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KeepFit - Your Fitness Mantra

Keep Fit

KeepFit: Your hub for exercise, yoga, diet tips, and tools like BMI & calory calculator. Start your journey to a healthier you today!

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Yoga

Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India.

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Meditation

Meditation is an activity in which the practitioner just sits and allows the mind to dissolve, giving deep rest.

There has been considerable debate surrounding the mental activities capable of truly transforming the brain. While "brain games" designed to improve IQ and cognitive function have proven underwhelming, the practice of meditation and mindfulness training has amassed substantial evidence suggesting their potential to not only alter brain structure and function but also impact behavior and moment-to-moment experience.
A recent study conducted by the Max Planck Institute sheds new light on the subject, revealing that three distinct types of meditation training correlate with changes in corresponding brain regions. The findings, published in Science Advances, hold significant relevance for educational institutions, businesses, and the general public alike.
Participants, ranging from 20 to 55 years of age, underwent three months of training in each of the three meditation modules, totaling a nine-month study period. The first module, known as "Presence," closely resembled focused awareness meditation—an ancient practice that has undergone extensive research in recent years. In this training, participants learned to cultivate focused attention, bringing their wandering minds back on track while directing their awareness towards their breath and internal bodily sensations.
The second module, named "Affect," aimed to foster empathy and compassion towards others. Participants engaged in "loving-kindness" (metta) meditation and collaborated with partners to enhance their capacity for compassion and empathy.
The final module, "Perspective," resembled mindfulness or open-monitoring meditation. It centered on non-judgmentally observing one's thoughts and developing an understanding of others' perspectives.
The researchers hypothesized that each training method would lead to an increase in the volume of specific brain regions. Their brain scans at the conclusion of each module and subsequent comparisons among groups largely supported this hypothesis. Presence training was associated with increased thickness in the anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), both of which play crucial roles in attention. Affect training correlated with heightened thickness in regions linked to socially driven emotions like empathy, while Perspective training was linked to changes in areas associated with understanding others' mental states and, interestingly, inhibiting one's own perspective.
These results are thrilling as they provide a more nuanced understanding of how meditation can reshape the brain in a relatively short period. Previous research has shown that experienced meditators undergo significant changes in brain structure and function. However, an increasing number of studies have also indicated that even brief meditation training in novices, such as the well-known eight-week MBSR program, can modify brain function, enhance well-being, and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Moreover, the authors suggest that these findings have broad applicability across various contexts, benefiting both children and adults. They propose that mindfulness and social intelligence, nurtured through meditation, may have a biological basis. In today's increasingly globalized world, where understanding others' experiences is paramount, this sensitivity assumes heightened importance.
"With the ongoing globalization, interconnectedness, and complexity of our societies, the significance of 'soft skills' has grown," the researchers explain. "Social competences, including empathy, compassion, and the ability to adopt others' perspectives, facilitate better comprehension of diverse beliefs and emotions, playing a vital role in successful cooperation."
Meditation, in its diverse forms, emerges as a powerful means to enhance the types of intelligence that hold the utmost importance.

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Diet

Diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health.

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