Thank you so much for coming. It is wonderful to be here for the final event in our series. We have a fascinating evening ahead of us. You know, 40 years ago, hardly anyone talked about mindfulness, even though there were certainly plenty of people who meditated back then. And if you had a taste for Eastern exoticism, maybe you dabbled in yoga as well. 

But there wasn't a sight, a science of mindfulness back then the idea of mindfulness, the idea that it could be studied by modern Western science and fact that your mental activity could actually change the physical structure of your brain was a revolutionary idea. paradigm shift is an overused phrase. 

But that would seem to be the case, in this instance, and especially with the discovery of neuroplasticity, and with the insights made possible by new brain brain imaging techniques. And of course, what makes the new science of mindfulness so meaningful is it's not just about what happens in the lab, it's about you and me. It's about your anxiety and your resilience about your well being your happiness. And it's about learning specific things that you can do to actually make your life better. 

So we have a lot to talk about a terrific panel with some of the true pioneers in the field. We'll talk for about an hour and then we'll open it up to questions from the audience. So let me introduce our speakers. Richard Davidson is director of the Wiseman brain imaging lab and the lab for Affective Neuroscience and the founder and chair of the Center for investigating Healthy Minds. At the University of Wisconsin, he's collaborated with the Dalai Lama and many others to study the neuroscience of meditation. 

As a co author of the recent book, the emotional life of your brain. Ameche jaw is a professor of psychology and director of contemplative neuroscience, mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative at the University of Miami. Her research investigates attention and working memory, and she's investigating how mindfulness training can help various populations, including members of the US military. 

Jon Kabat Zinn is an emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was the founding executive director of the Center for mindfulness and medicine, health care and society. He was also the founder and former director of the mindfulness based stress reduction clinic.

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