The key to a healthy life is having a healthy mind.
Meditation gives you the wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind can exaggerate the severity of a setback, and resist getting drawn into the abyss.
Our brain is continuously being shaped - we can take more responsibility for our own brain by cultivating positive influences.
Resilience is the maintenance of high levels of positive affect and well-being in the face of adversity. It is not that resilient individuals never experience negative affect, but rather that the negative affect does not persist.
Most people still don't think of qualities like happiness as being a skill, that can be enhanced through training.
Happiness and well-being are actually best regarded as skills.
We need a different conception of happiness, more enduring and more genuine, not dependent on external circumstances.
We can change the brain by changing the mind.
In meditation you experience time slowing down because you can notice more things per discreet moment and you're more open... The word 'meditation' in Sanskrit comes from the word 'familiarization' - as in familiarization with one's own mind.
Mindfulness - moment to moment non-judgemental attention and awareness.
Buddhist monks have known for centuries that meditation can change the mind. Now we are inspired by His Holiness to examine with our technology the precise brain changes that occur with practice... The unique collaboration on meditation is just beginning.
The best way I can mentor and lead those around me is to embody these qualities myself.
The Dalai Lama challenged me - he said, 'Why can't you use technological tools to study kindness and compassion?
One key point is that different people may benefit from different types of meditation, as well as other interventions. This question of optimal matching between the form of practice and the type of person has not received much scientific attention.
I committed to doing everything I could to put compassion on the scientific map.
Spatial working memory is impaired by stress.
We have no idea how the subjective quality of consciousness emerges from the physical stuff of the brain.
I think the messiness and embodied nature of modern life just produces an enhanced signal for our attention.
I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist or a card-carrying zealot at all. My first commitment is as a scientist to uncover the truth about all this.
There are certainly beliefs in traditional Buddhism that conflict with basic principles of scientific understanding, .. We can't make sense of those beliefs in any kind of scientific framework.
