Neurobiology of Mindfulness

8/22/2019 Neurobiology of Mindfulness

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The National Institutefor the Clinical Applicationof Behavioral Medicine

nicabmwww.nicabm.com

Neurodharma:How to Train the Brain

toward Mindfulness

A Teleseminar Session with

Rick Hanson, PhD

and Ruth Buczynski, PhD


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The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicinewww.nicabm.com

Neurodharma: How to Train the Brain toward Mindfulness 2

A complete transcript of a Teleseminar Session

featuring Rick Hanson, PhD and conducted by Ruth Buczynski, PhD of NICABM

Neurodharma: How to Train the Brain toward Mindfulness

Contents

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Benets of Mindfulness on the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

How Mindfulness Makes a Difference in Your Skills as a Practitioner . . . . . . . . . 9

How Cultivating Equanimity Can Enhance the Treatment of Trauma . . . . . . . . 10How Mindfulness Can Overcome Evolutions Paranoid Trance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The Two Wings of Psychological Growth and Contemplative Practice. . . . . . . . 17

TalkBack with Ronald Siegel, PsyD and Elisha Goldstein, PhD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19


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Neurodharma: How to Train the Brain toward Mindfulness

with Rick Hanson, PhDand Ruth Buczynski, PhD

Dr. Buczynski:Hello everyone. Id like to get started, and rst I just want to welcome you to this brandnew series on how mindfulness rewires the brain. Im Dr. Ruth Buczynski, a licensed psychologist in

the state of Connecticut and President of the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral

Medicine. And Im so glad that youre here.

You are here along with thousands of other practitioners from all over the world tonight. We have

people calling in from just about every time zone. I just want to welcome everyone - particularly those

of you who are listening at inconvenient times. Its important to bring our practitioner community

together, so thank you for making the effort to be a part of this program.

We also represent a wide range of professions. We are physicians, nurses and psychologists, social

workers, marriage and family counselors and mental health counselors. We are nurse practitioners,physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists and dietitians. Were chiropractors,

body workers, massage therapists, energy practitioners, stress management consultants and coaches.

And some of the folks on the call tonight, you may not be any of the professions I just listed - you might

be a lay person and I just want you to know, were glad youre here as well, youre very welcome to be a

part of this call.

Now, were trying something very new at the end of the series tonight and every night as a part of this

series. It is our TalkBack segment. We put out a survey a few weeks ago, and so many of you gave us

great questions and they were specically oriented on how you can use mindfulness in your clinical

practice. And thats why we developed this specic segment. So be sure to stay until the very end when

I will be joined by Dr. Ron Siegel and Dr. Elisha Goldstein. They are both psychologists and seasoned,long time meditators, and theyll be talking about the specic applications to what Rick is going to talk

about tonight.

My guest is Dr. Rick Hanson. He is a favorite of many of us. He is also a psychologist and we know him

from the past as the author of the Buddhas Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and

Wisdom. But I am happy to report that he has just released a new book, Just One Thing: Developing a

Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time. And so Rick, welcome to the call.

So, lets jump right in. Id like to start by asking you what might seem like a strange question, but over

half the people on this call tonight are psychotherapists. Probably about 60% are psychotherapists, and

maybe about 40% are physicians and nurses outside psychiatry But for the psychotherapists, why doyou think they need to understand the neurological basis of mindfulness? Whats in it for them to do

that?


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The Neuroscience of Mindfulness

Dr. Hanson: Its a great question. Its funny I actually wrote an essay recently called The Brain: So What?

You are right; the brain is really big these days. So many conferences in the psychotherapy world are about

to bring, or are bringing in neuroscience, and its really exciting.

On the other hand, I think a fair amount of old wine is in new bottles there, as well as some signicant

pitfalls. Maybe what I can do is just say what the four main benets are for clinicians, particularly mentalhealth professionals, in bringing neuroscience into their world and then Ill mention some pitfalls as well.

I should add that these are the pitfalls that I stumbled into myself.

The number one benet is that when you neurologize, if you will, psychology, if you embed the mind in

the brain, which really means embedding it more broadly in the nervous system and other bodily systems

all together, and then embed it even further into nature, both here and now, in terms of the ecosystem and

all the rest of the ways in which we are an animal species among other plant and animal species, then its

also embedding the mind in evolutionary time, in terms of how the brain evolved over time.

So, when you do that, you create the fundamental organizing

framework that crosses all disciplines. I think that sometimes theworld of therapy is like the Tower of Babel with all these different

traditions and approaches that use different languages, have different

truth claims and all the rest of that.

But if you ground it in the brain, at the end of the day, it has to make

sense in terms of the brain. The brain constrains whats possible and

also opens up doors of possibility there. So, it creates the organizing

framework.

As an individual therapist, it also gives you a way to think about your client. A lot of the time we are not

thinking about the brain, and thats perfectly ne. But from time to time, its important to really thinkabout whats happening in the brain right now sitting across from me and what the factors are in the brain

right here that are creating difculties for this person, and how I can help them use their mind alone to the

power of self-directed neuroplasticity and use their mind alone to change whats happening in their brain

in a more positive direction. I think thats a good organizing framework.

The second benet is motivating. It motivates clients to think that this is

physical. Ill stick my neck out here and say that in my little corner of the

world, in my own practice, talking about the brain, making it physical,

making it concrete, making mental activity, making the mumbo-jumbo of

psychology physical, embodied and so forth, its good for everybody. But

in my own populations that I work with, its particularly persuasive to menand teenagers. So I nd that if I can talk about the brain with them, Im

more likely to get them to listen, or to take it in, or to actually do good

practices in the hundred and sixty-seven hours of the week when theyre

not in my ofce, lets say, for their own good.

Also, I think, frankly, its motivating to us as therapists. Freud called this the impossible profession, and

his tongue was only partly in cheek when he said that, because theres some seriousness about it. Its hard

How can I help(clients) use theirmind alone tochange whatshappening in theirbrain in a morepositive direction?

If I can talkabout the brainmore concretely,Im more likely

to get them tolisten or to takeit in...


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work. I think its a noble even heroic undertaking to work with

people and work with their suffering, right there in the trenches. It

can help motivate us as therapists and reduce burnout to appreciate

the fact that what we are doing is actually leading to lasting changes

in their brain.

Then more broadly, I think, frankly, policy makers and insurance

carriers are going to be more willing to pay for services that actuallyproduce physical changes in the tissues of the body, in an ultimate sense. So, motivating is another benet.

The third benet is that when you bring the brain into account, when you put it center stage, out of the

10,000 tools in the therapists warehouse, it highlights the ones that really, really matter. In terms of the

third benet, it doesnt necessarily invent new tools, but it shows what really matters. For example, theres

the emphasis lately through neuroscience on non-verbal processes, on the importance of working with the

body. I think its been something thats really come in, in large part, through neuroscience.

Its not that working with the body, taking the body into account is new, because Reich was working with

that, Jung was working with that 60-80 years ago. Bioenergetics was working with that 40-50 years ago.

But we now understand the importance of taking the body into

account, some of the original, even early tools in psychology, like

Jungs work with imagery or dealing with the very deep layers of the

psyche in terms of archetypes, archetypal images and so forth. We

are really coming to appreciate why they are so important.

Another one is dealing with implicit memory, particularly when

you are working with trauma or pain. Its so important to get at the

felt registration of lived experience thats not memory for explicit

events, but rather the residues in the bones. So thats the third benet

highlighting what matters the most.

Then the fourth benet is just beginning to show promise, and thats where neuroscience actually suggests

innovative new methods. Neurofeedback is an example of that. Its developing as methodology and getting

increasingly rigorous, scientically based and effective. Another method that has been really informed by

neuroscience is somatic experiencing, including Peter Levines work. There are other methods as well, that

are just emerging, having to deal with helping, in effect, erase or reduce fear learning, or trauma learning.

So I think those are the four benets that come from bringing the brain into the clinicians ofce.

The pitfalls, on the other hand, are real. I think we have to be

careful about oversimplifying. For example, theres a lot more toempathy than mirror neurons. We have to be careful about over-

localizing function, like The amygdala made me do it.

When we oversimplify, we also have to be careful about using

neuro words that dont add any information value. When you

say, I got mad, or My amygdala red up, Im not sure weve

Its a noble evenheroic undertakingto work with peopleand work with theirsuffering...

We now understandthe importance oftaking the bodyinto account...neuroscience actuallysuggests innovativenew methods.

We have to be carefulabout oversimplifying...using neuro wordsthat dont add anyinformation value...


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added any value to, My amygdala red up. Just saying that alone

doesnt add any particular information.

Also, I think we have to be careful about using brain science to claim

authority. In America, the secular religion is science. So as soon as

you can get scientic or you sound medical, you put that white coat

on. We have to be a little careful about that. One of the examples of

that is taking familiar concepts, relabeling them in a neurologizedway and then acting as if youve discovered something new.

I know sometimes I nd that especially if Im tired or Ive had a long day working with clients, and I just

want to get them to do something helpful for themselves sometimes I reach for that neurologizedword

or brain claim. The truth is Im doing it just to claim authority. So I think we have to be careful about that.

So that may be an excessively long answer here - I hope not - but thats something to think about, the pros

and the cons of bringing brain science into psychotherapy.

Dr. Buczynski:: Thats great. Thats a good foundation for getting us started, and hopefully we are going

to simplify and yet do justice to these concepts. I agree that you can oversimplify, neurologize things,sound smart and not really make it anything that people can use. Im hoping today that everyone, as they

are leaving our session, is leaving with ideas of what they can do differently with their patients tomorrow.

With that said, lets jump back into looking now specically at how mindfulness affects the brain.

The Benets of Mindfulness on the Brain

Dr. Hanson: Actually, if people have an interest in that short essay I wrote, they can go to my website

www.BuddhasBrain.com and then just search for The Brain: So What?That will pull up the essay I

wrote in The Wise Brain Bulletin, which is a non-prot institute I founded

Well, if you are doing mindfulness practices in general and then meditation in particular, how does it

change the brain? We can look at some of the high points.

It changes the brain momentarily in terms of the brain states and

it also changes the brain in enduring ways overtime in terms of

traits. So why dont we just talk about those.

If a person is momentarily mindful, typically they are activating

the anterior, which means the frontal cingulate cortex part of the

brain. Its a part of the brain thats cortex. Its not subcortical.

Its in the center of the brain. There are two of them, becausethe brain is symmetrically bilateral. So theres one on each side,

although the convention is to talk about them as the, in the

singular voice, the anterior cingulate cortex.

Anyway, thats the part of the brain that does the executive control of attention. So, if the person is

deliberately paying attention, thats what we are doing when we are mindful.

We have to be carefulabout using brainscience to claimauthority, takingfamiliar concepts and

relabeling them.

Mindfulness practicesin general andthen meditation inparticular...changesthe brain momentarilyin terms of the brain

states and changes thebrain in enduring waysin terms of traits.


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That goes to Jon Kabat-Zinns denition of mindfulness. For example, it

is a deliberate use of attention in a particular kind of way. When we are

deliberately attentive, we are lighting up the anterior cingulate cortex.

That part of the brain is also very important for other functions as well,

such as integrating thinking and feeling, which is a very important

aspect, of course, of doing therapy. This gets at one of the benets of

thinking about the brain, because you realize that you can, in effect, doreverse engineering.

For example, if you want to help a client be able to bring clarity of thought into their feelings when they

are upset, or alternately, if you want to help a client bring warm-heartedness and wisdom of emotions into

lets say, for a person who is way too much in his/her head then its great to build up neural structure

in the anterior cingulate cortex.

A way to build that neural structure in the anterior cingulate cortex

is for a person to be deliberately mindful. Even though they are

deliberately mindful, they are not necessarily integrating thinking

and feeling, they are still building up neural tissues, because inthe famous saying from the work of psychologist Donald Hebb,

Neurons that re together wire together.

So, if you are using a part of the brain through mental activity that activates that part of the brain namely,

if you, through mental activity of mindfulness, are stimulating the anterior cingulate cortex, then you are

going to be building up neural tissues there. So, this has a dual purpose. It can also help a person, as in the

example Im giving here, integrate thinking and feeling. So thats very cool.

Additionally, Richard Davidson found this in the studies that

he did that people who are routinely mindful get increased

activation in the left prefrontal cortex compared to the rightprefrontal cortex, which is associated with more positive

emotions.

That makes sense, because the left prefrontal cortex puts

the brakes on the amygdale. In effect, it puts the brakes on

negative affect. So if you stimulate the brakes on the negative

affect, you are going to get more positive emotion.

So those are two things that I think are present in the brain when a person is mindful.

Then, of course, theres a question of what they are mindful of. When most people are doing mindfulnesspractices in a formal way, they are often tuning into their own body. When you do that, you are activating

the insula again, there are two of them, but they are usually spoken of in a singular which is the part of

the brain inside the temporal lobes on either side of the brain.

The insula does interoception. It tracks the internal state of the body, like the sensations of cool air going

in and warm air going out, or the movements of the joints, or the deeper layers of gut feelings. Its very

Mindfulness...is adeliberate use ofattention...we aredeliberately lightingup the anterior

cingulate cortex.

The mental activityof mindfulness buildsneural structure in

the anterior cingulatecortex.

When most peopleare doing mindfulnesspractices in a formal way,they are often tuning intotheir own body.


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involved in self-awareness. Its where a lot of information comes

together that gives the person that feeling of being, what its like to

be me right here and now.

So when the person is mindful of the breath, or mindful of body

sensations, or just tuning in to gut feelings, or bringing the deeper

layers of gut feelings into spacious awareness, they are activating the

insula. Those are examples of state benets.

Now, trait changes in the actual brain also track these state changes, because neurons that re together wire

together. For example, theres a wonderful study by Sara Lazar. She showed that people, who have long-

term mindfulness practices, in terms of meditation, which is the epitome of really focused mindfulness,

actually had thicker cortical tissues, in both the executive regions of the prefrontal cortex that are involved

in controlling attention, which integrate with the anterior cingulate cortex, as well as in the insula.

In other words, the bottom line was that by activating

mindfulness practices routinely, getting those neurons to

re together so they wire together, they literally did wire

together in ways that were measurable in brain scans, inboth the parts of the brain that deal with the control of

attention, as well as the part of the brain the insula that is

very involved in self-awareness, particularly self-awareness

of the deeper layers of the psyche, mainly body sensations

and emotions.

Interestingly, I should add as another example of this dual purpose idea, the insula is also very involved

in empathy for the emotions of other people. So by tuning in to your own body sensations and your own

gut feelings in a regular way, you build up physically, you thicken the cortical tissues that are involved in

both self-awareness and in empathy for other people.

A third benet of long-term practice and this is particularly the case for real long-term practice of

mindfulness and particularly meditation is that it is a trait, a stable trait. Even when a person is not

specically meditating or doing mindfulness practice, they have more gamma wave activity in the brain.

Gamma waves are the signs of large coalitions, large assemblies of neurons, ring together very fast. The

gamma wave range is 30 to 80 rings per second.

If you think about it, when you have a lot of gamma wave

activity, you are getting a lot of integration across major

sulci of the brain. So if a person is dropping increasingly

into that gamma wave state, theyre experiencing more of the

unication of awareness, more of the integration of the brain.

Plus, they are promoting learning. Because neurons that re

together wire together, they have to re together within a few

milliseconds, within a few thousands of a second.

If neurons are ring 5 times a second, there are a lot of ways

that they can mismatch, not connect with each other. But,

The insula doesinteroception. Itgives the person thatfeeling of being...

People, who have long-term mindfulness practices

actually had thickercortical tissues, in both theexecutive regions of theprefrontal cortex...as wellas in the insula.

By tuning in to your ownbody sensations and your

own gut feelings in aregular way, you physicallythicken the cortical tissuesthat are involved in bothself-awareness and inempathy for other people.


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on the other hand, if neurons are ring 30, 50, even 80 times a

second, they are more likely to be ring together and therefore

beginning to wire together. That wiring together, of course, is

learning.

So, if we want to help our clients learn which is what we want

to do in therapy, we want the insights, the hard won lessons, the

realizations and breakthroughs stick to their ribs if we wantthat to happen, in terms of the neurology of that happening, we

want to promote the executive control of attention, we want to

promote a growing capacity to tune into themselves, and we also

want to promote gamma wave activity that creates integration and learning. All three of those are promoted

through mindfulness practices, including the building up of the material structures that promote them.

How Mindfulness Makes a Difference in Your Skills as a Practitioner

Dr. Buczynski: Thank you. That was a very thorough, very great overview. Lets focus a little bit on

psychotherapists, or really lets broaden that to any practitioner. Lets say its a nurse on a surgical ward,or a physical therapist, or a physician whos an oncologist, or a surgeon. How might mindfulness make a

difference in their skill, their ability to do their job?

Dr. Hanson: Thats a great question.

Before I forget, I should just say that some of these MRI pictures that Im

describing about different parts of the brain activating in a state way and

also getting thicker in a trait way are on my website.

I offer the material there very freely. I have slide sets from a number of talks and workshops that Ive given

that show these pictures. People can download them as PDFs and distribute them freely. Im ne with allthat.

So anyway, if they want to see some of these, just go to the slide sets on my website and youll see where

the insula is literally getting thicker. That is very neat. I get off on that. My kids know Im a nerd. I wear

my nerd badge proudly!

I think Ronald Siegel and others have written very beautifully about how mindfulness is helpful to the

medical or mental healthcare practitioner. One of the things is that it gives us a way to hold the suffering

that we work with on a daily basis in a bigger space of awareness.

Theres a traditional metaphor thats really neat here. If you take a

big spoonful of salt and pour it into a cup of water, stir it and then

drink it, it will taste awful. But if you take that same amount of salt

same amount of suffering, lets say and you pour it into a clean

bucket of water and stir it around, let alone pour it into a clean

mountain pond and stir it around and then drink from that, youll

hardly taste the salt at all.

If we want to helpour clients learn, wewant to promote theexecutive control of

attention...

Mindfulness...givesus a way to hold thesuffering that wework with on a dailybasis in a biggerspace of awareness.

Learning is thewiring together ofneurons.


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Its the same amount of salt, its the same amount of suffering, but its

held in a much bigger space. So when we ourselves, as practitioners, as

clinicians, engage in whats happening mindfully, we are holding it in a

much bigger space.

To use a different analogy, its a little bit like a dark cloud in a vast sky.

Yes, there are dark clouds; they come and they go. But the sky itself is

vast and boundless; it has no edges. The sky itself awareness itself isnever stained or tainted or harmed by whatever passes through it.

Its a little bit like a TV screen. There may be beautiful pictures on that TV screen or awful pictures on

that TV screen. But the TV screen itself is never harmed by what passes through it. So I think thats one

major benet of mindfulness for the practitioner.

The second benet is that when you are mindful, you are going

to see more. You are going to pick up more details. You are

going to read facial expressions more subtly. You are going to

hear tone of voice. You are going to put two and two together

in a new kind of way.

Also, we are not just mindful of the other; we are mindful of

ourselves in this kind of self-object, object-relation, dualistic

not in a bad sense dualistic, but in a paired kind of way. We

are tuning into our own counter-transference as well as seeing

whats happening out there. When we open up mindfully to

information, data coming from inside ourselves, it also can

help us to be a better healthcare practitioner.

I think theres a lot of literature on the benets of mindfulness for practitioners, growing trainings in that

regard and research studies on it. I just think its very exciting.

We live in a really exciting time in this regard, because I think mindfulness has made such a huge difference

in mental health and physical health elds. I know physicians now I have friends who are training people

at places like Harvard Medical School and a fair amount of what they are doing is they are bringing in

mindfulness practices even at that highest level.

How Cultivating Equanimity Can Enhance the Treatment of Trauma

Dr. Buczynski: Lets now focus a little bit on the treatment of trauma and how cultivating equanimity can

enhance the treatment of trauma.

Dr. Hanson: Well, lets clarify a few things here before diving in. Theres a lot of research and practice

with regard to treating trauma, and theres no way to summarize all that. I wont even attempt to.

Secondly, with regard to equanimity, its a funny word. It almost sounds boring. In Buddhism, which is

training that Im most familiar with, in addition to Western psychology, equanimity actually has a very

important, almost technical meaning. Thats the way in which Im going to use it here if I could.

The sky itself awareness itself is never stained ortainted or harmedby whatever passes

through it.

When you are mindful,you are going to see

more...pick up moredetails...read facialexpressions and...heartone of voice...put twoand two together in anew kind of way.


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I want to make a distinction between calm and equanimity.

If we are calm, we are not having any reactions. If we are

equanomous, we are not reacting to our reactions. In other

words, if you think of it going to the metta level, we are able

to be with the reactions emerging in the mind without getting

affected by them.

An analogy for me about that is to think about mudrooms that they have in New England and maybe otherparts of the country. If you come in from the outside, theres this initial entry way, where you drop your

muddy boots, your dripping overcoat, the skis, the snow shovel and your dog toys you drop it all there.

Then when you go into the house proper, into the living room, you dont carry that stuff with you. Its in

the house, right?

So, by analogy, these painful reactions are in awareness, but they

dont cross over the threshold. Theres a kind of shock absorber

there, and they dont cross over the threshold and get into the core

of the persons being. So thats what I mean here when I talk about

equanimity.

In other words, painful memories are arising, or painful emotions are

there, or there are thoughts or view points or beliefs in the mind that

are horrible, like worthlessness or despair, and yet with equanimity,

those can be held in a great deal of distance.

So then the question becomes: how to help a person to actually do that. This gets very interesting in terms

of the brain, because to some extent the brain did not evolve to be equanomous. In effect, the brain evolved

to be traumatized.

If you think about very harsh and often lethal conditions in which our

ancestors evolved over millions of years, in those environments beingable to learn once and learn intensely (from a painful experience that one

somehow escaped from) was a great way to pass on gene copies.

It was a great way to help our ancestors survive. I think thats a useful

perspective when we think about trauma to really appreciate the degree

to which the brain is hardwired, in effect, to be traumatized. So weve got

our work cut out.

So, to have a brain thats equanomous, to have a brain that is having these painful thoughts, or emotions, or

body sensations, and yet is not reacting to them in words of the Buddha, they are not invading the mind

and remaining thats unusual. Thats not typical brain behavior. So how do we get the brain to do that?

To that end, Ive actually written a chapter on that in my book,

because its so interesting. How in the world do you help the brain be

equanomous? The key is mindfulness. So Im going to name a few

keys here.

If we are equanomous,we are not reacting toour reactions...

Painful reactions arein awareness, butthey dont cross

over the threshold...into the core of thepersons being.

...the brain didnot evolve to beequanomous;the brainevolved to betraumatized.

How in the worlddo you helpthe brain beequanomous?


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One key is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity to step

back from, and observe, and be present with the painful mental

content a body sensation of being choked, or a thought of

worthlessness, or despair about the future.

To be able to be mindfully aware of that without getting sucked

into it thats absolutely square one, absolutely central. If you

cant do that, you cant hold things in equanimity. Theyveinvaded your living room; they are not in the mudroom anymore.

The second thing is overtime to down-regulate the amygdala. Its interesting that in the limbic system in

general, the amygdala is the alarm bell of the brain and is primed unfortunately to react to negative

information because thats what typically had the most impact on survival.

For example, if you dont get a carrot today, you probably have

a chance to get a carrot tomorrow. But if you failed to avoid a

stick today whap! no more carrots forever. About two thirds

of the cells in the amygdala are designed to track unpleasant

experiences, because thats where the really important stuff is interms of survival. Anyway, my point here is that the second way to

create equanimity is to calm that amygdala reactive system.

One of the great ways to do it is through the mindfulness practice of

noting. Theres been actually a series of studies and an interesting

recent study showed that simply labeling mental contents and

doing no more than that not trying to have insight into them, not trying to do any kind of cognitive

therapy technique of altering wrong thoughts, just simply labeling whats there like fear, sorrow, back in

Vietnam, the awful uncle, despair, anger, rage, pain

Just labeling, activates prefrontal cortex and strengthens it (because neurons that re together wiretogether) and down-regulates the amygdaleThat happens with just verbal noting. Thats cool and so

very powerful.

There are other practices as well. I think, in general, training the

body to tip into a parasympathetic pattern of activation is also

very important. To say something thats probably familiar to most

people on the call is thatthe body-mind and brain basically has

the autonomic nervous system as part of the peripheral nervous

system that regulates moment-to-moment responses to changing

conditions.

That autonomic nervous system has two major wings to it. Its

the sympathetic nervous system, which is the ght-or-ight stress

response system, and then the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and digest system

thats restorative, regenerative and replenishing.

Anyone whos been traumatized has had massive amounts of sympathetic nervous system activation

with its associated endocrine system hormonal cascades of stress hormones like cortisol, norepinephrine,

One key is mindfulness...to step back from, andobserve, and be presentwith the painful mentalcontent.

We want to down-regulate the amygdala

and then, to createequanimity, we needto calm the amygdalasreactive system.

Just simply labelingwhats there...activatesprefrontal cortex andstrengthens it, anddown-regulates theamygdala...


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adrenaline and so forth, and is probably in a state of fairly chronic sympathetic/stress hormone activation.

To balance that, its very powerful to activate an ongoing inclination toward parasympathetic activation.

There are multiple ways to help a person increasingly ground in

parasympathetic activation. Herbert Benson and others have talked

about the relaxation response in ways to increasingly train it in the

body-mind.

Also, for example, the simple things, like long exhalations, will

light up the parasympathetic nervous system, because it handles

exhaling while the sympathetic nervous system handles inhaling.

For example, when we inhale, the heart rate speeds up a little. Thats sympathetic activation. When we

exhale, the heart rate goes down a little bit. Thats parasympathetic activation.

Another way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system is relaxing the tongue. I love these little

quick methods that are also private; no one needs to know you are doing them.

Since the rest and digest system has its nerve bers innervating or going into the mouth because thats

the beginning of digesting, if you relax your tongue, thats a nice secret way to get some parasympatheticactivation.

So, those are all ways to down-regulate the overly activated and overly sensitized amygdala, alarm bell,

limbic system response.

Then, well nish here by naming the third method for helping the

brain to be equanomous, and thats mainly usable with people with

trauma experience. I should add that none of these go at the trauma

directly. I think that a very important part of trauma treatment is to

build up resources around the trauma. Hippocrates said a long time

ago, First of all, do no harm.

I think its important to be quite careful about approaching trauma, because frankly those memories are

like a black hole. They can often just suck people in. If theres nothing thats gained by revisiting a painful

memory, you are just doing another lap in hell. Every time you lap around that track neurons that re

together wire together you are deepening the grooves, one little bit each time. So I think that speaks to

the importance of it.

If you are going to go at that trauma, go in there really prepared by building up resources around it through

some of the methods that Im naming.

Then the last one about the equanimity is the method that has to be

used a little bit carefully, but its to appreciate the sense that other

people are with you and they care about you. We are deeply social

animals. Theres a major area of science thats under the general

umbrella heading of social brain theories. That includes the idea

that broadly dened love has really driven the evolution of the brain

over the last 80 million years or so, especially over the last 5 million

There are multipleways to help a personincreasingly ground

in parasympatheticactivation.

A very important partof trauma treatment isto build up resourcesaround the trauma.

...be quite carefulabout approachingtrauma, becausefrankly thosememories are like ablack hole.


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years or so of hominid, then early human, and then modern

human evolution.

Its through the power of relationships that our ancient ancestors,

going all the way back to primates and even further back to the

rst mammals, raised their young and formed pair bonds to

raise their young. Its through relationship skills, social skills

that our ancient ancestors attained what is called reproductiveadvantage. I love that phrase; its a funny phrase. But they

attained reproductive advantage which is the fundamental engine

of biological evolution.

So, the experience of being cared about, cared for, is so important. These experiences include, in mild

ways, people that are friendly to you at the deli, or people you work with that are kind to you or invite you

back, or animal companions, pets, for example, or memories of people who gave them the sense of being

cared about, or spiritual beings, angels, guardian angels, fairy godmothers, the divine itself, to the extent

that thats meaningful for a person.

Those are all ways to feel cared about and that is a very important and powerful way thats deeply rootedin evolutionary neuropsychology to activate resource systems inside the brain, and therefore, the mind can

help a person be more equanomous and bear the trauma reactivation without being overwhelmed by it.

How Mindfulness Can Overcome Evolutions Paranoid Trance

Dr. Buczynski:Now, youve touched on this already, but lets

bring in here evolutions paranoid trance, if you will.

Dr. Hanson:Yes, I call itpaper tiger paranoia.

Dr. Buczynski:Yes. Evolutionarily speaking, that is going on

for everyone. But lets think about a person who is a trauma

survivor. They have an extra layer of that. I want to back up then

and give you a chance to explain what we even mean when we

say evolutions paranoid trance.

Dr. Hanson:Right. I think where were heading here, as clinicians, is to really appreciate the power of

being resourceful or being nimble, and using different methods in a targeted way that are aimed at the

underlying neural substrate.

Heres an example, and this is one I gave previously

about three different ways to build up the neural substrate

of equanimity. If you are trying to get more prefrontal

activation and more action going on there thats separated

and differentiated from the limbic system, a very powerful

way to build up those prefrontal systems, including the

anterior cingulate cortex, is through mindfulness practices

and verbal noting.

Its through relationshipskills that our ancientancestors attained whatis called reproductiveadvantage...

The mind can helpa person be more

equanomous and bearthe trauma reactivationwithout beingoverwhelmed by it.

A very powerful way to buildup those prefrontal systems,is through mindfulnesspractices and verbal noting.


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Also, for example, if you are trying to down-regulate the amygdala system and the alarm bell system its

involved with, if you want to build up the neural substrate of parasympathetic activation, thats a great

way to do that.

If you want to build up the neural substrate of these very

comforting, soothing attachment circuits, that are deeply

woven into the fabric of our being they have to do with

relationship skills and the power of love over evolution tokeep our grandbabies alive then you are going to call to

mind and encourage clients to call to mind the sense of being

cared about.

But those are just examples of this larger point Im making,

which Ill pursue further with this idea of the paranoid trance

and paper tiger paranoia and all that. We can be very nimble

and effective in new kinds of ways with the insights of neuroscience.

So, with regard to paper tiger paranoia, theres been a lot of research thats been done on whats called the

negativity bias. You can go to Wikipedia and look up the negativity bias. Itll take you to different paperson it. If you put that into my own website, youll pull up a lot of different resources about that, including

major scientic papers on the subject.

Its the idea that carrots and sticks are important. Weve got to get rewards, weve got to get food, weve

got to get mates, weve got to get shelter those are the carrots in evolution. Then, there are the subtler

carrots these days, Maslows hierarchy, such as feelings of self-worth.

On the other hand, we also have to avoid the sticks. We have to avoid

predators; we have to avoid aggression in our primate band; we have

to avoid natural hazards; we have to avoid pain.

Well, those are important. But as I said a little while ago, if you miss

a carrot today, you probably have a chance to get one tomorrow, but

if you fail to avoid a stick, then there are no more carrots forever.

There are many examples of the ways in which the brain has bias toward scanning for negative information,

focusing on it when its present, ignoring the good news wrapped around it, and then storing that negative

experience very deeply in just one trial learning.

For example, humans and other animals learn much more quickly from pain than we do from pleasure. If

you teach a rat to not go down a particular tunnel, you only have to shock it once when it goes down that

tunnel. But to train it to go down another tunnel, that has cheese, lets say, youve got to send it down thattunnel a few times at least before it really remembers that thats where the cheese is.

Lastly, in terms of the negativity bias, we are very easily

triggered around negative memory, particularly negative

implicit memory, not memory so much for recollections of

particular events, but rather memory for the experience of

If you miss a carrottoday, you probably have

a chance to get onetomorrow, but if you failto avoid a stick, thenthere are no more carrotsforever.

We can be verynimble and effective

in new kinds of wayswith the insights ofneuroscience.

We are very easily triggeredaround negative memory,particularly negativeimplicit memory.


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living, deep down, below the waterline, which also includes implicit memory, such as expectations,

response biases, and things like that.

So, thats the negativity bias. There are lots of examples of it in

the clinical world. For example, John Gottmans ndings that on

the average it takes about ve positive interactions in a couple to

make up for a single negative one. Negative interactions are ve

times as powerful, on the average and for the average couple, asthe positive interactions.

Another example is Seligmans ndings that its really easy to train dogs, and by extension, humans, in

helplessness. It only takes a handful of trials to train a dog into a sense of futility and depression. But

it takes many, dozens and dozens, sometimes over a hundred trials to re-train that dog that it can do

something about its fate.

We are vulnerable to the negativity bias and as a result we develop this kind of paranoid trance. If you

think about it, there are two kinds of mistakes a person can make in life. They can either think there is a

tiger in the bushes when there really isnt one, or they can think there is no tiger in the bushes, but there

actually is one about to pounce.

Mother Nature wants us to make that rst mistake a thousand

times over to avoid making that second mistake even once.

If we make that second mistake once wham! Its a lethal

consequence and we dont pass on our genes.

As a result, people routinely overestimate threats,

underestimate opportunities and underestimate resources for

dealing with threats and dealing with opportunities. Thats

theparanoid trance.That happens at the level of individuals,

it happens in couples, it happens in groups, and frankly, aswe see throughout the world today, it happens in terms of

international relations.

So what can we do about it? How do we wake up frompaper tiger paranoia? I think really appreciating

the power of anxiety and the power of threat reactivity is very useful for a clinician.

It also helps to educate and to motivate our clients, and that goes

back to some of the benets of the brain, bringing brain science

into clinical practice. It really helps to educate our clients or our

patients in the power of this negativity bias and the power of

threat reactivity, so they can appreciate the ways in which theyare routinely overestimating the threats around them and they are

underestimating their opportunities and their resources. So thats

point one in terms of a practical step.

Just seeing this threat reactivity and educating ourselves and the people we work with about it is itself very,

very powerful. Then you can go to work correcting it by really helping people see through or challenge

their beliefs about the threats, the bad news thats around them, and also helping people see more clearly

For the average couple,negative interactions areve times as powerful as

positive interactions.

Within theparanoidtrance, people routinelyoverestimate threatsand underestimateopportunities...

Really appreciating thepower of anxiety andthe power of threatreactivity is very usefulfor a clinician.


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and feel emotionally in their body more deeply the opportunities and the resources that are around them

as well. For me, those are two very powerful paths for people.

Id say the last one and Ive personally taken it on is in a traditional phrase give no one cause to fear

you. In other words, Ive come to appreciate more and more how vulnerable we are to feeling afraid, how

hard it is to walk across the living room, let alone a busy street or a mall, without feeling a single molecule

of anxiety, subtle anxiety in particular.

When we really appreciate how hard that might be, then

when we approach others our colleagues, our friends

and family, and certainly our clients or patients we are

going to be more mindful of avoiding unnecessary ways of

stimulating anxiety in them.

We are going to be more mindful of doing little appropriate

things, not walking on egg shells, not being a doormat, but

doing little appropriate things to help others to feel safer

around us.

Its in doing little things with our clients and patients that we help

them get into feelings of relative safety. If a person is not really

grounded in the sense of relative safety, its really hard for them to be

mindful, because they are vigilant.

If theyre not feeling safe, theyre going to be putting tons of resources

into scanning the world in this jumpy, skittery, paranoid way, which

interrupts and disrupts their capacity to bring attention inward and

tune into themselves in a mindful kind of way.

The Two Wings of Psychological Growth and Contemplative Practice

Dr. Buczynski:Rick, youve written about two wings of psychological growth and contemplative practice.

Dr. Hanson:We are going into some deep stuff here. This is great!

Dr. Buczynski:Yes. Well, I thought it was pretty critical and could be useful to our listeners, to the

practitioners on the call. Can we touch on that some?

Dr. Hanson:Sure, absolutely. So I think the two wings are being with the contents of mind and working

with the contents of mind. Both are really, really important.

My concern to some extent is that with all the focus on mindfulness

thats come in both through the spiritual traditions, particularly

Buddhism in the last 20 years or so, as well as the wave of focus

on mindfulness-based methods in psychotherapy and some of the

non-dual teachings that some people might be familiar with which

are embedded in things like acceptance and commitment therapy, as

well as in other teachings

When we really appreciatehow hard it is for clients tofeel safe, were going to bemore mindful of avoidingunnecessary ways ofstimulating anxiety in them.

If a person is notreally grounded inthe sense of relativesafety, its reallyhard for them to bemindful...

The two wings arebeing with thecontents of mindand working with thecontents of mind.


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And as result of all that, we are really focusing on one of the two wings, which is to say being with whats

there or being mindful of whats there, and underestimating and turning our backs on a lot of collective

wisdom in the eld of psychotherapy or, more broadly, in thousands of years of practices for both mental

or spiritual development that deals with actually working actively with the contents of mind.

And sometimes it works. Lets say, for example, a painful feeling

arises. Its a feeling of sadness, or loss, or feeling of abandonment

in a current relationship where your partner has ended it andthose feelings of abandonment in the here and now have been

amplied and turbo charged by older feelings of abandonment,

lets say, related to a difcult childhood experiences. So there

you are with those feelings; they are there. Those are contents

of mind.

Its really important to be with them, to hold them in a very

large space of mindfulness. Sometimes that alone is enough.

Sometimes that alone allows those painful feelings to shift and

move. You give them room to breathe and they change overtime, or a person gets a comfortable distance

from them and thats enough. And these feelings dont come up again, or they dont come up so intensely

or so often. Thats great.

But on the other hand, it doesnt always work that way. Very often

these feelings come up and they just sit there, like an unwelcomed

guest thats just sitting on the living room couch and theyre not

going to leave. What do you do?

Thats where working with them really comes in. To me, working

with the contents of mind is subdivided further, divided further into

two main phases of letting go and letting in. In other words, practices

that release and work with releasing difcult contents of mind.

For example, there are relaxation techniques or cognitive techniques that dispute negativistic thoughts,

or there are emotional methods that release painful contents of mind through venting or through other

practices, or we can use insight that sees into them and realizes that it was then and this is now,and a

person doesnt need to be so upset Those are practices around releasing.

Then there are also very important practices around replacing, not just letting go of whats painful or

dysfunctional, but also taking in, taking in the good, in other words. Its so important to build up an

internal resource state by replacing negative material with positive material.

So, for me, that is a way to think about and move from the twowings of psychological growth and healing to think of three

phases. First phase is to be with whats there. The second phase,

at just that right moment, is to start letting go or releasing whats

there. Then, in the third phase, we replace whats there. I think

of these three phases in six words let be, let go, let in. All of

them are really important.

You give painful feelingsroom to breathe andthey change overtime,or a person getscomfortable distancefrom them and thatsenough.

Working with thecontents of mind issubdivided further..into letting go andletting in.

Its so important to buildup an internal resourcestate by replacingnegative material withpositive material.


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People tend to have strength in one area or another. I was great at

letting gofor a long time. Then, when I came into the mindfulness

world, I really began to appreciate more the power and the

importance of letting be.

On the other hand, some people get stuck in letting beand they dont

take up arms against their oppressors, which live mainly inside their

own mind. Its important to get active inside the mind, to engagewise effort inside the mind, not just wise mindfulness inside the

mind, and go to work. Also, that includes, of course, replacing, or

letting in, or taking in the good to build the positive resource state.

Dr. Buczynski:Im sorry we are out of time already. It seems like we just started. I have taken tons of

notes here tonight, and Im sure many of the other people on the call have as well.

Rick, thank you so much! Your book is powerful. Your work is getting better and better. Thank you so

much for all that you do!

Dr. Hanson: I really appreciate that! I would just say I want to stay in kinship with everyone on this call.To me, the really important thing is to keep remembering that what we do makes a difference and to really

let it sink in viscerally. Knowledge about how what we are doing with peoples minds is actually sinking

into real change in their brains, and thats inspiring and really, really hopeful. So Im very happy about

that.

I really appreciate you, Ruth, for this call. Its a great call. You are really great at what you do, and I just

have a growing appreciation for NICABM as a wonderful organization.

Dr. Buczynski:Thank you Rick!

TalkBack with Ronald Siegel, PsyD and Elisha Goldstein, PhD

Dr. Buczynski: Okay, as I said at the very beginning, were starng a brand new segment tonight, this

is our TalkBack segment and were going to be focusing specically on clinical applicaons. Ive invited

two of my colleagues Dr. Ron Siegel and Dr. Elisha Goldstein to join me. They are licensed psychologists

as well as long me meditators. Well be focusing tonight and every night on applicaons to what weve

heard in clinical pracce.

So, geng started hello to you both Ron and Elisha. As we get started, weve all been listening to Rick

Hansons call, and one of the things I want us to focus on is something he said in the very beginning of his

call namely, How can I help paents use their mind alone to change whats happening in their brain in

a more posive direcon?

I guess the reason I want to start with that is I think that many praconers probably have the same

queson. So let me pose it to you now: How would you go about providing a praccal approach to

answer this queson?

Dr. Goldstein:You know, what I would say is, this touches on two of the fundamental pillars of mindfulness

which are learning how to pay aenon to our intenon. So it is about aenon and intenon.

Three phases in sixwords let be, letgo, let in. All of themare really important

to build the positiveresource state.


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What we are doing in helping paents use their minds to change what is happening in the brain in a more

posive direcon is helping them to get in touch with what are they intending to pay aenon to here.

So when we are being aware of what is happening in the present

moment, we can acvely choose to focus our aenon on what

we are intending to focus our aenon on but that comes rst

with a sense of awareness. So we are allowing ourselves to rst

get a sense of what are we wanng to be aware of, and how do

we pose a more kind aenon, a more compassionate aenon

maybe we are wanng to pay aenon on a sense of forgiveness,

so we are more kind of priming our minds toward what is good in

life.

Ron, what do you have to say about that?

Dr. Siegel: Yes, I think that is very much to the point. And, you know, it turns out what we are learning

about neuroplascity is that any acvity that we do more of with the mind develops the part of the

brain that corresponds to that. For example, if we were to develop more strength in our biceps by liing

weights, our biceps would become bigger and stronger, and the same thing happens with brain regions.So any acvity that we engage in, we are likely to strengthen

the capacity to engage in that acvity.

So much of this involves deliberately intending to focus

the mind in direcons that are helpful for sanity and that

includes things like being present, things like praccing leng

go, praccing aenon to gratude, praccing aenon to

moving toward that which is dicult rather than moving away

from or defending against dicult experience basically all

the dierent components of mindfulness pracce do change

the brain in that way.

Dr. Buczynski: One of the things that Rick talked about is how

our brains are biased towards negave thinking, and we see

that all the me, whether we are psychotherapists or whether

we are folks at the more medical end of the spectrum.

What people bring to us is generally some kind of a complaint -

some kind of complaint that is negave. How can we approach

helping them with this bias towards negavity? Are there

specic exercises that the praconers on the call could use to

help their paents rewire the negave brain?

Dr. Siegel: I think the crical piece involves actually psycho-educaon, and that means helping people to

understand that evoluonarily, our minds evolved to focus on negave experiences rather than posive

experiences; the idea that the mind is like Teon for good events and like Velcro for bad events because

that had enormous survival value.

Two of the fundamentalpillars of mindfulness

are learning how topay attention to outintention.

If we were to developmore strength in ourbiceps by lifting weights,our biceps wouldbecome stronger, andthe same thing happenswith brain regions.

All the differentcomponents ofmindfulness practice dochange the brain.


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Those of our ancestors who focused on the good stu and forgot about the bad stu, they werent

actually our ancestors. They died before having children. So we got the genes of the ones who focused

on the bad stu.

Just knowing that is enormously helpful to our clients or paents because then they can begin to idenfy

this process and begin very much in the CBT tradion to simply self-monitor, to simply watch how

oen the mind defaults to a kind of negave bias. And just seeing that, whether its through CBT pracce

or mindfulness pracce, helps to loosen its grip.

Dr. Buczynski: And, Ron, would be asking a paent to self-

monitor?

Dr. Siegel:Yes, well the way it would play out, in my experience

clinically, is to rst noce the negave bias as it is showing up

in the session, and then to contextualize it. Let the person see

that this negave bias is actually an automac, insnctual, and

natural human reacon but one that makes us miserable

and then invite them to start nocing that during the rest of

their day.

Dr. Goldstein: Let me just add a lile piece to this because what Ron is saying is absolutely correct on

how to help people take a step back and impersonalize these negave thoughts, and see them for what

they are just thoughts. Theyre just thoughts, not factstheyre these mental events that seem to lter

in and out of our brains, our minds.

And one of the ways I think, that is really helpful in kind of creang that space from these thoughts and

geng some freedom over them and Ron menoned the MBCT, mindfulness-based cognive therapy,

that Zindel Segal was a part of creang and one of the things that he did which I thought was great

and I have since taken into my pracce and run in my groups is created this thing called the Top Ten Hit

List which is really about, again, externalizing whatever my top ten automac negave thoughts are thatcome up.

When we externalize our negave thoughts, we get some distance from them, and all of a sudden, we

get some perspecve from them.

But what is so important in this is that it adds a level of

playfulness to it. So not only are we geng some space and

some perspecve from them, but now we are starng to not

take it so seriously. We stop idenfying with it so much, which

makes it easier to get that distance and that perspecve.

Dr. Buczynski: So, Elisha, teach us how you would introduce

that to a paent the concept of the Top Ten Hit list.

Dr. Goldstein: Well, the rst thing I would do is give them a sheet that looks at a whole list of automac

negave thoughts such as, Im never going to be good in this world. Whats the point? No one cares

about me. You know, all the various thoughts that go through our minds, parcularly when we are

Let the person see thatthis negative bias isactually an automatic,instinctual, and naturalhuman reaction - but onethat makes us miserable.

When we externalize ournegative thoughts, weget some distance andperspective from them.


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depressed and when we are not even depressed - when we are just kind of headed toward that

automac negavity bias. (By doing this) they get some sense of reference of what these are like.

A lot of people go through that list. I will have them check it o the ones they idenfy with and a lot

of people might say, Well, God, there are a lot of things that arent even onthis list that go through my

head that are automac negave thoughts.

And so from that, I have them create their own list, which is their Top Ten Hit list. Then I have them takethat list and put it somewhere that they can kind of see it whether its at work or at home, so that when

a thought comes up they can kind of reference it to this Top Ten Hit list. So it starts to kind of pair it with

a sense of playfulness.

So all of a sudden and the idea here is that eventually, when these thoughts come up, they will stop,

again, taking them so seriously because they start to pair it with a more playful nature, as well as

something they see as not just them. This is just a thought.

Dr. Buczynski: We used to do something very similar in Gestalt which worked especially good in a group,

but it didnt have to be done in a group seng, where we asked the person if there was something that

they were trying to... lets say some behavior or thought that was geng in their way we asked them tobrag about how good they were at it. You know, I can nd somebody is crical of me even when theyre

giving a compliment and so we would just ask them to go around the room and just brag to each

person another way that theyre an expert at, or that theyre especially good at something.

That might get out something that is not the same as your Top Ten, but another variaon on it.

Dr. Goldstein: Yes, basically what you are doing here is you are providing a sense of aikido you are

blending with the energy of the thought that is already going, which is an excellent way to go about it

and redirect it.

Dr. Buczynski: Okay, we only have me to look at one more thing So I think what I would like to talk

about is Ricks whole issue of trying to movate clients. And I am going to guess that many, many people

probably almost everyone on this call has at least one or more paents that they have a problem

movangthat they cant get to try out meditaon or to try out mindfulness. So can you tell us some of

the things that have worked for you?

Dr. Siegel: Now, you know, I think one crical issue is geng a sense of where the client or paent is

coming from personally and culturally in relaon to such maers.

As I teach about mindfulness pracce in dierent parts of the country, there are many areas in which folks

have very negave associaons to meditaon.

Somemes this comes because they are involved

in a religious tradion that sees it as pagan or

in some way incompable with their tradion.

Somemes it comes from folks who are more

secular and sciencally-minded, and think of it

basically as a hippie kind of pursuit.

So much has to do with understanding a persons

thoughts, feelings and associaons to the whole

So much has to do withunderstanding a persons thoughts,feelings and associations to thewhole matter, and then lookingfor ways to present the practicesthat are consistent with where theperson is coming from.


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maer, inially and then looking for ways to present the pracces that are consistent with where the

person is coming from, so that they could be presented within the religious tradion that a person is

involved in or they could be presented in very scienc terms for the people who are more skepcal.

And then the trick is oen nding social support for it - nding

some way that the person can pracce not just on their own, not

just trying to squeeze it into a To Do list, but can join a group,

join a class, nd somebody else to do it with nd some kind ofsocial support because it is dicult. Its dicult to deliberately

spend me being with our thoughts and feelings, and people

need support.

Dr. Buczynski: How about you, Elisha, really quickly?

Dr. Goldstein: Oh, I would just piggyback on that I think those are excellent points. And at mes I

dont know how you feel about this, Ron but at mes you dont even need to callit mindfulness. I

mean, that is, again, just a word. We dont need to be so aached to it.

Whats most important is the actual pracceof starng to help people get in touch with the directexperience of what is actually here, and helping them set aside their judgments so they can take some

fresh eyes onto this moment.

We all have so many dierent reacons towards our feelings,

the dicules that are there which are insnctual, to kind of

step away from what is dicult or painful. But also we dont

see all the wonderful things in life because we dont see them

with fresh eyes.

So taking o that label (of meditaon or mindfulness) somemes

can be helpful in allowing whatever that sgma that they have, those past percepons and histories with

it, just to let it alone and see if they can kind of contact the pracce and let their experience be their

teacher rather than their judgments that are there.

Dr. Siegel: Yes, very oen I would not call it meditaon actually. You know, in the early days when

certain people were studying it they simply called it Aenonal Control Training that kind of thing.

Dr. Buczynski: Or you could call it Here and Now Pracce or The Fresh Eyes Exercise.

Dr. Siegel: Exactly.

Dr. Goldstein: Sure!

Dr. Buczynski: Okay, Im sorry were out of me. Everyone on the call, Ill be sending you an email shortly

and Ill be including some links. The rst will be a set of links to Ricks new books. His new book, Just One

Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Pracce at a Time, as well as Buddhas Brain: The Praccal

Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.

I think youre going to want to check these out, I think they could be useful - not just for you - but you

may consider them to be a tle that you might recommend to your paents.

Its difcult todeliberately spend time

being with our thoughtsand feelings, andpeople need support.

Whats most importantis the actual practice ofstarting to help peopleget in touch with thedirect experience.


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Next week, we have Dr. Ron Siegel again. He will be talking with me on the neurobiology of mindfulness.

Well spend a whole session geng into that. Youre not going to want to miss this, this is going to be a

powerful session. At the end well connue with our TalkBack segment and focus even more on clinical

applicaon.

Everyone, good night and thanks for being a part of our rst call.

Take good care now.

References:

Benson, H., & Proctor, W. (2010).Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing Your Personal Health Through the

Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing. New York, NY: Scribner; 1 edition.

Gottman, J.M., & Silver, N. (2000). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide

from the Countrys Foremost Relationship Expert. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition.

Seligman, M.E.P. (2006).Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York, NY:

Vintage.


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Th N ti l I tit t f th Cli i l A li ti f B h i l M di i


About The Speaker:

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist, author, and teacher as

well as founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and

Contemplative Wisdom. He teaches at meditation centers in Europe,

Australia, and North America. His work has been featured on theBBC and in Consumer Reports Health, U.S. Newsand World Report,

and other major magazines.

Rick is currently a trustee of Saybrook University. He also served on

the board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center for nine years, and was

President of the Board of FamilyWorks, a community agency. He is

trained in several meditation traditions and leads a weekly meditation

gathering in San Rafael, CA.

Find out more about this and related programs at:

www.nicabm.com

Buddhas Brain:

The Practical Neuroscience of

Happiness, Love and Wisdom

Mother Nurture

Books by Featured Speaker: Rick Hanson, PhD

Click HERE

to Purchase Now!

Click HERE

to Purchase Now!

Just One Thing: Developing

A Buddha Brain One Simple

Practice at a Time

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Documents

Neurobiology of Mindfulness