What Distraction Does to Your Brain—and How To Regain Cognitive Control | Adam Gazzaley

Human beings are wired for social connection. Sadly, thanks in large part to the internet, mobile phones and social media, we are seeing an increase in social isolation. Zen teacher and psychotherapist Koshin Paley Ellison refers to this diminishing of social interaction and intimacy with other individuals as Zombieland. In our conversation, and in his book "Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up," he hopes to help others rediscover their values and discover a way to truly live life to the fullest. Plug Zone Web: https://zencare.org/ Books: Wholehearted: https://www.amazon.com/Wholehearted-Slow-Down-Help-Wake/dp/1614295255/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KDFHIQH761J0&keywords=wholehearted+slow+down%2C+help+out%2C+wake+up+by+koshin+paley+ellison&qid=1563975290&s=gateway&sprefix=wholehearted%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1 Awake at the Bedside: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1614291195/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Zencare Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zencare-podcasts/id369948549 Instagram: @koshinpaleyellison Twitter: @koshinpaley Facebook: @koshinpaley ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

24 Juli 20191h 30min

We all encounter stress, but what we sometimes overlook is that stress can be useful, it is, after all, built into us by evolution. Our guest this week teaches how to distinguish between good and bad stress and how to make it work for us. Modupe Akinola is Associate Professor of Management at Columbia Business School where she conducts research on how certain environments can induce stress and how this stress can impact performance both positively and negatively. It was her own emotional stressors which led her to explore meditation. Quickly recognizing its benefits, Akinola took the plunge and traveled to India to further her practice. Modupe talks about her meditation journey, embracing emotions, unconscious bias and details her research dealing with police officers and bias and the link between depression and creativity. Plug Zone Website: https://www.modupeakinola.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/modupe-akinola-5300b735 Twitter: @ProfAkinola Ten Percent Happier Resources: The new Stress Better course with Modupe Akinola Web: https://www.tenpercent.com/stress App: https://10percenthappier.app.link/stress-better-sms ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

17 Juli 20191h 43min

If there was such a thing as a mind-ectomy or a mind transplant, our guest this week, Sylvia Boorstein, tells us she would have had it, confiding, "I need a mind that doesn't make up worries about something that didn't even happen yet." She calls herself "a life-long worrier, an inveterate fretter." Yet this very same person is an accomplished author, psychotherapist, Buddhist teacher, co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. Years ago, on her first meditation retreat, she received news that her father had been diagnosed with a form of cancer. She remembers feeling devastated, but not hysterical or overwhelmed. It was in that moment she realized how meditation had prepared her to deal with life's challenges differently. Through her captivating story-telling, Boorstein explains how she has achieved “poise of mind” and is able to manage life more gracefully. Plug Zone Website: http://www.sylviaboorstein.com/ About: http://www.sylviaboorstein.com/about Books: http://www.sylviaboorstein.com/books ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

10 Juli 20191h 12min

An athlete as a kid, a devastating sports injury would change James Clear's life forever. While a sophomore in high school, a baseball bat struck Clear in the face, resulting in massive head trauma. He would need to relearn very basic skills to function as himself again. Bit by bit, he started forming small habits which over time resulted in big changes. Today, he is the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. Plug Zone About: https://jamesclear.com/ Book: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

3 Juli 20191h 23min

Most kids are not spending their time in solitude exploring the abilities of the mind. In that way, Narayan Liebenson was not like most kids. Fascinated with the mind since a young age, she has led a life studying meditation in different traditions. Her training over the past forty years includes study with meditation masters in the Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan traditions. In 1985, Liebenson co-founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, which describes itself as "an urban refuge and teaching center for all who seek inner peace through the liberating practice of Insight Meditation." She is also the author of the recently released book, "The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation." In it, and in our discussion, she describes how to move from the "constant squeeze" of suffering to a direct experience of what she calls "enough-ness." We also discuss how that concept relates to the Buddhist teaching of "Hungry ghosts," creatures with huge stomachs and tiny mouths, who always remain hungry. Plug Zone New Book "The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation" https://www.amazon.com/Magnanimous-Heart-Compassion-Grief-Liberation/dp/1614294852 Cambridge Insight Meditation Center: https://cambridgeinsight.org/about/teachers/ To donate to the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center: https://cambridgeinsight.org/generosity/unrestricted-gift-dana/ Ten Percent Happier Meditation – Oren Jay Sofer's Practicing Kindness: https://10percenthappier.app.link/3nu2IRiOiX ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

26 Juni 20191h 31min

Jerry Colonna is the CEO and co-founder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm committed to the notion that better humans make better leaders. For nearly 20 years, he has used the knowledge gained as an investor, executive, and board member for more than 100 organizations to help entrepreneurs and others lead with humanity, resilience, and equanimity. Colonna is a certified professional coach, who draws on a wide variety of experiences to help clients design a more conscious life and make needed changes to improve their performance and satisfaction. Plug Zone Company: https://www.reboot.io/ Book: Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up: https://www.rebootbyjerry.com/ Event at the Rubin Museum with Dan Harris & Jerry Colonna 7/10 https://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/jerry-colonna-dan-harris-07-10-2019 Twitter: @jerrycolonna Ten Percent Happier Meditation - Sharon Salzberg's Dressing Up The Inner Critic: https://10percenthappier.app.link/2sFkPUVNiX ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

19 Juni 20191h 12min

Chris Ruane has been a member of the British Parliament for more than 20 years. As a meditation and mindfulness practitioner, he wanted to share the benefits of these practices with his colleagues in government. In 2013, he set up free mindfulness classes in the UK Parliament. Since then, more than 150 British Members of Parliament and peers have received mindfulness training, along with 250 members of their staff. Jamie Bristow serves as Director of The Mindfulness Initiative, which was founded in 2013 to support British politicians in forming the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness (MAPPG), a cross party group dedicated to developing public policy on mindfulness in health, education, criminal justice and the workplace. Ruane and Bristow have joined forces to bring mindfulness techniques to legislators around the world, hoping it will lead to more thoughtful decision-making and constructive dialogues between opposing political parties. Plug Zone Chris Ruane Bio: http://oxfordmindfulness.org/people/chris-ruane/ Chris Ruane Email Address: ruanec@parliament.uk Chris Ruane Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chris_RuaneMP Jamie Bristow Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamiebristow The Mindfulness Initiative: https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org/ Ten Percent Happier Meditation - Jeff Warren's Training the Mind: https://10percenthappier.app.link/Sx7HisBOiX ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

12 Juni 20191h 8min

As a child Annaka Harris suffered from migraines. Searching for ways to cope with that pain, she became curious - wondering "what is this pain" and "where is it coming from?" The line of questioning shifted her perspective and propelled her into a quest of understanding the mystery of consciousness. Harris takes us with her on this quest in our interview and in her book Conscious, which looks at the many definitions of consciousness and challenges long-held assumptions about this complicated concept. The Plug Zone Website: https://annakaharris.com/about/ Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind: https://annakaharris.com/conscious/ I Wonder: https://annakaharris.com/i-wonder/ Twitter: @annakaharris Meditation From Joseph Goldstein on Ten Percent Happier "Turbo-Charge Your Meditation" aka, Busy Life Meditation: https://10percenthappier.app.link/o431sZ4XWW ***VOICEMAILS*** Have a question for Dan? Leave us a voicemail: 646-883-8326

5 Juni 20191h 14min