and so to do that I’m really excited
today to welcome here somebody who you
all know and love somebody who over the
years has provided much joy and
happiness and laughter and inspiration
to us so Goldie Hawn is as you know an
amazing Academy award-winning actress
producer author child advocate and
inspiration and over the past several
years through her Hawn Foundation has
started mind up which brings together
cognitive neuroscientists positive
psychologists educators and experts in
the field of mindful awareness training
to bring that curriculum to teachers to
parents and the children in schools and
today they have shared that curriculum
with over 400,000 children so it’s a
real honor today to welcome to this
thank you very much thanks everybody
well I just have to say one thing I’m
not going to talk about comedy but I
have something here that could be
falling off at any second so if it does
just have a big hoot it’s falling off
several times so it was it’s a great joy
to be here it’s wonderful to see
everybody I just want to thank Jack for
a beautiful moment
because we all need those I thought that
Madonna you were wonderful today is a
really special day Dreamforce is an
amazing place it gives us a place to
really look at our future and understand
and imagine it differently and right now
what we do have is an incredible ability
because of Salesforce and Marc Benioff
and beautiful and his wife to be able to
give us the opportunity to understand
how we can improve our lives and our
heart our spirit our health in every way
relationships through mindful Ness so
but what I’m going to start talking
about actually is about my life really
because why am i up here what why me you
know I don’t have a PhD in psychology
and you know I’m not necessarily
preaching meditation all over the world
this isn’t what I do but I live my life
in a certain way with certain aspects
and ideas and I want to share with you
how I got here you know so one of the
beginnings of my life is is that I
started dancing and dancing was really
my beautiful beautiful moment I was
three years old and when I kept dancing
I was happy and this is something that I
enjoyed because I think my true seed my
nature I was born with a fairly high
setpoint of happiness and then when I
became 11 something happened and was in
school and all of a sudden I heard oh
we’re going to go down to the visual
aids room and we’re gonna go watch a
movie and I was so excited I thought oh
good we’re gonna watch out corn
broan and Iowa well frankly that’s not
exactly what I saw what I saw was nine
eight seven six and so forth and
suddenly and it was just annihilation
and the bomb went off and then they
panned annihilation of children and
mothers crying and children lost and
fathers with blood and I’m looking at
this and I’m 11 and I’m a sensitive
child and my brain isn’t finished yet
until I’m 24 which I didn’t know and I
started to shake I said wait a minute my
life is I could die tomorrow Duck and
Cover
I mean I’m gonna get under a desk and
that’s gonna save my life
from an atom bomb that we’re going to be
annihilated as a country and our life is
gonna be over and I will never get to
kiss a boy I won’t live that long I was
shaking and I said to the teacher I I
need to go home I need to go home
because um my mom is making lunch for me
and she says Golda you never go home for
lunch I said I know but I really I do
and I ran home I called my mother it
from the store I said mommy were all
gonna die and I’m gonna die and I’m
scared what happened to you Goldie what
did you say is if they showed me a film
and into everything and it’s all about
the bomb and how Russia’s gonna bomb us
and she came home rushed home and her
pointy shoes and straight skirt and she
came over she said what are they showing
you what are they showing you in school
and she picks up the phone after she
explained to me that Russia and
everything’s gonna be fine for both of
the bomb and nobody wants to die
although it stuck with me for many
years she called the Department of
Education and said excuse my French what
the hell are you doing with our kids
what are you teaching them you think
that they can absorb this information
you think that these children are able
gonna understand what you’re trying to
say this is propaganda given to the
children
it affected my mind until I left high
school I wouldn’t go to school if there
was a siren blowing when we had air raid
I was too frightened I couldn’t think I
was so scared and when there was it was
a fire truck that went by I would pick
up the phone I called the operator I’d
say excuse me is this an enemy attack
when she said I don’t know dear what
you’re talking about I said well I know
but I’m hearing the siren I wasn’t in my
own mind and that same year when I was
11 years old people said to me what do
you want to be when you grow up Goldie
and I remember saying I want to be happy
and they said oh no we know you’re a
dancer what do you want to be do you
want to be a movie star do you want to
dance on Broadway and I remember looking
up at them saying no I want to be happy
that’s what I wanted to be what I wanted
to do was something different what I
want to do how I want to behave my life
that’s a different thing I wanted to be
happy and it was something that I tried
first and foremost that my life was
going to be about enjoying and feeling
happiness deep inside I then went to New
York and I became a dancer and then from
being a dancer I was then asked to come
dance in Los Angeles and I was actually
making money and doing the things I
wanted to do I was trained to be a
dancer and my dream was dance go home
open a dancing school get married and be
happy that was a dream work Dreamforce
we all have our dreams
I had a dream it was a good dream it
made sense it was normal and when people
said to me do you want to be a movie
star I said Oh first of all it’s
unrealistic but secondly no because
they’re so messed up I wanted to I
wanted a real life I wanted a life with
a white picket fence and all the things
that I imagined would bring me happiness
including children and a lovely husband
and a wonderful stove and all the things
that we thought in those days would
create security and love but suddenly
happen and that was my dream which was
moving along very nicely frankly because
I had been asked to do a television show
which was amazing and I was dancing on a
show and then there’s an agent that
walked up to me twelve beautiful girls
dancing on a television show and he came
up to me and he said oh do you have an
agent and I wouldn’t know I don’t really
I don’t have an agent but you know just
a dancer and all that and he said well I
would like just to see you and I went
well yeah sure but you know and I went
back to dancing on the show I got a call
and he said we’re waiting for you with
the William Morris Agency you were
supposed to be here on Wednesday I got
in my car my car had well it didn’t have
a floor really but I could well the hole
was so big in the floor that I could see
the street and then every time I made a
right-hand turn my left hand door flew
open so I had to hold it that way and
the whole thing and then I ended up
right there William Morris really rushed
in next thing I know signed me and I
went up for an audition and I got a job
and I was suddenly pulled out of the
chorus and I was put into a television
show and shouldn’t I have been happy oh
I’m doing a three camera show at Desilu
studios mom dad my life has changed
but something happened then and that was
that I got depressed and I started to
have anxiety attacks I started to feel
scared my life had changed I know it
sounds crazy but what happened to my
dream what happened to my white picket
fence what happened to my husband
wherever he was what happened to the
dancing school what happened to dancing
on television for as long as my legs
could keep me going and then make a new
life for my I had it all planned out so
I became anxious I had panic attacks I
couldn’t go into public without throwing
up what was happening golde could I have
your autograph why well I was
destabilized just like I was in school
we’re tender we’re all tender we all
have brains that get messed up we get
scared we get depressed we’ve had panic
attacks this amazing brain that we have
that does amazing things can also work
against us I went to a doctor and I saw
a psychologist I wanted to find out more
about myself because as Socrates said a
life unexamined is no life it isn’t
worth living I was examining my life it
was important because I wanted to return
back to my smile return back to
happiness and I spent nine years nine
years studying my own mind my own
reasons my own causes for joy happiness
sorrow my relationships with my parents
and my relationships with the people in
my life I learned a lot about the mind I
learned a lot about psychic
gee I learned a lot about myself but
something extraordinary happened in 1971
which brings me closer to what we’re
here for today and that is I was
initiated with TM and I started
meditating and I remember my very first
experience in meditation and I I don’t
know it’s very difficult just put into
words often times almost like love is
hard to express but it’s difficult
because it’s a visceral experience it
was an experience that I had that I felt
like when I was initiated and I was
given my mantra and I was sitting there
in Westwood California and I walked into
a room with incense burning and a rose
on the altar and a new mantra something
that I could say over and over that
sounded beautiful and the window was
open and there was lace in the curtain
and the breeze was coming through all my
senses were alive and when I went down
deep into myself into my mantra my heart
opened I met myself for the first time
in a long time I could feel the seed of
joy that was happening naturally
I think we’re born with it and when you
really get down in there you feel it you
feel this incredible sense of well-being
and joy and power power to love power to
forgive you’re right there in that
moment and I will never forget how it
ignited so much of my spirit and so much
of my my pure joy which is deep so it
became my practice for many many years
and then after I had practiced for many
years I continued to study because it’s
what I do I’m fascinated with it as much
as I love my career it’s an actress I’m
interested in other things which all of
us are
I’m sure and I studied the brain and I
started looking into the brain and the
causes for certain things and
habituation and you know all of the
aspects of the brain that actually are
connected also to meditation and then
Richard Davidson did this wonderful
research a very very forerunner and
created oh my goodness on the cover of
Time magazine well look what happens to
the brain when you meditate well it’s
profound guys this is science I mean I
love for us all to go under a rock you
know in Kerala and sit somewhere or on a
beach and meditate together it’s a
wonderful thing to do but the truth is
is that what we’re talking about is
application how do we activate these
various truths that we’re now learning
at this time in history so when we start
realizing that we have an aspect of
control over our brain because it’s what
we do is what we think it’s how we act
is becoming what we become our reality
is created by what we think what we do
and the choices that we make so we’re
not out of control we’re not out of
control on our reactivity because guess
what we have metacognition you know what
that means metacognition we get to see
ourselves we’re a rare bird as humans so
we get to see who and what we’re doing
watching ourselves is so important
because it’s about awareness awareness
of who we are awareness of our actions
awareness that it’s time to forgive
awareness that I’ve said something that
I’ve hurt someone awareness to it’s time
to love these are the things that we
need to be aware of awareness of our
anger awareness of our reactivity
so as we’re putting I’m putting all this
together in great joy great excite
meeting amazing minds beautiful people
that are doing incredible things in the
world I got a phone call Goldy are you I
wanted to catch you before you left for
school what’s going on
we’ve just been attacked 911 what yeah
the Twin Towers are going down you’ve
gotta turn the television set on and I
sat there with my kid who I was taking
to school and I looked I said oh my god
what is happening to us what is this
seed of anger that’s taking over the
world
what is this polarization that’s
happening to the world we were all
devastated we all were shaken and knew
that our lives our world would never be
the same it would not have the kind of
freedom that we had before and we
depended on our leaders because we were
helpless sad and helpless and the only
thing that I could do at this time was
look in my knitting and find red white
and blue thread and I knit the American
flag and I sat there in my chair crying
for over a week paralyzed I don’t want
to go anywhere I don’t want to do
anything I’m gonna sit here with my
family I don’t want them to go anywhere
I want to be together and then I
remembered how I felt about the war and
I thought I was gonna die and never gets
a boy I thought that my life was over at
11
I felt the trauma the inability to deal
at school the fear of going to school
look what happens to your mind when it’s
in frenzied
look what happens to us when we don’t
know what we’re going to do when we’re
scared well there’s a reason for that
and there’s a way to mitigate that
because we now understand the brain and
we understand the effects of mindfulness
mindfulness attention meditation call it
what you will
focused attention can calm us down call
down the limbic system calm us down to a
point where our executive function can
actually take over make cognitive
decisions critically think appropriately
without the frenzy the fear the anger
all the emotions that drive us that are
negative so now what we have is me
sitting there with my family thinking
how are we going to change the world how
are we going to create peace how do we
create people to have dialogues how do
we create leaders leaders that are
actually going to change the world
in a way that’s mindful in a way that
isn’t ego driven in a way that can see a
problem from 30,000 feet up how in the
world are we going to do that and a year
later we went into Iraq and that was it
that’s when I sat in my meditation room
contemplating after my meditation
sometimes I go in my quiet room guys you
don’t have to meditate just sit quietly
just breathe and sit quietly you’ll be
amazed at what comes to your mind and
will be amazed at what happens to your
heart in that I said to myself how old
are you now Goldie how long have you
been working as an actress how many
years do you want to sit in front of a
makeup chair because there’s work to be
done and I want to help I know too much
now I know that’s what’s sitting in
Petri dishes in universities of research
is not moving out into the world
universities are amazed
thing they do great things but there’s a
tendency to move slow and I’m a producer
and I thought you know what let’s bring
neuroscientists in let’s bring
mindfulness practitioners in let’s bring
teachers in let’s bring positive
psychologists in let’s bring them into
this room and write a curriculum for
children that will go into the classroom
in order to build not only great
leadership but change the world because
build bigger schools keep the mattress
cool longer our children are depressed
one in five of our children has a mental
disorder of some kind 15 to 24 year olds
is the second suicide is the second
leading cause of death the second
leading cause of death suicide 15 to 24
years old it breaks my heart because
they’re sad they’re lonely they’re
stressed they have been given no tools
to mitigate any of their fears to
mitigate any of their their anxieties
let’s give the medication that’s gonna
help
we’ll give them pills that will help
them worry about their stress worry
about their anxiety that’ll help them
focus this will help them do this and we
have proof that this kind of practice
can help them why do we need to continue
to give our children medication and
psychotropics in order to think to be to
feel and are we giving any attention to
the longitudinal studies at all on the
developing brain the answer is no so
this is my life because I have now over
now we’re over five hundred thousand
children doing mind up and mind up is a
program that incorporates mindfulness
but I believed in my own way of seeing
it that if you don’t give a child an
understanding of their brain and teach
them neuroscience which is exactly what
we need to teach them because we ask
them to use their brain Oh pay attention
most kids don’t even know what that
means we want to extract an attention we
want to strengthen the brain we want to
strengthen their optimism give them
tools so they’re going to be able to
flourish the best they can and our
children need to have joy in their
classroom they need to have a sense of
optimism our teachers need to be trained
differently they need to go into the you
colleges of of our colleges here in the
United States and learn not just
mindfulness also learn about the brain
learn about how gratitude changes the
brain learn about how habituating
positive thoughts changes the brain it’s
a dance it’s a dance for evolution we
need to evolve as human beings we have
an amazing capability of creating new
ways of being we’re doing that today
thank you Mark
thank you Salesforce so where I am today
and where our children are today so you
know and I think a lot of you are
wondering well what is the practice and
I will share with you that what we’re
doing is 15 lessons 15 lessons in four
pillars one of them is let’s teach our
little ones about the brain we’re in
from K unchilled 8th right now and have
been for the last 11 years and now we’re
moving into high school with a
curriculum I’m very excited about it
in the meantime these seven year olds
are telling me how the brain works and
I’ll go into the classroom because this
is why five is my joy to be with them in
the classroom it’s like why I’m doing it
right and so I go in and they say oh
well do you want to know how the brain
works and I say yes and is it well the
the the amygdala which is what we need
the Imagi let you know but I mean it’s
there because but it gets overactive and
then we get scared or we get a certain
or we get scared about tests or
something he said we just learn to quiet
down the amygdala by taking breaths and
doing our mindful breathing and then we
take our brain break which is what we
call it in the classroom because every
brain needs a break
and they get quiet and he listened to a
bell and they’re happy and they’re
joyful and it’s two minutes because then
he said my brain opens up my prefrontal
cortex and that’s my thinking brain and
that’s how I activate it because
otherwise they won’t have anything to do
with the Epoque campus which is what
remembers everything so they love their
brain so when we’re teaching
neurobiology when we do our mindful
practices where we do three times a day
in the classroom not once not twice but
three times a day in three minute breaks
manages the classroom manage their
ability to attend to things manage their
emotion allottee manage their reactivity
and then we do mindful exercises of our
senses and wrap all our curriculum
around it so these aren’t add-ons it’s
changing the way the whole classroom
works the whole classroom feels it’s a
happy place there’s no wrong answer
about mindfulness there’s no wrong
answer about tasting and smelling
because we’re all different amazingly
amazingly different humans embrace the
diversity of all of us and the last
thing that we do is we do positive
psychology social and emotional learning
if you will acts of kindness we do and
they do it in the classroom and they
think about it
why do we do it because it changes the
neurological connections of the brain
because the more you think about
happiness the more your brain wants to
think about happiness the more angry you
become the more anger your brain gets
you get more used to being angry you
look at the negative instead of the
positive
so we’re now looking at critical
thinking we’re looking at perspective
taking so they read books and they see
conversations why do you think that
character did that what do you think he
was feeling this be it puts them in
other people’s shoes about creating
empathy without even saying now you’re
gonna learn how to be empathetic because
they just are by nature and when you
give them these they do and then we do
gratitude journals which I think
probably some of you have studied
gratitude it’s an enormous benefit to
our minds because in our hearts because
when you do gratitude it has this is
research has pulled people out of very
depressed States because we’re grateful
so today is the first day of the rest of
my life and it’s the first day of the
rest of your life and as I say I’m not
as old let’s see I’m not as young as I
was I’m not as not as never been as old
as I am but I’ve never been as young as
I am right now poor you being every day
is a new day every day is a birthday and
I feel that if we can instill some of
these feelings into our children giving
them critical ways of dealing with their
stress I don’t really want to get into
the negative but as we know we’ve had
our children from high school jumping
off a train here it’s not possible that
we’ve spent 17 million dollars on
building fences you don’t have to build
fences anymore you just have to engage
in the reality that our children in this
day and age need a different kind of
education they need an education is
going to give them tools tools to live
life tools to have friends tools to
negotiate tools to deal with conflict
and tools to give them the right to
laugh and to smile and to feel
light-hearted so I am grateful for this
today I am grateful to be here and I
just want to say thank you and if
there’s any challenge it is to remember
that the one person that you need to
challenge to become better in life for
you and for your loved ones and for your
children and for your job is to go to
the University of you and become the
best human being you can possibly become
there’s only one way to end a day like
today which is to invite all of our
speakers back up here please
please come on up and that’s some of you
are leaving now I just want to thank you
all for being here for giving us your
time attention and intention and
together I wanted to see if there’s
anything else that anyone else wanted to
offer as we as we end today I’d like to
offer a big stretch everybody reach your
hands and pull your hips way up and out
of them and just so oh gosh that’s a
good one oh that’s something I’d offer
just one thing be excellent to each
all right everybody thank you very much and goodbye for now
today to welcome here somebody who you
all know and love somebody who over the
years has provided much joy and
happiness and laughter and inspiration
to us so Goldie Hawn is as you know an
amazing Academy award-winning actress
producer author child advocate and
inspiration and over the past several
years through her Hawn Foundation has
started mind up which brings together
cognitive neuroscientists positive
psychologists educators and experts in
the field of mindful awareness training
to bring that curriculum to teachers to
parents and the children in schools and
today they have shared that curriculum
with over 400,000 children so it’s a
real honor today to welcome to this
thank you very much thanks everybody
well I just have to say one thing I’m
not going to talk about comedy but I
have something here that could be
falling off at any second so if it does
just have a big hoot it’s falling off
several times so it was it’s a great joy
to be here it’s wonderful to see
everybody I just want to thank Jack for
a beautiful moment
because we all need those I thought that
Madonna you were wonderful today is a
really special day Dreamforce is an
amazing place it gives us a place to
really look at our future and understand
and imagine it differently and right now
what we do have is an incredible ability
because of Salesforce and Marc Benioff
and beautiful and his wife to be able to
give us the opportunity to understand
how we can improve our lives and our
heart our spirit our health in every way
relationships through mindful Ness so
but what I’m going to start talking
about actually is about my life really
because why am i up here what why me you
know I don’t have a PhD in psychology
and you know I’m not necessarily
preaching meditation all over the world
this isn’t what I do but I live my life
in a certain way with certain aspects
and ideas and I want to share with you
how I got here you know so one of the
beginnings of my life is is that I
started dancing and dancing was really
my beautiful beautiful moment I was
three years old and when I kept dancing
I was happy and this is something that I
enjoyed because I think my true seed my
nature I was born with a fairly high
setpoint of happiness and then when I
became 11 something happened and was in
school and all of a sudden I heard oh
we’re going to go down to the visual
aids room and we’re gonna go watch a
movie and I was so excited I thought oh
good we’re gonna watch out corn
broan and Iowa well frankly that’s not
exactly what I saw what I saw was nine
eight seven six and so forth and
suddenly and it was just annihilation
and the bomb went off and then they
panned annihilation of children and
mothers crying and children lost and
fathers with blood and I’m looking at
this and I’m 11 and I’m a sensitive
child and my brain isn’t finished yet
until I’m 24 which I didn’t know and I
started to shake I said wait a minute my
life is I could die tomorrow Duck and
Cover
I mean I’m gonna get under a desk and
that’s gonna save my life
from an atom bomb that we’re going to be
annihilated as a country and our life is
gonna be over and I will never get to
kiss a boy I won’t live that long I was
shaking and I said to the teacher I I
need to go home I need to go home
because um my mom is making lunch for me
and she says Golda you never go home for
lunch I said I know but I really I do
and I ran home I called my mother it
from the store I said mommy were all
gonna die and I’m gonna die and I’m
scared what happened to you Goldie what
did you say is if they showed me a film
and into everything and it’s all about
the bomb and how Russia’s gonna bomb us
and she came home rushed home and her
pointy shoes and straight skirt and she
came over she said what are they showing
you what are they showing you in school
and she picks up the phone after she
explained to me that Russia and
everything’s gonna be fine for both of
the bomb and nobody wants to die
although it stuck with me for many
years she called the Department of
Education and said excuse my French what
the hell are you doing with our kids
what are you teaching them you think
that they can absorb this information
you think that these children are able
gonna understand what you’re trying to
say this is propaganda given to the
children
it affected my mind until I left high
school I wouldn’t go to school if there
was a siren blowing when we had air raid
I was too frightened I couldn’t think I
was so scared and when there was it was
a fire truck that went by I would pick
up the phone I called the operator I’d
say excuse me is this an enemy attack
when she said I don’t know dear what
you’re talking about I said well I know
but I’m hearing the siren I wasn’t in my
own mind and that same year when I was
11 years old people said to me what do
you want to be when you grow up Goldie
and I remember saying I want to be happy
and they said oh no we know you’re a
dancer what do you want to be do you
want to be a movie star do you want to
dance on Broadway and I remember looking
up at them saying no I want to be happy
that’s what I wanted to be what I wanted
to do was something different what I
want to do how I want to behave my life
that’s a different thing I wanted to be
happy and it was something that I tried
first and foremost that my life was
going to be about enjoying and feeling
happiness deep inside I then went to New
York and I became a dancer and then from
being a dancer I was then asked to come
dance in Los Angeles and I was actually
making money and doing the things I
wanted to do I was trained to be a
dancer and my dream was dance go home
open a dancing school get married and be
happy that was a dream work Dreamforce
we all have our dreams
I had a dream it was a good dream it
made sense it was normal and when people
said to me do you want to be a movie
star I said Oh first of all it’s
unrealistic but secondly no because
they’re so messed up I wanted to I
wanted a real life I wanted a life with
a white picket fence and all the things
that I imagined would bring me happiness
including children and a lovely husband
and a wonderful stove and all the things
that we thought in those days would
create security and love but suddenly
happen and that was my dream which was
moving along very nicely frankly because
I had been asked to do a television show
which was amazing and I was dancing on a
show and then there’s an agent that
walked up to me twelve beautiful girls
dancing on a television show and he came
up to me and he said oh do you have an
agent and I wouldn’t know I don’t really
I don’t have an agent but you know just
a dancer and all that and he said well I
would like just to see you and I went
well yeah sure but you know and I went
back to dancing on the show I got a call
and he said we’re waiting for you with
the William Morris Agency you were
supposed to be here on Wednesday I got
in my car my car had well it didn’t have
a floor really but I could well the hole
was so big in the floor that I could see
the street and then every time I made a
right-hand turn my left hand door flew
open so I had to hold it that way and
the whole thing and then I ended up
right there William Morris really rushed
in next thing I know signed me and I
went up for an audition and I got a job
and I was suddenly pulled out of the
chorus and I was put into a television
show and shouldn’t I have been happy oh
I’m doing a three camera show at Desilu
studios mom dad my life has changed
but something happened then and that was
that I got depressed and I started to
have anxiety attacks I started to feel
scared my life had changed I know it
sounds crazy but what happened to my
dream what happened to my white picket
fence what happened to my husband
wherever he was what happened to the
dancing school what happened to dancing
on television for as long as my legs
could keep me going and then make a new
life for my I had it all planned out so
I became anxious I had panic attacks I
couldn’t go into public without throwing
up what was happening golde could I have
your autograph why well I was
destabilized just like I was in school
we’re tender we’re all tender we all
have brains that get messed up we get
scared we get depressed we’ve had panic
attacks this amazing brain that we have
that does amazing things can also work
against us I went to a doctor and I saw
a psychologist I wanted to find out more
about myself because as Socrates said a
life unexamined is no life it isn’t
worth living I was examining my life it
was important because I wanted to return
back to my smile return back to
happiness and I spent nine years nine
years studying my own mind my own
reasons my own causes for joy happiness
sorrow my relationships with my parents
and my relationships with the people in
my life I learned a lot about the mind I
learned a lot about psychic
gee I learned a lot about myself but
something extraordinary happened in 1971
which brings me closer to what we’re
here for today and that is I was
initiated with TM and I started
meditating and I remember my very first
experience in meditation and I I don’t
know it’s very difficult just put into
words often times almost like love is
hard to express but it’s difficult
because it’s a visceral experience it
was an experience that I had that I felt
like when I was initiated and I was
given my mantra and I was sitting there
in Westwood California and I walked into
a room with incense burning and a rose
on the altar and a new mantra something
that I could say over and over that
sounded beautiful and the window was
open and there was lace in the curtain
and the breeze was coming through all my
senses were alive and when I went down
deep into myself into my mantra my heart
opened I met myself for the first time
in a long time I could feel the seed of
joy that was happening naturally
I think we’re born with it and when you
really get down in there you feel it you
feel this incredible sense of well-being
and joy and power power to love power to
forgive you’re right there in that
moment and I will never forget how it
ignited so much of my spirit and so much
of my my pure joy which is deep so it
became my practice for many many years
and then after I had practiced for many
years I continued to study because it’s
what I do I’m fascinated with it as much
as I love my career it’s an actress I’m
interested in other things which all of
us are
I’m sure and I studied the brain and I
started looking into the brain and the
causes for certain things and
habituation and you know all of the
aspects of the brain that actually are
connected also to meditation and then
Richard Davidson did this wonderful
research a very very forerunner and
created oh my goodness on the cover of
Time magazine well look what happens to
the brain when you meditate well it’s
profound guys this is science I mean I
love for us all to go under a rock you
know in Kerala and sit somewhere or on a
beach and meditate together it’s a
wonderful thing to do but the truth is
is that what we’re talking about is
application how do we activate these
various truths that we’re now learning
at this time in history so when we start
realizing that we have an aspect of
control over our brain because it’s what
we do is what we think it’s how we act
is becoming what we become our reality
is created by what we think what we do
and the choices that we make so we’re
not out of control we’re not out of
control on our reactivity because guess
what we have metacognition you know what
that means metacognition we get to see
ourselves we’re a rare bird as humans so
we get to see who and what we’re doing
watching ourselves is so important
because it’s about awareness awareness
of who we are awareness of our actions
awareness that it’s time to forgive
awareness that I’ve said something that
I’ve hurt someone awareness to it’s time
to love these are the things that we
need to be aware of awareness of our
anger awareness of our reactivity
so as we’re putting I’m putting all this
together in great joy great excite
meeting amazing minds beautiful people
that are doing incredible things in the
world I got a phone call Goldy are you I
wanted to catch you before you left for
school what’s going on
we’ve just been attacked 911 what yeah
the Twin Towers are going down you’ve
gotta turn the television set on and I
sat there with my kid who I was taking
to school and I looked I said oh my god
what is happening to us what is this
seed of anger that’s taking over the
world
what is this polarization that’s
happening to the world we were all
devastated we all were shaken and knew
that our lives our world would never be
the same it would not have the kind of
freedom that we had before and we
depended on our leaders because we were
helpless sad and helpless and the only
thing that I could do at this time was
look in my knitting and find red white
and blue thread and I knit the American
flag and I sat there in my chair crying
for over a week paralyzed I don’t want
to go anywhere I don’t want to do
anything I’m gonna sit here with my
family I don’t want them to go anywhere
I want to be together and then I
remembered how I felt about the war and
I thought I was gonna die and never gets
a boy I thought that my life was over at
11
I felt the trauma the inability to deal
at school the fear of going to school
look what happens to your mind when it’s
in frenzied
look what happens to us when we don’t
know what we’re going to do when we’re
scared well there’s a reason for that
and there’s a way to mitigate that
because we now understand the brain and
we understand the effects of mindfulness
mindfulness attention meditation call it
what you will
focused attention can calm us down call
down the limbic system calm us down to a
point where our executive function can
actually take over make cognitive
decisions critically think appropriately
without the frenzy the fear the anger
all the emotions that drive us that are
negative so now what we have is me
sitting there with my family thinking
how are we going to change the world how
are we going to create peace how do we
create people to have dialogues how do
we create leaders leaders that are
actually going to change the world
in a way that’s mindful in a way that
isn’t ego driven in a way that can see a
problem from 30,000 feet up how in the
world are we going to do that and a year
later we went into Iraq and that was it
that’s when I sat in my meditation room
contemplating after my meditation
sometimes I go in my quiet room guys you
don’t have to meditate just sit quietly
just breathe and sit quietly you’ll be
amazed at what comes to your mind and
will be amazed at what happens to your
heart in that I said to myself how old
are you now Goldie how long have you
been working as an actress how many
years do you want to sit in front of a
makeup chair because there’s work to be
done and I want to help I know too much
now I know that’s what’s sitting in
Petri dishes in universities of research
is not moving out into the world
universities are amazed
thing they do great things but there’s a
tendency to move slow and I’m a producer
and I thought you know what let’s bring
neuroscientists in let’s bring
mindfulness practitioners in let’s bring
teachers in let’s bring positive
psychologists in let’s bring them into
this room and write a curriculum for
children that will go into the classroom
in order to build not only great
leadership but change the world because
build bigger schools keep the mattress
cool longer our children are depressed
one in five of our children has a mental
disorder of some kind 15 to 24 year olds
is the second suicide is the second
leading cause of death the second
leading cause of death suicide 15 to 24
years old it breaks my heart because
they’re sad they’re lonely they’re
stressed they have been given no tools
to mitigate any of their fears to
mitigate any of their their anxieties
let’s give the medication that’s gonna
help
we’ll give them pills that will help
them worry about their stress worry
about their anxiety that’ll help them
focus this will help them do this and we
have proof that this kind of practice
can help them why do we need to continue
to give our children medication and
psychotropics in order to think to be to
feel and are we giving any attention to
the longitudinal studies at all on the
developing brain the answer is no so
this is my life because I have now over
now we’re over five hundred thousand
children doing mind up and mind up is a
program that incorporates mindfulness
but I believed in my own way of seeing
it that if you don’t give a child an
understanding of their brain and teach
them neuroscience which is exactly what
we need to teach them because we ask
them to use their brain Oh pay attention
most kids don’t even know what that
means we want to extract an attention we
want to strengthen the brain we want to
strengthen their optimism give them
tools so they’re going to be able to
flourish the best they can and our
children need to have joy in their
classroom they need to have a sense of
optimism our teachers need to be trained
differently they need to go into the you
colleges of of our colleges here in the
United States and learn not just
mindfulness also learn about the brain
learn about how gratitude changes the
brain learn about how habituating
positive thoughts changes the brain it’s
a dance it’s a dance for evolution we
need to evolve as human beings we have
an amazing capability of creating new
ways of being we’re doing that today
thank you Mark
thank you Salesforce so where I am today
and where our children are today so you
know and I think a lot of you are
wondering well what is the practice and
I will share with you that what we’re
doing is 15 lessons 15 lessons in four
pillars one of them is let’s teach our
little ones about the brain we’re in
from K unchilled 8th right now and have
been for the last 11 years and now we’re
moving into high school with a
curriculum I’m very excited about it
in the meantime these seven year olds
are telling me how the brain works and
I’ll go into the classroom because this
is why five is my joy to be with them in
the classroom it’s like why I’m doing it
right and so I go in and they say oh
well do you want to know how the brain
works and I say yes and is it well the
the the amygdala which is what we need
the Imagi let you know but I mean it’s
there because but it gets overactive and
then we get scared or we get a certain
or we get scared about tests or
something he said we just learn to quiet
down the amygdala by taking breaths and
doing our mindful breathing and then we
take our brain break which is what we
call it in the classroom because every
brain needs a break
and they get quiet and he listened to a
bell and they’re happy and they’re
joyful and it’s two minutes because then
he said my brain opens up my prefrontal
cortex and that’s my thinking brain and
that’s how I activate it because
otherwise they won’t have anything to do
with the Epoque campus which is what
remembers everything so they love their
brain so when we’re teaching
neurobiology when we do our mindful
practices where we do three times a day
in the classroom not once not twice but
three times a day in three minute breaks
manages the classroom manage their
ability to attend to things manage their
emotion allottee manage their reactivity
and then we do mindful exercises of our
senses and wrap all our curriculum
around it so these aren’t add-ons it’s
changing the way the whole classroom
works the whole classroom feels it’s a
happy place there’s no wrong answer
about mindfulness there’s no wrong
answer about tasting and smelling
because we’re all different amazingly
amazingly different humans embrace the
diversity of all of us and the last
thing that we do is we do positive
psychology social and emotional learning
if you will acts of kindness we do and
they do it in the classroom and they
think about it
why do we do it because it changes the
neurological connections of the brain
because the more you think about
happiness the more your brain wants to
think about happiness the more angry you
become the more anger your brain gets
you get more used to being angry you
look at the negative instead of the
positive
so we’re now looking at critical
thinking we’re looking at perspective
taking so they read books and they see
conversations why do you think that
character did that what do you think he
was feeling this be it puts them in
other people’s shoes about creating
empathy without even saying now you’re
gonna learn how to be empathetic because
they just are by nature and when you
give them these they do and then we do
gratitude journals which I think
probably some of you have studied
gratitude it’s an enormous benefit to
our minds because in our hearts because
when you do gratitude it has this is
research has pulled people out of very
depressed States because we’re grateful
so today is the first day of the rest of
my life and it’s the first day of the
rest of your life and as I say I’m not
as old let’s see I’m not as young as I
was I’m not as not as never been as old
as I am but I’ve never been as young as
I am right now poor you being every day
is a new day every day is a birthday and
I feel that if we can instill some of
these feelings into our children giving
them critical ways of dealing with their
stress I don’t really want to get into
the negative but as we know we’ve had
our children from high school jumping
off a train here it’s not possible that
we’ve spent 17 million dollars on
building fences you don’t have to build
fences anymore you just have to engage
in the reality that our children in this
day and age need a different kind of
education they need an education is
going to give them tools tools to live
life tools to have friends tools to
negotiate tools to deal with conflict
and tools to give them the right to
laugh and to smile and to feel
light-hearted so I am grateful for this
today I am grateful to be here and I
just want to say thank you and if
there’s any challenge it is to remember
that the one person that you need to
challenge to become better in life for
you and for your loved ones and for your
children and for your job is to go to
the University of you and become the
best human being you can possibly become
there’s only one way to end a day like
today which is to invite all of our
speakers back up here please
please come on up and that’s some of you
are leaving now I just want to thank you
all for being here for giving us your
time attention and intention and
together I wanted to see if there’s
anything else that anyone else wanted to
offer as we as we end today I’d like to
offer a big stretch everybody reach your
hands and pull your hips way up and out
of them and just so oh gosh that’s a
good one oh that’s something I’d offer
just one thing be excellent to each
all right everybody thank you very much and goodbye for now
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