Workshops on

Meditation, Volunteering & Neuroplasticity

Since the arrival of COVID we have been teaching our popular OLLI at UC Berkeley course online. The online format has allowed us to enrich even further our academic and experiential course/workshop by having distinguished neuroscientists, authors and educators present their research to our learning community. In dialogue with Amelia via zoom, they share with the class scientific evidence on how we can work with our body and mind for greater health and happiness. Participants are invited to practice at home the guided meditation with which we start every class and other contemplative practices they might know as a way of cultivating positive neuroplasticity in their daily life and in their volunteering.

For more information please read Amelia’s blog at the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute at UC Berkeley, Dec 07, 2022

Meditation and volunteering are good for your heart, brain, and whole being. Combined, they foster positive neuroplasticity. Study the science of neuroplasticity and meditate to expand your mind and heart. You will also volunteer outside of class for one to two hours each week at English-in-Action, International House Host Program, or Refugee Transitions. This experiential learning will deepen our knowledge of other cultures and help international students, refugees, and immigrants in the often-challenging transition to American life.

What does helping others have to do with the healthy, progressive functioning of our brains? In this class, we will explore how volunteering (1 to 2 hours/week) with people from other cultures enriches our capacity for new learning. In addition to studying the science of neuroplasticity, we’ll participate in small-group discussions and meditation practices to expand our minds and hearts.

By the end of this workshop participants will be able to explain in their own words what neuroplasticity is and will know how to cultivate positive neuroplasticity in their daily lives, at home, at work, and at the volunteer site.  The commitment to volunteering 2 hours a week is only for the six weeks of the course, but many previous students have found the volunteer experience so rewarding that they have continued long after the course is over.

The focus of this workshop is to cultivate neuroplasticity through volunteering. Neuroplasticity naturally happens in interrelationships. The way we perceive, act and react, creates traits and tendencies, that naturally foster more of the same. These traits and tendencies affect the health not only of your brain and nervous system, but of your whole being. There is positive and negative neuroplasticity. Brain scans show very different pictures when the brain is at peace than when is under continuous fear or stress.

The good news is that you can mindfully cultivate positive neuroplasticity, by bringing your heart and mind into alignment in experiences of volunteering and seeing the happiness of others while being helped. The volunteering experiences, those practical labs of cultivating positive neuroplasticity, will be complemented and enriched by our readings and videos on neuroplasticity; by our small- group discussions in class, and by meditation practices on expanding our minds and hearts.

We will volunteer two hours a week with these local NGOs: the I-House Host Program, Refugee Transitions, and East Bay Sanctuary. The experiences of volunteering will deepen your knowledge of other cultures by helping international students, young refugees, or immigrants in their–often–difficult transition to American life.

Amelia Barili, a UC Berkeley faculty member, recognized the connection between students’ desire to serve others and the needs of the community. She has developed an innovative pedagogy that integrates the most recent findings of cognitive science and neurobiology with meditation and service learning. She received the Chancellor’s Award for Public Service in 2008.