HOW MEDITATION CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND MIND |
SAM HARRIS, JON KABAT-ZINN & MORE | BIG THINK
162,267 views•Aug 7, 2020
BIG THINK
2.93M subscribers
How meditation can change your life and mind
Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo
Learn skills from the world's top minds at Big Think Edge:
https://bigth.ink/Edge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to what mindfulness is
and what meditation can do for those who practice it. In this video,
professors, neuroscientists, psychologists, composers, authors, and a former
Buddhist monk share their experiences, explain the science behind meditation,
and discuss the benefits of learning to be in the moment.
"Mindfulness allows us to shift our relationship to our
experience," explains psychologist Daniel Goleman. The science shows that
long-term meditators have higher levels of gamma waves in their brains even
when they are not meditating. The effect of this altered response is yet
unknown, though it shows that there are lasting cognitive effects.
"I think we're looking at meditation as the next big public health
revolution," says ABC News anchor Dan Harris. "Meditation is going to
join the pantheon of no-brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking
the meds that your doctor prescribes to you." Closing out the video is a
guided meditation experience led by author Damien Echols that can be practiced
anywhere and repeated as many times as you'd like.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
RASMUS HOUGAARD: There is a general huge misconception around
mindfulness. Many people think that mindfulness is a spiritual thing. Many
think that it's a private thing that we do at home, and most people think that
mindfulness is about slowing down. That's wrong. Mindfulness, in short terms,
is really about speeding up our mental processes whereby we can be more
effective with whatever we're doing, that we have this attentional muscle that
allows us really to be on task with what we are doing.
EMMA SEPPÄLÄ: Research shows that our mind actually wanders about 50% of
the time, and research also shows that when our mind is wandering we are never
as happy as when our mind is in the present moment. So if your mind is in the
future worrying about something that is going to happen, or in the past because
you're regretting something or angry at somebody, you're more likely to feel
more negative emotions. But when you're in the present moment, even if you're
doing a task you don't particularly like, you'll actually feel happier. But
also what we know is that you'll be able to be more productive when you're in
that state because you're going to be naturally focused.
JON KABAT-ZINN: People misunderstand meditation as oh, I just sweep all
my thoughts away and then I'm in this like nirvana. What you'll get by trying
to sweep all your thoughts away is a headache at the most, because there's no
way to sweep your thoughts away. They will get you every time. And then you can
have millions of thoughts about mindfulness and meditation and those are just
thoughts, too. They're not meditating. But when you see that you're not your
thoughts then you can watch them in this kind of impersonal, more sort of if
you will observing way with kindness, with self-compassion, because a lot of
them are heavily loaded with negative emotion. And you can see that if you
don't touch them, if you don't do anything with them, if you don't get caught
in them, they self-liberate naturally in awareness. The awareness is like
touching a soap bubble. It's fun for kids and fun for adults, too. A soap
bubble and you touch it and it just goes poof. So I love that image. The
thought is the soap bubble and the emotion, too, that's valancing the thought
and you don't need to do anything with it because your awareness it's like not
even a finger. It's not corporeal. The awareness, just the embracing of it or
the arising of it like in the sky it goes poof all by itself. And don't take my
word for it. This is something that when you sit down and you begin to watch
you'll see this is not rocket science. You don't have to sit in the cave for 30
years to have that kind of experience. All you need to do is in some sense get
out of your own way. Now, I'm not saying that's easy. That's really hard, but
if you can have moments when you get out of your own way then you'll see that a
lot of this stuff that we get so caught up in it's like it's a mirage.
SAM HARRIS: There are features of our experience that we don't notice
when we're lost in thought. So, for instance, every experience you've ever had,
every emotion, the anger you felt yesterday or a year ago isn't here anymore.
It arises and it passes away, and if it comes back in the present moment by
virtue of your thinking about it again it will subside again when you're no
longer thinking about it. Now, this is something that people tend not to...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/benefits-...
Grateful thanks to BIG THINK and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible |
SAM HARRIS, JON KABAT-ZINN & MORE | BIG THINK
162,267 views•Aug 7, 2020
BIG THINK
2.93M subscribers
How meditation can change your life and mind
Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo
Learn skills from the world's top minds at Big Think Edge:
https://bigth.ink/Edge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to what mindfulness is
and what meditation can do for those who practice it. In this video,
professors, neuroscientists, psychologists, composers, authors, and a former
Buddhist monk share their experiences, explain the science behind meditation,
and discuss the benefits of learning to be in the moment.
"Mindfulness allows us to shift our relationship to our
experience," explains psychologist Daniel Goleman. The science shows that
long-term meditators have higher levels of gamma waves in their brains even
when they are not meditating. The effect of this altered response is yet
unknown, though it shows that there are lasting cognitive effects.
"I think we're looking at meditation as the next big public health
revolution," says ABC News anchor Dan Harris. "Meditation is going to
join the pantheon of no-brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking
the meds that your doctor prescribes to you." Closing out the video is a
guided meditation experience led by author Damien Echols that can be practiced
anywhere and repeated as many times as you'd like.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
RASMUS HOUGAARD: There is a general huge misconception around
mindfulness. Many people think that mindfulness is a spiritual thing. Many
think that it's a private thing that we do at home, and most people think that
mindfulness is about slowing down. That's wrong. Mindfulness, in short terms,
is really about speeding up our mental processes whereby we can be more
effective with whatever we're doing, that we have this attentional muscle that
allows us really to be on task with what we are doing.
EMMA SEPPÄLÄ: Research shows that our mind actually wanders about 50% of
the time, and research also shows that when our mind is wandering we are never
as happy as when our mind is in the present moment. So if your mind is in the
future worrying about something that is going to happen, or in the past because
you're regretting something or angry at somebody, you're more likely to feel
more negative emotions. But when you're in the present moment, even if you're
doing a task you don't particularly like, you'll actually feel happier. But
also what we know is that you'll be able to be more productive when you're in
that state because you're going to be naturally focused.
JON KABAT-ZINN: People misunderstand meditation as oh, I just sweep all
my thoughts away and then I'm in this like nirvana. What you'll get by trying
to sweep all your thoughts away is a headache at the most, because there's no
way to sweep your thoughts away. They will get you every time. And then you can
have millions of thoughts about mindfulness and meditation and those are just
thoughts, too. They're not meditating. But when you see that you're not your
thoughts then you can watch them in this kind of impersonal, more sort of if
you will observing way with kindness, with self-compassion, because a lot of
them are heavily loaded with negative emotion. And you can see that if you
don't touch them, if you don't do anything with them, if you don't get caught
in them, they self-liberate naturally in awareness. The awareness is like
touching a soap bubble. It's fun for kids and fun for adults, too. A soap
bubble and you touch it and it just goes poof. So I love that image. The
thought is the soap bubble and the emotion, too, that's valancing the thought
and you don't need to do anything with it because your awareness it's like not
even a finger. It's not corporeal. The awareness, just the embracing of it or
the arising of it like in the sky it goes poof all by itself. And don't take my
word for it. This is something that when you sit down and you begin to watch
you'll see this is not rocket science. You don't have to sit in the cave for 30
years to have that kind of experience. All you need to do is in some sense get
out of your own way. Now, I'm not saying that's easy. That's really hard, but
if you can have moments when you get out of your own way then you'll see that a
lot of this stuff that we get so caught up in it's like it's a mirage.
SAM HARRIS: There are features of our experience that we don't notice
when we're lost in thought. So, for instance, every experience you've ever had,
every emotion, the anger you felt yesterday or a year ago isn't here anymore.
It arises and it passes away, and if it comes back in the present moment by
virtue of your thinking about it again it will subside again when you're no
longer thinking about it. Now, this is something that people tend not to...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/benefits-...
Grateful thanks to BIG THINK and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible
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