Check out my new article on meditation for Bitch online - the magazine for Bold Intelligent Women in Total control of themselves: http://bit.ch-online.co.uk/blow-your-mind-with-meditation
Here's a little extract:
Our minds (along with our bodies) have developed over millions of years of evolution to give us the best chances of survival in a sometimes hostile world. Our brain is rewarded with pleasure – with substances such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin – when we do something that evolution would suggest is survival-enhancing. And, of course, the other side of the coin is pain when our survival is threatened. When we sit in meditation and train our attention, we are acting against many of the reactionary tendencies that we have developed as a result of evolution.
Our evolutionary tendencies have helped us to survive so far, but some of them now lead us to overreact. We have, for example, developed a bias towards negativity, giving far more weight and attention to negative events and emotions than positive ones. And, particularly, under stress, we overestimate and ‘dial up’ the perceived ‘dangers’ around us. The evolutionary ‘down’ that we sometimes experience after the ‘high’ of being with a partner, is designed to draw us towards that person helping us to mate and procreate. But if that evolutionary tendency is too strong in us, our neediness may get activated and end up pushing the person away. Meditation helps us to temper the reactions that evolution has set in motion, so in that sense it is going against some of our evolutionary instincts. But maybe, that’s what’s needed for us to evolve even further.
For the full text, go to: http://bit.ch-online.co.uk/blow-your-mind-with-meditation
