If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the real power of meditation isn’t just a temporary state of calm, but the ability to physically rewire your brain’s permanent traits?
- Have you ever wondered what happened when neuroscientists put the brains of master yogis under a microscope to uncover the secrets of human potential?
- What if you could filter out the myths and discover exactly which meditation techniques are scientifically proven to transform your mental well-being?
Listen to Altered Traits — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Altered Traits
- Discover the two foundational types of meditation: focusing intensely on a single object like your breath, and cultivating equanimity by observing thoughts without reacting.
- Learn how meditation physically alters your stress response, lowering cortisol production and helping your blood pressure return to normal faster after anxiety-inducing events.
- Understand the brain science behind emotional regulation, specifically how meditation strengthens the link between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex to reduce reactivity to strong emotions.
- Find out why multitasking is an inefficient habit that exhausts your brain, and how brief meditation exercises can repair your concentration and dramatically improve cognitive performance.
- Master your wandering mind by learning how meditation deactivates the brain's energy-draining 'default mode' that takes over when you are seemingly doing nothing.
Altered Traits — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Two meditation styles are single-pointed mental focus and deliberate practice of nonreactivity toward intrusive thoughts.
Chapter 3: Meditation lessens our reactivity to emotional cues and stressors.
Chapter 4: Multitasking drains the brain, while meditation builds our mental capacity.
Chapter 5: Meditation switches off the default mode the brain enters when we’re at rest.
Chapter 6: Research indicates meditation can strengthen the brain, but we should treat such findings carefully and remain appropriately skeptical.
Chapter 7: Meditation helps soothe distress and lowers the risk of depression.
Chapter 8: Intensive meditation can produce exceptionally elevated levels of compassion.
Chapter 9: The more one meditates, the greater the benefits.
Altered Traits Summary & Overview
Altered Traits (2017) takes an empirical look at the art of meditation and details the benefits it has on our mental well-being. It also looks at different types of meditation, as well as the effects of meditative practices on different groups, including experienced meditators, students and even a yogi.
Who Should Listen to Altered Traits?
- People who need a reason to start meditating
- Meditation skeptics
- Those who value self-improvement and self-care
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