when I was first learning to meditate
the instruction was to simply pay
attention to my breath and when my mind
wandered to bring it back sounded simple
enough yet I'd sit on these silent
retreats sweating through t-shirts in
the middle of winter I take naps every
chance I got because it was really hard
work actually it was exhausting the
instruction was simple enough but I was
missing something really important so
why is it so hard to pay attention well
studies show that even when we're really
trying to pay attention to something
like maybe this talk at some point about
half of us will drift off into a
daydream or have this urge to check our
Twitter feed so what's going on here it
turns out that we're fighting one of the
most evolutionarily conserved learning
processes currently known in science one
that's conserved back to the most basic
nervous systems known to man this reward
based learning process is called
positive and negative reinforcement and
basically goes like this we see some
food that looks good our brain says
calories survival we eat the food we
tasted it tastes good and especially
with sugar a body send a signal to our
brain that says remember what you're
eating and where you found it we lay
down this context-dependent memory and
learn to repeat the process next time
see food eat food feel good repeat
trigger behavior reward simple right
well after a while our creative brain
say you know what you can use this for
more than just remembering where food is
you know next time you feel bad why
don't you try eating something good so
you'll feel better we think our brains
for the great idea try this and quickly
learn that if we eat chocolate or ice
cream when we're mad or sad we feel
better
same process just a different trigger
instead of this hunger signal coming
from our stomach this emotional signal
feeling sad triggers letters to eat
maybe in our teenage years we were a
nerd at school and we see those rebel
kids outside smoking we think hey I want
to be cool so we start smoking the
Marlboro Man wasn't a dork and that was
no accident see cool smoke - be cool
feel good repeat trigger behavior reward
and each time we do this we learn to
repeat the process and it becomes a
habit
so later feeling stressed out triggers
that urge to smoke a cigarette or to eat
something sweet now with these same
brain processes we've gone from learning
to survive to literally killing
ourselves with these habits obesity and
smoking are among the elite Aventa
becauses of morbidity and mortality in
the world so back to my breath what if
instead of fighting our brains are
trying to force ourselves to pay
attention we instead tapped into this
natural reward based learning process
but added a twist what if instead we
just got really curious about what was
happening in our momentary experience
I'll give you an example in my lab we
studied whether mindfulness training
could help people quit smoking now just
like trying to force myself to pay
attention on my breath they could try to
force themselves to quit smoking and the
majority of them had tried this before
and failed on average six times now with
marvelous training we dropped a bit
about forcing and instead focused on
being curious in fact we even told them
to smoke what yeah we said go ahead and
smoke just be really curious about what
it's like when you do and what did they
notice well here's an example from one
of our smokers she said mindful smoking
smells like stinky cheese and tastes
like chemicals yuck now she knew
cognitively that smoking was bad for her
that's why she joined our program what
she discovered just by being curiously
aware when she smoked was that smoking
tastes like [ __ ]
now she moved from knowledge to wisdom
she moved from knowing in her head that
smoking was bad for her to knowing it in
her bones and this spell of smoking was
broken she started to become
disenchanted with her behavior
now the prefrontal cortex that youngest
part of our brain from an evolutionary
perspective it understands on an
intellectual level that we shouldn't
smoke and it tries its hardest to help
us change our behavior to help us stop
smoking to help us stop eating that
second that third that fourth cookie we
call this cognitive control we're using
cognition to control our behavior
unfortunately this is also the first
part of a brain that goes offline when
we get stressed out which isn't that
helpful now we can all relate to this in
our own experience we're much more
likely to do things like yell at our
spouse or kids when we're stressed out
or tired even though we know it's not
going to be helpful we just can't help
ourselves
now when the prefrontal cortex goes
offline and we fall back into our hold
habits which is why this disenchantment
is so important seeing what we get from
our habits helps us understand them in a
deeper level to know in our bones so we
don't have to force ourselves to hold
back or restrain ourselves from behavior
we're just less interested in doing it
in the first place and this is what
mindfulness is all about seeing really
clearly what we get when we get caught
up in our behaviors becoming
disenchanted on a visceral level and
from this disenchanted stance naturally
letting go this isn't to say that
poof magically we quit smoking but over
time as we learn to see more and more
clearly the results of our actions we
let go of old habits and form new ones
the paradox here is that mindfulness is
just about being really interested in
getting close and personal with what's
actually happening in our bodies and
minds from moment to moment this
willingness to turn toward our
experience rather than trying to make
unpleasant cravings go away as quickly
as possible and this willingness to turn
toward our experience is supported by
curiosity which is naturally rewarding
what does curiosity feel like it
feels good and what happens when we get
curious we start to notice the cravings
are simply made up of body sensations
oh there's tightness there's tension
there's restlessness and that these body
sensations come and go these are
bite-size pieces of experiences that we
can manage from moment to moment rather
than getting clobbered by this huge
scary craving that we choke on in other
words when we get curious we step out of
our old fear-based reactive habit
patterns and we step into being we've
become this inner scientist where we're
eagerly awaiting that next data point
now this might sound too simplistic to
affect behavior but in one study we
found that mindfulness training was
twice as good as gold standard therapy
at helping people quit smoking so it
actually works and when we studied the
brains of experienced meditators we
found that parts of a neural network of
DIF self-referential processing called
the default mode network we're at play
now one current hypothesis is that a
region of this network called the
posterior cingulate cortex is activated
not necessarily by craving itself but
when we get caught up in it when we get
sucked in and it takes us for a ride in
contrast when we let go step out of the
process just by being curiously aware of
what's happening this same brain region
quiets down now we're testing app and
online based mindfulness training
programs that target these core
mechanisms and ironically use the same
technology that's driving us to
distraction to help us step out of our
unhealthy habit patterns of smoking of
stress eating and other addictive
behaviors now remember that bit about
context dependent memory we can deliver
these tools to people's fingertips in
the context that matter most so we can
help them tap into their inherent
capacity to be curiously aware right
when that urge to smoke or stress eat or
whatever arises so if you don't smoke or
stressy maybe the next time you feel
this urge to check your email when
you're bored or you're trying to
distract yourself from work or maybe to
compulsively respond to that text
message when you're driving
see if you can tap into this natural
capacity just be curiously aware of
what's happening in your body in mind in
that moment it will just be another
chance to perpetuate one of our endless
and exhaustive habit loops or step out
of it instead of see text message
compulsively text back feel a little bit
better
notice the urge get curious feel the joy
of letting go and repeat thank you
[Applause]