Why Meditation Matters
Presenter:
Daniel Goleman, Dr. Richard Davidson, Richard Gere
Time:
56:31
Summary
Richard Gere talks with the New York Times-bestselling authors as they unveil new research showing what meditation can really do for the brain.
In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. In their new book, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.
Sweeping away common misconceptions and neuromythology to open readers’ eyes to the ways data has been distorted to sell mind-training methods, the authors demonstrate that beyond the pleasant states mental exercises can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result. But short daily doses will not get us to the highest level of lasting positive change — even if we continue for years — without specific additions. More than sheer hours, we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self, all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. The authors also reveal the latest data from Davidson’s own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.
Transcript
Well, hello, look to see who's out here. Yeah, a lot of white hairs out there. Yeah.
Welcome.
This is a great honor for all of us to be here tonight. And you know, I consider myself an old friend of 92nd street y and been here on many different occasions with movies and and otherwise. But this, this is a kind of a special one tonight, one you're not going to meet two nicer, smarter people in your life than these two guys and the two guys that I've known a long time. Richie Davidson, not really well, but we've known each other a long time. Dan gohmer one of my closest friends and and I learned more in this book about him than I have in 30 years.
I'd love to start you know the discussion here just one of the beauties of this book is that they're incredibly self effacing with great humility about how they started thinking about these things, and how they started as students at Harvard, and how it took over their lives and got to this point, I'd love to just hear what was that first impulse that started this thing Rolling for you guys, that led to this extraordinary friendship and the wisdom that is in this book. Well, for me, it started in college. I don't know if you know this, but I started to meditate because I was anxious, like an undergrad, you know? I was uptight, and I found it relaxed me. I did it twice a day. Morning, prepared me for the day. Afternoon, I took a nap every time I couldn't get who was it? What kind of meditation was it? I started with TM. It's great beginning practice. When I got to Harvard, I was lucky enough to get a pre doctoral traveling fellowship to India, and I was really interested, since I was studying clinical psychology, which is the most downer thing you can study. It's like you meet someone like, what's wrong with this person?