Your Brain On Mindfulness

September 17, 2020 Scott Moore

Search Other Posts

An 8-week course to help you dissolve stress.

My friend and fellow-teacher Rachel Posner is going to be offering her incredible course Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive. I love Rachel’s work. She’s an incredible teacher, really knows her stuff, and I think will get a great course if you register.

Rachel and her family just spent two years in Spain during the same time that me and my family were living in France. Rachel and I even did a workshop about reducing stress for the holidays together.

I wanted to help her spread the word about her course and would encourage you to take a look.

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

A course by Rachel Posner

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Learn more/Register

Register before Saturday and type earlybird when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

Does This Sound Familiar?

I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.

I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.

I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.

I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a comprehensive online course designed to completely shift your relationship to the stressors in your life. We'll work with evidence-based practices that help you feel calm, even when life is chaotic. These mindfulness techniques will create lasting change and support you in feeling more calm, present and happy.

Your Brain on Mindfulness

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive by Rachel Posner

Buy for $695

Buy for 2 payments of $350

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Are you ready to find calm amidst the chaos?

Make Real Change

Commit to your own well-being

Enroll Now

Does This Sound Familiar?

I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.
I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.
I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.
I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

"It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it."

- Hans Selye

Lots of people teach classes to help you relax. Relaxation techniques are definitely important, but they’re not enough.

I’ve spent the last 20 years helping people reduce stress and be more happily engaged in their lives and I know what it takes to truly change your stress response. If you want to create lasting change, you need to approach stress from a variety of angles.

The solution isn’t to get rid of stressors, but to change the way we respond and relate to those stressors.
I’ll teach you techniques to rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you stop paying so much attention to what isn’t working and instead focus on what’s already great in your life.

Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime.

"Your Brain on Mindfulness was like a curated tour through my brain that allowed me to stop and re-wire synapses along the way. Rachel’s presence created a safe place for me to laugh, cry, discover and nurture my best self. Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime."

Corbin / Musician

Have you said any of these things lately?

I yelled at my daughter in the grocery store yesterday and then felt totally embarrassed and ashamed.
I’m burned out and I’m tired of taking care of everyone else. What about me?
Lately I feel nervous or even scared for no good reason.
If one more person tells me to take a deep breath, I’m going to scream.
I feel like nothing I do is good enough.
I really wish I hadn’t said that to my husband last night. I just lose my temper so quickly and it’s like I don’t have control over what comes out of my mouth.
I just can’t catch up. It feels like there is never enough time in a day.
On a stress scale of 1-10, I wake up at a 3 or 4 and by the time I get to work, I’m already at a 5 or 6.
I’m just not as patient as I used to be.
I feel like I’m always behind and can never catch up.
I’m so tired all the time. I’m always up late trying to get stuff done but when I lay down, I either can’t fall asleep or I can’t stay asleep. It seems like as soon as I close my eyes, there are a stream of worries bombarding me.

"No matter how educated or wealthy you are if you don’t have peace of mind, you won’t be happy."

-Dalai Lama

Find more ease in your life

We all have stressors in our lives - in fact stress is at an all time high and America ties for #4 on the list of the worlds most stressed-out nations. In other words, our exposure to stress isn't going to change. But how we experience that stress can change. The practices in this course will help you:

Feel Calmer

Decrease your stress and anxiety levels
Feel safer and more at peace
Breath better
Wake up in the morning feeling more rested and less stressed
Be less reactionary and have more control over you temper
Stay calm even when life gets intense or chaotic

Feel More Compassionate

Take better care of yourself
Feel less self-judgement and self-doubt
Feel more self-compassion and self-confidence
Be more patient with yourself and others
Feel more compassionate and less angry towards others
Feel less “burn-out” - drained by the pain of others and the state of the world

Feel More Joyful

Feel more connected to yourself and others
Notice life’s small but beautiful moments throughout the day
Pay more attention to what is wonderful about your life and focus on nourishing and growing what you love.
Embrace all of it!

By decreasing stress we are able to grow what we love about our lives and change what no longer serves us.

Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie.

"Rachel’s course synthesized information for me in a way that made complex and challenging material accessible. Her depth of knowledge shines through experiential activities thoughtfully assembled and presented with warmth and authenticity. Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie."

Steve / Psychotherapist

Join Me

Enjoy learning from the comfort of your own home.

Enroll Now

So how do we do it?

How do you embrace your life so that you can both address your stressors and challenges head-on AND keep growing what’s already good? The answer is not one-size fits all.
Sometimes we need to build our stores of self-compassion, sometimes, we need to work with practices that take us out of our fight/flight/freeze response and calm our nervous system and sometimes we need to track the underlying patterns that got us here in the first place.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a unique approach to mindfulness that takes YOUR mind/body/brain into account. You’ll explore a comprehensive range of practices that will help you gain understanding and perspective so that you can get grounded, build resilience and thrive!

Rachel Posner MA, C-IAYT, ERYT-500

This course is the culmination of my 20 years of teaching yoga, practicing yoga therapy and counseling, and designing and guiding wellness courses and retreats.

With so many courses out there, what makes this one different?

I excel at taking complicated information from yoga, mindfulness, neuroscience and psychology, and presenting them to you in a way that is easily digestible and actionable.
I’ve created a unique blend of evidence-based practices that will rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you can focus on growing states of calm, presence and joy.
You’ll learn the “why” and “how” of the practices. When you understand why a practice works, it increases your belief and confidence in the practice itself. The mind is extremely powerful and studies show that when we believe in something, it works better. YOUR understanding and belief in the practice will make it more effective and the change more significant and long lasting.
I’ve been teaching this course live for years and can say with absolute confidence that it works!

Curriculum

Module 1

Your Brain on Mindfulness:The Big Picture

Module 2

Finding Your Center:
Practices To Turn Off Your Fight / Flight Response

Module 3

Deep Calm:
Reversing The Negative Effects Of Stress

Module 4

Self Awareness:
Grounding In The Power Of YOU

Module 5

Self-Care:
The Art Of Paying Attention

Module 6

Compassion:
The Neural Networks that Build Happiness

Module 7

From Compassion to Optimism:
The Neuroplasticity Of A Cup 1/2 Full

Module 8

Where Do We Go From Here?

What does it look like?

Every Monday morning you'll receive a new module filled with the exact lessons, tools and practices you need to start changing the way you deal with stress.

You'll receive additional emails throughout the week with reflection questions, poems, articles, bonus practices and inspirations.

Online does not mean unsupported. Through office hours and email support, a private facebook group, live chats and optional add-on sessions I'll be here to guide you through the process.

I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate.

"I have enjoyed the physical and psychological benefits of a yoga practice for over a decade, but it was Rachel Posner’s “Your Brain on Mindfulness” class which brought into sharper focus, the latest neuroscience research available to enhance my practice, calm my mind and enlighten my interactions in the world. Rachel shared the latest scientific evidence showing how one can actually create new “grooves in the brain” to interact in this increasingly chaotic world in a more complete, calm and healthy manner. Through examination of the research, class interaction and practice, Rachel shared how it is possible to consciously change our brains through meditation and mindfulness in order to create a more open, accepting, positive and joyful frame of mind. I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate."

Sally / Retired Librarian

Is this course really for you?

Changing your relationship to stress takes commitment. If you don’t think you are ready to carve out time each day this is not the course for you. I recommend you:

Take 15-20 minutes a day to explore mindfulness meditation practices.
Turn practice into action by consistently implementing what you are learning throughout your day with 3-5 minutes "practice pauses".

I want to be clear that without actually practicing these techniques, you won’t likely see results. Please make sure that you are at a time in your life that you want and are ready to commit to a regular mindfulness practice, so that you can create the changes you desire.

REFUND POLICY

I believe this course is highly effective and am committed to offering you with a valuable and positive experience. That said, I know that it may not be for everyone. Therefore a full refund is available if you notify me via email, rachel@rachelposner.com by October 5. After that deadline no refunds will be permitted. No exceptions. Before requesting a refund, please go through the module 1 lessons and practices to ensure that this course is not the right fit for you.

Learn more/Register

Register before Saturday and type earlybird when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

The Neuroscience of Fear

March 18, 2020 Scott Moore

My friend and fellow teacher, Rachel Posner, wrote something wonderful that I really wanted to pass along about fear and the neuroscience of fear. I have a deep respect for her work. Please take a look.

Reposted with permission.

This blog is not about influencing how you feel about the coronavirus. It’s not about giving you any facts, numbers, percentages or travel advice. And it’s not about comparing your chances of getting the virus to getting another flu, SARS, or any other disease for that matter. All I want to do is help you feel more relaxed so that you can gain perspective and approach the news with a clear head. Because the news is sensational! It’s about grabbing your attention. And what all reporters know is that nothing grabs our attention as quickly as fear. We are simply wired to pay attention to fear. Your brain spends the whole day looking for danger and then works to protect you from it. Unfortunately, your brain is not as discerning as it should be and is easily scared and prone to making up stories. Like an overprotective parent, it tries to protect you when you don’t need protecting and gets you to make decisions that aren’t always in your best interest.

If you’re feeling stressed about the coronavirus, or really anything for that matter, I recommend you check in with your nervous system. Why? Because when you’re in the fight/flight/freeze response, you can't see clearly; literally or figuratively. When you get scared or anxious, often your sympathetic nervous system turns on, narrowing or blurring your vision, sending adrenaline and cortisol into your system and readying you to act. But if you don’t “act” or you feel that there’s nothing you can “act” on, you can get stuck in the fight/flight/freeze response.

Let me give you an example:

You’re 2 hours into, “breaking news” on the television or you’ve clicked on the “coronavirus live update” for the 10th time today and you’re starting to get really worried. What started out as a natural curiosity and concern has shifted to perseverating thoughts, bodily discomfort and tension and fear for yourself and your loved ones. If you’ve made it to this stage, the likelihood is high that you have entered into the stress response. Because your limbic system is highly activated, the perspective taking and decision making networks in your brain are offline making it difficult to think and act appropriately. Your system is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline, you’ve got tunnel vision, unable to see the big picture and your immune and digestive systems (along with all the other non-emergency systems) are suppressed. You’re stuck in a chronic stress response and you are likely in a state of fear. Which brings me to the point I want to make today:

The power of fear is a greater threat than the coronavirus.

Fear suppresses your immune system, narrows your perspective, stops you from making good decisions, increases anxiety and bodily tension, causes emotional dysregulation and premature aging (just to name a few).

So if you really want to protect yourself from coronavirus, be informed without being inundated. When we act we build resilience and confidence. So in terms of the virus, follow all of the WHO’s recommended protective measures: wash hands frequently, avoid touching your face, practice respiratory hygiene, pay attention to the general advisories, and most importantly, be discerning when it comes to the information you are taking in.

You do not need to have the news on all night, or read 37 articles a day to stay informed and follow precautions.

Once you understand what you can do to act, it’s time to practice mindfulness.

Here are 5 tips to help you get a handle on fear:

1. When you’re feeling stressed, take a pause and get mindful. Acknowledge that you are stressed, and pause to notice what’s happening in your mind and body. Just name it: I’m noticing a feeling of……. You don’t have to get wrapped up in the story, you are just naming how you feel without judging it. Acknowledging thoughts and emotions can help us to become observers of those thoughts and emotions. Notice the difference between how it feels to say, “I am noticing a feeling of fear” versus, “I’m afraid”.

2. Get Grounded. Notice the places in your body that are in contact with support (the ground, a chair, couch, bed, etc.) As you exhale, let the weight of your body drop down into that support. Cultivate a feeling of weightiness and grounding. Take a few more breaths staying focused on those contact points. Getting grounded helps your thoughts to settle and can interrupt and decrease worrying.

3. Notice the way you are breathing. Begin by lengthening your exhale. Make the exhale at least as long as your inhale - longer if it’s comfortable. Then notice if you feel most of your inhale in your chest. Try to drop the breath down and expand your belly as you inhale so that you are engaging your diaphragm. A diaphragmatic breath followed by a long exhale will activate your parasympathetic nervous system and turn on your relaxation response.

4. Notice the sensations in your body. Move from your feet to the crown of your head, one body part at a time and consciously notice any sensations that are present. Paying attention to the sensations in your body can deepen the mind/body connection, distract your mind from cyclical thoughts and help inhibit the stress response.

5. Place a hand on your heart or your cheek and bring in a feeling of self-care and self-compassion; a genuine wish to alleviate your suffering. If it feels difficult to offer yourself compassion, bring to mind someone you care for deeply and imagine that you are sending them love and compassion. You are not focusing on suffering itself, only a genuine desire to be free from suffering. Compassion inhibits the stress response and activates networks in your brain involved in perspective taking and decision making. It can also release oxytocin and dopamine, leaving your feeling happier.

If you’d like a little help, you can open this audio meditation and I’ll guide you through it.

Some of you have asked about the Costa Rica retreat. It is still on! If I can help alleviate your fears, don’t hesitate to reach out!

That said, I am on my way to a Vipassana retreat and will be completely offline from March 11-22. If you have questions about the retreat I will happily respond when I return or click here to email my retreat partner Beck.

Wishing you a calm, fear-free day, and so much love!

Rachel

https://www.rachelposner.com/blog

My Book Drops Today!!!!!

December 10, 2019 Scott Moore

Today’s the day! I’m so thrilled. My publisher said that if everything goes as planned then my book would be published on December 10th. Well, everything has gone as planned and I’m so pleased to say that my book is LIVE!

So I’ve been talking about this for a while now but in case you have no clue what I’m talking about, I wrote a book called Practical Yoga Nidra: A 10-Step Method to Reducing Stress, Improving Sleep, and Restoring Your Spirit.

The publisher did a bang-up job on making it beautiful. I’m just so proud, I can’t even stand it! I really want to share it with you, and I’m even going to share with you an excerpt from the book, including a story about my dear, dear friend Kim Dastrup and her wonderful father and an unforgettable lesson he taught me about joy.

If you haven’t pre-ordered you book and are curious, you can get your copy on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and other places fine books are sold. My publisher says that there might even be a chance that Audible will want to do an audio version of this book, which makes sense cuz it has over 20 scripts for guided Yoga Nidra meditations. The book only costs $12.99

If you want to give the gift of bliss for the holidays, perhaps consider buying a few of these and handing them out to your nearest and dearest and everyone in between. And hey, a great way to become a NYT Bestseller is to have every one of my friends go to every book store they know and simply purchase all my books (individually) you see on the shelves. Think of all the people you could make happy over the holidays with a CASE of these books.

Also, if you’re looking for ways to de-stress over the holidays, I’m so excited to announce that I’ve teamed up with the inimitable Rachel Posner, a teacher that I revere to co-teach a live, online class that will feature discussion, breathwork, poses, meditations, and journaling. This will be live and online on Tuesday, December 17th at 9 am MST. It costs $20 and we will be recording it so if you can’t make the time, you can watch the recording later. You can register for this at my website, scottmooreyoga.com. If you belong to my email list, I’ll be sending an email specifically about this workshop with more deets, or like I said run over to my website.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful support. I’ll finish by reading this excerpt from my book about one of the crucial steps in our Yoga Nidra practice which is to tap into joy.

Tap Into Joy

Tapping into your joy means practicing daily happiness and pleasure. It’s about learning to see the myriad things around you all the time that can cause you joy. However, your joy is not actually dependent on events and circumstances, and it’s accessible whenever you wish. In Yoga Nidra, joy is found beyond the mind. When you have the know-how, there is little or no effort to connect to this part of your being. Eventually, with practice, you won’t need a trigger to feel this joy. You’ll simply be joy. This limitless joy is your True Nature.

Despite whatever pain you may have experienced or whatever scars are on your heart, you have unfettered joy waiting to be dusted off. This joy is your essence. It has always existed the same way you have always existed. Learning to tap into the joy that is always with you opens your heart to inexhaustible prana, or energy. For example, in his audio program Clear Mind, Wild Heart, writer and poet David Whyte shares a story about a time when he felt utterly exhausted by his work for a nonprofit. He asked his friend Brother David Steindl-Rast (a Catholic Benedictine monk) half-jokingly, “What’s the antidote to exhaustion?” His friend looked at him for a moment and then responded with something Whyte found life-changing: “The antidote to exhaustion isn’t necessarily rest. It’s wholeheartedness.”

Whyte realized that, at that moment in his life, his heart was yearning for him to devote himself to poetry instead of the work he was doing for the nonprofit. From that moment forward, he started letting go of what didn’t tap into his joy so that he could put all of his energies into what did. Whyte has since become a world-renowned poet, speaker, and author. That’s not to say you need to give up the work you do, of course; you can begin tapping into joy by simply noticing when you smile or laugh, remembering what you love, doing the things you enjoy wholeheartedly, and of course practicing Yoga Nidra.

Learning to tap into your limitless joy can be fun and easy. It’s the momentary joys in life that reveal your unchanging joy, the feeling of your True Self. Make it a regular practice to notice the things you love about life. You have an immense power to create or interpret your reality, and focusing on what brings you joy and what you want to see in your life is key to feeling in love with life.

If you adopt a Hobbesian approach to life, that it is “nasty, brutish, and short,” you’ll find endless proof to support that view. But if you adopt an It’s a Wonderful Life approach, you’ll find just as

much proof.

If you get to create your reality, why not make it as beautiful as possible by noticing all of its joy, love, and sensuality? As you allow joy, love, and sensuality to become regular features in your life, you’ll soon find that your entire life becomes an expression of this joy. Doing this regularly will also prime you to invite these elements into your Yoga Nidra practice.

What This Practice Does for You

Your complete happiness and sensuality lie within the subtle layer of your being called the Anandamaya kosha (the bliss body). This kind of joy isn’t momentary happiness that comes and goes; rather, it is the unlimited bliss you experience as your True Self. However, learning to witness life’s momentary joys helps prepare you to feel your True Self’s natural state of limitless joy. As I mentioned in chapter 3, the mind makes little distinction between what plays out on a screen, in your mind, or in real life. Your brain doesn’t differentiate between what’s real and imagined, so visualizing what makes you happy can have the same effect as actually experiencing it.

While our True Nature is joy, ironically, we have been programmed to be pretty negative. In fact, humanity’s survival may very well have depended on it. Think about it: You’re less likely to jump into a shallow lake if you think you might hit jagged rocks at the bottom. Therefore, finding your joy through Yoga Nidra and similar practices is a process that essentially rewires the brain from its negative default to inhabiting our birthright to be unfailingly happy. It’s the kind of happiness you don’t have to wait around for. No one’s going to give it to you, and it’s not tied to any event. Like it or not, no one and nothing is responsible for your happiness. You must decide to see what is joyful around you and make it a regular practice to invite joy into your life.

Several years ago, my friend Kim’s dad, Warren, suffered a serious spinal cord injury. He’s confined to a wheelchair, has very limited movement in his arms and legs, and requires daily help from nurses, especially after his wife and caretaker passed away. A while back, Kim and I were staying at Warren’s house along with Kim’s sister and two daughters. Warren and I were sharing a room, and as we were tucking into our beds, he began to muse about how many of his friends enjoy luxuries like big houses, boats, and cars. With tears in his eyes, he said, “You know, when I see my daughters and my granddaughters, I can’t help but feel like I’ve won in life. I’ve won!” Warren sat there in the dark with a wide grin on his face. He didn’t say a thing about any of the challenges that beset his life and chose only to see the joy.