A mindfulness summit interview not to miss

Hi everyone, if you are listening to some of the mindfulness interviews but not others, I think that today's is definitely want you don't want to miss.

Dr. Rick Hansen is a psychologist and the best-selling New York Times author of The Buddha's Brain and 3 other books. He is also a senior fellow at the very prestigious Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

He 1st came to my attention via a wonderful member of our forum named Plum who recommended Buddha's Brain in one of our threads. I love the way that he presents well-established scientific results in books that are engaging and immediately applicable to daily life. It's an easy read, but definitely worth it:
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brai...nce-Happiness/dp/1572246952/ref=cm_lmf_tit_15

As with the other interviews, the topics in this interview are wide ranging. One of my favorite parts, was when he talked about the effects mindfulness on the brain. He mentioned that:

• People who are more mindful tend to be happier, more mentally healthy, resilient, and empathic.
• Meditation increases the thickness in
  • the prefrontal cortex (the portion of the brain specializing in advanced functions),
    
  • the insula (the portion of the brain specializing in emotional awareness),
    
  • and the hippocampus (a portion of the brain that helps put things in perspective).
• In contrast, meditators tend to have smaller amygdalas (the amygdala is the portion of the brain that is associated with anxiety and fear).
• Meditation tends to lead to a healthier immune response.
• Meditators also tend to have greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex, a portion of the brain associated with happiness and emotional regulation.
• Meditation even helps our DNA via our telomeres

To sum up, he said, if the big pharmaceutical companies could patent meditation and make money on it, we would see ads for meditation on the TV all night long because of how effective it is.

The above is just a summary of a couple minutes of the interview, but I thought it was particularly interesting.

Here's the link:
http://themindfulnesssummit.com/sessions/rick-hanson/

I definitely encourage people to give it a listen! Here's the audio:

 

I purchased a program called Meditations to Change Your Brain two years ago - this is a combination of audio lectures and meditations by Rick Hanson with neurologist Richard Mendius, MD. That's where I learned all about our primitive brains and how we are wired to be constantly scanning the horizon for danger - in other words, wired to always be negative and fearful, and learning this was really helpful to me. So I'm predisposed to love Rick Hanson.

I've had two early mornings and really busy days and my tablet decided to drop the wi-fi when I did have a chance to listen to Tami Simon so now I'm two days behind - I hope to catch up soon!

 

Whew, Rick Hanson's interview was awesome. What incredible and important information! I will have to listen again, there's so much good stuff, but at this moment, the thing I'm remembering that I really loved is Rick's goal and vow to practice mindfulness meditation for at least one minute a day.

One minute.

And sometimes he doesn't remember to do it until he goes to bed, which is a fine time to do one minute

As with so many things, the quality of the practice is more important than the quantity of time. I remember that part too . The real point being that there are no more excuses, anyone can do this.