Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: Karasu Psychosocial Lecture: "Well-Being and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Contemplative Neuroscience"
December 20, 2024December 20, 2024
Karasu Psychosocial Lecture: "Well-Being and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Contemplative Neuroscience"
Richard Davidson, PhD, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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- ID
- 12591
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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.