sit up and pay attention we’ve all been
told this at some point in our life
right or we’ve told somebody but let me
ask you this did the person who told you
to sit up and pay attention
follow that up by teaching you
actionable steps to increase this viable
don’t see any hands
I work as a college academic advisor and
I have asked my students for the last
several years that same question and
they’ve all been told to pay attention
but not one student in the last few
years out of the hundreds that I’ve
asked has told me they were taught how
how is this possible how have they made
it all the way to college without a
basic understanding of tangible ways to
increase the skill that they need in
every area of their life now I have to
admit I’m part of that problem
I raised my three children and I didn’t
teach them the skills to pay attention
but it was because I didn’t know how but
that’s all changed over the last several
years I devoted my studies to to
learning more about this topic I
actually even made it my focus of
studies my doctor program and I’ve
actually conducted my own research and
according to research if we can increase
our attention strengthen that muscle we
can actually lower our stress and
increase our overall health an exercise
that can help us strengthen our
attention is called mindfulness
now there’s mindfulness has been
practiced for thousands of years and
there’s many ways programs mindfulness a
simple definition is being present and
this moment right now mindfulness is not
a religion it doesn’t have to be
practiced on a cushion or on top of a
mountain you could and it’s not a cure
for all of our problems and it doesn’t
involve stopping our brain from working
or thinking or even stopping all of our
thoughts those are all myths mindfulness
is the most researched type of
meditation or attention extras
out there and because of the positive
findings it’s growing in popularity many
of you have probably heard of
mindfulness it could be found in many
Fortune 500 companies wellness programs
such as Google and Nike and Target
General Mills even the US military
police and fire pronet and college
athletes are even tapping in the growing
body of research has allowed scientists
and doctors to gather enough information
data at this time that they’re actually
confident in the outcomes and the
findings now many of these research
studies have focused on mindfulness
based stress reduction which was started
by dr. Jon kabat-zinn
however over the last several years
they’ve expanded the research and
included abbreviated and adapted
programs and new programs programs that
are found are web-based and that use the
technology that we wear
wearable technology and also apps that
we download on our phone and a lot of
those studies are early on but the
preliminary results are positive and
what we know is if we can increase our
attention we actually can boost our
immune system we can become happier we
can reduce our ruminating thoughts we
actually can reduce our stress and this
is important because stress in society
is not going down in fact it’s going up
across college campuses over the last
several years we’ve seen an increase a
30 percent increase in visits to
counseling centers and the number one
reason is stress but it’s not just
college students adults they’re stressed
as well one in three have reported being
chronically stressed on the job what’s
your level of stress when students come
in my office I see this they first tell
me they’re stressed and many times
they’re sick their immune systems have
been compromised I always ask them to
sit over there they tell me they have a
hard time focusing let’s see if you can
relate do you ever study or read a page
get to the bottom of the page and not
remember what you read do you ever set
a class or a meeting or a TED talk or
conversation with friends and zone out
and that’s part of the conversation
how about headaches from stress or not
wanting to get out of the bed can you
relate with that these are issues that
my students come in my office with and I
take them seriously
so as an academic advisor I wanted to do
more than just tell them to sit up and
pay attention so over the last few years
I’ve been incorporating 60 seconds of an
attention exercise of mindfulness at the
beginning of many of my appointments
I started advising mindfully as an
educator and a researcher I developed
curriculum and I taught a first-year
seminar class the basic steps of
increasing attention in fact this is my
class we sat outside of my office last
year under a tree and practiced
attention exercises now before this
class I sent out a survey and I asked my
students how their level of attention
was if they could notice when their mind
wandered and bring it back to the
present moment right away 32% of them
said they could but after 16 weeks of
class meeting 50 minutes once a week 95
percent of them said they could their
attention who went up now this was
encouraging a promising and I continued
at that curriculum and developed a
training program that I studied later in
research but it’s important not just for
their stress and their immune system but
also for their happiness according to a
study out of Harvard Matt Killingsworth
examined the connection between
attention and happiness and what he
found was that people are happier when
they’re present and in the moment versus
when they’re daydreaming mind-wandering
or or ruminating this is exciting news
this means if we can strengthen our
attention you can actually increase our
happiness potential who doesn’t want to
be happy but there’s more to his study
his study went on to show that on
average as human beings we tend to
daydream or ruminate our mind wander 47%
of the time now think about this for a
minute if you’re not here then where are
you and 47% at a time this means we’re
not living up to our happiness potential
I don’t know about you but I don’t want
half a paycheck and I
we don’t want half of my happiness
potential so what do we do about it when
I started practicing mindfulness the
first thing I realized was my mind does
ruminate and mind wander probably more
than 47 percent of the time the next
thing I noticed though of where my mind
tended to go and this was important I
noticed I tended to worry about things I
couldn’t control and I tended to
entertain negative self-talk why this is
important is because the way that our
brain works this wonderful thing called
neuroplasticity the more that we think
on things the stronger it becomes
there’s even a little saying it says
neurons that fire together wire together
as neurons just continue to build new
pathways they become stronger and as our
brain continues to think on those they
just get ingrained that’s how we learn
new talents and juggling and riding a
bike and it prunes away the past we’re
not using so if my mind was wandering 40
50 percent of the time to a were eful
thought on something I couldn’t stop or
control you know it was becoming
stronger worried if I was daydreaming or
mind wandering and thinking and
listening to those voices inside of my
head that says you’re not good enough
you’re not smart enough you’re an idiot
over time guess what was becoming
stronger so it was important that I
recognize where my mind went because
over time those thoughts can become
truth in my head and I can believe them
and though they’re not real
I believe them to be truth and they
could take a huge hit on our
self-confidence in our self-esteem
now not all mind wandering is bad I
don’t want to tell you that not all my
thoughts were bad I’m in fact some mind
wandering is foundational for some of
the best ideas and creativity out there
maybe with some great TED Talks
but it is important that we wander know
where our mind wanders to so over the
years I have read hundreds of articles
and research online fulness and some of
the main foundational components the
commonalities that I see run through
these are committing to a time and this
is how I practice with my
students I ask them when they come in if
they’ll commit to 60 seconds that we
focus on the moment and and they need
something to help them focus on the
moment we all do so we focus on our
breath or sometimes in my office we
focus on the second hand the ticking of
the clock this is our glue this is the
glue that brings us to this moment and
holds us here the acceptance part is
accepting the fact that we’re not going
to stay here our mind is going to wander
that’s what it’s meant to do that’s what
it does but we can train it so we are
glued to this moment following the
breath for 60 seconds and then we
noticed right away our mind went over
there and is thinking about lunch
or thinking about emails or whatever and
you just notice that it went over there
and tell it to come back to the glue to
the breath so that’s our focus as we
focus on the breath sounds pretty simple
doesn’t it why don’t we give it a try so
sit up and pay attention only this time
the person that told you that it’s gonna
show you how I’m actually going to ask
that you sit in a position that allows
you to be alert but yet yeah rested and
relaxed if you have a device on your lap
I asked maybe put it down so you’re not
distracted I’m gonna ask you to close
your eyes but if you want to leave them
open or fully welcome to and I want you
to commit to 60 seconds with me 60
seconds so we’re gonna focus on the
breath that’s going to be our glue and
with all of your focus and all of your
attention I’m going to ask that you
bring all of your attention to the
breath breathing in and breathing out
you don’t need to change your breath at
all just notice it be aware of it as you
maybe the observing but this is the
first time you’ve noticed your breath
and how it changes how it feels as it
enters your body how it changes as it
leaves all of your attention on this
moment for this moment is all we have
when your mind wanders just bring it
back to the breath pull yourself right
all of your focus on this moment now if
your eyes are closed I’m gonna ask you
that you go ahead and open them get
acclimated back to the room for some of
you that might have been your first
intentional attention exercise so
congratulations just kind of do a scan
right now inside and out maybe how you
felt for 60 seconds doing that the first
step is committing to a practice a daily
practice 60 seconds I practiced 30
minutes each day but the biggest excuse
I hear from people of why they don’t do
this is I don’t have time and I can’t
stop my mind from wandering well you do
have 60 seconds and you don’t have to
stop your mind from wondering what I
wanted to know more about technology and
if that could help us and short
abbreviated sessions could help so this
past year with the thanks to dr. Lavery
and dr. bouillon we conducted our own
study I developed a three hour training
for people in higher ed and they had
used to a mindfulness phone app so we
had three groups group one came to the
three hour training and then they used
the app group two did not come to the
training but they use the app group
three was a control group they didn’t do
either after 60 days we found group 1
and 2 had an increase in their level of
attention now this study is currently
under review but the preliminary results
are encouraging
this means we can find ways to increase
our attention with technology and brief
mindfulness exercises because you know
what missing out on 47% of our lives is
just unacceptable now I’ve taught you
one way today not the way to increase
your level of attention we know with
science that exercise and diet can also
help I’ve encouraged you to to start by
committing to 60 seconds every day you
can read books you can go on retreats
you can take classes you can even do
your own research but you don’t have to
do those to get started those will help
you grow and your understanding and
depth right now commit commit to
practicing everyday what we just did
and then I ask you to share it with
someone else so that the next time you
tell someone to sit up and pay attention
you can teach them actionable steps to
increase this wonderful skill that we
need in every area of our life let’s
make this world a little bit heavier
just one mindfulness moment at a time
thank you [Applause]
told this at some point in our life
right or we’ve told somebody but let me
ask you this did the person who told you
to sit up and pay attention
follow that up by teaching you
actionable steps to increase this viable
don’t see any hands
I work as a college academic advisor and
I have asked my students for the last
several years that same question and
they’ve all been told to pay attention
but not one student in the last few
years out of the hundreds that I’ve
asked has told me they were taught how
how is this possible how have they made
it all the way to college without a
basic understanding of tangible ways to
increase the skill that they need in
every area of their life now I have to
admit I’m part of that problem
I raised my three children and I didn’t
teach them the skills to pay attention
but it was because I didn’t know how but
that’s all changed over the last several
years I devoted my studies to to
learning more about this topic I
actually even made it my focus of
studies my doctor program and I’ve
actually conducted my own research and
according to research if we can increase
our attention strengthen that muscle we
can actually lower our stress and
increase our overall health an exercise
that can help us strengthen our
attention is called mindfulness
now there’s mindfulness has been
practiced for thousands of years and
there’s many ways programs mindfulness a
simple definition is being present and
this moment right now mindfulness is not
a religion it doesn’t have to be
practiced on a cushion or on top of a
mountain you could and it’s not a cure
for all of our problems and it doesn’t
involve stopping our brain from working
or thinking or even stopping all of our
thoughts those are all myths mindfulness
is the most researched type of
meditation or attention extras
out there and because of the positive
findings it’s growing in popularity many
of you have probably heard of
mindfulness it could be found in many
Fortune 500 companies wellness programs
such as Google and Nike and Target
General Mills even the US military
police and fire pronet and college
athletes are even tapping in the growing
body of research has allowed scientists
and doctors to gather enough information
data at this time that they’re actually
confident in the outcomes and the
findings now many of these research
studies have focused on mindfulness
based stress reduction which was started
by dr. Jon kabat-zinn
however over the last several years
they’ve expanded the research and
included abbreviated and adapted
programs and new programs programs that
are found are web-based and that use the
technology that we wear
wearable technology and also apps that
we download on our phone and a lot of
those studies are early on but the
preliminary results are positive and
what we know is if we can increase our
attention we actually can boost our
immune system we can become happier we
can reduce our ruminating thoughts we
actually can reduce our stress and this
is important because stress in society
is not going down in fact it’s going up
across college campuses over the last
several years we’ve seen an increase a
30 percent increase in visits to
counseling centers and the number one
reason is stress but it’s not just
college students adults they’re stressed
as well one in three have reported being
chronically stressed on the job what’s
your level of stress when students come
in my office I see this they first tell
me they’re stressed and many times
they’re sick their immune systems have
been compromised I always ask them to
sit over there they tell me they have a
hard time focusing let’s see if you can
relate do you ever study or read a page
get to the bottom of the page and not
remember what you read do you ever set
a class or a meeting or a TED talk or
conversation with friends and zone out
and that’s part of the conversation
how about headaches from stress or not
wanting to get out of the bed can you
relate with that these are issues that
my students come in my office with and I
take them seriously
so as an academic advisor I wanted to do
more than just tell them to sit up and
pay attention so over the last few years
I’ve been incorporating 60 seconds of an
attention exercise of mindfulness at the
beginning of many of my appointments
I started advising mindfully as an
educator and a researcher I developed
curriculum and I taught a first-year
seminar class the basic steps of
increasing attention in fact this is my
class we sat outside of my office last
year under a tree and practiced
attention exercises now before this
class I sent out a survey and I asked my
students how their level of attention
was if they could notice when their mind
wandered and bring it back to the
present moment right away 32% of them
said they could but after 16 weeks of
class meeting 50 minutes once a week 95
percent of them said they could their
attention who went up now this was
encouraging a promising and I continued
at that curriculum and developed a
training program that I studied later in
research but it’s important not just for
their stress and their immune system but
also for their happiness according to a
study out of Harvard Matt Killingsworth
examined the connection between
attention and happiness and what he
found was that people are happier when
they’re present and in the moment versus
when they’re daydreaming mind-wandering
or or ruminating this is exciting news
this means if we can strengthen our
attention you can actually increase our
happiness potential who doesn’t want to
be happy but there’s more to his study
his study went on to show that on
average as human beings we tend to
daydream or ruminate our mind wander 47%
of the time now think about this for a
minute if you’re not here then where are
you and 47% at a time this means we’re
not living up to our happiness potential
I don’t know about you but I don’t want
half a paycheck and I
we don’t want half of my happiness
potential so what do we do about it when
I started practicing mindfulness the
first thing I realized was my mind does
ruminate and mind wander probably more
than 47 percent of the time the next
thing I noticed though of where my mind
tended to go and this was important I
noticed I tended to worry about things I
couldn’t control and I tended to
entertain negative self-talk why this is
important is because the way that our
brain works this wonderful thing called
neuroplasticity the more that we think
on things the stronger it becomes
there’s even a little saying it says
neurons that fire together wire together
as neurons just continue to build new
pathways they become stronger and as our
brain continues to think on those they
just get ingrained that’s how we learn
new talents and juggling and riding a
bike and it prunes away the past we’re
not using so if my mind was wandering 40
50 percent of the time to a were eful
thought on something I couldn’t stop or
control you know it was becoming
stronger worried if I was daydreaming or
mind wandering and thinking and
listening to those voices inside of my
head that says you’re not good enough
you’re not smart enough you’re an idiot
over time guess what was becoming
stronger so it was important that I
recognize where my mind went because
over time those thoughts can become
truth in my head and I can believe them
and though they’re not real
I believe them to be truth and they
could take a huge hit on our
self-confidence in our self-esteem
now not all mind wandering is bad I
don’t want to tell you that not all my
thoughts were bad I’m in fact some mind
wandering is foundational for some of
the best ideas and creativity out there
maybe with some great TED Talks
but it is important that we wander know
where our mind wanders to so over the
years I have read hundreds of articles
and research online fulness and some of
the main foundational components the
commonalities that I see run through
these are committing to a time and this
is how I practice with my
students I ask them when they come in if
they’ll commit to 60 seconds that we
focus on the moment and and they need
something to help them focus on the
moment we all do so we focus on our
breath or sometimes in my office we
focus on the second hand the ticking of
the clock this is our glue this is the
glue that brings us to this moment and
holds us here the acceptance part is
accepting the fact that we’re not going
to stay here our mind is going to wander
that’s what it’s meant to do that’s what
it does but we can train it so we are
glued to this moment following the
breath for 60 seconds and then we
noticed right away our mind went over
there and is thinking about lunch
or thinking about emails or whatever and
you just notice that it went over there
and tell it to come back to the glue to
the breath so that’s our focus as we
focus on the breath sounds pretty simple
doesn’t it why don’t we give it a try so
sit up and pay attention only this time
the person that told you that it’s gonna
show you how I’m actually going to ask
that you sit in a position that allows
you to be alert but yet yeah rested and
relaxed if you have a device on your lap
I asked maybe put it down so you’re not
distracted I’m gonna ask you to close
your eyes but if you want to leave them
open or fully welcome to and I want you
to commit to 60 seconds with me 60
seconds so we’re gonna focus on the
breath that’s going to be our glue and
with all of your focus and all of your
attention I’m going to ask that you
bring all of your attention to the
breath breathing in and breathing out
you don’t need to change your breath at
all just notice it be aware of it as you
maybe the observing but this is the
first time you’ve noticed your breath
and how it changes how it feels as it
enters your body how it changes as it
leaves all of your attention on this
moment for this moment is all we have
when your mind wanders just bring it
back to the breath pull yourself right
all of your focus on this moment now if
your eyes are closed I’m gonna ask you
that you go ahead and open them get
acclimated back to the room for some of
you that might have been your first
intentional attention exercise so
congratulations just kind of do a scan
right now inside and out maybe how you
felt for 60 seconds doing that the first
step is committing to a practice a daily
practice 60 seconds I practiced 30
minutes each day but the biggest excuse
I hear from people of why they don’t do
this is I don’t have time and I can’t
stop my mind from wandering well you do
have 60 seconds and you don’t have to
stop your mind from wondering what I
wanted to know more about technology and
if that could help us and short
abbreviated sessions could help so this
past year with the thanks to dr. Lavery
and dr. bouillon we conducted our own
study I developed a three hour training
for people in higher ed and they had
used to a mindfulness phone app so we
had three groups group one came to the
three hour training and then they used
the app group two did not come to the
training but they use the app group
three was a control group they didn’t do
either after 60 days we found group 1
and 2 had an increase in their level of
attention now this study is currently
under review but the preliminary results
are encouraging
this means we can find ways to increase
our attention with technology and brief
mindfulness exercises because you know
what missing out on 47% of our lives is
just unacceptable now I’ve taught you
one way today not the way to increase
your level of attention we know with
science that exercise and diet can also
help I’ve encouraged you to to start by
committing to 60 seconds every day you
can read books you can go on retreats
you can take classes you can even do
your own research but you don’t have to
do those to get started those will help
you grow and your understanding and
depth right now commit commit to
practicing everyday what we just did
and then I ask you to share it with
someone else so that the next time you
tell someone to sit up and pay attention
you can teach them actionable steps to
increase this wonderful skill that we
need in every area of our life let’s
make this world a little bit heavier
just one mindfulness moment at a time
thank you [Applause]
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