1. The Human Mind
 Our thinking could be
 Biased
 Distorted
 Ill founded
 Prejudice
 Lead to problems with our lives

2. The Human Mind
 Our thinking is our interpretation of reality!

3. The Human Mind
 Our mind not only feels but it wants.
 Our thinking molds our feelings and desires.

4. The Human Mind
 Our thinking is not concerned with how our
behavior affects others but it is concerned
with what it wants and to collect information
that validates what we believe.
 Only through thinking can we control,
understand our mind and how it works.
 Only through thinking can we understand our
wants and why we feel the way we do.

5. The Human Mind
 Only through thinking and the analysis of the
thought process, can we figure out how to deal with
 1) destructive emotion
 2) and change unproductive desires to productive, positive
ones.
 Only through practicing the control of thinking daily
can we change our thought process so we can
change our behavior, our feeling and wants to be
productive and not destructive.

6. The Human Mind
 Thinking can be reduced to trying to figure
out life’s events. It helps to describe to us
what is happening or what should be
expected to happen in life.
 Feeling is created by thinking. Feelings
describes whether life events should be
considered positive or negative. It allows one
to make a measurement of how your life is
going.

7. The Human Mind
 Desires need energy to maintain positive
feelings even in the presence of negative
feelings.

8. The 3 Functions of the Mind
 1) Thinking
 Makes sense of the world
 Judging
 Perceiving
 Analyzing
 Clarifying
 Determining
 Comparing
 Synthesizing

9. The 3 Functions of the Mind
 Feeling
 Tells us how we are doing
 Happy
 Sad
 Depressed
 Anxious
 Stressed
 Calm
 Worried
 Excited

10. The 3 Functions of the Mind
 Wanting
 Drives us to act as we do
 Goals
 Desires
 Purposes
 Agendas
 Values
 Motives

11. The Human Mind
 There is a dynamic relationship between
these 3.
 Each one is influencing the other.
 Think- - - - --Feel
/ All 3 interconnected
/
Want
-Your behavior is a summation of your thinking,
feeling and wants or desires.

12. The Human Mind
 The key is to control your thinking.
 By controlling your thinking, you can control
your feelings and your desires.
 Thinking can be at the level of the
subconscious or conscious mind.

13. The Human Mind
 Egocentric tendencies have been taught by you and
stored in your subconscious .
 Without a committed thought process, your
subconscious is interested in protecting self.
 Only through self-development can you re-learn at
the conscious level to reshape your thought
process, your behavior to certain situations and the
way you think of others.

14. The Human Mind
 Thoughts, feelings and desires can be
organized by either
 Egocentric tendencies or
 Rational capacities

15. Egocentric Thinking
 Egocentric thinking comes from the
unfortunate fact that humans do not naturally
consider the rights of others, nor do we
naturally appreciate the point of view of
others or the limitations in our own point of
view.
 We do not naturally recognize our self-
serving perspective.

16. Rational Thinking
 Rational thinking is properly thought of as a
way of thinking and acting in which
intelligence and sound, logical reasoning is
used to judge an occurrence. One must use
the same standards that you want to be
judged by. Intellectual integrity as well as
intellectual humility is the way and not the
exception. They don’t play games with the
English language to serve their own purpose.

17. Egocentric Thinking
 Feelings that accompany egocentric thinking, at
least at the subconscious level, whether the person
was successful or unsuccessful are
 Irritability
 Defensiveness
 Arrogance
 Indifference
 Resentment
 Depression
 Anger

18. Egocentric Thinking
 Egocentric thinking strives to get what it wants using
2 strategies.
 1) Domination ---using direct power over others
 2) Submission--- get what you want by submitting to other
 Pathological dispositions of the egocentric mind.
 The human mind routinely engages in the
unconscious processes that are egocentrically
motivated. The normal defense mechanism of the
egocentric mind.

19. Egocentric Thinking
 Defense mechanism are used by the
egocentric mind which leads to self-
deception. So we can see the world as we
wish in order to get what we want and /or to
protect our belief system.

20. Popular Misunderstanding of the
Mind
 Emotion and reason often conflict with each
other
 Rational persons are cold and mechanical,
like Mr. Spock
 Emotional persons are lively, energetic,
warm, but poor reasoners.
 One must give up the possibility of a rich
emotional life if one decides to become a
rational person.

21. Critical Thinking
 Provides the link between intelligence and
emotion.
 Enables us to take command of our
emotions.
 Enables us to make good judgments.

22. Critical Thinking
 Definition: A disciplined, self-directed
cognitive process leading to high quality
decisions and judgments through the
analysis, assessment and reformulation of
thinking. It presupposes understanding of the
parts of thinking, or elements of reasoning, as
well as the intellectual standards by which
reasoning is assessed and intellectual traits
which dispose us to think in deep, honest and
logical patterns.

23. Meditation and the Human
Mind/Body

24. Introduction
 Physical and mental fatigue can make a person
prone to illness.
 Regular exercise, good nutrition, sanitation and
good sleep and relaxation help keep mind and
body healthy and less prone to illnesses.
 Meditation is one of the many ways to relax body
and mind

25. Past Research
Benefits of meditation
 improvement in mental
and physical health
 feeling good about
oneself and others
 relief from stress and
anxiety
 alleviation of pain
 greater sense of self-
actualization
 self-directedness
-Kelly, 1996

26. Past Research... What happens in the body
Body reaches a heightened restful state while at the same time the
brain became calm but remained in a state of heightened
alertness.
Heightend restful state,
 lowered heart rate and pulse, slow and calm breathing, and
relaxed muscles, -Orme-Johnson (1987, 1995)
Heightened alertness.
 EEG recordings show high activity of alpha and beta waves
-Persinger’s (1984, 1993)

27. Past Research... What happens in the body...
 Decrease in the concentration of arterial and blood lactate levels
4 times faster than in sleep Wallace and Benson(1970, 1971,1972)
 Blood lactate level goes up with increased physical activity and
stress and normally go down with rest and sleep Bloomfield, et.al., 1975.
 Body metabolic rate down 16% in about 1 hour of meditation
 5 – 10 % decrease after 6 – 7 hours of sleep.

28. General State of the Mind
 it is restless
 cluttered by thoughts, desires, memories
 randomly moves from one thought to another
 hard to focus the mind especially when you want it
to be still/calm

29. What happens in the mind...
(Pertaining to the techniques used in this study)
 With lots of practice, the minds stops reacting to
thoughts, memories and desires and follows
constructive actions
 With this training one starts to act constructively
rather than react to life-situations
 When the mind is calm, so is the body

30. Hypothesis
People who practice meditation on a
regular basis for at least a month will
experience better physical health, will feel
better about their lives, will have a higher
sense of self esteem and feel better oriented
in life.