Kelly McGonigal Archives

Can changing how you think about stress make you healthier?

September 6, 2013

In this fascinating TED talk, meditation teacher and health psychologist Kelly McGonigal presents evidence suggesting that stress itself isn’t harmful, but the belief that stress is harmful is! The belief that stress is harmful would then be a form of the nocibo effect — the opposite of the placebo effect — where believing something is harmful makes it so.

Can changing how you think about stress make you healthier? According to McGonigal the science says yes. When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress.

Believing that stress is normal and healthy protects your blood vessels, promotes healing in the heart, and leads to the release of oxytocin, a hormone that leads to social bonding.

If McGonigal is right, this shift in perspective could save tens of thousands of lives each year.

Science shows what meditation knows: pain is not suffering

December 19, 2012

Bodhipaksa

on practice

The wonderful folks at Buddhist Geeks bring us this video from their 2012 conference. Here, Stanford University researcher Kelly McGonigal shows us what happens in the brains of non-meditators, new meditators, and experienced meditators when they’re exposed to physical pain or emotionally distressing images. The findings are fascinating!

Meditators are well aware that pain is not suffering. Our most common reaction to pain is to want it to stop. And so we start up an inner monolog around the pain: “This is horrible! This is never going to end! Why me? Stop!!!” But meditators know that if you have physical pain this can be experienced simply as a physical sensation, albeit an unpleasant one.

The research McGonigal presents shows what this looks like in the brain when people are subjected to pain, in the form of heat applied to the leg. In non-meditators the brain’s default network, which is involved in rumination and evaluation, is very active. In meditators, the parts of the brain that are active are those that are paying attention to the pain. So meditators are very attentive to their pain, but not evaluating it. This is how pain is separated from suffering. In fact, the more the experienced meditators were able to decouple the sensations of pain from evaluating the pain, the more discomfort they were able to bear.

Also, experienced meditators need more heat in order to bring about the same level of discomfort that non-meditators experience.

When new meditators, those who have been practicing for just four days, are given the same pain tests, those who are better able to bear the pain were those who suppressed the pain by focusing on something else. This is the opposite of the strategy of attentiveness to pain that experienced meditators employ.

New meditators also suppressed their emotional pain by shutting down emotional processing, but experienced meditators remained open to their emotional experience. Instead of suppressing their emotions, experienced meditators attend to their emotions but don’t evaluate with the default network.

With research like this, I have to ask people who don’t meditate, why not?

“The Compassionate Brain” free seven-part video series

November 5, 2012

Rick Hanson PhD

news

For Sounds True, I’m hosting a free Seven-part video series with extraordinary guests – The Compassionate Brain – that will give you effective ways to change your brain and heart and life. So far over 25,000 people have signed up for this free series, and I hope you will join us – and help spread the word to others.

The series began October 8, 2012, and runs on seven consecutive Monday nights, 8-9 pm Eastern time, through November 19. You can go back and watch the archived videos from previous interviews.

Each week, I’m interviewing a world-class scholar/teacher (in order): Richie Davidson, Dan Siegel, Tara Brach, Dachar Keltner, Kelly McGonigal, Kristin Neff, and Jean Houston – where they’ll discuss different ways to use the power of neuroplasticity – how the mind can change the brain to transform the mind – to open the heart, build courage, find compassion, forgive oneself and others, speak and act from both kindness and strength, and heal the world.

Here is a brief video in which I explain what this series is about:

You can watch live each Monday or see the archived videos anytime if you miss a session. These unique conversations with first-rate experts are freely offered – along with their practical tools for cooperation, empathy, and kindness. (The series is particularly timely in light of a U.S. Presidential election occurring right in the middle of it.)

Our world has needs at different levels (economic, environmental, cultural, etc.) but the common factor in all of these is the human brain, whose ancient fight-or-flight circuits are dragging humanity toward if not over the brink. If more people and more brains – and thus more hearts and hands – turned toward compassion, that could make a real difference.

So I would really appreciate your support for this series. You could sign up for it yourself at https://www.compassionatebrain.com/ and – please – spread the words and tell others about it. It’s interesting, solid, practical, convenient, and free. And, one brain at a time, it might help nudge things in a better direction.

Wishing you the best,

Rick

The Compassionate Brain Topics and Guests:

- Session 1: How the Mind Changes the Brain
  Monday, October 8, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –4)
  With Dr. Richie Davidson, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin and co-editor of The Asymmetrical Brain
- Session 2: Mindfulness of Oneself and Others
  Monday, October 15, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –4)
  With Dr. Daniel Siegel, executive director of the Mindsight Institute and author of Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
- Session 3: Cultivating a Forgiving Heart
  Monday, October 22, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –4)
  With Dr. Tara Brach, founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and author of Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

Session 4: The Evolution of Compassion: From Gene to Meme
Monday, October 29, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –4)
With Dr. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life
Session 5: Balancing Compassion and Assertiveness
Monday, November 5, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –5)
With Dr. Kelly McGonigal, senior teacher and consultant for the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and author of The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
Session 6: The Power of Self-Compassion
Monday, November 12, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –5)
With Dr. Kristin Neff, professor of human development and culture at the University of Texas, Austin and author of Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind
Session 7: Compassion in the Wider World
Monday, November 19, 2012, from 8–9 pm Eastern Time (GMT –5)
With Dr. Jean Houston, co-founder of The Foundation for Mind Research and author of The Possible Human: A Course in Enhancing Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities