Monthly Archives: December 2019

We live in three different time spaces: the past, the future, and the present. We shuffle back and forth throughout our day, but we mostly live in the past and future. Most of our thoughts are consumed with yesterday or tomorrow. What if he never left me? What if I never took this job? Where am I going to be in five years? Will I still be doing what I do now? If not, how am I going to pay my bills? What if he never calls? What if I never find “the...

What does the brain of a lifelong Zen monk look like?

It’s an interesting question, and it turns out there’s an answer. In 1966, two Japanese neuroscientists, Kasamatsu and Hirai, packed up their brain-scanning equipment and hiked to a Zen monastery in the mountains of Japan, intent on finding out what happens in the head of a monk.

Kasamatsu and Hirai quickly discovered that monks have unusual brains. They asked the monastery’s master to rank his...

We’ve all experienced that magical feeling of being hit with ‘a brainwave’. That moment of newfound clarity, shift in perspective or a novel idea. And typically, it seems to appear out of nowhere. In between sips of coffee, while out for a walk, or simply indulging your dog in a good belly rub.

While “a brainwave” can be a figure of speech to describe our thoughts, scientists and clinicians can use literal brainwaves, measured on the head, to help...