青青草视频

November 8, 2010

In the hustle and bustle of your average stress-filled day, take a moment to relax and learn about how maintaining a positive attitude can brighten your day and lower your medical bill. Dr. Louis A. Ritz, a professor of Neuroscience in the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida, will deliver a speech entitled 鈥淗ow Spirituality Impacts Our Wellness鈥� for free to all interested students, staff and faculty at 2 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12 in Building P, room 260, to discuss the effect of spirituality on the mind.

鈥淩esearchers over the past 30 years have been asking: if you can worry yourself sick, can you will yourself to be well? They鈥檝e found you can actually improve your well-being when you have a positive outlook,鈥� said Gregory Jones, a professor of biology at 青青草视频.

Bringing Ritz to campus has been Jones鈥檚 goal for over a year. Ritz has lead honors undergraduate courses about 鈥渘eurotheology鈥� and spirituality in healthcare. As part of a wellness initiative at 青青草视频, Jones himself has been teaching free weekly mindfulness meditation workshops on the first floor of the Tyree Library and offered courses such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Management for Health Care Professionals. According to Jones, these classes are being offered in direct response to a societal need.

鈥淢indfulness is something that has been lacking in today鈥檚 culture, but we are seeing a resurgence, especially now that we can measure the results in meditative practices,鈥� said Jones. 鈥淗ere in the West, we like to have hard data, and as that data is being shown with various types of people, this kind of medicine is being accepted into the medical community.鈥�

Spiritual practice, meditation, and mindfulness or other 鈥渃ontemplative鈥� practices, have been clinically shown to relax and restore balance to the lives of individuals who find themselves in a great deal of stress.  Contemplative practices, often referred to as prayer, exist in some form in all of the world鈥檚 spiritual traditions. According to Jones, many misconceptions about meditation or other mindfulness practices stem from their popularization during the 1960s and 1970s, when they became associated with 鈥渢he psychedelic hippie movement.鈥�

鈥淧eople think it鈥檚 about making the mind go blank鈥搕hat鈥檚 never going to happen,鈥� Jones explained. 鈥淧eople also think you need to go into another-worldly state. It鈥檚 not that either. It鈥檚 actually a form of mental exercise that can improve your physical and psychological well-being, just like physical exercise. You鈥檙e just using your mental muscle instead of your legs or arms.鈥�

Jones hopes that this lecture will help educate people about the importance of maintaining the mind as well as the body鈥揳nd he has support from numerous academic departments which are sponsoring Ritz鈥檚 visit, including the Center for Mindfulness in Health Education, Sciences for Health, Natural Sciences,  Humanities and Foreign Languages, Lawrence W. Tyree Library, and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

鈥淧eople always talk about 鈥榤ind over matter鈥� and 鈥榯he power of positive thinking.鈥� These sayings don鈥檛 exist for no reason. They鈥檝e been shown to have some truth to them clinically,鈥� said Jones.

For more information, contact Greg Jones at 352-395-5088.