I wonder if, as one of a multitude of approaches to what meditation does, one could consider the role of the hormone oxytocin. Besides its role in lactation, and orgasm (for women and men), it promotes a sense of well-being and trust, and bonding, and has been called the love hormone. People with high stress have low oxytocin levels, as do people who are single compared to those who are in emotionally satisfying relationships. Although I've meditated in one form or another all my life, it was the 5 years spent breastfeeding my two babies that I learnt to sit in the vast nothingness trusting in the flow of love that underlies everything. It's what opens out for me in all my meditation since. I wrote a piece called Mother of Milk where I talked a little about it. So I wonder if one way to look at it, in the prism of possible approaches, is a neurological one, is through an increase of oxytocin, which promotes a sense of well-being, trust, security, love.
Just some thoughts on this wet Sunday in February...
As someone who's had his life altered nearly as much by anti-depressants as by meditation, I have great respect for biochemistry. Although I think we tend to jump to conclusions about causality. We have such a strong materialist bias in this culture that whenever we find a physical contributor to some phenomenon we tend to regard it as the "real" one, the primary and original one, and to regard all the mental & spiritual ones as secondary and derivative. (I don't really believe in the mental/physical dichotomy anyway, but that doesn't stop me from seeing things that way, and automatically treating the physical as "real.")
I agree with you, Dale. Completely. And yet I also believe that we can, to a certain extent, change our body chemistry through deep inner work. So if oxytocin increase is involved in feelings of trust and well-being, then I would assume that if we meditate and find the calm, empty, still and euphoric within, that we are re-balancing the hormones dancing within us. Like you, I see no real distinction between the body, mind and spirit. One can work on one, and it affects the others. A cascade effect.
And one can learn one's way into desired states. Like those countless boring hours spent breastfeeding, trapped by my babies, unable 'to do' anything, even read. They taught me how to sit still and listen.
But not everybody has had these particular routes to these experiences, and that's where it gets difficult for me to talk. Like breastfeeding. I mean even when 'the scientists' talk about higher oxytocin levels in people who have satisfying close relationships automatically excludes many people. Which I don't like.
Though of course I find different approaches, the Diamond Sutra or Patanjali or neuropeptides, each fascinating.
Very interesting discussion. I tend to think of a web of intersecting, interdependent factors. No one thing stands or works alone, though one thing has the potential to tip the balance either direction. That's been my experience, anyway. If you think of it this way, one affecting another, it is a fortunate thing since not everybody does have the same access routes. Variety is the spice of life. The trick is finding, and using, those access routes which can be very individual. Antidepressants, meditation, oxytocin, writing and creating, being in nature, exercise, loving connection with others... many paths. Varying from the chemical to the physical, emotional, spiritual. They're all "real" in some sense, in the sense of our experience of them; whether they are "really real," I can't say!
Reading these comments I feel moved to point up a book I'm currently reading called 'Why Love Matters' by Sue Gerhardt. Nothing to do with meditation but parts of it are highly relevant to the ideas raised in this discussion...Principally (if I understand correctly) that biochemistry, love (how we are treated and relate to the world)are all inextricably linked and that the first two years of life are incredibly important in establishing our emotional and chemical hard wiring ...I'm a stranger here but when I read these comments it felt like a bell going off ...
I've been lurking (and slacking) for a few days, feeling too harried to be able to relax enough to meditate (confusing cause and effect?). This weekend has been much calmer, deliberately slowed down, and I feel that I'm back in the saddle again.
Hi Udge - I peeked into your blog today and read your Reading List. If I translated the Kabat Zinn title correctly from the German, I'm reading that one too ... Coming to Our Senses.
Beth asked recently 'how many we are'. Taking up the challenge (revisiting my research analyst days with accompanying compulsive behavior), I went back to Day 1 and counted 27 names. That included two anonymous entries, a few who popped in for a day or two and popped out again, and one who visited today for the first time. Hi Barbara
It was nice to re-read a couple of posts and remember names of some who disappeared. Eileen from Albuquerque, where are you? New Mexico is my second favorite place on the planet
After taking yesterday off from meditation, today I drove down to the Cambridge Zen Center, where I sat Sunday morning long sitting (four half-hour sessions alternating with walking meditation, plus koan interviews & chanting). It was great to devote an entire morning to practice...and to see some familiar faces from my CZC days.
Afterward, I met a friend in Harvard Square for shopping, conversation, and an iced chocolate (like hot cocoa, but cold) at Burdick's Cafe. I can't speak toward the bliss of breastfeeding...but damn, there's nothing like a morning's worth of meditation followed by some gourmet chocolate to send you into a state of sensory satori...
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I wonder if, as one of a multitude of approaches to what meditation does, one could consider the role of the hormone oxytocin. Besides its role in lactation, and orgasm (for women and men), it promotes a sense of well-being and trust, and bonding, and has been called the love hormone. People with high stress have low oxytocin levels, as do people who are single compared to those who are in emotionally satisfying relationships. Although I've meditated in one form or another all my life, it was the 5 years spent breastfeeding my two babies that I learnt to sit in the vast nothingness trusting in the flow of love that underlies everything. It's what opens out for me in all my meditation since. I wrote a piece called Mother of Milk where I talked a little about it. So I wonder if one way to look at it, in the prism of possible approaches, is a neurological one, is through an increase of oxytocin, which promotes a sense of well-being, trust, security, love.
Just some thoughts on this wet Sunday in February...
(Oh, the deleted comment was mine, left out a verb, you know how it is -:)
As someone who's had his life altered nearly as much by anti-depressants as by meditation, I have great respect for biochemistry. Although I think we tend to jump to conclusions about causality. We have such a strong materialist bias in this culture that whenever we find a physical contributor to some phenomenon we tend to regard it as the "real" one, the primary and original one, and to regard all the mental & spiritual ones as secondary and derivative. (I don't really believe in the mental/physical dichotomy anyway, but that doesn't stop me from seeing things that way, and automatically treating the physical as "real.")
I agree with you, Dale. Completely. And yet I also believe that we can, to a certain extent, change our body chemistry through deep inner work. So if oxytocin increase is involved in feelings of trust and well-being, then I would assume that if we meditate and find the calm, empty, still and euphoric within, that we are re-balancing the hormones dancing within us. Like you, I see no real distinction between the body, mind and spirit. One can work on one, and it affects the others. A cascade effect.
And one can learn one's way into desired states. Like those countless boring hours spent breastfeeding, trapped by my babies, unable 'to do' anything, even read. They taught me how to sit still and listen.
But not everybody has had these particular routes to these experiences, and that's where it gets difficult for me to talk. Like breastfeeding. I mean even when 'the scientists' talk about higher oxytocin levels in people who have satisfying close relationships automatically excludes many people. Which I don't like.
Though of course I find different approaches, the Diamond Sutra or Patanjali or neuropeptides, each fascinating.
Very interesting discussion. I tend to think of a web of intersecting, interdependent factors. No one thing stands or works alone, though one thing has the potential to tip the balance either direction. That's been my experience, anyway. If you think of it this way, one affecting another, it is a fortunate thing since not everybody does have the same access routes. Variety is the spice of life. The trick is finding, and using, those access routes which can be very individual. Antidepressants, meditation, oxytocin, writing and creating, being in nature, exercise, loving connection with others... many paths. Varying from the chemical to the physical, emotional, spiritual. They're all "real" in some sense, in the sense of our experience of them; whether they are "really real," I can't say!
Reading these comments I feel moved to point up a book I'm currently reading called 'Why Love Matters' by Sue Gerhardt. Nothing to do with meditation but parts of it are highly relevant to the ideas raised in this discussion...Principally (if I understand correctly) that biochemistry, love (how we are treated and relate to the world)are all inextricably linked and that the first two years of life are incredibly important in establishing our emotional and chemical hard wiring ...I'm a stranger here but when I read these comments it felt like a bell going off ...
(o)
I've been lurking (and slacking) for a few days, feeling too harried to be able to relax enough to meditate (confusing cause and effect?). This weekend has been much calmer, deliberately slowed down, and I feel that I'm back in the saddle again.
Hugs and good wishes to all.
hello on Day 36
Hi Udge - I peeked into your blog today and read your Reading List. If I translated the Kabat Zinn title correctly from the German, I'm reading that one too ... Coming to Our Senses.
Beth asked recently 'how many we are'. Taking up the challenge (revisiting my research analyst days with accompanying compulsive behavior), I went back to Day 1 and counted 27 names. That included two anonymous entries, a few who popped in for a day or two and popped out again, and one who visited today for the first time. Hi Barbara
It was nice to re-read a couple of posts and remember names of some who disappeared. Eileen from Albuquerque, where are you? New Mexico is my second favorite place on the planet
Hello, everyone...
After taking yesterday off from meditation, today I drove down to the Cambridge Zen Center, where I sat Sunday morning long sitting (four half-hour sessions alternating with walking meditation, plus koan interviews & chanting). It was great to devote an entire morning to practice...and to see some familiar faces from my CZC days.
Afterward, I met a friend in Harvard Square for shopping, conversation, and an iced chocolate (like hot cocoa, but cold) at Burdick's Cafe. I can't speak toward the bliss of breastfeeding...but damn, there's nothing like a morning's worth of meditation followed by some gourmet chocolate to send you into a state of sensory satori...
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