Abstract Through literature review, anecdote, and empirical case study, this chapter explores the role of contemplative practice—yoga, meditation, reflection, breathwork—in the sustainability classroom as a way to increase both learner resilience and learner capacity to engage the challenging content of socio‐ecological resilience.
Yoga demonstrates beneficial effects in many populations, yet our understanding of how yoga brings about these effects is quite limited. Among the proposed mechanisms of yoga are increasing psychological resources (mindfulness, body consciousness, self-transcendence, spiritual peace, and social connectedness) that may bring about salutary effects on emotional wellbeing. Further, yoga is a...
The aim of the study was to understand the perspectives of mental health consumers, staff, and yoga teachers on the characteristics of a yoga-based intervention to be developed for consumers with a long-term mental health condition, in addition to anxiety and/or depression. Two focus groups were held with mental health consumers (n = 8), two focus groups with mental health staff (n = 13) from a...
The essence of the mind is consciousness. It emerged early during evolution and ontogeny appears to follow the same process as phylogeny. Consciousness comes from multiple sources, including visual, auditory, sensorimotor and proprioceptive senses. These gradually combine during development to build a unified consciousness, due to the constant interactions between the brain, body, and...
We will consider just two drugs in this chapter. They are phencyclidine and ketamine. Both are widely used as anesthetic agents, ketamine in humans and phencyclidine in animals. The acronym for phencyclidine that we will use, PCP, comes from its chemical name 1-(1-PhenylCyclohexyl)-Piperidine. In addition to their medical use, both ketamine and PCP have gained roles as recreational drugs or, as...
The present study aimed to explore the effect of yoga techniques on well-being and behavior among those who have propagated and participated in extreme violence and aggression. The sample comprised 219 United Liberation Front of Assam militants selected immediately after surrender of arms in the year 2012 from all over northeast region of India. The study design was a single group with pre- and...
This paper proposes that conscious, explicit memory, implicit memory, and instincts constitute the four-component mind for the mental origins of psychotherapy and personality. The mental origin of the personality theories including the big five personality traits, the MBTI, the social style model, the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, and the Schwartz’s theory of basic human values is from the...
The world Health Organization defines health as complete well-being in terms of physical, mental and social, and not merely the absence of disease. To attain this, individual should adapt and self-mange the social, physical and emotional challenges of life. Exposure to chronic stress due to urbanization, work stress, nuclear family, pollution, unhealthy food habits, lifestyle, accidental death...
This chapter begins with definitions and the history of the attribute of respiration as it has always related to the mystery of the breath, which in turn is associated with life and death and, as life force, connected to spirit and soul. Connections are explored between the breath and instinctual expression of strong affects, and connections with the inspirations of the inner world and the...
Predominant concepts assert that conscious willful processes do not assert a significant influence on autonomic functions associated with physiological homeostasis (e.g., thermal regulation). The singular purpose of this review is to promote a reappraisal of concepts regarding the circumscribed role of hierarchical control systems. To effect this reappraisal, we assess the interaction between...