[acoustic guitar music]
[Anderson Cooper] Our lives
are filled with distractions.
Email, Twitter, texting.
We're constantly
connected to technology,
rarely alone with
just our thoughts.
Which is probably why there's
a growing movement in America
to train people to get around
the stresses of daily life.
It's a practice
called mindfulness.
[Oprah Winfrey] I believe
that the entry point
for living a more conscious
life is mindfulness.
[Mika Brzezinski]
I would urge you all
to start practicing
mindfulness right away.
[Michael Strahan] What is your
favorite thing about racing?
[Patrick Dempsey] I
think the mindfulness of it
is what I really enjoy the most
because you really have
to be focused on the here
and the now.
[Australian] When this year's
top buzzwords are compiled,
mindfulness will surely be
close to the top of the list.
So Angie, in the video
you talked a little bit
about mindfulness, so could
you tell us a little bit more
about what it is
and how it works?
[British Newscaster] And
what we're talking about
is called mindfulness
meditation and people who do it
believe that it makes their
brains healthier and fitter.
[relaxing music]
[Jewel] I grew up in Alaska.
My mom left when I was eight
and my dad took over
raising my brothers and I.
We moved to the homestead
where my dad had been raised.
He was raised in an abusive
household and went to Vietnam.
Picked up some more trauma.
He began drinking to try
and medicate his anxiety
and it didn't go well for him.
He became abusive and I
ended up moving out at 15.
I knew when I moved out at 15
that statistically I should
end up repeating the cycle.
As much as we get a
genetic inheritance,
we get an emotional inheritance.
If you look at my family's
emotional inheritance,
it leads to substance abuse or
alcoholism or physical abuse.
I didn't want that to be me.
I wanted to avoid
being a statistic.
After I graduated high school,
I ended up in San
Diego where my mom was.
I went to take care of her.
I was working in a
computer warehouse.
My boss took me aside
to have a talk with me
and I realized he
was propositioning me
and I turned him down.
When I wouldn't
have sex with him,
he wouldn't give me my paycheck.
I wasn't able to make rent
and so my mom and I
began living in our cars.
My car ended up getting stolen
and I ended up being
homeless for a year.
I was having panic
att*cks and stealing.
I wasn't doing well.
Somewhere between the age of 15,
when I said I would never
be a statistic, to 18,
three short years later,
I was a statistic,
I was homeless and gonna
end up in jail or dead.
I quit believing in myself.
So I had to get very, very
serious about my thoughts.
[b*mb blasts]
[Radioman] Two-three-four,
what is your position?
[Soldier] Be aware of two IEDs
near a house on the main road.
[Dan] The combat mission
may technically be over,
but for anyone who thinks
the danger is over,
consider that there have been
560 IED explosions in Iraq
in just the past month.
I had spent a lot of time
after 9/11 in w*r zones.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel,
the West Bank, Gaza, Iraq.
Many times in Iraq.
Do you feel like
the w*r is over?
[radio chatter]
[Soldier] We're combat
troops, we're still here,
we've still got a job to do.
I had come home
and gotten depressed.
I was insufficiently
self-aware to even know
that I was depressed and I
made the very dumb decision
to self-medicate with
recreational dr*gs
including cocaine, ecstasy.
Even though I hadn't been
doing dr*gs every day
or anything like that,
it was enough to artificially
raise the level of adrenaline
in my brain to change
my brain chemistry
and made it much more likely
for me to have a panic att*ck.
[orchestral music]
Now one of the world's most
commonly prescribed medications
may be providing a big bonus.
Researchers report people
who take cholesterol
lowering dr*gs called statins
for at least five years
may also lower their
risk for cancer.
When I was anchoring
the news updates
on Good Morning America,
that's the person who comes
on at the top of the hour
and delivers the headlines,
and just a few
seconds into my spiel
I just lost it.
But it's too early to
prescribe statins slowly
for cancer production.
My heart was racing,
my lungs seized up,
my palms were sweating,
my mind was racing.
I actually just
couldn't breathe, I
couldn't speak anymore.
So I had to quit
right in the middle
and that was really embarrassing.
That does it for news.
We're gonna go back now
to Robin and Charlie.
The backstory was
even more embarrassing
because when I went to
see a doctor about it
he asked me a
bunch of questions.
One of the questions
was, "Do you do dr*gs?"
And I said, "Yeah, I do."
And he leaned back in the
chair and gave me this look
that communicated the
following sentiment:
"Okay assh*le, mystery solved."
[Blues music]
[George] I loved to run.
Whether it was cross country,
playing basketball, jumping,
and just be engaged physically.
There's something
magical about that.
There's something magical
while being in flow
where things are just happening
and it's like you're not there
but you're right
in it, you are it.
So when I was in college
I was actually rooming
with Dr. J at the time,
Julius Erving, back at UMass.
It was preseason, just
playing with the team,
and I got injured.
I had an ankle injury and it
pretty much ended my career.
I didn't really know who I was
if I wasn't playing basketball
because I was one
of these quiet types
that let my game do
my talking for me.
Being an athlete all my
life and loving to run
and loving to compete and
having the camaraderie
of being with a group of people
that had a common purpose,
that was very challenging for me
to get away from all of that.
And that's when I started
the pain medicine.
I started abusing that
and then getting into
dr*gs and alcohol.
[reflective music]
[Sharon] My parents
split up when I was four.
My mother d*ed when I was nine.
I lived with my father's
parents after that,
whom I hardly knew.
My father came back briefly.
I hadn't seen him since I was
four and by now I'm like 11
and he was like a
different person.
Took an overdose
of sleeping pills.
He didn't die but he
spent the rest of his life
in some mental health
facility or another.
I'd lived in five different
family configurations
and every one of them
had been switched
because of trauma or loss
or something like that.
And so I was terribly
unhappy and afraid and angry
but I didn't quite know
what was going on within me
I just knew it didn't
feel really good.
[exciting music]
[Narrator] The pace of life
seems to be accelerating.
[Reporter] We've got a
major accident H-1 east side.
[Anchor] It's actually the
most polluted city in America.
[baby crying]
[sirens blaring]
[news chatter]
[digital whirring]
[Narrator] We're more
connected to information
but less connected
to each other.
[baby crying]
In these increasingly
uncertain times,
a growing number of
people have discovered
a surprisingly
effective antidote.
Mindfulness.
[relaxing music]
Mindfulness comes in two forms.
One is a specific
type of meditation,
mindfulness meditation.
[Daniel] Every time you
put your mind on your breath
and then it wanders,
that's what the mind does,
and you notice it wander
and then you bring it back,
you're strengthening
the neural circuitry
for paying attention.
This is quite a parallel
with going to the gym
and lifting weights.
Every time you lift that
weight, every repetition,
strengthens that muscle
just a little bit more.
[Richard] Among
novice practitioners,
we saw changes in the brain
after just two
weeks of practice.
This was a kind of
proof of concept study
that underscored how quickly
these changes can arise.
[Narrator] Strengthening
that mental muscle
builds an ongoing
quality of attention
simply known as mindfulness.
[Diana] The way I define
mindfulness is paying attention
to our present moment
experiences with openness
and curiosity and a
willingness to be with what is.
So it's a quality of attention
that we can have at any moment
whether we're walking down the
street or talking to a friend
or eating or brushing our teeth.
We can bring that quality of
awareness to our experience.
[reflective music]
We just start making better
decisions for ourselves.
In other words, we start taking
better care of ourselves,
we feel better about ourselves,
we generally feel better
about other people.
We just become more
relational, more empathic.
So I think that's all good.
[Deepak] When you're aware
of a sensory experience
while you're having it without
the compulsive activity
of the mind to define it
is a very wonderful
state to be in
because it's a state of peace.
[upbeat music]
[Jon] And it offers us
degrees of freedoms so that
we can navigate the inevitable
ups and downs of life.
There's no moment
that's not a wonderful
moment for mindfulness.
[Diana] I'm a big believer
in the growth of mindfulness,
that mindfulness can
change the world.
[hippie music]
[Narrator] Some people
still associate meditation
and mindfulness with the 1960s,
during the rise of hippie
culture and an influx of yogis
and gurus from the East.
But in the 1970s a small
number of young scientists
and other seekers began
to explore different types
of meditation in a
more analytical way.
[orchestral music]
[Jon] As I was studying
to become a scientist
at MIT in molecular biology,
it also was very important
to me to try to bring
that other stream of my
own meditation practice
together with what
I was understanding
about science and the universe.
I did have an experience
back in the late '70s
of being on a two-week
meditation retreat
at the Insight
Meditation Center.
One day at about the
10th day of this retreat
sitting alone in
my room meditating
I had a vision of
what might be possible
that had to do with
bringing what I was learning
and practicing at
this retreat center
which was a very Buddhist place
into the mainstream
of the world.
Since I happened to be already
working in a laboratory
at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School,
I thought what a
perfect place to do it,
bring it into a hospital.
Nobody wants to go there unless
they are really suffering
beyond a certain point where
they can't deny it anymore.
I started to seek
out physicians,
asking, "What percentage
of your patients
"do you feel you actually help?"
And I was astonished by the
answers that they would say.
"Well maybe 10%, maybe 15%."
[Jon laughs]
I was like, my God.
What happens to the rest?
[somber music]
They said, "Well, they either
get better on their own,
"but for the most part,
they just never get better."
[Narrator] Jon
found a few doctors
willing to refer
their chronic patients
and the Stress Reduction
Clinic was born.
I would say, "Listen,
from our point of view,
"as long as you're breathing,
"there's more right with
you than wrong with you.
"What we're gonna do is
pour energy and attention
"into your experience in
the form of mindfulness,
"in the form of wakefulness,
"in the form of
present-moment awareness
"and see what happens over
the course of eight weeks."
You could see people transform.
The doctors would
say, they'd say,
"I don't know what you
did with Mrs. So-and-So
"but you were able to help
her more in eight weeks
"than I've been able to
help her in eight years."
And I would just smile and say,
"Well actually I didn't do
anything, she did it herself."
[Narrator] Jon called
his eight-week course
Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction, or MBSR.
[acoustic guitar music]
Four decades later MBSR courses
are now offered in thousands
of hospitals and other
facilities around the world.
Hundreds of thousands of
lives have been transformed.
[Jon] We want you
to meditate in the way
that is a love affair for you.
Because it's just not like,
"Oh God, I promised I'd wake
up for the next 50 years
"early in the morning
and meditate my ass off
"before I go to work."
It took me a long
time to realize
this is actually a love affair.
Just taking my seat has
gotta be a love affair
with the actuality of
things as they are,
not as we, or I,
would want them to be.
It's absolutely essential
that it is understood
that mindfulness
is intrinsically an
ethical practice.
How would you even know
if you're doing harm
unless you're aware,
unless you're awake,
unless you're mindful of
your impulses to control.
You're engaging in the
meditation practice
for the sake of,
as they say, all beings.
[reflective music]
[Narrator] The retreat center
where Jon had his epiphany
for how to bring mindfulness
into the mainstream
was co-founded by
the woman who grew up
as a depressed, angry
girl in Buffalo.
[Sharon] When I was
a sophomore in college,
I took an Asian
philosophy course.
I had a philosophy requirement
and I just chose that one
because it was convenient
to my schedule.
And of course the course
completely changed my life.
It was in the
context of the course
I heard about the prospect
of meditation practice.
I heard there were actual
practical tools you could use
that could change your mind,
that could make
you a lot happier,
and it was a question
of finding them
and actually practicing them.
The school had an
independent study program.
I created a project, I said,
"I wanna go to India
and study meditation."
And they approved
it so off I went.
I began my meditation
practice in January of 1971.
[Indian music]
The first night of the
retreat was difficult.
I couldn't focus and I
was very young, I was 18,
and I was very distraught
and fragmented.
I had been through
a lot in my life.
I was also extremely judgmental.
I'm somewhat famous for once
having marched up to Goenka,
my first teacher, and looking
him in the eye and saying,
"I never used to
be an angry person
"before I started meditating."
Thereby laying blame exactly
where I felt it belonged
which was on him, of course.
And I'd been hugely angry
but I didn't quite know it.
There was sort of two
parallel processes.
One was discovery.
What am I feeling?
What is the truth
of my experience?
Layer, under layer, under layer.
And the other part was
being kind to myself
and compassionate to myself
rather than so judgmental.
In that discovery, and it
was only after that, I think,
that the whole emphasis
on kindness toward
oneself broadened
and became a real effort
to understand the nature
of kindness and the power of
kindness toward others as well.
It still remains the pivotal
turning point of my life.
[Narrator] When Sharon
returned to America,
she taught one to two week
retreats with Joseph Goldstein,
who she'd met in India,
and Jack Kornfield.
[Sharon] Some
combination of us would go
and teach the retreat
and then it would end
and we never knew if
there'd be another retreat
and so we were sleeping
on people's couches.
[Narrator] Eventually
Sharon, Joseph, and Jack
found a former Catholic
seminary building
in Barre, Massachusetts,
and scraped together money
through fundraising and loans
to create the Insight
Meditation Society,
America's first
permanent retreat center
started by Westerners.
[Sharon] We moved in
Valentine's Day 1976.
Up above the doorway, when we
first looked at the building,
it said Fathers of
the Blessed Sacrament,
and when we moved
in we asked someone
to get up on a very tall
ladder on a very cold day,
and we said,
"Could you please
rearrange those letters
so it says something about us?"
He came up with
Metta, M-E-T-T-A,
which means loving kindness
or friendship or love.
[Daniel] When I was a
graduate student at Harvard,
I got a traveling
fellowship to go to India.
It's quite an interesting
accident of history
that the people I
bumped into by accident
have now become
really the leaders
of the mindfulness
movement in America.
Like Jack Kornfield and Joseph
Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg
and maybe three or
four other people
who are now leading
teachers of mindfulness.
Please join me in
welcoming Daniel Goleman.
[audience applauds]
I began to feel
there's something very
important going on here,
and it was off the map
of psychology then.
As a clinical psychologist
I was learning
how to meet someone and figure
out what was wrong with them.
That was what clinical
psych was about.
Here it was what could
be right about people?
It was the upside
of human potential.
So I was very excited and
I went back to Harvard
and I said, "Hey, guess what?
"There's an upside
to human potential
"and it all seems to have
to do with meditation.
"Isn't that great?"
"No, that's probably
a career-ending move,"
they said.
[audience laughs]
And for me it was
'cause after coming back
and teaching a bit, then I
went into science journalism,
and one of the things I
always wanted to write about
was the scientific benefits
of mindfulness and meditation.
[Narrator] Daniel became
a best-selling author
starting with his 1995
paradigm shifting book,
"Emotional Intelligence."
His latest book,
"Altered Traits,"
co-authored with neuroscientist
Richard Davidson,
examines the
scientific evidence.
When we started out way
back there were three articles
that were published in
the scientific literature
on any kind of meditation
that we could cite.
Now there are more than 6,000.
In the last five years
it's just been practically
exponential growth.
Today there are more
than a thousand a year.
Here's the good news.
Right at the beginning,
there are very, very
positive benefits.
People check their email
more than 70 times
a day on average.
They check their Facebook
more than 20 times a day.
Every time you bring
your mind back,
it seems, at least theoretically,
the circuitry for paying
full attention and monitoring
mind wandering, get stronger.
One of the other findings
about beginning meditation
is that you're triggered less,
you recover more quickly.
And when you're triggered,
you get less upset.
There is some very good
suggestive evidence from UCLA
that meditation slows
the aging of the brain.
People who we call
long-term practitioners,
if you do a day retreat,
like six to eight
hours of meditation,
something happens to your genes.
What happens is that all
of the genes that create,
there are hundreds or more
genes that create inflammation
in the body, down regulate.
They go quiet.
This is really
interesting medically
because chronic inflammation
is one of the at-cause factors
in a whole range of diseases
from diabetes and arthritis
to heart disease and so on.
So after all these years
and despite what my
professors at Harvard told me,
I'm very happy that
I have followed this
and pursued mindfulness,
pursued meditation,
and I think that we've been
vindicated by the evidence.
And thank you very much
for coming tonight.
[audience applauds]
Richard Davidson however
was ready to listen
to what I had to say and we've
been lifelong friends since.
[reflective music]
[Richard] After my second
year of graduate school in 1974,
I went off to India
for the first time
to get a taste of
meditation practice.
When I returned from India,
I came back with a conviction
that meditation was
something very important
for Western psychology and
neuroscience to embrace
and a fervent aspiration to
pursue research in this area.
But it was made very clear to me
that if I wanted a
successful career in science,
this was an absolutely
terrible way to begin
and I had better find
something else to study.
[Narrator] For years, Richard
stuck to basic research.
Until one fateful meeting.
When I first met the Dalai
Lama in 1992, he challenged me.
He said, "You've been using
tools of modern neuroscience
"to investigate stress
and anxiety and depression
"and adversity.
"Why can't you use
those same tools
"to study kindness
and compassion?"
And that was a wake up call.
I didn't have a very
good answer for him.
And he said,
"I want you to take
these practices
"out of their religious context,
"bring them into the laboratory,
"and if you find that
they're valuable,
"disseminate them to the world."
And that was my assignment
for the rest of my life.
[Narrator] What
Richard and others
at the University of
Wisconsin Madison's
Center for Healthy
Minds have discovered
is that meditation has
the power to rewire
and restructure the brain.
We first began to look
at very long-term
meditation practitioners.
These were individuals who
spent years training their mind.
Sure enough, when we
did those studies,
we found that their brains
were quite different
from the brains of
ordinary individuals.
What we're looking at
here is a representation
of a larger body of research
that depicts how mindfulness
meditation works in the brain.
The moment we're lost
and recognize it,
the moment of recognition
engages the salience network.
And one of the nodes
in the salience network
is the anterior
insula, a second,
important node is the
anterior singular cortex.
Those parts of the
brain are critical
in this monitoring function.
Then what happens is we want
to reorient our awareness,
bring it back to the breath,
and that requires the engagement
of a prefrontal network
that directs attention,
and the parietal lobe.
And so we then direct
attention back to the breath
in a process of reorienting.
And then we can sustain
our focus of attention.
And the sustaining also
involves the prefrontal cortex.
[Researcher] Okay,
let's get started.
If you want to lay down
and be careful that you--
[Richard] What we envision
is that we are providing people
with lifelong skills that
they'll continue to use
over and over again.
And it's through
continued practice
that enduring change can occur.
[reflective music]
[Deepak] When you become
aware that you're distracted,
then gently bring your awareness
back to your breathing.
To be aware of a thought
as it arises and falls,
or any other experience,
a perception,
a choice, sensation,
all does the same thing.
You realize that you,
as a being,
are not a thought.
[Narrator] Deepak Chopra
began his professional life
as a board certified physician.
Then, in 1985, just
as Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Daniel Goleman, and
others had done,
Deepak decided to focus more
on what was right with people
instead of what was wrong.
As a medical doctor I was
always interested in healing.
You can't do that by
looking at the human body
in a very fragmented way,
as a physical machine.
I just extended my
understanding of healing.
It's a natural progression.
[Narrator] Deepak's insights
on healing, wellbeing,
and other topics have
led to more than 80 books
as well as speaking
engagements around the world.
[Deepak] Each species--
[reflective music]
[car horns honking]
In the midst of all
these sounds and my voice
and the sensations
and the breath,
in the midst of this, keeping
your awareness in your heart,
mentally ask the question,
"Who am I?"
The word mindfulness in itself
is a little misleading because
it implies a full mind.
And awarefulness would be
an awkward, clumsy word.
So we'll keep the
word mindfulness.
But every experience that
we have, this experience,
is illuminated by the
light of awareness.
And then the compulsion to
say this is good, this is bad,
to judge, to label,
all of that increases
the activity of the mind.
That restless
activity of the mind
ultimately is the
cause of all stress.
But when you're
embedded as awareness,
as the loving presence in
which all is happening,
that's a state of
perfect homeostasis,
perfect equilibrium.
[reflective music]
[digital whirring]
[Anchor] More schools are
adding mindfulness, meditation,
and even yoga to
their curriculum
to help kids develop coping
skills that can last a lifetime.
[Reporter] MindUP
founder and creator,
actress Goldie Hawn,
believes that when
children better understand
how their brains work,
they can better
handle their emotions.
I want it to be woven into
the tapestry of their day.
[Host] Some scientists suggest
a brain training technique
called mindfulness could
help teenagers manage stress.
[R&B music]
[Ali] When Atman and
I were little kids,
my parents were
heavily into yoga,
and meditation, and
contemplative practices,
Ayurvedic cooking and
being vegan back then.
Our dad would wake
us up every morning
and make us meditate
before school.
[Atman] We thought it was
weird as I don't know what.
Honestly we kinda
kept it in the house
and we kinda called
ourselves closet meditators
'cause we had to keep it
secret from everybody else.
[Narrator] During
college the Smith brothers
met a kindred spirit
in Andres Gonzalez.
They returned to the crime
and poverty of West Baltimore
determined to provide children
with positive life skills.
Having the two of them
with me through this journey
was extremely powerful
because we struggled a lot
at the beginning.
It was a good eight, nine
years of doing this for free,
and a lot of judgment
being passed onto us,
and people asking us,
"What are you doing
with yourselves?
"Why don't you get a real job."
We were presented with the
opportunity to coach football
for some fifth grade boys
at an elementary school
and we decided to do an
after school yoga program
and things kinda took on a
life of their own from there.
[children chatter]
[Narrator] That success
gradually led to other programs
featuring yoga and
mindfulness both after school
and during the school day.
[Child] Inhale and push.
[Principal] Hurry
up and get to class.
There's one young lady in
particular that I really wanted
to see if this program
would benefit her.
After the program had been in
session for about four months,
she came in my office one day
and closed the door and said,
"Today makes a
difference in my life.
"I'm not gonna get
in trouble anymore.
"I'm gonna use what
I've been learning
"in the after-school program."
[Teacher] Are we ready
for our Mindful Moment?
[Narrator] Now every day
at Robert Coleman Elementary
starts with a
series of exercises
known as the Mindful Moment.
- Your fingers and toes.
And if any thoughts of
the past come into mind,
just let it go.
[Carlillian] One thing we
realized is, a lot of times,
children are traumatized
before they get here.
[Narrator] And during the
day teachers can refer any kids
who are struggling to
the Mindful Moment room.
They're not going to the
office, they're coming here.
Last year we had close
to 1,300 referrals.
So that's 1,300 times
that kids came to us
and we were able to work with
them and able to return them
to class focused
and ready to learn.
In order for us can have
a focused and calm day,
we know we have to start
with Mindful Moment.
One thing they want to
teach us, control your anger.
Do something like a couple
deep breathing and don't fight.
[Narrator] On the
other side of Baltimore
at Patterson High School,
principal Vance
Benton knows firsthand
that the program works
with older kids, too.
[Vance] We have it every
morning, it's 12 to 15 minutes.
It's going on the PA.
The mindfulness room
is also open all day.
So children can self-refer,
come on in and get
some mindfulness.
Teachers can refer students
at any point in time
and get 20 minutes and
get on back to class.
[Teacher] Place it over.
[Vance] Being that we
have a lot of students
from other countries
fleeing their village,
they also experience
the same things
our Baltimore City
students are experiencing
in terms of death and v*olence.
I want the children
to have something
that they can always have with
them beyond the school day.
[Narrator] Now the
Holistic Life Foundation
serves more than 7,000 kids
at over 40 different
Baltimore public schools.
Once they love themselves,
then you see it
start to ripple out.
We see them start to treat
their friends differently
and their teachers differently,
the principal differently.
But it has to start within
and it kinda just
reverberates out
and it starts to affect
the entire community.
[orchestral music]
[Diana] The Mindful
Awareness Research Center
at UCLA started in 2006.
When we teach in institutions
we definitely do not want it
being perceived as
religious, and it's not.
The teachings are
rooted in Buddhism,
but they are not Buddhist.
They're what it
means to be human.
We have free drop-ins all
over campus all the time.
And we also go
out to the public.
[piano music]
Welcome everyone to our Thursday
mindful awareness meditation.
If we were to check into our
mind at any point in the day,
we would probably notice
that we're in the past
replaying things, wishing
they hadn't happened,
going over them thinking I could
have done them differently.
Or we're planning
for the future.
What am I gonna be doing?
Obsessing about it, catastrophizing.
So mindfulness is this
invitation to the here and now
and people report that
when they're more present,
there's a sense of connection,
of gratitude, of presence,
of awareness that really begins
to infiltrate their lives.
So what we're doing here
really is a training ground
for being mindful
throughout the day.
All right, let's get started.
[reflective music]
We can begin with
a few deep breaths.
And now we'll begin the
process of paying attention
to moment after moment,
breath after breath.
As you do this, you may notice
that your attention wanders.
You can stay with
a breath or two.
Then you find yourself
lost in thought.
This is actually
completely normal.
You're not doing anything wrong.
This is what happens
with the human mind.
Gently redirect your attention
back to your main focus.
That moment of recognizing
that you're lost in thought
is actually a moment
of mindfulness.
So you just keep redirecting.
You get lost in thought,
you come back to your breathing
and you just keep doing it.
[bell tolls]
I'm trying to get
people to come with me
because I think it would
benefit a lot of people
'cause it crosses boundaries
of age and background
and it's really like
universal in helping people.
I am a mom.
This is how I take care of me
so that I can be present
but I can also help everyone
else that I am responsible for.
[Diana] I was hired
originally to work on a grant
on a research study of
mindfulness for ADHD.
When we did this
study with ADHD,
there was actually a
statistical significance
that mindfulness helped kids
and adults pay attention
so much so that the scientists
who reviewed the data
looked at it and said,
"What medication did
you put them on?"
And we said, "No
no, meditation."
One of the studies
we did with insomnia,
we had older adults with
insomnia and there, again,
was pretty good results in
terms of people's ability
to fall asleep and less
rumination, less depression.
[upbeat music]
[Narrator] Following his
panic att*ck on live television
and admitted drug use,
ABC's Dan Harris was
searching for help.
[Dan]
My wife gave me a book
about Buddhism and I was hooked.
I was really hooked.
And my problem at that
point was the Buddha,
what he was recommending,
sounded utterly repellent.
And that was meditation.
Because I was of the
view that meditation
was for freaks and hippies
and people who are really
into Enya and aromatherapy.
I describe myself as
a fidgety skeptic.
I don't know where I came
up with that, but it's true.
It's hard for me to sit still
and I was raised by
secular scientists,
I'm married to a scientist,
I'm very skeptical of
stuff you can't prove.
When I started to see
that there is this science
that suggests that meditation
is really good for you,
that really began to change
my attitude about it.
The other thing that
really changed my mind
is that it's simple.
You don't have to sit
in a funny position,
you don't have to join a group,
you don't have to
believe in anything.
It's simple and secular.
[Narrator] Dan
was also surprised
to find himself
becoming an advocate.
One of my colleagues
was saying, essentially,
"What's the matter with you?
"You used to be cool,
why are you meditating?"
And, I was at a loss,
and I said, "Oh it makes
me about 10% happier."
And I could see the look
on her face transform
from scorn to something
approaching interest.
And I thought that's my shtick.
I called the book that and
that's grown into a podcast
and an app and more books
that has resulted from this
wisecrack around the office.
I'm struck by the
absurdity of it
but I think there's
something there
in that people were ready
for a reasonable claim.
In the 10% Happier
app we teach you
how to train your mind
through meditation,
a practice that is
simple, secular,
and scientifically validated.
In my experience,
it's a game changer.
It's not magic, it takes work,
but it's worth the investment
and it will pay off over time.
You should get marginally
better at being awake
and not on autopilot for
the rest of your life.
Really to me it's about
this meditation cliche
of respond, not react.
You learn how to
respond wisely to things
instead of reacting blindly.
[reflective music]
[Narrator] Long before
singer-songwriter Jewel
had even heard the
word mindfulness
she was a homeless teen
suffering from panic att*cks.
[Jewel] I had to develop
a lot of strategies
while I was homeless to survive.
How to rewire a lot of the
self-defeating thoughts
that I had.
What was I thinking, could
you choose your thoughts,
and I began to look at
curating my thoughts
much more carefully than I
cared about any other thing.
That put me in
the driver's seat.
It meant I wasn't a
victim of my brain.
[Narrator] One of the
strategies Jewel developed
on the streets is called
antidote thoughts.
[Jewel] A thought
that plagued me a lot
was that I didn't
know what I was doing
and that would send
me into a tailspin
multiple times in my life.
I would just start by coming up
with what is the
opposite of that.
The opposite is I
know what I'm doing.
Well that was a lie but
I was capable of learning
so that became my antidote.
I'm capable of learning and
I won't give up 'til I do.
[Narrator] Another of
Jewel's self-taught techniques
led to one of her
most successful songs
after she was discovered
by a record producer
while playing in a coffee shop.
♪ My hands are small I know ♪
♪ But they're not
yours they are my own ♪
♪ They're not yours
they are my own ♪
♪ We are never broken ♪
I decided to start
watching my hands
because the hands are the
servants of your thought.
By forcing myself to
be observant in real
time of my hands,
I made myself present
in the moment.
When I did that, my
anxiety calmed down.
♪ Heartache came to visit ♪
"Hands" really is one of
my odes to mindfulness.
Pretty much all of
my songs are about me
learning to become
a whole human,
to live my life
mindfully with presence,
being the driver of my life.
[Narrator] Jewel's
ability to live mindfully
was tested when just a few
years after being homeless
her first album sold
millions of copies.
You take a girl with my
background and you throw fame
or even possibly
money in the mix
and it usually is a
recipe for disaster.
So I had to really
get in touch with that
and come up with a
strategy for that.
For me it was leading
with vulnerability,
telling the truth, talking
to people about my flaws,
never making myself seem
more perfect than I was
so that I had an honest
representation of myself
as I started my career.
Thank you.
[Blues music]
[Narrator]
Following an injury,
George Mumford went
from playing basketball
at the University
of Massachusetts
with future Hall of
Famer, Julius Erving,
to being addicted
to alcohol and dr*gs
due to his chronic pain.
How did I get motivated to go
from being a substance
abuser to being in recovery?
I was a financial analyst
so I was analyzing things
and I realized that the
mindfulness was telling me
that I was really interested
in what motivates people,
especially myself.
I had to learn how
to deal with my pain,
and mindfulness, and
just cultivating wisdom,
understanding the
mind-body process.
So I got into it for survival
and then it became not
to survive but to thrive.
I've been thriving ever since.
Originally when I started
doing the mindfulness
I worked with
people in recovery.
At the time I was working at
the Center for Mindfulness
back in the day.
It was called the
Stress Reduction and
Relaxation program.
And Jon Kabat-Zinn was the
founder and the director
and he had a relationship
with Phil Jackson
because they used to
teach at Omega Institute.
But they had just won their
third NBA championship
and the stress of all the people
coming at 'em wanting things,
Phil wanted someone to come in
and help them deal with that.
'Cause he dealt with
the whole person.
And then in the meantime,
Michael Jordan's father got
m*rder*d and Michael retired.
So when I got there
in October of 1993,
they were in full-blown crisis.
So I could talk to them
about being in the zone
and what it took to have
that mental toughness
and how to cultivate that,
how to train for that.
So the mindfulness is the key
because if your
mind is not right,
even though you have talent,
even though you've
done the training,
you won't have access to it.
[Narrator] With George's help,
and the return of Michael
Jordan a year later,
the Bulls went on to win
three more NBA championships.
George then followed
Phil Jackson to the
Los Angeles Lakers
where they helped Kobe
Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal
win another three championships.
I would say mindfulness
makes us flow ready.
That we need to have a
little bit of complexity
and we have to have
this willingness
to get comfortable with
being uncomfortable.
So we have to play in between
comfort and discomfort.
And that's when we're
getting, when we're moving,
pushing the edges
of our capacity,
that's when we experience flow.
And that's why it doesn't last
because the mind and body
gets acclimated to it.
And so then we
gotta push further.
[digital whirring]
[Newscaster] Over the
past 10 years mindfulness
has become increasingly popular
across society and
within the law.
[Newscaster] Finally
tonight a new tool for police
and maybe for you as well.
Officers balancing the
high-risk stress of the badge
through meditation, using their
minds to sharpen their edge.
[orchestral music]
When the chief introduced
the mindfulness to us
in March of this year,
I said to myself,
"Oh, I remember doing that."
Because of my years
of playing basketball,
if I'm able to keep myself cool,
whether it's just, or
it's just realizing
what's going on right now
not what's going to happen.
I find that it
benefits me on my calls
and dealing with the
people and the public.
I ain't afraid of you!
I ain't afraid of you!
[sirens blaring]
[dog growls]
[people chattering]
[Chief] About four
and a half years ago
my life started to
spiral out of control.
I had heart pain,
I was stressed out,
I was feeling depressed.
I tried traditional remedies
such as therapy and exercise
and nothing seemed to work.
I stumbled across mindfulness
meditation at my darkest hour.
I tried it and there
was something about it
that spoke to me immediately.
Then I came across
Mindfulness-Based
Resiliency Training
that Lieutenant Goerling
was doing in Oregon.
Meeting our distractions
without any judgment
or elaboration.
[Narrator] Today
Lieutenant Richard Goerling
is leading officers
and support staff
from several departments
through his specially-designed
Mindful Policing program.
I started out on a
a quest in about 2003
to quite simply improve the
police-citizen encounter.
What I found in my own
experience taking an MBSR class
was that there was
something there
that was unlike any other
training I'd ever experienced.
Some sort of deep internal
awareness and skills
that I cultivated in simply
eight weeks of training.
And that really
set me on this path
working with a lot of other
collaborative partners
to bring mindfulness to policing
here in the United States.
Noticing the
difference in sensation
from the palm of
your hand versus the
backside of your hand.
Maybe there's some
warmth or coolness there
that isn't there in
the palm of your hand.
Our longevity, we give up a
minimum of 10 years of our life
just simply for being
in the profession.
We have the worst
cardiovascular disease profile
of any population.
We're twice as likely to
be clinically depressed
as the general population.
We're taking
suffering human beings
who are deeply impacted by
trauma in varying levels
and we're just telling them,
"Hey, go sleep better.
"Hey, don't drink too much.
"Hey, be compassionate."
It doesn't make any sense.
When what we do with
mindfulness training
is we're building skills that
disrupt these habituated ways
of being that are driven
by stress and trauma
and we're cultivating a
whole new way of being.
And that way of being is maybe
best framed as resiliency.
I will be in the
middle of trauma
and I will be there
fully present,
I will be there skillfully.
And with a period of
adjustment when it's over
I will emerge as strong as I was
when I started or
potentially even stronger.
[reflective music]
[Officer] It makes
us a little more human
when we come into that call
and it makes the people
we're dealing with more human
and there can't be
anything but success
that comes from
something like that.
[dramatic music]
Prisoners are quite naturally
trying to protect themselves
just usually with armoring up,
physically and psychologically,
and with anger and bitterness.
So it's very hard
to connect with that
genuine regret and remorse
which to me is what we
have to get in touch with
for that transformation
to really begin to happen.
[Teacher] Notice if it can
bring a little more energy in
or a little more softness in.
Just finding the balance there.
Recalling that you have
your breath as your ally.
Your home base.
[Fleet] Mindfulness practice
begins to put us a little more
in charge of our own
physiology to begin with
where you can breathe
and get yourself
back into a calmer place.
A place where you can
make better decisions.
So that can be life-saving when
you're in this environment.
So my name is Fleet Maull
and I'm really happy
to be here tonight.
I founded what we now call
Prison Mindfulness Institute,
it used to be called
Prison Dharma Network,
in 1989 while I was
serving 14 years
in a maximum security
federal prison hospital
in Southwest Missouri.
How I got there is some things
I have deep regrets about.
I ended up getting a big
sentence for drug trafficking.
And it was cocaine.
When I first got locked up,
I really hit a wall
primarily around the fact
that my son who was
nine years old then
was gonna grow up without a dad.
I developed this real passion
to at least not
cause any more harm
and then if I could learn
to maybe do a little good.
And it grew while I was
in but it really took off
once I got out when my
colleague, Kate Crisp,
got involved and we
started building it
into a national organization
that today involves
about 190 different
meditation-based prison
projects all around the world.
[Teacher] Take
a big breath in.
Stretch, stretch up, and
then exhale just softly.
[exhales softly]
So we're still breathing,
we're still feeling.
Same practice, really.
We're just moving
instead of sitting still
and we can hold our seat
even as we move the
more we practice.
[Fleet] Well, who do we want
them to be when they get out?
Angry, bitter, full of shame,
still caught up in all
their victim mindset
and victim thinking, or do
we want them to come out
as better human beings?
Well if we want 'em to come
out as better human beings,
better neighbors,
better citizens,
then we better give
them some opportunities
to do some work on themselves.
It really, really made this
class very special today.
Having somebody here that's
been in our position before
and that knows what we go
through in our daily life
and actually could get out
and head to the streets
and do something
positive and come back.
It's an inspiration and I
just appreciate the fact
you're here today and
you gave us some hope
of us doing something positive
in the future as well.
Thank you.
[Teacher] You're on next
week with aware of this moment.
[Prisoner] Better believe
we gon' fly with you.
[Fleet] Yeah.
- Go out there, first class--
- [Fleet] Ready to roll, huh?
Okay yeah, thank you.
- [Prisoners] Thank you.
- Thank you, thank you.
[somber music]
[helicopter blades thudding]
[Newsreel narrator] We're
a perfect sitting duck.
[g*nshots blasting]
[Radioman] We'll be connecting
up with you here shortly.
Roger, we'll be waiting.
[Medic] It's
important to stay awake.
[Soldier] Right there, go!
[Gail] If you're
comfortable closing your eyes,
that just helps
avoid distraction.
If you want to just
focus on the book
on the table, that's fine.
I was appalled to find from
15 to 22 veterans a day
in this country taking
their own lives.
After working with a number
of veteran service organizations,
I saw too many people still
falling through the cracks.
I really have to offer this
because I know the
power of mindfulness
and I know it can
really have an immediate
and long-term effect.
And then very specifically
bring our attention to our toes.
Wiggling our toes.
Noticing the mobility
that we have,
the distance between
our toes and our shoes,
if our toes feel hot or cold.
We notice achiness, stiffness.
[Narrator] The nonprofit
Mindful Warrior Project,
founded by Gail Sofer,
provides veterans,
active duty m*llitary, their
families and caregivers
in the Los Angeles area
with mindfulness exercises
to help cope with
post-traumatic stress disorder,
panic att*cks, and
other ailments.
This is our situational
awareness of our own bodies.
We're not trying to
fix or change anything.
We're just noticing
what's happening.
Some veterans can feel like,
"Hey, I'm already too mindful.
"I'm aware of everything,
and I'm on red alert,
"and I'm scanning, scanning,
scanning, scanning.
"I don't need to
do more of that."
There's a difference
between being hyper-vigilant
and vigilant with
openness and curiosity
and not assuming a thr*at.
That's a huge difference
'cause in mindfulness
when you suspend judgment,
you're suspending assumptions,
you're not jumping
to conclusions.
You're really exploring.
Don't ever let anyone tell
you that mindful eating
has to do with the
quality of the food.
It's the quality
of the experience.
Just noticing this as if
we've never seen this before.
As if we're from another planet
and we're exploring something.
[Female veteran] It
helps me have less anxiety.
And if I do have
an anxiety att*ck,
it helps me to be able
to have more control
of what's going on in my life.
[Male vet] I use it to make
sure that I don't go back
into the dark places that I
was going to with my PTSD.
I wouldn't go into places
where there was large
crowds or loud noise.
I couldn't really stand that.
The other thing was anger.
I was angry all the time
and I didn't like that.
So my mindfulness practice
actually put me in a place
where I could start living
again and experiencing
what everybody else was
doing that were "normal.
[piano music]
[Jud] What I'm gonna
do is hand you an object
and you may or may not have
seen this object before.
I can promise you it's edible
but that's all I'm
going to promise.
The Center for Mindfulness
has really been the leader
in the fields around developing
gold standard treatments
like mindfulness-based
stress reduction
to help people manage
their stress, for example.
Just notice how much it weighs.
What it might look
like in your hand.
You can even start rolling
it around in your fingers
to see what it feels like.
We developed a program
called Eat Right Now
that helps people change their
relationship to emotional
and stress eating so they can
break that addictive cycle.
Explain what that tastes like?
Without even biting.
And then really paying attention
as we take one bite
through this thing.
Feeling the texture,
feeling the taste that
might be released.
If our brains are set
up to form habits,
the problem is when we get
so caught up in these habits,
they no longer serve us.
If we start eating because
we're stressed out,
so we're stressed, we
eat some chocolate,
and we feel a little bit better,
we're not eating
because we're hungry,
we're eating because
we are stressed out.
And that stress can kind
of perpetuate eating
because we're stressed and
we can hack that system.
So if we get stressed
out and we get curious,
we bring some mindful curious
awareness to that situation,
there's a different reward
that comes from that.
We don't have to eat
something to feel better.
We can naturally drop into
our awareness and curiosity
and that in itself is joyful.
So how many of you
have eaten this thing?
Do you know what it is
that I just gave you?
[Women] It's black garlic.
[Jud] Black garlic, yeah.
Did anybody have a first
gear moment in this last week
where you noticed any
aspect of the habit loop?
The same sort of usual thing
being sort of irritated
about teenagers in the house
and they left a big bag
of Doritos on the counter
and I just was like
telling them to be quiet.
So I just reached in, I
started eating the Doritos,
and I was like, oh, why
am I eating Doritos?
Like I'm not hungry, I'm just
mad that they won't be quiet.
And then I did have a moment
where I just kind of
took a moment to wake up.
[Jud] With our Eat
Right Now program,
we had 40% reduction in
craving-related eating,
that's pretty good.
From a behavioral standpoint,
we get five times the quit
rates of gold standard treatment
with our smoking
cessation program.
On a regular basis I
get folks telling me
that they quit smoking,
this has saved their life
and things like that.
And that's really rewarding.
[upbeat music]
[Amy] Welcome everyone.
This is our Meditation for
Beginners group tonight.
We have a lot of people coming
to us right now with anxiety.
And anxiety falls into
various categories.
Someone could come in with
a more generalized anxiety,
which we call it kind
of a free-floating.
They'll worry about work,
they'll worry about home,
their family, their friends.
There's other kinds of anxieties
like a post-traumatic anxiety
where they may also replay
what the trauma was.
So there's specific
kinds of tools
I can give someone like that.
This is a situation that
makes a lot of people
feel powerless and
then you have this...
So what we're trying
to do with someone
who's in a state of depression
is empathize with what the
real life situation is.
And then what mindfulness
and meditation does
is to relieve those top
layers of suffering.
If somebody goes, "I'm
all to blame for this."
We hear a lot of all
or nothing statements.
"This is all my fault."
So people start to
do this self-blaming,
regretting, replaying.
Like Sharon Salzberg says
those are the add-ons.
If we get rid of the add-ons,
I can help you deal with
what's actually happening
in the present.
So that's where this blend
of therapy and mindfulness
could be really
useful for depression.
[reflective music]
[David] Now let's bring
our awareness once again
back to the people
around this table.
Knowing that everyone at this
table shares a special bond.
I got my PhD in
Health Psychology and
Behavioral Medicine
and began working a lot
with people with cancer.
All of that has led
to the development
of a nonprofit organization
called True North Treks
where we take young
adults with cancer
out into beautiful back
country wilderness destinations
where we take them
backpacking and canoeing
and help them reconnect
with their peers
who have been through
something similar.
And then help them learn to
connect again with themselves
through training and mindfulness
and through mindful
movement and yoga.
[eagle caws]
[inspirational music]
[Woman] Every night I'm
like what is it doing there
and just freaking
out and not sleeping.
And until, I had to do something
outside of my comfort zone
which was do the trek
and it was the best thing
that I've ever done in my life.
[David] We hear the word
transformed all the time
and it's a combination.
It's a combination
of being in nature
in such incredibly
beautiful places,
it's about that power of social
connection with their peers,
and it's about learning
to cultivate a sense
of self-compassion
for themselves through
mindful awareness.
[synthesizer music]
[Announcer] Huffington Post.
[Host] This idea of mindful
leadership is provocative.
Tell us exactly what that means.
Okay, so the aspirational
definition of a mindful leader
is someone who embodies presence
by cultivating four
fundamentals of excellence:
focus, clarity,
creativity, and compassion.
[Reporter] Now every floor
in the new Salesforce Tower
in San Francisco
is being drawn up
to include a mindfulness zone.
[chiming music]
More and more companies are
recognizing stress as an issue
and resilience as a goal
and mindfulness as
way to get there.
So what I want to do today
is just give you a little,
a brief introduction
about what mindfulness is
and then we're gonna do
a brief mindfulness
practice together.
The title of Chief
Mindfulness Officer
definitely gets people's
attention, I have to say.
It gets people very curious
about what Aetna's doing.
Mindfulness can help you to
reduce your stress level.
And stress is something that
affects every part of the body.
It affects our heart, it
affects our breathing,
it affects our digestion, it
affects our immune system.
It is really an amazing role
because what we get to do
as a department is, number one,
we get to come up really
to kind of brainstorm ways
of bringing mindfulness to
our employees, and number two,
we get to think about
how to bring mindfulness
to our members.
So there's over
24 million people
who have some insurance
connection with Aetna.
[Narrator] Aetna's mindfulness
program started at the top
with a directive from
CEO Mark Bertolini
following an accident in 2004.
[Mark] I broke my neck skiing
and detached the nerve root
for my arm that connected
it to my spinal cord.
[Reporter] And
almost d*ed, right?
[Mark] They gave me last
rites in the helicopter
on the way to the hospital.
[Andy] He became exposed
to meditation and yoga
as a way to manage his pain.
And through that recovery
and his experience
with mindfulness and
meditation and yoga,
he discovered not only that he
could manage his pain better,
but it had a lot
of other benefits.
[Teacher] You might
imagine your thoughts
to be like leaves
floating down a stream.
Watching one leaf at a
time as it floats by.
[Andy] We developed a
program in collaboration
with a vendor called eMindful.
The program is called
Mindfulness at Work
and it meets once
a week for 12 weeks
and it's virtual.
And during those 12 weeks
you're expected to do a
mindfulness practice every day.
And what we found is
that it significantly
reduces people's stress.
And we also found that people
are able to spend more
productive time at work,
less time being distracted
by physical pain,
or emotional challenges.
Over 45 minutes a week more
productive time at work.
So those things have a big
impact on a person's well-being
and also the
company's bottom line.
[reflective music]
[Bill] If we ever want
to solve our health crisis
we have to address the
issues of healthy living
because unhealthy lifestyles
are causing 50 to 70% of
all health care costs.
So instead of
looking for the cure,
we need to cure inside ourself.
As we incorporate mindfulness
into an integral part
of our health programs,
I think it's our best sh*t at
improving the overall health
of the American people.
Around 40 years ago
I was leading a very
stress-filled life.
I was trying to ramp up
the microwave oven business
at Litton Industries
and my wife dragged me
kicking and screaming
to a meditation seminar.
And they said 20
minutes twice a day.
I said, oh really?
So I've been meditating 20
minutes twice a day ever since.
42 years now and it's
been the best thing
that ever happened to me.
'Cause at that time I
had high blood pressure
and it'd come way down.
Well 20 years ago my
wife had breast cancer
and she went through
the medical procedures
like mastectomies and
follow on chemotherapy
but she wanted something more.
Penny launched the
Penny George Institute
at Allina Health System,
the largest health
system in the Twin Cities
of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
And it became a
regular practice then.
As they would say facetiously,
"Meditation or medication,
take your pick."
My most creative ideas
come out of meditation
because you clear
away all the clutter
and all of a sudden you
can see things clearly.
Over the years student interest
has grown tremendously.
I'm teaching executives now.
We offer a special
course in meditation
and it's way oversold.
And so it's nice to see
how much interest there is.
I find amongst CEOs
there's a tremendous amount
of interest today.
That never existed
10, 20 years ago.
[Reporter] Mobile devices
don't have to be a distraction.
They can actually
keep you centered.
We've rounded up some apps
that will help you
meditate and be mindful.
[upbeat music]
[Host] What causes
people to download
and engage with this over time?
[Michael] Yes, so
in the early days,
I think people thought
we were a bit crazy.
Mindfulness and meditation
felt like a bit of a niche.
Would people really pay for it?
But my goodness the
world needs this.
[Ariel] People tell
me that they sit at home
and they let their mind go blank
which is what they think
they're supposed to be doing.
Of course our brains never
go blank and they get up
and they're like,
"This is not for me.
"It might be for that other
person who figured it out,
"but it's not for me."
So we built be Muse to really
help solve that problem.
[Narrator] Instead of
dividing and distracting,
some new forms of
technology have the ability
to calm and connect.
[Ariel] This is Muse.
You have sensors
here on the forehead
that pick up your brainwaves
and also sensors
behind each ear.
It connects wirelessly to
your smartphone or tablet
and then when you
slip the headband on,
it actually reads
your brain data
and translates that
into guiding sounds.
When you're
thinking, distracted,
your brain's bouncing
all over the place,
you hear it as windy.
And as you come to
clear focused attention,
it quiets the winds.
If you stay very quiet
you'll even hear
little birds chirping.
[wind blows]
[bird chirps]
At the end of your meditation
you actually get to see
what your brain was
doing every moment.
[Narrator] There
are additional
guiding sounds choices
as well as guided
meditations on various topics
from leading teachers
including Deepak Chopra.
[Karen] So I was an
early adopter of that.
So my boys became
interested in the Muse
because it's technology, period.
Because they are very
much of their generation.
But they also
actually really use it
and sit in it from a
mindfulness perspective.
[focus music]
[Dhani] I hacked into it a
little bit and into the process
and I just started using
it while I did my stretches
and doing yoga and
then doing a workout.
I would take my Muse on the
subway [chuckles] at rush hour
which is a chaotic situation
that frustrates a lot of people
and the goal was always
to try to maintain
some kind of calm in the chaos.
[Dominika] Put
it on like this.
Come in and tighten.
I'll often send patients
home with a Muse
for a couple of
weeks of practice
and then I have them check
back with me to discuss
and explore some of the things
that have come up for them.
[Narrator] Interaxon
is also looking
to take the Muse system
to the next level.
[Chris] In VR experiences,
you create a totally
immersive experience.
I think a great example of this
is let's say you have
a fear of heights.
So what we can do then is
create meditation experiences
that allow you to work
with that fear directly.
[piano music]
[patrons chatter]
[bell dings]
[Teacher] What we're going
to spend some time with now
is talking about
difficult conversations
and really grounding this
conversation in some work
that was done out of Harvard
and the Harvard
Negotiation Project.
[Narrator] Tech
companies known
for being on the
leading edge of change
are also embracing mindfulness
programs for their employees.
The nonprofit Search Inside
Yourself Leadership Institute,
or SIYLI, grew out of the
Search Inside Yourself program
developed at Google by
Chade-Meng Tan in 2007.
Rich Fernandez
joined soon after.
[Rich] It was kind of
just a quarterly offering
but it was getting
more and more attention
as mindfulness gained momentum.
And now we have thousands
of Google employees
going through Search
Inside Yourself.
[Narrator] Google then allowed
the program to be expanded
beyond Google employees
through SIYLI.
[Rich] The unique approach
in Search Inside Yourself
is that we offer secular
science-based mindfulness
and emotional intelligence.
And we offer this as a
set of trainable skills
that impact both well-being
as well as performance,
and importantly, leadership,
and they get to interact
with their peers
in a particular way
based on our curriculum
so that they can actually
see some of the effects
this has on things
like listening,
building trust,
greater collaboration.
They exercise what we would
call mindful listening
which is to listen with
the intention to understand
rather than to react or respond.
It's possible to exercise
mindfulness while we walk.
And the sense of solidity
and connection that we have,
it can really be accessed
when we slow down.
[Rich] It sounds
simple but it's not easy
because when you
try to pay attention
to what that experience
of walking is like,
it's very often the case that
the mind's gonna wander away
and the attention is
gonna be elsewhere.
Lost in thoughts, ideas,
and feelings, to-do lists.
[reflective music]
[water rustling]
[Scott] No one I don't think
should approach mindfulness
or meditation as having
a specific prescription.
It's an invitation
for it to land
in the way that it
does on each person.
[Narrator] Scott Kriens
devoted part of his tech fortune
to creating one of the newest
retreat centers in the west,
the 1440 Multiversity above
Santa Cruz, California.
It's 20 minutes from
downtown Silicon Valley
and it's a 75-acre
redwood forest basically.
And 1440 is named because
that's the number of minutes
in a day and it's
about being present
and aware for each one of those.
And that's a mindfulness
task in itself.
If we're self-aware and
we show up authentically
we can build trust.
And if we build trust
in relationships,
whether it's in your
family, in your workplace,
in your community, between
nations, the world is better.
So some of the important work
that's made the biggest
difference in my life
has happened in person in
deep immersion with others
and that's really what
Multiversity is here
to invite people to experience.
[piano music]
[Tim] Mindfulness
and awareness is a
basic human capability
that we have that we
sometimes lose track of
and we need to kind of get back.
[Narrator] As
mindfulness spreads,
one surprising place it's
emerging is in politics.
[Tim] We're in a really
unique spot I think
in the country's history where
things are so hyper-partisan
and there's just a lot
of fear, a lot of anger.
I got elected to solve problems
and that means
working with people
who don't always think
the way that you do
and figuring out a way to
listen, deep listening,
to really see where
they're coming from.
Maybe there's something in there
that we can agree on and
we could work on together.
What first drew me to the
practice of mindfulness,
I grew up Catholic, I
went to Catholic school.
It was such a relief for
me to say I could keep that
and then learn this amazing,
develop this amazing understanding
of what it means to
be a human being.
And that was a
big relief for me.
And that's when I got
inspired to write the book
because I thought, "Wow,
this is a secular practice
"and so we can teach this
in our healthcare system.
"We can teach this
in our schools.
"This is healing our veterans."
[Narrator] Today Tim
is sharing his thoughts
on mindfulness with Sharon
Salzberg at an event
called Healing the
Heart of Democracy.
[Sharon] We have to
reconnect because the old ways
of connecting are in
many ways not working.
[Tim] I feel like there's
a quiet revolution happening
in the country.
Not just the
growing appreciation
and understanding for
contemplative practices.
We've just got these old systems
that were built for a time
that no longer exists.
We need to all be tapping
into what's best inside of us
and what's most
creative inside of us
and it starts with, very
simply, paying attention.
[Host] We're very
fortunate, thank you.
[audience applauds]
[reflective music]
[Leigh] I'm happy see you
guys, what a great crowd, hey!
- Hey!
- Yeah!
[Narrator] As
the movement grows,
it's clear mindfulness
really can be used anywhere.
[Leigh] Mindfulness has
been great for my stand-up
because when I feel
nervous or whatever
I don't have to give in to that.
I just have to look
at, "Oh, I'm next."
And be aware of what's happening
and then just go
up and do my thing
instead of spinning or
making my heart pound.
Anybody know about mindfulness?
No?
But what I'm excited to do now,
even take it a step further,
is to actually share
tidbits about mindfulness
without saying "I'm gonna
teach you about mindfulness."
And when I've been doing it
I'm realizing oh my gosh,
my whole life I've
been like multitasking,
which used to be sexy and
hip but that's so 2016,
because what that means
is you're doing
everything half-assed.
[audience laughs]
Do you like it?
[Narrator] Leigh's
hectic life also includes
being married to film and
TV star, David Koechner,
and raising five children.
Before I would look at 'em
like this where they talked
to my back while I
was at the computer.
"Uh-huh!"
Or I'm driving.
"Uh-huh, okay Junior."
And then all of a sudden now
I'm looking directly in their
eyes and they have all of me
and they see that
I really see them
and they're almost overwhelmed.
I can study with you.
My mother was mentally
ill and I kind of grew up,
she was locked behind her door.
And when I became a mom I
didn't really know what the heck
to do with my kids 'cause
it wasn't mirrored for me.
And I thought what
did I need from her?
What would have been my
dream is for her to see me
and to hear me, to
know that I mattered.
And from that basic principle
has been the foundation
of the simplicity that
parenting could be.
We said we would like to keep
the homeless in our prayers.
[Narrator] Leigh also
shares her insights
as the parenting expert
on Deepak Chopra's
digital platform, JIYO.
The two most important
things you can do as a parent
is to see your child
and to hear your child.
That's it, it's that easy.
And look at my fingers,
it's a peace sign.
If you do these two
things with your child,
you will raise a peaceful child
to send out into the world.
[Deepak] People have
known the experience
of being aware for
thousands of years
but it's always been a
few luminaries in society.
Now because of social media,
because of the way we
can spread information,
that experience which was a
privilege for a few luminaries
becomes available to everyone.
I hope you will
watch this movie,
"The Mindfulness Movement,"
that you will participate
in this movement itself.
We can do it together but we
can do it only by waking up
and being mindfully aware
of experience as it happens
and mindfully aware of
choices that we make.
[folk music]
[Woman] It was interesting
talking with her.
I have a lot of material so
we'll see what comes out.
[Barry] Well we're
gonna start the meeting
with some meditation first
and then I'm gonna ask
you another question
about that 'cause I'm curious.
[Woman] Okay.
[Woman] Should we start?
[Narrator] Mindful Magazine
editor-in-chief, Barry Boyce,
along with publisher Jim
Gimian got the first issue
onto newsstands in 2013.
[Barry] Honestly
it felt kinda crazy
because who starts
a print magazine
in the era of of the iPhone?
But I think one
of the key things
is that even though people are
very attracted to information
that comes through their phones,
so many people have come to us
since we started
Mindful and said,
"The very fact that I see this
and that my mother sees it
"in the checkout line makes it
seem like an ordinary thing."
And that's been the mission.
Claire, is Allison, is
she a mindful interview
or a walk the talk?
We are hoping for her
to be a full interview
feature like--
[Barry] Yeah, and
the cover sh**t?
- [Woman] Yeah.
- So she'll be on the cover.
[Jessica] One thing that
we really try to avoid
is what I call bliss face
which is just someone in
this state of ecstasy.
You see it a lot in
advertising around mindfulness
and it's really not about that.
Mindfulness, it can be gritty,
it can be celebratory,
it can be hard.
So the idea is
that we'll illustrate
each of those little
tips in a lively way
so that people will
get a visual hit
of getting outside
and finding a buddy.
[Barry] All right,
cool, yeah, that's great.
[Stephany] The importance
of the digital side
is that there's just
a lot larger community
of people online
who are curious about
both the practices
and learning more
about the science.
[Barry] If mindfulness were
just about getting a little bit
of relaxation and checking out,
floating away, then I
wouldn't care about it.
So you get some relaxation
which allows you to look deeper
and that becomes a way
of having a more direct
and authentic engagement
with your life
and with other people.
[Jeff] The bus
is ready for you.
[Dan] I'm seeing the
bus for the first time.
[Jeff] Let's go,
let's have a look.
- [Dan] This is--
- Check it out, for real.
[Dan chuckles]
[Jeff] I think the orange
goes with the white.
[Dan] This is ridiculous.
[Jeff] Yeah.
[Dan] After you, sir.
[Jeff] Thanks.
[Dan] Hi, I'm Dan.
- Eddie.
- [Dan] Eddie?
Nice to meet you, man.
[Jeff] Well basically
that whole back
has been turned into a suite.
[Dan] No big deal, just
on a 10% Happier bus.
[Jeff] And 100,000 people
might be actually finding a way
to a practice that might
help them in some way?
I teamed up with one of my
favorite meditation teachers,
Jeff Warren, who
actually is Canadian,
but we did a cross-country
US tour and the goal
was to meet people who want
to meditate but aren't.
So we decided to do
this cross country tour,
this kinda gonzo mission
where we met people.
We met cops, met m*llitary
cadets, teachers, celebrities,
and talked to them about
what's standing in the way?
[Woman] How do we get
through that barrier?
- [Jeff] That is is a great--
- Yes.
[Jeff] I mean this,
that's a very good question.
[Dan] And sort of we
did a taxonomy of issues.
The biggest ones are I
don't have time for this.
I can't clear my mind.
This is self-indulgent.
I'll lose my edge.
People will think I look weird.
And consistency.
I started but I stopped
and now I can't get
back on the wagon.
- [Dan] Oh great, cool.
- Meditation's pretty good.
Do I look happier?
[Jeff chuckles]
Come on in here, we'll give
you some one-on-one guidance.
Once I started doing it,
it was clearly useful,
and stopping seemed masochistic
even by my own standards.
But for other people
it's really hard
to get this habit
off the ground.
[Jeff] Sounds and thoughts
and sensations, no problem.
You're just interested
in the breath.
[Dan] Five to 10 minutes a day
is often the recommendation
for starting.
In our app we have a
huge program called
One Minute Counts.
Where even one minute
of meditation is good.
It's not only true
that one minute counts,
one second counts because
one second is all it takes
to break yourself
out of some trance.
I spent a lot of time
puzzling over this very thing.
All of a sudden you're not
being governed so powerfully
by your emotions and
urges and impulses.
I think that meditation
is the next big public
health revolution.
If a sizable percentage
of the population
is less emotionally reactive,
what kind of impact
would that have
in the classroom, in parenting
situations, in workplaces,
in our politics, in
our relationships.
This is, I think,
has the potential
to have a genuine
societal impact.
[relaxing music]
[Sharon] It's about
developing the art of friendship
toward oneself
and toward others,
toward all of life actually.
And these days I tend to
use connection as a term.
[Narrator] In
addition to mindfulness,
Sharon has become one
of the leading teachers
of a related practice called
Metta, or loving kindness.
[Sharon] I just intuitively
understood that, in a way,
love was what I was
seeking and that,
and for me and for many others,
that some greater degree
of love or loving kindness
is the secret ingredient
in mindfulness
In a very different way.
To really have an open
mind means an open heart.
And the way we change
how we pay attention
is through the silent
repetition of certain phrases.
The phrases are the conduit
for the heart's energy,
they're the vehicle that
is going to allow us
to be different with
ourselves and with others.
May I be safe.
Be happy.
Be healthy.
Live with ease.
Live with ease means in the
things of day-to-day life
like livelihood and family,
may it not be such a struggle.
May I live with ease.
May I be safe.
Be happy.
Be healthy.
Live with ease.
This is like the
song of the heart.
[silence]
And all beings everywhere.
All people, all creatures,
all those in existence.
Near and far, known and unknown.
May all beings be safe.
Be happy.
Be healthy.
Live with ease.
[bell tolls]
It's this profound
knowing that our lives
have something to
do with one another
and the implication of that
is that everybody counts
and everybody matters.
Not everyone's gonna
be my best friend
but everybody matters.
And so what would it be
like to have a day like that
where we really
approached ourselves
and others in that way?
It's kind of a
nice thing to do
in the middle of
the day, isn't it?
[Captain] BUFHA pride
on three, one-two-three!
[Team] BUFHA pride!
[George] Allow
things to come and go.
But we are actually
recovering energy
we are cultivating calm.
[reflective music]
[Narrator] After
helping the Chicago Bulls
and Los Angeles Lakers
win NBA championships,
George Mumford still works
with a variety of
athletes and teams.
This is what we've
been training for.
Manage the moment.
You manage this moment, the
next moment is gonna be fine.
Then you get into a rhythm,
you get into a flow.
Whatever you focus on grows.
So you focus on
it's gonna be great.
Okay, you gotta feel that,
you gotta be a champion
before you win a championship.
[Narrator] The wisdom
George shares also applies
to much more than sports.
[George] I worked with
people from Yale to jail
locker room to boardroom.
For me you gotta be in pain
or you gotta be seeking
pursuit of excellence.
Either one of those. There
has to be a sense of urgency.
And if you don't know how
your mind-body process works,
then you have very little chance
of living to your potential.
If you don't know who you are,
you could end up being anybody.
And if you don't know
where you're going,
you could end up going anywhere.
The Rock's like talking
about being like the big dog.
[Coach] And they give it all
[George] It's the
joy of the moment,
it's the joy of doing
the thing for no reason,
for the thing in and of itself.
So we can live life that way.
It doesn't matter if
we're playing basketball
or listening to music or
speaking to a loved one.
That is the real
essence of this practice
is it has to be done
full engagement,
full on, full joy, full wonder.
And when we can
get to that point,
that's what it's all about.
[Player] Rock?
[Team] Yes.
[players chatter]
[reflective music]
[Jewel] I'd love to do a check
in today on a couple things.
One is the app. I'd also...
We really like the kids
to prove to themselves
that they can do everything
because that gives them an
intrinsic sense of self-worth.
[Narrator] When Jewel
was a homeless teenager,
she created her own mindfulness
techniques to survive.
Now she works with at-risk teens
through her Jewel
Never Broken program
at the Inspiring Children
Foundation in Las Vegas,
co-founded by Ryan Wolfington.
[Jewel] We actually give
them opportunities to struggle.
Do you guys wanna give
an update on the app?
[Girl] Sure, yeah so we have--
[Jewel] They run
the foundation, they
run the website,
they do the fundraising,
they do the video editing,
they do the marketing.
We teach them and guide them
but really they're given
the task of problem solving
and proving to themselves
that they can creatively
problem solve.
And when they are resilient,
when they're tenacious,
when they stay with it, that
there's tremendous reward.
On top of project
driven learning,
we give them a
psychology for life.
To be the observer
of their thoughts,
to understand that not all
thoughts and feelings are facts,
to check them, that they
can choose which thoughts
and feelings to engage in,
to live mindfully, to
live with vulnerability,
to live their values, to
notice when they're not,
and to adjust, and to
self-correct with kindness.
These kids live with
a lot of courage.
It's inspiring to see.
[Narrator] Graduates of the
Jewel Never Broken program
have gone on to top universities
including Stanford,
Princeton, and Harvard.
K through 12 schools are
also adopting the program.
So I thought it would
be nice to do a check-in
and just see if
anybody feels compelled
to talk about what thoughts
they've been observing
that might be troubling them
or thoughts that they've
been able to overcome.
[Girl] Well I was really
struggling with a variety
of different things especially
with my relationship
with my dad.
He struggled with depression
and suicidal thoughts
and stuff and sometimes
he would tell me,
"You make me want to die.
Like "you're the reason
that I'm in all this pain."
And that was really
tough for me to handle
because it wasn't
only him saying it,
it was a belief that I had held
in my mind for a long time.
I tried to take
my own life twice
and I would write down every
single negative thought
and feeling that I
would get in one column
and I would call it the lies.
And then in the next
column I would write down
what I knew within
myself to be true.
So that was kind of my first
mindfulness experience.
[Jewel] As we talk about a
lot, we're not our thoughts,
we're the observers
of our thoughts...
[Narrator] Jewel's
Never Broken philosophy
came from another
trying time in her life.
After her initial success
as a recording artist,
and while her mom
was also her manager,
Jewel discovered she was
millions of dollars in debt.
[Jewel] I realized I
was broke, and in debt,
and that my mom isn't at
all who I thought she was
when I was in my 30s.
It was a really big blow.
And it hit me
really, really hard.
I was walking by a mirror
one day at my house
and I remembered this
allegory of the golden statue.
A warring tribe was
coming to a village.
They decided to cover
their golden statue in mud.
The warring tribe came and went.
The village forgot the
value of this golden statue
until one day it rained
and the gold was revealed.
I remembered that allegory
and it made me perceive
myself in a different way.
I decided to approach
myself not from the premise
that I was broken
and I had to be fixed
but instead from the premise
that a soul can't be broken.
I existed perfectly at all times
but I was covered in
generations of hurt.
And I really more
than fix myself,
I had to do an archaeological
dig back to myself.
And when I approached
things that way,
healing happened a lot quicker.
My number one job was
gonna be having to learn
how to be a whole happy person
and that I would dedicate
as much of my time
and my resources to that
as I did the pursuit
of being a musician.
[audience applauds]
Thank you, guys, I'm
humbled, thank you.
[water rushing]
[Jon] So mindfulness
is a kind of invitation
to savor the present moment,
not to exchange it for
some better moment.
And the more you are
living in this moment,
the more the next moment
is colored differently
because you've shown
up for this one.
So that could actually
change the future.
And in fact, that's the only
way to change the future,
is by changing how
willing you'll be,
you are to be in
the present moment.
[Tim] Just get it in your
mind you're gonna do it.
And once you start
seeing the benefits of it
and you like the way you act,
you like the way
you handle problems,
you see the difference
in the world.
You'll be inspired, you'll
see things happening,
and you'll want that
to be your way of life.
[George] So I'd
say mindfulness isn't
just to get relaxed
and to be calm, it's really
about cultivating wisdom
so that we eradicate
or alleviate suffering.
[Diana] This is how
social change happens.
When we start being more
compassionate and kind,
connected to ourselves,
more self-aware,
these changes will
impact every single thing
we're a part of.
And in this way,
society can change.
[Deepak] I think a
critical mass of people
who are living in awareness
and where they're aware
of the choices they make
will automatically
create a better world.
[inspirational music]
["Hands" by Jewel]
♪ If I could tell the
world just one thing ♪
♪ It would be that
we're all okay ♪
♪ And not to worry 'cause
worry is wasteful ♪
♪ And useless in
times like these ♪
♪ I won't be made useless ♪
♪ I won't be made
idle with despair ♪
♪ I'll gather myself
around my faith ♪
♪ For light does the
darkness most fear ♪
♪ My hands are small I know ♪
♪ But they're not
yours they are my own ♪
♪ They're not yours
they are my own ♪
♪ We are never broken ♪
♪ Poverty stole
your golden shoes ♪
♪ But did not steal
your laughter ♪
♪ Heartache came to visit me ♪
♪ But I knew it was
not ever after ♪
♪ We will fight
not out of spite ♪
♪ Just 'cause someone must
stand up for what's right ♪
♪ 'Cause where there's
a man who has no voice ♪
♪ There ours will go singing ♪
♪ My hands are small I know ♪
♪ They're not yours
they are my own ♪
♪ They're not yours
they are my own ♪
♪ And I am never broken ♪
♪ 'Cause in the end ♪
♪ Only kindness matters ♪
♪ In the end only
kindness matters ♪
Mindfulness Movement, The (2020)
Moderator: Maskath3