional. Men were swimming off because they thought they saw an island or hula girls. Others dehydrated themselves by drink the cold water at their feet because they thought it was fresh. On the third and fifth days there were only about 30 men left and some were wielding weapons and getting restless. Luckily we were able to convince them to let them go and continue to work together and live for as long as possible. Finally on the fifth day there was a sign of hope. There was a plane fly over at about 3000 ft. We began to wave wildly and light flares to get its attention, it flashed its lights at us and that was when we knew we would be saved. It sent out to the other ships and planes with our coordinates and rescue information. The biggest surprise to me was that it landed in the ocean. He managed to land safely and we started to pile into the plane and on the wings. The next sign was a ship, a little black dot on the horizon. That was when I had full hope that we would be rescued and could go home. The trauma that I have faced over the last several years is almost unbearable and has changed my life. Just recently my family and I took a trip to Maui and we were supposed to go on the submarine but I could not get it out of my mind that I was on the ship all over again and I was going to drown. Even the sound of running water gives me nightmares, making me feel like I’m swimming for my life in the water all over again. Immediately when I returned home I was put in psychology classes to try to get rid of my trauma or lower the affect. These classes have not made any difference and I have recently become an alcoholic to numb the pain. It puts me in a state of mind that helps me forget about what I went through. I know it is not a sane way to deal with it but my traumas have come to a point where I cannot handle them anymore. The Price Chapter 11 talks about the fight-or-flight response and relates it to a squirrel and a dog and a cat and a dog. Also, the traumas and what they were called at different time periods and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. They also talk about what six people did when the arrived home and how they handled the disaster. The rest of the chapter is about the reunions that the survivors had and how they handled them.

Analysis Of The Movie White Privilege II By Michael...

Clarence Smith Analysis Response Essay Composition II 13 September 2016 I Have an Advantage; Why? In today s world, perhaps one of the largest debates among human beings is privilege and gender equality. In both Macklemore’s â€Å"White privilege II†, and Michael Kimmel’s â€Å"Why Gender Equality is Good for Everyone, Men Included†, the authors evidently explained what white privileges are, how white privilege effects individuals of different race, and how gender equality can benefit men and women in their household and in the workplace. In Macklemore’s song he attempted to understand his place in black culture, specifically related to hip-hop music and Black Lives Matter protests. While in Michael Kimmel’s speech he attempted to explain white privilege and the benefits of gender equality for women as well as men by using stories of past experiences. When critically analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both author’s tones, evidence, and overall strength of the body of work, I am boldly convinced that Michael Kimmel’s s peech is essentially the superior of the two authors. Though Macklemore’s song was relevant and had great connections to our everyday life, the author was very aggressive and lacked any source of credible evidence to his observations. Michael Kimmel’s speech did exhibit evidence, but it was often questionable. However, he does displayed great tone by appealing to humor, was very entertaining by keeping his audience eagerly intact, and communicated relevant stories