Recently, I was having dinner with a friend in a restaurant. We watched helplessly as a young mother attempted to wrangle her two overtired kids—both of whom were perfect poster children for the “terrible twos.” As the drama unfolded before us, my friend happened to mention that she couldn’t help but empathize with the stressed-out mom.

Even though my friend seemed to just be stating the obvious, her choice of words was spot-on. Human beings are literally hard-wired for empathy; we can’t help it. We know this because scientists doing neurological research at a lab in Italy, hoping to map the neurons crucial to motor control, made a fascinating—and accidental—discovery.

They discovered that whenever a monkey reached for a peanut on a table, specific neurons in the frontal lobe on each side of the brain would fire. While conducting one of these tests, a monkey seated at the table watched as a scientist happened to reach for a peanut. To everyone’s shock, the motor neurons in the monkey’s brain fired as if the monkey had reached for the peanut himself.

This discovery revealed a subset of motor control neurons called “mirror neurons” which can’t differentiate between doing something and seeing it done. It’s as if these neurons work to adopt another’s point of view. If you want to see this in action, observe yourself and others during a football game or a boxing match. See a boxer take a punch, and your head will flinch back as if to avoid the blow. Watch a football launched down the field by a quarterback and you might jump from your seat as if to catch the ball. As it turns out, Chaka Khan was not so far off when she said (cue synthesizers), “I feel for you.”

Subsequent research has revealed that these neurons tie us not just to another’s actions, but also their feelings. That’s why we cry as we witness the pain or even joy of another. We might wince when seeing a figure skater made a costly mistake in a competition, or cry along with a gold medalist at the magnitude of their victory. Whenever we experience empathy, we do so not because of our caring hearts—it’s really the working of cells in the brain.

This is why eastern thought refers again and again to the interconnectedness of consciousness. We are quite literally hard-wired to one another. VS Ramachandran, when referring to the study of mirror neurons, came up with an equally appropriate moniker— Gandhi neurons— because they cause us to feel the feelings of others.
If we practice mindfulness, we will discover again and again at how the miraculous is all around us, and within us. Connection is not just a lofty ideal. As it turns out, we were built for it. So the next time someone gives you a hard time for crying during a movie —hell, even a commercial— just tell them you can’t help it. That is, after all, the scientific truth.

Scott Anderson is a Denver, Colorado based yoga instructor and the creator of Warrior Academy Yoga. Scott’s unique system of strategically sequenced vinyasa represents a leap forward in the evolution of power yoga. To learn more, visit www.warrioracademy.com.

What’s up warriors?  Although I know of no better method for proactively cultivating health and vitality than yoga, it alone is not the answer. How we nourish our bodies on the mat through movement and exploration is a companion, not a counter-balance, to how we nourish (or not) ourselves through diet.

It’s easy to think that because we spent 60 or even 90 minutes on the mat that we can “get away” with dietary indiscretions, and let’s face it, we probably can. But as yogis dedicated to deepening our awareness and understanding of self, we mustn’t overlook the fact that everything we put in our bodies today determines the body we will have tomorrow.

It’s that body that lies at the heart of America’s great debate on healthcare. Since true heath care reform begins with self care, I hope you will all take a few moments to read this thought provoking article from The New York Times.

Big Food Vs. Big Insurance