The Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living in collaboration with Harvard Medical School faculty and research assistants have developed a comprehensive yoga program specifically designed to relieve symptoms of trauma.

There are pre-, mid-, post-, and long-term follow-up treatment measures that include questionnaires and interviews that measure PTSD symptoms, subjective well-being, and mood; electrocardiogram readings to monitor heart-rate variability; and 24-hour urine samples to assay the presence of stress hormones. Three months following the study, subjects will complete a long-term follow-up.

A second study under the direction of Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds will apply the tools of neuroscience – including brain imaging to determine what if any effect such contemplative practices have on veterans with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Researchers hope to develop psychological profiles and a kind of tool kit that help them target contemplative practices in ways that are most effective.

There is, at least, anecdotal evidence that contemplative practices are beneficial for veterans. Both Navy veteran Dennis and Jennifer Kannel, who spent a year in Iraq with the Wisconsin Army National Guard, said the breathing exercises and meditation practices improved their sleep and sense of well-being.

Andrew Hendrickson, who leads a yoga-based relaxation series for returning combat troops asks vets in his program to rate their level of distress, on a scale of zero to 100, before and after participating.

“I frequently get people who drop from 80 to 20 or 10,” said Hendrickson, who used yoga to sleep at night while working at a combat hospital in Afghanistan. “One guy with severe depression went from 60 to zero.”

Using modern technology, the authors created an iphone app that contacted volunteers at regular intervals throughout the day to find out what they were currently doing and whether they were thinking about their current activity or about something else that was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

Intrigued by the researchers skillful use of modern technology to determine the causes for human happiness, I decided to sign up as a participant. Five times per day over a period of ten days, my trusty iphone would beep prompting me to answer the designated questions. The questions ranged from my current level of happiness, how well I slept the night before, what I was busy doing in the moment that I was beeped and how focussed I was with that particular activity. I was also asked if I was judging myself, the people around me or my current environment. After 10 days of answering questions , I was rewarded with a handsome set of charts measuring my level of happiness across a wide spectrum.

The results did not surprise me. I am happiest when I am doing my yoga practice or when I am helping others in need. For both of these activities, I am fully participating in life as it is happening in the present moment. Also not surprisingly the results confirmed that I am least happy when I am commuting over long distances. My mind wanders a lot when I am sitting in the car with nothing to do.

“Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to ‘be here now,’” Killingsworth and Gilbert note in Science. “These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.”

In a study conducted by UCLA researchers Matthew Leiberman and David Creswell, subjects in an MRI scanner were shown emotionally expressive faces. When they were asked to name the gender of the person expressing the emotion no changes occurred. However when the same subjects were asked to name the emotion they were seeing (such as anger, fear or sadness), the person’s right ventro-lateral region became activated at the moment that the emotion was being named and the subcortical regions that respond to facial expressions especially in the region of the right amygdala calmed down.Amazingly this “name it to tame it” only happened in a certain percentage of individuals. When the researchers looked at the characteristics of the individuals whose accurate naming of an emotion could calm the subcortical storm within, those individuals were rated statistically significantly higher on mindfulness traits.

In summary, if you have mindfulness traits you can activate the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex on the right side of the brain to calm down excessively aroused subcortical circuits like the amygdala. It is believed that this occurs through the secretion of inhibitory peptides like GABA or glutamate. This is a powerful example of how the mind regulates the flow of energy and information to change neuronal activation in the brain.

These words are like a paradox. How can we care and at the same time not care? We have goals and desires and we want things to be a certain way. What Eliot is suggesting in this poem is that we can have desires and at the same time not be imprisoned by them. Life is going to march on regardless of how we want things to be. Sometimes we will get what we want and sometimes we won’t. It’s just the way life is. However, when we hold on rigidly to the objects of our desire, we suffer.

This is the central teaching of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. In the Second Noble Truth, the Buddha instructs us “to abandon attachment to getting what we desire.”

Last week, my wife and I found our dream home, ending a 2 year house hunting search. The house has everything that we have been looking for – beautiful views, sunny, light filled and spacious. We are very excited. At this point, we have an accepted offer subject to a final inspection. Sometimes I catch myself having these obsessive thoughts: “This house is too good to be true. The inspector will find something wrong with the house. This will lead us to cancel the offer. I will be so disappointed.” I can feel the grip of desire in my mind. I recognize the unhealthy attachment caused by thinking this way. The challenge for me is to allow myself to be excited about the house (after all it is a beautiful house and it has everything I want in a home) and at the same time be willing to abandon attachment to getting the object of my desire (should the inspection prove to be unsatisfactory).

In his book, “Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering“, author Phillip Moffitt beautifully interweaves the poetry of T.S. Eliot with the 12 insights of the Buddha contained within the Four Noble Truths. Moffitt wisely instructs, “letting go of attachment isn’t about rejecting your wants in the sense of getting rid of the trash or throwing cold water on a fire. A more accurate image is allowing your tea to cool rather than drinking it from an overly hot cup and burning your lips and mouth. Think of it as releasing the energetic hold your desires have on your mind. Release arises spontaneously from mindful observation and reflection.”

Name it or tame it: In mindfulness practice we use words to rest our activated right hemisphere sub-cortical areas. An interesting study out of UCLA by Matt Lieberman and David Creswell showed that when you have mindfulness traits you actually have the ability to use your left hemisphere to name the emotions that you feel such as anger, sadness and fear. This process of naming calms down the overly activated right amygdala which can get people very distressed. So integration coordinates and balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Try this as an experiment. Throughout the day, be aware of both right dominant and left dominant experiences as they occur. See if it is possible to allow these two modes of processing your experience to work together collaboratively. I tried this experiment on a recent visit to an open house. My tendency is to walk through the house with left dominant thinking characterized by judging, analyzing and critical thinking. The internal dialog is something like this: “Boy – this house needs a lot of work. How can they ask so much for this place! I wonder what it will cost to upgrade the kitchen.” the agent estimates $25,000 but I bet it will cost more than that.” This time however, I made a conscious decision to make room for my right hemisphere to process the experience. I opened up my senses to the sights, sounds and smells as I walked through the house and I was present for an overall intuitive sense for the “feel” of the house. I noticed that the left dominant side quieted down as I allowed for a right-moded form of experience to flow through me.

It is not like I am trying to shut down the left or that I am favoring one side over the other. Both sides are equally valuable in determining my choice of a home. However I am aware that when I guide my decisions solely from left-sided thinking the result is a poor decision. It’s the little bubble of excitement that is often a good indicator that I am making the right choice.

What this means in practical terms is that each time you repeat a particular thought or action, you strengthen the connection between a set of brain cells or neurons. As neuroscience expert and psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson says, “the mind and the brain are a unified system. As the brain changes, the mind changes. As the mind changes, the brain changes. This means that you can use your conscious mind to make lasting changes to your brain to bring about greater well-being and happiness in your life.”

In her now classic book, Train Your Mind to Change Your Brain, author Sharon Begley states it succinctly, “The power of neuroplasticity to transform the emotional brain opens up new worlds of possibility. We are not stuck with the brain we were born with but have the capacity to willfully direct which functions will flower and which will wither, which moral capacities emerge and which do not, which emotions flourish and which are stilled.”

The science of neuroplasticity is both optimistic and hopeful. As we set the intention to register what is good in our lives and allow the good feelings to permeate our bodies and our minds, we are making underlying changes to the neural circuitry of our brains increasing the probability that the same neural connections will fire in the future.

In his book “The Mindful Brain” Siegel states that “the interpersonal attunement of secure attachment is paralled by the intrapersonal attunement of mindful awareness. Both interpersonal and intrapersonal attunement develop the capacity for intimate relationships, well being and resilience.”

When the child’s world is understood by the parent, the child feels good, connected and loved. This is attunement. Similarly, when we are mindful of our moment to moment experience with a kind, and open-hearted presence, we become our own best friend.

Siegel also states that “both forms of attunement share common neural pathways particularly those found in the pre-frontal cortex. The development of these regulatory circuits in the brain is associated with emotional resilience, compassion for oneself and others. Seigel lists nine prefrontal functions that overlap with mindfulness practice and secure parent/child attachments. “They are regulation of body systems, balancing emotions, modulating fear, responding flexibly, attuning to others, exhibiting insight, empathy, intuition, and morality.”

Seigel states “Another important dimension of looking toward the mindful brain is that by understanding the neural mechanisms associated with mindful awareness, we may be in a better position to identify it’s universal human qualities and make it more accessible and acceptable to a broader audience.” Seigel invites the reader to “imagine a world in which this health promoting, empathy-enhancing, executive-attention developing, self compassion nurturing, affordable, and adaptable mental practice is made available in everyone’s life”.

According to Seligman, “authentic happiness is rooted in the exercise of personal strengths and virtues rather than from shortcuts. Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression and as we age to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.”

Seligman goes on to list 6 clusters of strengths that we can all develop with enough patience, practice, persistence and dedication. It is the development of these strengths that are the foundation for a meaningful life. The 6 categories are Wisdom & Knowledge, Courage, Humanity & Love, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.

The implication of this exciting and reassuring news is that anyone can train their brains to become healthier and happier through the power of their own thoughts. These new findings tell us that we each have the innate ability and power to be happier by changing our mental habits.

According to Foster & Hicks, first thing in the morning is a good time to create healthy intentions because this is the time when the body is most primed to receive instructions from our mind. The mind is ready to accept new instructions and hold on to them throughout the day.

A few years ago, I was given a life-changing book entitled Lessons of the Lotus, written by Bhante Y. Wimala, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk. Bhante, which means respectful teacher in Pali, the language used during the time of the Buddha, has us reflect that each new day has eighty-six thousand seconds which we should think of as receiving eighty-six thousand dollars. He asks us to consider whether “we want to spend it wisely and work toward creating eventual wonders in our lives? Or do we want to gamble it and waste it?” Bhante reminds us that each new day carries with it multiple blessings – the sunlight beaming through the windows, the sound of the birds, the laughter of children across the street, raindrops pounding across the roof. These miracles are available to us if we incline our mind to them. It’s that simple.

As I lie in bed turning my attention to the wonders of life each morning, I remind myself that I am strengthening the neural pathways that bring me joy and well-being.

The implication of this important discovery is that my own well being and happiness is within my control and that it is based on the choices I make and how I respond to the events unfolding in my life. It puts the responsibility of the kind of human being I choose to be squarely in my lap.

I highly recommend reading Wall Street Journal science writer, Sharon Begley’s book entitled Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, a fascinating account on how cutting edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to show how we all have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds.