Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: Karasu Psychosocial Lecture: "Well-Being and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Contemplative Neuroscience"

Transcript

• 00:00Much, John
• 00:02John and Matt.
• 00:04Appreciate it and,
• 00:07really happy to be with
• 00:08you all today.
• 00:10I'm gonna share my slides.
• 00:13Let me do that now.
• 00:21Can you all see that?
• 00:23Yes.
• 00:24Okay.
• 00:26So it really is
• 00:30an honor to share with
• 00:31you a little bit about
• 00:32our journey today.
• 00:34Let me begin by
• 00:37situating the work we're doing
• 00:38in a broader
• 00:40historical context of work that
• 00:41I've been doing
• 00:42over the course of my
• 00:43entire career.
• 00:45I began my career
• 00:47asking a very simple question.
• 00:50That question is still pertinent
• 00:52to much of what we
• 00:53do today.
• 00:54And the question is, why
• 00:56is it that some people
• 00:59are more vulnerable
• 01:00to life's slings and arrows,
• 01:02and why are others more
• 01:03resilient?
• 01:05In the early part of
• 01:06my career, I focused a
• 01:07lot on the adversity
• 01:09side of this
• 01:11equation and studied brain mechanisms
• 01:13that conferred
• 01:15vulnerability
• 01:16to depression and anxiety and
• 01:18stress related disorders.
• 01:20And,
• 01:21my life
• 01:22changed considerably.
• 01:25It went through what one
• 01:26of my dear friends calls
• 01:27an orthogonal rotation,
• 01:30when I,
• 01:32met the Dalai Lama for
• 01:33the first time in nineteen
• 01:34ninety two.
• 01:37And it was at this
• 01:38meeting when,
• 01:40he asked me very innocently,
• 01:42why can't we use the
• 01:44same tools
• 01:45of behavioral and neural,
• 01:48neuroscience that we're using to
• 01:50interrogate anxiety and stress
• 01:52and use those tools to,
• 01:55study the positive qualities of
• 01:57what it means to be
• 01:58human,
• 02:00qualities like kindness
• 02:01and like compassion.
• 02:03And, I did not have
• 02:04a very good answer for
• 02:05him on that day,
• 02:07but I did make a
• 02:08commitment to him that I
• 02:10was going to
• 02:11orient our work toward,
• 02:14these
• 02:15the study of these qualities,
• 02:17and that led to the
• 02:18founding of the Center for
• 02:19Healthy Minds
• 02:21in,
• 02:24in two thousand ten, and
• 02:26the Dalai Lama came out
• 02:27to inaugurate that center in
• 02:28two thousand ten. And the
• 02:30mission of our center is
• 02:32to cultivate well-being
• 02:33and relieve suffering through the
• 02:35scientific
• 02:36understanding of the mind.
• 02:38And in twenty fourteen, as,
• 02:40Matt kindly mentioned,
• 02:42we founded the nonprofit Healthy
• 02:44Minds Innovations to translate
• 02:47insights that were coming from
• 02:49the science
• 02:50into tools that can be
• 02:51used to,
• 02:53both measure and disseminate well-being
• 02:55at scale.
• 02:57So let me begin with
• 02:58a disclaimer. I'm the founder,
• 03:00president, and chief visionary of
• 03:01Healthy Minds Innovations,
• 03:03which is a nonprofit
• 03:04organization from which I've never
• 03:06received a penny in compensation.
• 03:11This is a,
• 03:15an inspirational
• 03:16photograph. This came from,
• 03:19one of the many visits
• 03:20that Dalai Lama made to
• 03:22our center
• 03:23in Madison.
• 03:25We were this was actually
• 03:26taken in,
• 03:28two thousand one.
• 03:31Some of you,
• 03:32might recognize from the little
• 03:34snippet of profile,
• 03:36on the other side of
• 03:37the Dalai Lama, this side
• 03:39away from me.
• 03:40That's Ned Kellen. Some of
• 03:42you may recognize him as
• 03:43the he's the chair of
• 03:45our psychiatry department. He's been
• 03:47also the he's the editor
• 03:48of the American Journal.
• 03:52We were showing him how
• 03:53we can interrogate the structure
• 03:55and function of the brain.
• 03:57This was in the early
• 03:58days of MRI two thousand
• 04:00one,
• 04:01and, this was a very
• 04:03important demonstration for the Dalai
• 04:05Lama because he saw how
• 04:07mental activity actually,
• 04:09was associated with systematic changes
• 04:13in the functional activity of
• 04:14the brain,
• 04:15and,
• 04:16that was an important
• 04:19demonstration
• 04:20for him to be able
• 04:21to witness.
• 04:23Okay. So I wanna begin
• 04:25this presentation
• 04:26with a little bit of
• 04:27bad news. I promise I
• 04:29won't linger
• 04:30on the bad news for
• 04:31too long, but I it's
• 04:33news that all of you
• 04:35know,
• 04:36but I just wanna review
• 04:37a few key data points,
• 04:40that really underscore the importance,
• 04:42I think, of the approach
• 04:44that we are taking,
• 04:46that well-being is indeed in
• 04:48rapid decline.
• 04:50Some of you might be
• 04:51aware that each year over
• 04:52the last, ten years,
• 04:55there is an a thing
• 04:56called the world happiness report
• 04:58that has been issued in
• 04:59part under the auspices of
• 05:01the United Nations.
• 05:02And,
• 05:03one of the
• 05:06forms of data in this
• 05:08annual report is not simply
• 05:11a cross sectional snapshot of,
• 05:15indicators of happiness across nations
• 05:17in the world, but it's
• 05:19also looking at the longitudinal
• 05:21trend,
• 05:22in that is changes in
• 05:25these metrics of happiness or
• 05:27well-being
• 05:28over time,
• 05:29in different nations throughout the
• 05:32world.
• 05:32And, I'd like to share
• 05:34with you data. This is
• 05:35looking at changes
• 05:37over the course of a,
• 05:39ten year period,
• 05:41from
• 05:43around,
• 05:45twenty eleven to thirteen to
• 05:48twenty,
• 05:49twenty
• 05:51two to twenty three.
• 05:53And this is,
• 05:56listed,
• 05:57in this table in order,
• 06:00in the order of countries,
• 06:04starting with the countries that
• 06:05showed the largest increase in
• 06:08happiness or well-being
• 06:10over the course of this
• 06:12period.
• 06:13And,
• 06:14the data in the world
• 06:15happiness report,
• 06:17is for,
• 06:19I think,
• 06:21a hundred and thirty or
• 06:22a hundred and thirty one
• 06:23countries,
• 06:24across the world. So,
• 06:26I'm now showing you,
• 06:28just a list of countries.
• 06:30This first page goes from
• 06:32one to thirty
• 06:33thirty six. This goes from
• 06:35thirty seven to sixty six,
• 06:39and then this goes down
• 06:41to
• 06:42ninety seven. And then I
• 06:44wanna show you where the
• 06:45United States falls.
• 06:47United States falls,
• 06:49one hundred and twenty out
• 06:50of one hundred and thirty
• 06:51or one hundred and thirty
• 06:53one countries
• 06:54in showing the,
• 06:55largest
• 06:56declines
• 06:58in,
• 07:00happiness or well-being
• 07:02over the course of this,
• 07:05decade.
• 07:07We are
• 07:08the two countries that are
• 07:10just above us are Panama
• 07:12and Colombia with,
• 07:16Pakistan just above that.
• 07:19And so,
• 07:21this is just one of
• 07:23many indications
• 07:24that particularly in our country,
• 07:26well-being is in rapid decline.
• 07:28Many of you, I'm sure,
• 07:29are aware of,
• 07:31the surgeon general's
• 07:33reports related to mental health.
• 07:36This was from twenty twenty
• 07:39three. It's the first time
• 07:40United States surgeon general
• 07:42ever issued a health advisory
• 07:44on loneliness and social isolation.
• 07:47And, I wanna just show
• 07:49you a few data points
• 07:50from that report.
• 07:53In the upper left hand
• 07:54figure,
• 07:55is a measure of the
• 07:59change
• 08:00in social isolation
• 08:02over the course of a
• 08:05roughly,
• 08:06seventeen year period from two
• 08:08thousand three to two thousand
• 08:10twenty.
• 08:12And, what is indicated here
• 08:14is an increase
• 08:16of twenty four hours per
• 08:18month
• 08:19in the amount of social
• 08:20isolation
• 08:22that, the average citizen in
• 08:24the US
• 08:25is,
• 08:26experiencing.
• 08:27If you look at the
• 08:28panel in the lower left
• 08:29hand corner,
• 08:31that's a metric of social
• 08:32engagement with friends,
• 08:35and it's showing a decline
• 08:36of twenty hours per month
• 08:39in the amount of time
• 08:40we spend with friends.
• 08:43And these represent
• 08:45changes that are quite significant
• 08:48in the ecology of our
• 08:50social lives,
• 08:52and,
• 08:53really,
• 08:55underscore
• 08:56the,
• 08:57the the tremendous,
• 08:59change that has occurred
• 09:01that was not due to
• 09:03COVID.
• 09:04It may have been exacerbated
• 09:06by COVID in particular cases,
• 09:08but, these trends clearly,
• 09:12were present prior to COVID.
• 09:16Now something,
• 09:17that really is quite astounding
• 09:19that was in the surgeon
• 09:20general's report is that,
• 09:23social isolation is a greater
• 09:25risk factor for premature mortality
• 09:28than is smoking fifteen cigarettes
• 09:30a day.
• 09:32These kind of findings,
• 09:34underscore the fact that these,
• 09:37social,
• 09:38changes,
• 09:39changes in the social fabric
• 09:41of our lives
• 09:43get under the skin
• 09:44and affect our biology
• 09:46in ways that are consequential
• 09:48for health.
• 09:49These data show that
• 09:51social isolation
• 09:53is greater than twofold a
• 09:55risk factor compared to obesity
• 09:58in,
• 09:59its association
• 10:00with premature mortality.
• 10:02So,
• 10:04remarkably,
• 10:05just a couple of weeks
• 10:06after the surgeon general issued
• 10:08this report, he issued another
• 10:09report on social media and
• 10:11youth mental health.
• 10:13And, I won't, go through
• 10:16extensively
• 10:17the data in this report,
• 10:18but I wanna call your
• 10:19attention to one specific,
• 10:22set of findings.
• 10:24This, was in the surgeon
• 10:26general's report.
• 10:28And if you look on
• 10:29the right hand side of
• 10:31this figure,
• 10:33these are data for comorbid
• 10:36problems
• 10:37combining internalizing and externalizing
• 10:39problems in use.
• 10:41And it's looking at the
• 10:44prevalence of these problems,
• 10:46scaled by the amount of
• 10:48social media per day
• 10:50that youth are using.
• 10:52And what you can see
• 10:53is that youth who are
• 10:55spending,
• 10:56six hours or more a
• 10:58day on social media have
• 11:00greater than twenty twenty percent
• 11:02risk
• 11:03for,
• 11:06these comorbid
• 11:07internalizing and externalizing
• 11:09problems.
• 11:10And, there's you can see
• 11:12this linear scaling
• 11:14with the amount
• 11:15of social media consumption.
• 11:17In the US today, teenagers
• 11:19spend an average of three
• 11:20and a half hours a
• 11:21day on social media. And
• 11:23this is not just total
• 11:24screen time. This is just
• 11:26the amount of screen time
• 11:28that is allocated
• 11:29to social media.
• 11:31So,
• 11:33we really have a crisis,
• 11:35and,
• 11:38I think that the standard
• 11:40solutions that we've been applying
• 11:43have been less than,
• 11:45successful.
• 11:47I wanna just show you
• 11:48one other data point, and
• 11:49then I'll stop the bad
• 11:50news.
• 11:51And this is simply a
• 11:53large scale,
• 11:55global study looking at the
• 11:57relation
• 11:58between,
• 11:59the average well-being in a
• 12:01country and life expectancy.
• 12:04And this is looking at
• 12:05a hundred and fifty one
• 12:06countries throughout the world.
• 12:08And what you can see
• 12:09is that there's a very,
• 12:11strong association when you look
• 12:13at it this way between
• 12:14the average well-being of the
• 12:16country
• 12:17and life expectancy.
• 12:18And if you look at
• 12:19the countries in the upper
• 12:21right hand quadrant of this
• 12:23scatter plot
• 12:24and compare them to the
• 12:25countries that are depicted in
• 12:27the lower left
• 12:29quadrant of the scatter plot,
• 12:31these are massive differences in
• 12:33life expectancy. These differences in
• 12:35life expectancy exceed twenty years.
• 12:38And so these are not
• 12:39small statistical differences. These are
• 12:42massive differences
• 12:43that really matter,
• 12:45and,
• 12:47the association with well-being is
• 12:49quite striking.
• 12:52So many of you in
• 12:53this audience, I'm sure, recognize,
• 12:56this person. This is Tom
• 12:57Insel. He was the former
• 12:59director of NIMH,
• 13:01someone
• 13:02that I'm sure many of
• 13:03you know well.
• 13:05He's a friend of mine
• 13:06too.
• 13:07And I wanna read to
• 13:08you,
• 13:10an excerpt from an interview
• 13:11that
• 13:12was,
• 13:16was made with with Tom
• 13:19a few years ago. This
• 13:21is,
• 13:21several years after he retired,
• 13:23and,
• 13:25it's quite,
• 13:27I think, provocative
• 13:28what he said in this
• 13:29interview.
• 13:31He said he spent thirteen
• 13:32years at NIMH
• 13:34really pushing
• 13:35on the neuroscience and genetics
• 13:37of mental disorders.
• 13:38And when I look back
• 13:40on this, I realized that
• 13:41while I think I succeeded
• 13:43at getting lots of really
• 13:45cool papers published by cool
• 13:47scientists
• 13:48at fairly large costs. I
• 13:50think twenty billion dollars. I
• 13:52don't think we move the
• 13:53needle in reducing suicide,
• 13:57reducing hospitalizations,
• 13:59improving recovery
• 14:01for the tens of millions
• 14:02of people who have mental
• 14:03illness, I hold myself accountable
• 14:05for that.
• 14:06Quite a statement from,
• 14:09from Tom.
• 14:11And,
• 14:12I served on the board
• 14:13of scientific counselors at NIMH,
• 14:16during the time Tom was,
• 14:20director.
• 14:21And,
• 14:22I can tell you, and
• 14:23I'm sure many of you
• 14:24know, that he wasn't a
• 14:25big fan of psychosocial
• 14:28interventions
• 14:29at that time.
• 14:30And,
• 14:34a number of years later,
• 14:36twenty fourteen to be exact,
• 14:38he and I appeared on
• 14:40a, in a dialogue together
• 14:43in Davos, Switzerland at the
• 14:44World Economic Forum talking about
• 14:46the,
• 14:47benefits of mindfulness,
• 14:49as a
• 14:51strategy in working with people
• 14:53who have various kinds of
• 14:57mental health symptoms.
• 15:00And so,
• 15:02he really,
• 15:03has shifted quite a bit,
• 15:05and,
• 15:07I,
• 15:08use that as a
• 15:10a framework to introduce
• 15:12the main topic.
• 15:14And the main topic of
• 15:16this talk really can be
• 15:17summarized in this simple claim,
• 15:21that
• 15:22is really the conclusion
• 15:24of fifteen years of research
• 15:26in our center and also,
• 15:30supported by findings from many
• 15:32other scientists.
• 15:34And that is that well-being
• 15:35is best regarded as a
• 15:36skill
• 15:37that can be learned.
• 15:39I think that,
• 15:41while simple, this is quite
• 15:42a radical
• 15:44conclusion as well.
• 15:46And,
• 15:47we believe that the evidence
• 15:49really supports this.
• 15:51And if you really believe
• 15:53the data,
• 15:56you will see why we,
• 15:58and we also encourage others,
• 16:01to become activist scientists,
• 16:04in a way that is
• 16:05not too dissimilar
• 16:06from the way climate scientists,
• 16:09are,
• 16:11acting in the world.
• 16:14I feel like we if
• 16:15this
• 16:17claim is really true, we
• 16:19have a moral obligation,
• 16:22to bring these practices out
• 16:24into the world in a
• 16:25responsible way,
• 16:28given that the world is
• 16:30really falling apart in so
• 16:32many ways.
• 16:33And, a lot of the,
• 16:37problems many of the problems
• 16:38that we see in the
• 16:39world today
• 16:40stem from fundamentally,
• 16:43failures to flourish,
• 16:45and a,
• 16:46a lack of,
• 16:48cultivating
• 16:50the innate capacities that I
• 16:51think every human being,
• 16:54is,
• 16:55endowed with. And so,
• 16:57the rest of this talk
• 16:58will really be focused on
• 17:00these issues.
• 17:03So,
• 17:04one of the insights
• 17:06that we've
• 17:07gleaned from our work is
• 17:09that the same mechanisms
• 17:11that,
• 17:14encode suffering,
• 17:17such as neuroplasticity
• 17:18and epigenetics
• 17:20can be harnessed for the
• 17:21good, and these are mechanisms
• 17:24that turn out to be
• 17:25engaged
• 17:26when we train our minds,
• 17:29for well-being.
• 17:32So
• 17:32I want to now focus
• 17:34on the
• 17:35constituents
• 17:36of resilience and flourishing, what
• 17:38contributes to them. And here,
• 17:41I'd like to
• 17:42introduce you to a framework
• 17:44that we published a few
• 17:45years ago in this paper
• 17:47called the plasticity
• 17:49of well-being,
• 17:51a training based framework for
• 17:52the cultivation of human flourishing.
• 17:55And, in this
• 17:57paper, we
• 17:59harnessed,
• 18:02the data from both neuroscience
• 18:05as well as,
• 18:07from the contemplative
• 18:08traditions
• 18:09and
• 18:10asked where there are commonalities,
• 18:14across these very different
• 18:17but overlapping
• 18:18Venn diagrams, if you will,
• 18:21and,
• 18:22what are the key constituents
• 18:24that we can identify
• 18:26as necessary
• 18:28and sufficient
• 18:29for the cultivation of human
• 18:31flourishing.
• 18:32And we,
• 18:34came up with four key
• 18:36pillars,
• 18:37and I'd like to introduce
• 18:39you to these pillars.
• 18:40The first pillar we call
• 18:42awareness.
• 18:46And awareness
• 18:48is,
• 18:49excuse me, is fundamentally
• 18:50about
• 18:52being present.
• 18:54It is where mindfulness would
• 18:56be. It includes self awareness.
• 18:59It also includes
• 19:01what psychologists and neuroscientists
• 19:04have called meta awareness,
• 19:06which is,
• 19:07the capacity to know what
• 19:09our minds are doing,
• 19:13which may sound strange to
• 19:14some people.
• 19:16But I'm sure,
• 19:18that many of you I
• 19:19certainly have had this experience.
• 19:21Many of you had the
• 19:21experience
• 19:22of reading a book where
• 19:24you might be reading each
• 19:25word on a page, and
• 19:26you might be reading one
• 19:29page, a second page, and
• 19:30after a few minutes,
• 19:32you recognize
• 19:33that you have no idea
• 19:34what you've just read.
• 19:36Your mind is elsewhere.
• 19:39The moment we recognize that
• 19:41is a moment of meta
• 19:42awareness,
• 19:43and that is something
• 19:45that indeed can be trained.
• 19:49The second pillar we call
• 19:51connection. Connection is about
• 19:53feeling connected to others. It
• 19:55includes qualities that are important
• 19:57for healthy
• 19:58social relationships,
• 20:00qualities such as appreciation,
• 20:02kindness, compassion.
• 20:04This is really,
• 20:05the
• 20:07antithesis
• 20:08of loneliness,
• 20:10and,
• 20:11we there's a wealth of
• 20:13evidence
• 20:14to suggest
• 20:15that,
• 20:16this is, a critical element
• 20:19of well-being.
• 20:21The third pillar we call
• 20:23insight. Insight is about a
• 20:25curiosity
• 20:26driven
• 20:27self
• 20:28knowledge, and,
• 20:29it's a knowledge specifically
• 20:31about the narrative
• 20:33of ourselves
• 20:34that every human
• 20:36has.
• 20:37We all carry around this
• 20:39narrative, and we know that
• 20:41there are some people who
• 20:42have a negative narrative, who
• 20:44have negative beliefs about themselves,
• 20:47low expectations of themselves.
• 20:49And, of course, we know
• 20:50that that is associated
• 20:52with,
• 20:54depression and other forms of
• 20:56psychopathology.
• 20:58And what we have learned,
• 21:01from a lot of work
• 21:03is that
• 21:04what's really important for well-being,
• 21:06particularly initially,
• 21:08is not so much changing
• 21:09the narrative, but it's changing
• 21:11our relationship to this narrative
• 21:13so that we can see
• 21:14the narrative for what it
• 21:16is,
• 21:16essentially a constellation of thoughts,
• 21:20and beliefs.
• 21:21And, again, this is something
• 21:22that can be trained,
• 21:24and we know that when
• 21:26it is trained,
• 21:28there is an improvement in
• 21:29their well-being.
• 21:31And finally, the last pillar
• 21:33we call purpose. Purpose is
• 21:34about staying motivated.
• 21:36It's about clarifying our
• 21:38true north in life, clarifying
• 21:40our values.
• 21:41And it's not so much
• 21:43about finding something, quote, more
• 21:44purposeful to do, but how
• 21:46can we find meaning and
• 21:48purpose
• 21:49in even the most pedestrian
• 21:51activities of daily living?
• 21:53In taking out the garbage,
• 21:55be connected to your sense
• 21:57of purpose.
• 21:58And, of course, it could
• 21:59be.
• 22:00It simply requires a little
• 22:02bit of reframing.
• 22:03And,
• 22:05this is an area which
• 22:06is particularly
• 22:07interesting and illuminating because,
• 22:10even the,
• 22:12chores, the so called chores
• 22:14that we do on a
• 22:15regular basis can be real
• 22:17opportunities
• 22:19for growth and for,
• 22:23flourishing,
• 22:24with this really simple
• 22:26kind of reframing
• 22:28that is quite easy to
• 22:30do.
• 22:31Okay.
• 22:32So I'm now gonna,
• 22:34take a deeper dive and,
• 22:38introduce you to some key
• 22:40findings in each of these
• 22:42areas.
• 22:43The first,
• 22:44pillar
• 22:45awareness,
• 22:46of course,
• 22:48has been around for a
• 22:49long time.
• 22:51One of my heroes,
• 22:53is William James,
• 22:55who you see here. And,
• 22:58William James
• 22:59had a two volume tome,
• 23:02published in eighteen ninety called
• 23:04the principles of psychology.
• 23:06He has a whole chapter
• 23:07in there on attention.
• 23:09And,
• 23:10I wanna read to you,
• 23:13one of the passages from
• 23:15this chapter, which is really,
• 23:17one of my all time
• 23:18favorite quotes in the,
• 23:21in in the study of
• 23:22the mind.
• 23:24And, William James said the
• 23:26faculty of voluntarily
• 23:28bringing back
• 23:29a wandering intention
• 23:30over and over again is
• 23:32the very root of judgment,
• 23:34character, and will.
• 23:35No one is
• 23:37if you have it not.
• 23:39An education which should improve
• 23:41this faculty
• 23:42would be the education
• 23:43par excellence,
• 23:45but it is easier to
• 23:46define this ideal
• 23:48than to give practical directions
• 23:49for bringing it about.
• 23:51The italics, by the way,
• 23:53are in the original William
• 23:54James.
• 23:56This is really quite an
• 23:57extraordinary passage and, I think,
• 23:59very visionary,
• 24:01and underscores the value that
• 24:03he attached to
• 24:05the possibility
• 24:07of educating attention.
• 24:08And we know,
• 24:11I should put it this
• 24:12way. If there is one
• 24:13thing we know from the
• 24:14empirical study
• 24:16of meditation
• 24:17and related practices over the
• 24:19last
• 24:20fifteen years, it is that
• 24:23attention can be educated.
• 24:26And,
• 24:27if we really believe this,
• 24:29this is one area where
• 24:31I think we especially
• 24:32have a moral obligation
• 24:35to
• 24:35introduce this in a widespread
• 24:37way into our society,
• 24:40particularly for children.
• 24:42We know that if kids
• 24:43are not attending to
• 24:45information
• 24:46that is presented,
• 24:49their capacity to learn that
• 24:51material will be significantly compromised.
• 24:54And so this is a
• 24:56huge
• 24:56opportunity
• 24:58that I think, has,
• 25:00we now know about,
• 25:02and, we are insufficiently
• 25:04harnessing.
• 25:06Let me just give you,
• 25:08you know, one little,
• 25:10or two little data points
• 25:12about
• 25:13the study of these qualities.
• 25:16And one of the ways
• 25:17we began to do this,
• 25:19soon after the Dalai Lama
• 25:20was encouraging us to,
• 25:22study practices in his tradition
• 25:26that might be
• 25:31transformed
• 25:32to be more secular.
• 25:33And, he
• 25:35specifically told us that to
• 25:37do that and if we
• 25:38find that they're valuable,
• 25:40to disseminate them widely.
• 25:42And so this is just
• 25:44a picture of a
• 25:46Tibetan monk in our lab,
• 25:48and someone who actually is
• 25:50quite well known. He is
• 25:52a young Tibetan monk by
• 25:54the name of Meeg Gyor
• 25:55Rinpoche,
• 25:56and
• 25:58he generously,
• 26:00spent many, many hours in
• 26:01our lab,
• 26:03over,
• 26:04the last fifteen years.
• 26:06And this is,
• 26:08during an early session with
• 26:10him in
• 26:11two thousand two,
• 26:13where we were recording brain
• 26:15electrical activity from him,
• 26:17while he was meditating and
• 26:19during different,
• 26:21states, or tasks of attention.
• 26:24And,
• 26:25one of the
• 26:27things that we observed, and
• 26:28this came from a paper
• 26:30that was published in two
• 26:31thousand four.
• 26:33This was the very first
• 26:34paper on meditation ever published
• 26:36in PNAS.
• 26:38And,
• 26:40what these data show is
• 26:42an elevation
• 26:43in gamma oscillations,
• 26:45that we record from the
• 26:47scalp surface.
• 26:51And,
• 26:52these gamma oscillations
• 26:54are especially pronounced
• 26:56during meditation
• 26:58when,
• 26:59attention is
• 27:01specifically enhanced.
• 27:04And you can see with
• 27:05the naked eye
• 27:06the
• 27:07enhancement of gamma oscillations.
• 27:09There's also increased synchrony of
• 27:11these oscillations
• 27:13over widespread regions of the
• 27:15cortex.
• 27:17And,
• 27:19in addition, in this first
• 27:20paper, we showed that these
• 27:22gamma oscillations
• 27:24were significantly,
• 27:26more prevalent in the brains
• 27:29of these long term meditators
• 27:31than in the brains of
• 27:33age and gender match controls,
• 27:37revealing
• 27:38a possible
• 27:39trait difference,
• 27:41between
• 27:42the long term meditators and
• 27:44the controls.
• 27:46And this was really our
• 27:47first indication
• 27:49that there was a there
• 27:50there, that there was something
• 27:51different
• 27:52about the brains of these
• 27:53long term meditators.
• 27:55And I should say that
• 27:57this group of long term
• 27:58meditators
• 27:59was a group of really
• 28:01long term meditators.
• 28:04Number of hours of lifetime
• 28:06practice in this group that
• 28:08was published in this paper
• 28:09in two thousand four was
• 28:11thirty four thousand hours.
• 28:14You can do the arithmetic
• 28:15at home, but thirty four
• 28:16thousand hours is a big
• 28:18number.
• 28:19These are,
• 28:21people who've spent,
• 28:23the better part of their,
• 28:25adult lifetime
• 28:27meditating.
• 28:29So
• 28:31this was very interesting, but,
• 28:33you know, I don't have
• 28:34to tell this audience that
• 28:36while these kinds of findings
• 28:37are intriguing,
• 28:39they're far from definitive.
• 28:41They,
• 28:42there there's so many differences
• 28:44between
• 28:45a person who elects to
• 28:47spend their life in this
• 28:48way
• 28:49compared to,
• 28:50age and gender match controls.
• 28:53These these
• 28:56groups differ in so many
• 28:57different ways, and a skeptic
• 29:00might claim that these differences
• 29:02might have been there in
• 29:03the first place.
• 29:04They might be associated with
• 29:06factors that predispose a person
• 29:08to choose a life of
• 29:09this kind,
• 29:11and they may not have
• 29:12anything to do with meditation.
• 29:13Although we,
• 29:15did find that there were
• 29:16associations
• 29:17between
• 29:18the magnitude of gamma oscillations
• 29:20that we saw
• 29:21and the number of lifetime
• 29:23hours of practice,
• 29:25but even that is simply
• 29:27a correlation.
• 29:28And so we needed to
• 29:29do other kinds of designs,
• 29:32and that's exemplified in work
• 29:35we did related to the
• 29:36connection,
• 29:38pillar.
• 29:40So I wanna
• 29:41share with you,
• 29:43a, an important early study
• 29:46that we did looking at
• 29:47in a randomized controlled trial,
• 29:50looking at people who never
• 29:51meditated,
• 29:52and teaching them,
• 29:54a very simple practice to
• 29:56cultivate compassion.
• 29:58And,
• 29:59we taught them that practice
• 30:01for two weeks, only two
• 30:03weeks,
• 30:04and we looked at changes
• 30:05in their brain over this
• 30:07very short period of time.
• 30:09So let me just say
• 30:10a little bit about what
• 30:12we taught them.
• 30:14In this particular study, we
• 30:15recruited participants
• 30:17who were told that they
• 30:19were going to be randomly
• 30:20assigned
• 30:21to one of two conditions,
• 30:23both of which,
• 30:25we have reason to believe
• 30:27should improve their well-being.
• 30:29In one condition, we taught
• 30:30them a simple practice to
• 30:32cultivate compassion.
• 30:34And in this practice, participants
• 30:36were invited
• 30:38to bring
• 30:39a person into their mind,
• 30:42and we begin with a
• 30:43loved one,
• 30:45bring a person who is
• 30:47close to you. It could
• 30:48be a family member,
• 30:50a very close friend.
• 30:52Bring that person into your
• 30:54mind and your heart.
• 30:56And
• 30:57think of a time in
• 30:57their life when they may
• 30:58have been having some challenge
• 31:00or difficulty,
• 31:01and then cultivate the genuine
• 31:03aspiration
• 31:04that they'd be relieved of
• 31:05that suffering.
• 31:07And we taught them simple
• 31:09phrases to use that they
• 31:10repeat silently in their mind
• 31:12to remind them of this.
• 31:14May you be happy.
• 31:17May you be free of
• 31:18suffering and the causes of
• 31:20suffering,
• 31:21phrases of that kind.
• 31:23And they were
• 31:24encouraged to choose their own
• 31:26phrase if they wish, whatever
• 31:28words
• 31:29felt
• 31:30appropriate to them that conveyed
• 31:32a similar meaning.
• 31:33And they began with a
• 31:34loved one. They and then
• 31:35moved on to themselves.
• 31:38They then moved on to
• 31:39a category that we call
• 31:41a stranger, a person whose
• 31:43face you recognize, but you
• 31:44don't know them well, could
• 31:46be someone who works in
• 31:47the same office that you
• 31:48work in the same building,
• 31:50but you don't know much
• 31:51about their lives.
• 31:52And imagine a time in
• 31:53their life when they may
• 31:54have been having some difficulty
• 31:56even if you don't know
• 31:57much about their life, and
• 31:58then go through the same
• 32:00kind of process.
• 32:02And finally, we end with
• 32:04a
• 32:04difficult person, someone who pushes
• 32:06your buttons.
• 32:10And we encourage
• 32:11the participant
• 32:13to genuinely
• 32:14bring that person into their
• 32:16life,
• 32:18in a
• 32:20sincere way and cultivate the
• 32:22aspiration that they'd be relieved
• 32:24of suffering.
• 32:25So they do that for
• 32:27thirty minutes a day for
• 32:28two weeks.
• 32:29We have a control group
• 32:31that's taught simple practices
• 32:33derived from cognitive therapy.
• 32:37They are taught to cognitively
• 32:39reappraise
• 32:39situations
• 32:40to render them,
• 32:43more positive in outcome,
• 32:46and they are taught for
• 32:48the same amount of time.
• 32:50And these,
• 32:51this training is delivered online
• 32:53to these people,
• 32:54and we scan them before
• 32:56and after they go through
• 32:57this training. We also, at
• 32:59the end of the training,
• 33:00give them a
• 33:03a task
• 33:04from
• 33:05behavioral and neuroeconomics,
• 33:08a task that is designed
• 33:10to assess altruism,
• 33:12costly altruism.
• 33:13And, these are data from
• 33:15the
• 33:16economic decision making task,
• 33:19simply showing that the participants
• 33:21randomly assigned to compassion training
• 33:24behave significantly more altruistically
• 33:26compared to their counterparts
• 33:28assigned to the cognitive reappraisal
• 33:30training. And we also find
• 33:32that there are differences in
• 33:33the brain,
• 33:35and these differences in the
• 33:36brain actually predict,
• 33:38the change in behavior on
• 33:40the economic decision making task.
• 33:43And here, we're specifically showing
• 33:45changes in connectivity
• 33:46between a region in dorsolateral
• 33:49prefrontal cortex
• 33:50and in the ventral striatum,
• 33:52particularly in the nucleus accumbens
• 33:54here.
• 33:55And increases in connectivity
• 33:57between these regions
• 33:59predict the increase that we
• 34:01see in altruistic
• 34:02behavior
• 34:03on the economic decision making
• 34:05task
• 34:06in the participants
• 34:07who are trained in compassion.
• 34:10So,
• 34:11this is simply a proof
• 34:12of concept that,
• 34:14it really doesn't take much.
• 34:16This is after two weeks
• 34:17of training.
• 34:18It's a maximum of seven
• 34:20hours,
• 34:21thirty minutes a day for
• 34:22two weeks.
• 34:23And,
• 34:24it's simply just to illustrate
• 34:27that,
• 34:28you can actually see changes
• 34:30in the brain with as
• 34:31little as seven hours of
• 34:33training.
• 34:34I'm not in any way
• 34:35meaning to imply
• 34:37that these changes are gonna
• 34:38persist.
• 34:40If you did two weeks
• 34:42of physical exercise with a
• 34:43trainer
• 34:44and noticed improvements in how
• 34:46your body is feeling, nobody
• 34:48would expect those changes to
• 34:50persist if you stopped exercising.
• 34:53Our conjecture
• 34:54is that in all of
• 34:55this, we're,
• 34:57teaching people these simple practices,
• 34:59which hopefully can become lifelong
• 35:02practices,
• 35:03that then will,
• 35:05enable
• 35:05these changes to endure.
• 35:10Actually, I'm gonna skip this
• 35:11in the interest of time
• 35:13and,
• 35:13move on to insight.
• 35:17Insight, as I,
• 35:19mentioned earlier, is insight into
• 35:22the nature of
• 35:24the the self,
• 35:25the entity
• 35:27that,
• 35:28we all carry around,
• 35:30our narrative
• 35:31self.
• 35:32And,
• 35:33one of the interesting ways
• 35:36to probe this,
• 35:37rigorously,
• 35:38experimentally,
• 35:40is with challenging,
• 35:44the self, if you will.
• 35:46And one of the ways
• 35:47that we can challenge it
• 35:49is,
• 35:50with physical pain.
• 35:52And I liken this to,
• 35:55to a cardiac stress test,
• 35:58to evaluate the functional status
• 36:00of the heart.
• 36:02A cardiologist
• 36:03would often have
• 36:05a patient,
• 36:06do a stress test to
• 36:08look at the functioning of
• 36:09the heart under these
• 36:11stressful
• 36:12challenges.
• 36:13In a set in a
• 36:14very similar way, we can
• 36:15challenge the mind and the
• 36:17brain with physical pain.
• 36:20And so,
• 36:21in these studies, we use
• 36:23heat,
• 36:24as a physical pain. It's
• 36:26very realistic. It's actual heat.
• 36:28We use a thermode,
• 36:30that involves
• 36:31rapidly circulating water,
• 36:34where,
• 36:35in which we can control
• 36:37the temperature very precisely.
• 36:39And, I wanna share data
• 36:41with you from,
• 36:42one experiment,
• 36:44with long term meditation practitioners
• 36:46that was a very simple
• 36:47study.
• 36:48And in this study, we
• 36:50gave,
• 36:51both meditators and controls
• 36:54a sample of this
• 36:56heat
• 36:57stimulus,
• 36:59before they began the experiment.
• 37:01The heat is forty nine
• 37:02degrees centigrade,
• 37:04delivered for ten seconds.
• 37:05I've had it done to
• 37:06myself on many occasions. I
• 37:08can tell you that it
• 37:09is indeed extremely painful,
• 37:13and,
• 37:14you can,
• 37:16most people can tolerate it
• 37:18pretty well for the first
• 37:19few seconds, but,
• 37:21getting toward,
• 37:22seconds,
• 37:24seven and higher, it's really
• 37:26very intense.
• 37:27But we can deliver this
• 37:29in a way which is
• 37:30safe, doesn't cause any tissue
• 37:31damage,
• 37:33and,
• 37:34is, very compelling and realistic.
• 37:38When you think about pain,
• 37:41we often use a phrase
• 37:42like, I'm in pain.
• 37:45And, it's helpful to reflect
• 37:47on a sentence like that,
• 37:49because it really helps to
• 37:51reveal what this insight pillar
• 37:53is about.
• 37:54When a person says something
• 37:56like I am in pain
• 37:58or even,
• 37:59you can think of this
• 38:00kind of phrase with any
• 38:02emotion, I am sad,
• 38:04what does it mean to
• 38:05say that? Does it when
• 38:07a person says I am
• 38:08in pain or I am
• 38:09sad, does that mean all
• 38:10of you are sad, all
• 38:12of you are in pain?
• 38:13Is there any,
• 38:15is there any place in
• 38:16you
• 38:17which is not feeling sad
• 38:18or not feeling pain? What
• 38:20is the I actually mean
• 38:22when we use that kind
• 38:23of sentence?
• 38:25And so that's really what
• 38:27this inside
• 38:28pillar is about. And there
• 38:30are specific
• 38:31meditation practices
• 38:32that are designed to interrogate
• 38:35and to undermine,
• 38:36if you will, this,
• 38:38constructed
• 38:39eye.
• 38:41So,
• 38:42in this experiment,
• 38:44and, actually, let me just
• 38:45say give
• 38:48another introduction to this experiment
• 38:50before I share the actual
• 38:52data.
• 38:53We have spent a lot
• 38:55of time in our lab
• 38:56looking at how people respond
• 38:58to adversity,
• 39:00and,
• 39:01I wanna just show you
• 39:02two hypothetical curves.
• 39:04Imagine that at time point
• 39:06three,
• 39:07some stressful event is introduced,
• 39:09and you can see how
• 39:10this person responds to it.
• 39:12And on the ordinate, you
• 39:14can plot your favorite dependent
• 39:16measure.
• 39:17It could be a behavioral
• 39:18measure. It could be something
• 39:19like cortisol.
• 39:20It could be a heart
• 39:22rate. It could even be,
• 39:24a response in the brain,
• 39:26which we've looked at such
• 39:27as bold signal,
• 39:29to, in the amygdala, for
• 39:31example.
• 39:33But contrast this with the
• 39:35second person
• 39:36who responds
• 39:37with the same amplitude,
• 39:39but they come back down
• 39:41to baseline more quickly.
• 39:43We would say that person
• 39:44b
• 39:45is more resilient compared to
• 39:47person a. You can think
• 39:48of resilience in part as
• 39:50the rapidity
• 39:51with which you recover from
• 39:53adversity.
• 39:54And so,
• 39:55this is one of the
• 39:56parameters
• 39:57that we're looking at in
• 39:58this experiment. So in this
• 40:00experiment, we bring long term
• 40:02meditators and controls into the
• 40:04lab. We introduce them to
• 40:06the heat pain, but we
• 40:08do it in a way
• 40:09where we precede it with
• 40:10a stimulus
• 40:11that denotes that the pain
• 40:13is coming on. So,
• 40:15in this case, an auditory
• 40:17stimulus,
• 40:18is presented, and it denotes
• 40:21that in ten seconds,
• 40:22they're gonna get zapped with
• 40:24a,
• 40:26this noxious
• 40:27heat.
• 40:29And we're specifically looking at
• 40:31the pain matrix in the
• 40:32brain.
• 40:33Many of you know that,
• 40:37the set of regions in
• 40:38the brain that responds to
• 40:40physical pain like heat
• 40:42is fairly well characterized. We
• 40:44know where to look.
• 40:46And so in non meditators,
• 40:48we present,
• 40:50a simple tone that denotes
• 40:52that pain is about to
• 40:53occur. And in the pain
• 40:55matrix, we see
• 40:56that non meditators begin to
• 40:58respond immediately.
• 41:00This is simply to the
• 41:01auditory stimulus.
• 41:03No heat stimulus has been
• 41:05presented at this time, but
• 41:07simply in anticipation
• 41:09of the painful stimulus,
• 41:11the pain matrix begins to
• 41:13respond.
• 41:14When the heat comes on,
• 41:15the response continues,
• 41:17and the
• 41:19recovery is quite slow.
• 41:22When you bring long term
• 41:23meditators into the lab, you
• 41:26show them you introduce the
• 41:27same parameters.
• 41:29They hear beep.
• 41:31And what you see is
• 41:32absolutely
• 41:33no significant activation in any
• 41:36region of the pain matrix.
• 41:38Absolutely
• 41:39no,
• 41:40significant activation.
• 41:42You do see, of course,
• 41:44activation in auditory cortex in
• 41:46response to the tone.
• 41:48But then when the heat
• 41:49comes on,
• 41:51the meditators show a very
• 41:52large response. And in fact,
• 41:54in some regions of the
• 41:55pain
• 41:56matrix, including
• 41:57somatosensory
• 41:58cortex,
• 41:59they actually show a larger
• 42:01response,
• 42:02significantly
• 42:03larger than in controls,
• 42:05but they come right back
• 42:07down to baseline.
• 42:09And we think of this
• 42:10as the normal signature of
• 42:12resilience,
• 42:13having very little anticipatory response,
• 42:16a big response to the
• 42:17actual stimulus,
• 42:18and a very rapid
• 42:20return to baseline.
• 42:23Okay. Let me say a
• 42:24few things about purpose.
• 42:28Purpose, as I
• 42:30suggested earlier, is about finding
• 42:33our true north,
• 42:35in life. And there's a
• 42:37whole cottage industry of
• 42:39research that indicates that purpose
• 42:42is,
• 42:44probably the single most important
• 42:46psychological
• 42:47factor
• 42:48in predicting longevity
• 42:51among people who are in
• 42:53their latter decades of life.
• 42:56And, I wanna just show
• 42:58you one example from this
• 42:59kind of study.
• 43:01This is,
• 43:02a study
• 43:03classifying people into the ninetieth
• 43:06or the tenth percentile in
• 43:07having
• 43:08a strong or weak sense
• 43:10of purpose,
• 43:11following them over the course
• 43:13of five years.
• 43:15These are people in their
• 43:16seventies,
• 43:17and it's,
• 43:18matching people at the out
• 43:20at the outset of this
• 43:21study in,
• 43:22preexisting medical conditions and then
• 43:25looking at them longitudinally.
• 43:27And what you can see
• 43:28is that people who
• 43:30have the lowest sense of
• 43:32purpose who are in the
• 43:33tenth percentile,
• 43:35on the ordinate is the
• 43:37hazard ratio for death.
• 43:39You can see that they're
• 43:40dying sooner
• 43:41compared to their counterparts who
• 43:43are in their the ninetieth
• 43:44percentile
• 43:46in the dotted line. And
• 43:48this basic finding has been
• 43:50replicated
• 43:51many, many times,
• 43:52and,
• 43:54is quite a strong finding,
• 43:57underscoring
• 43:58the importance of purpose in
• 44:00life,
• 44:02and its correlates
• 44:04in suggesting
• 44:05that it is
• 44:06something that is,
• 44:09embodied. It's a quality that
• 44:11gets under the skin
• 44:12and affects our biology in
• 44:14ways that are consequential for
• 44:16health.
• 44:18Okay. Now in the last
• 44:19few minutes, I wanna just
• 44:21talk a little bit about
• 44:23scaling well-being.
• 44:25And this is something,
• 44:28about which we're
• 44:30extremely passionate these days.
• 44:33When people ask me what
• 44:34I'm really most excited about,
• 44:36it's really the opportunity
• 44:38to scale well-being.
• 44:41Given that I think most
• 44:43people would agree
• 44:44as we talked about at
• 44:46the very beginning of this
• 44:47presentation,
• 44:49our well-being is in such
• 44:51rapid
• 44:52decline.
• 44:53And so we
• 44:55developed a curriculum,
• 44:57if you will, that we
• 44:58call the Healthy Minds program
• 45:00that trains
• 45:01each of these four pillars
• 45:03of well-being.
• 45:04And one of the things
• 45:05that we've done is we've
• 45:06put this into a form
• 45:07of a mobile app,
• 45:09called the Healthy Minds program.
• 45:12This app is freely available,
• 45:14totally free.
• 45:16There's no paperwork whatsoever. It's
• 45:18produced by our nonprofit
• 45:20Healthy Minds Innovations,
• 45:22and the New York Times
• 45:23Wirecutter just named it as
• 45:25one of the three best
• 45:26meditation apps for the fourth
• 45:27year in a row.
• 45:29And in,
• 45:31my,
• 45:33admittedly,
• 45:35biased opinion,
• 45:37this is the only app
• 45:38of its kind that actually
• 45:40is evidence based.
• 45:42There are two published randomized
• 45:44controlled trials
• 45:45using this app and and,
• 45:47at least two more
• 45:49about to be published very
• 45:50soon.
• 45:52And,
• 45:53what we see,
• 45:55and by the way, you
• 45:56can go to this website,
• 45:57try healthy minds dot org,
• 46:00to learn more about it,
• 46:01and you can download it
• 46:02from,
• 46:03the App Store either,
• 46:06iOS or Google.
• 46:09These are just data from
• 46:10two of the randomized controlled
• 46:12trials that have been published,
• 46:13one with a sample size
• 46:15of,
• 46:16three hundred and forty three,
• 46:17another with a sample size
• 46:18of six hundred and sixty
• 46:20two.
• 46:21The
• 46:23the figure on the right
• 46:25comes from a study of
• 46:26public school teachers.
• 46:29And,
• 46:31it is,
• 46:33showing a,
• 46:34quite a dramatic reduction
• 46:36on standardized measures of distress.
• 46:39This is a composite measure
• 46:41that includes measures of depression,
• 46:43anxiety,
• 46:44and,
• 46:46perceived stress.
• 46:48And what you can see
• 46:49is that these changes begin
• 46:51to rapidly
• 46:52occur,
• 46:53over the course of four
• 46:55weeks of training.
• 46:57So this is a twenty
• 46:58eight day program,
• 47:00where people are doing each
• 47:02pillar
• 47:03for one week. That is
• 47:05awareness, connection, insight, and purpose.
• 47:08And in this app,
• 47:09they are presented with didactic
• 47:12information about the science of
• 47:13each of these pillars in
• 47:15what you can think of
• 47:16as many podcasts.
• 47:18And they're given really simple
• 47:20short practices
• 47:21to cultivate,
• 47:23these qualities,
• 47:25using a kind of what
• 47:26we think of as procedural
• 47:28learning,
• 47:29skill based and acquired through
• 47:31practice.
• 47:32And these data are showing
• 47:34that these gains
• 47:35in reductions in psychological distress
• 47:38are preserved
• 47:39at three months follow-up. Now
• 47:41here's the real kicker.
• 47:43We get from the app
• 47:44the amount of time people
• 47:45are spending,
• 47:47engaging with the app, and
• 47:49the average use is approximately
• 47:51five minutes per day.
• 47:53Five minutes per day for
• 47:55twenty eight days
• 47:56is sufficient
• 47:57to produce robust reductions on
• 48:00these measures of distress.
• 48:03So we've
• 48:05just replicated
• 48:07this in yet another study
• 48:09on the right.
• 48:11This is data from
• 48:13another school system. This actually
• 48:15comes from,
• 48:17the Jefferson County Public School
• 48:19District in Louisville, Kentucky,
• 48:22and it's showing,
• 48:24similar data with a longer
• 48:28follow-up period.
• 48:29This is,
• 48:32at,
• 48:34twenty eight weeks follow-up,
• 48:37and it's showing that the
• 48:38Healthy Minds program,
• 48:41compared to a more active
• 48:43control in this case,
• 48:45rather than a wait list
• 48:46control is showing,
• 48:48these benefits.
• 48:50We also see benefits extending
• 48:52to the entire school system,
• 48:54in this case where,
• 48:56measures of appreciation
• 48:58and trust in school administrators
• 49:00is enhanced
• 49:02in, participants
• 49:03who are randomly assigned
• 49:05to the,
• 49:07control group. And I don't
• 49:08have a slide of this,
• 49:09but we just finished,
• 49:12analyzing
• 49:13a set of data just,
• 49:16very, very recently
• 49:18where we
• 49:19have data on the
• 49:22students' performance
• 49:24who are taught
• 49:25by teachers
• 49:27randomly assigned
• 49:28to our well-being training compared
• 49:30to teachers randomly assigned to
• 49:32the control group. And,
• 49:34for students who start off,
• 49:37at a more disadvantaged
• 49:39level,
• 49:41When they are taught by
• 49:43teachers who are randomly assigned
• 49:45to the well-being training, those
• 49:47students perform significantly
• 49:49better
• 49:50on standardized
• 49:52math tests.
• 49:53These are statewide
• 49:55standardized tests compared to students
• 49:57taught by teachers
• 49:58randomly assigned to the control
• 50:00group.
• 50:01And so this is the
• 50:03first time
• 50:04that we know of that
• 50:06this kind of ripple effect
• 50:09has been demonstrated
• 50:10rigorously,
• 50:11empirically,
• 50:12and, we're super excited about
• 50:15these findings,
• 50:16and,
• 50:18they will be published soon.
• 50:20But in another study, which
• 50:22has just been published, we've
• 50:23shown,
• 50:24this is a study that
• 50:25we did before COVID where
• 50:27we train teachers in this,
• 50:31using this approach. We follow
• 50:32them during COVID, and we
• 50:34ask the simple question, how
• 50:35many of you are still
• 50:36teaching full time
• 50:38three years later? And we
• 50:39find that teachers randomly assigned
• 50:41to our well-being training are
• 50:43six times more likely to
• 50:45still be teaching,
• 50:46three years later compared to
• 50:48those assigned to a control
• 50:50group,
• 50:51and,
• 50:52doing a cost benefit analysis
• 50:54based on retention data alone
• 50:56for each dollar invested in
• 50:58an intervention.
• 50:59Three years later, there's the
• 51:00three dollar and thirty four
• 51:02cent return on that investment
• 51:04three years later.
• 51:06So let me end by
• 51:08saying we view this as
• 51:09an urgent public health need.
• 51:11One of the things that
• 51:13I often,
• 51:14remind
• 51:16us of is that when
• 51:17we all first evolved as
• 51:19humans, none of us were
• 51:20brushing our teeth.
• 51:22And all of us now
• 51:23spend a few minutes every
• 51:24day, virtually every human being
• 51:26on the planet, brushing their
• 51:27teeth.
• 51:29This is not part of
• 51:30our genome. This is something
• 51:31we've learned to do.
• 51:33And the data show that
• 51:34if we spend even as
• 51:36short a time as we
• 51:37spend each day brushing our
• 51:38teeth, nourishing our mind, this
• 51:40world would really be a
• 51:42different place.
• 51:44So please join us on
• 51:45this journey
• 51:46where we can change the
• 51:47world by nourishing our mind.
• 51:49And let me end with
• 51:51a quote from the Dalai
• 51:52Lama himself,
• 51:53where he said in his
• 51:55book, The Art of Happiness,
• 51:57the systematic training of the
• 51:58mind, the cultivation of happiness,
• 52:01the genuine inner transformation
• 52:03by deliberately selecting and focusing
• 52:06on positive mental states and
• 52:08challenging negative mental states
• 52:10is possible because the very
• 52:12structure and function of the
• 52:13brain.
• 52:14But the wiring in our
• 52:15brains is not static,
• 52:17not irrevocably
• 52:18fixed.
• 52:19Our brains
• 52:20are also
• 52:21adaptable.
• 52:22Thank you very much.