[Music]
good evening what I like to do is have a
start off taking a couple of deep
breaths together ready inhale hold in
exhale inhale hold in exhale it’s a
great way to prepare for any important
meeting activity or event actually
should relax you and get you more
focused and it’s certainly going to help
me in this presentation so how am i
doing so far you like me what category
would you put me in friend foe neutral
or possible mean
now before you while you’re pondering
that I should say because I have trouble
with it sometime I’m off the market okay
not available so if you had that uptake
on me ladies or gentlemen sort of a demo
the reason I asked that question is
because we make value judgments about
people we don’t even know in the first
few seconds we see them we all do it we
do it subconsciously we’re wired that
way we’re actually looking for threats
our ancestors many years ago we’re just
looking for the saber-toothed Tigers
they were worried about who they
encountered and whether they would be
Friend or Foe that’s how they survived
and we carry that with us today
Joseph LeDoux from New York University
says that we’re not there’s no evidence
that our brains are hard-wired for fear
what he does say is that we have the
circuitry that allows us detect and
respond in pre-programmed ways that’s
modifiable so what I’d like to talk
about tonight is mindfulness and
meditation so that you can better modify
and regulate
you’re pre-programmed to deal with this
global digital world in which we find
ourselves the the benefit of that is
when you get a bad email you don’t have
the same reaction as if you saw a
saber-toothed tiger and it’s bigger than
that
is not just for those events like that
but it’s for devastating events in your
lifetime how do you go about and make
sure that you can manage those properly
for me I had a divorce and what I found
is through mindfulness and meditation I
was better able to make better choices
make better decisions and found a way to
happiness and peacefulness faster than I
would have otherwise and that’s what
we’re gonna talk about tonight I’ve been
a student of this for some number of
years now and I became very annoying to
my friends because once I learned this I
kept telling him that all the time I
decided that wasn’t the right forum so
I’m glad I have an opportunity to speak
with you tonight about it the best way
to understand mindfulness is to
understand the circuitry of the brain
there’s three parts the first part is
the brain stem
it’s the oldest part it’s referred to as
reptilian brain 400 million years ago it
does basic things it regulates the body
and it also allows or initiates to fight
flight and fear of freeze response that
you see in ripped reptiles the next area
is the limbic system found in mammals
reference many times is the emotional
part of the brain this is the part that
records every memory of behavior that
that created both bad and good
experiences in your lifetime it
generates our emotions these two
together the brainstem and the limbic
system our causes many of our automatic
behaviors and impulses that come from
trained instinct trained reactions and
instincts from that area of the brain
the prefrontal cortex is the most of all
its most evolved in in humans and it’s
the executive function of the brain and
what it does is have the ability to
pause before we take impulsive behave
your actions it has the ability to calm
and regulate the limbic and brainstem
areas of the brain so you’re driving
your car and you’re supposed to be
merging and the guy or gal cuts in front
of you and if you engage your prefrontal
cortex you rationalize yourself well he
must be in such a big hurry that he cut
me off you don’t do anything if you
don’t engage your prefrontal cortex you
honk your horn you get all worked up
you flip them off and maybe even go into
road rage to be determined so
mindfulness awareness practices
according to Daniel Siegel is the
ability to create a state of activation
that allows you to harness the power of
the prefrontal cortex in that moment and
so that’s very important to be able to
do that it’s able to help you better
manage your thoughts and your emotions
through meditation practices if you look
at long-term meditators what you find
out is they have less emotional
reactivity than the rest of us they
don’t get worked up like we do the
brainstem and limbic system– prefrontal
cortex is what we’re gonna be talking
about tonight and we’re going to try to
deal with what you’ll find is that the
once you learn how to use these things
that you’re better able to be reflective
versus reflexive you can take stock in
the situation and do the right thing as
opposed to just not our best leaders
around the world are people who have
this skill some people call it emotional
intelligence but it’s the ability to
manage these things allows you to lead
people allowed to deal with difficult
situations difficult conversations I
think that today we find that we need to
employ these things even more so than
before because of the world in which we
live in does this look familiar to
anybody anybody here in school just got
past midterms whether you’re a parent
whether you’re a worker whether you’re
student the days have gotten longer and
more intense
we get more email more notifications
alerts messages Facebook Twitter
snapchat posts than ever before
if you want you can operate 24 by 7 365
unfortunately many people do and worse
are the people to expect you to pay that
way
60 minutes had a series Alliance saying
that in fact that the smartphone and the
applications like Facebook have become
addictive and you see people using them
all the time I’m sure you can relate to
that you can see people walking down the
street and almost hitting stops on
street signs because they’re focused on
their phone I almost did it this weekend
forcing and I’m supposed to be mindful
now worse is the fact we also in
addition to those externalities we have
the all this goes on in our lives in
general we have the fact that didn’t get
the fraternity or sorority that you
wanted to get in to get that job break
up with a girlfriend or boyfriend I mean
it’s tough being human it’s very tough
being human and I like to whoops I like
to describe it as that our lives are
continuous accessions of ups and downs
twists and turns of agreeable and
disagreeable situations the US Army War
College has a term they call bucha
volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous
they describe it for wartime situations
because you don’t know what’s going to
happen next
that’s what our lives are like 2017 is a
pretty good example that and I’m not
talking about the Cubs winning the World
Series so the problem is that we think
the world revolves around us we think
the road should be straight and flat we
think it should be simple simple certain
predictable that’s hey I’m the star of
the movie here right that’s the problem
because we want everything to go with
the way we want when the world is a
windy road we get stressed out so causes
our stress not having things work out
the way we expected them to work out
so what happens when that happens is two
things first if you look at the on a
macro basis Harris International did a
study and showed that we lose about 300
billion dollars a year in lost
productivity because work-related stress
on an individual basis
Matthew Killingsworth did a study with
happiness calm when he tracks your
happiness found out that 47% of the time
you were either distracted or your mind
is wandering because of issues going on
in your life
47% of time he also found that when your
mind wanders is typically negative I
think you’re not very happy when your
mind wanders because it’s about some
another issue now I take a section to
that because I when I was in business
school one of the professor’s was
noticing that one of the students I
haven’t happens to be the prettiest
students in the car class was not in the
lecture at all and he for whatever
reason decided to say so what are you
thinking about you’re clearly not
listening to my lecture she said well
I’m having a sexual fantasy
in the middle of the class that was the
end of that class we couldn’t even get
back to class because it that was it
yeah yeah he had to blow a class so this
is a this is a problem now
Matthew Killingsworth would tell you
that my wandering is a cause not a
consequence of unhappiness and then I
think that’s what we’re gonna dress
tonight
so we have to deal with this unhappiness
because being unhappy is really
detrimental to your success and
well-being there been over 200 studies
of 200 to 75,000 people that shows that
being happy improves every domain of
your life marriages your work your
health your relationships you know it’s
it’s a case where we all have a pursuit
of happiness and we and we’re actually
happy people by default problem is all
distress we bring in our life makes us
unhappy and that’s what we’re trying to
trying to deal with and then there’s the
other you know point which is how many
people like to be around work with
unhappy people anybody know
so we want there’s a there’s a desire to
be happy and and what I’m going to
propose tonight is one way to do that
this is my definition of mindfulness
paying attention in the moment in an
open accepting way to what you’re
experiencing paying attention the moment
an open accepting way to what you’re
experiencing let’s break that down a
little bit
paying attention the moment Eckhart
Tolle wrote the book called the power of
now it’s a groundbreaking book at a time
and what he talked about was the fact
that you never experience think do feel
anything outside the present moment and
you never will our lives are based on
the present moment so our focus should
be on making the present moment the best
we can
the problem we have is we have this
thing called the monkey mind or chatter
that comes in our brain from that limbic
system it remembers everything that ever
happened it was bad to you is like that
part of the memory is is like velcro for
bad things and Teflon for good things it
remembers every single bad thing that
ever happened you and it’s bringing this
forth so it’s it’s bringing out guilt
resentment bitterness sadness all these
things that cause you to get out of the
present moment that mind-wandering
what you’ve got to realize is you got to
let it go
you can’t those events are done there’s
nothing you can you can learn about them
but now they’re done you should have
learned and now you got to be in the
present you can’t take away from the
present did you see this a lot of times
with sports psychologists they say to
the players the football players who
missed the catch they say forget they
missed the catch next play
it’s always next play or the guy who
gets his car stuck in the mud and he
beats himself up I’m an idiot I got my
car stuck in the mud again I always do
this as opposed to saying hey I got my
car stuck in mud what I’m gonna do now
to get my car stuck out of mud dwelling
the past does it help it just it takes
you away from the present so your focus
should be on the present the same is
true of the future anxiety tension
unease and fear they’re all there if you
want them to be and they will be thing
is they’re the few they’re the future
and they take you away for the present
we try to predict the future but we
never do a very good job of it it’s
always worse than what we think it is I
remember my son got a bad grading in one
of his classes I thought he’s gonna get
a bad grade for their for the class
I thought his GPA was gonna go down I
thought he wouldn’t get into a good
college I thought he’d get depressed and
then he’d be homeless
right that’s what our mind does that’s
where our mind does so we’ve got a you
know basically the future will get here
and when it does get here it’s what our
actions and an attitude are at that
moment in time that matters that’s where
your focus should be so now we know we
don’t be in the past we don’t want to be
in the future when ever be in the
present but now we’re in the present so
now we need what we need the right
mindset we need a positive mindset and
in my definition of mindfulness we want
to be open accepting and learning we
want to be curious
we want to be growing we want to make
the present the best it can be by having
a good attitude as opposed to having a
negative mindset negative mindset
which is could be judging comparing
controlling all the negative things that
come in and the the problem is that you
know we compare all the time it’s what
we do it’s part of our egoic mind is
always comparing and I can tell you that
if you compare against better people
than yourselves you’re gonna be unhappy
I can tell you if you compare yourself
with less for forcing people you’ll be
you will be happy though if you’re going
to compare at least compare with lesser
people
but I’m not suggesting you compare in
the first place and I think the problem
we have today in our society is that
it’s much more easy to compare because
of social media everybody’s posting this
and that and you get to see everything
everybody is doing everywhere so Barbara
Khan at the University of Pennsylvania
has been studying this FOMO fear of
missing out for the parents what foam is
and she she’s done studies to show that
basically this is making you unhappy she
gives the example of a person who gets
to go to this exotic wedding and having
a great time at the wedding it’s a
there’s a really I mean unusual and
different wedding he goes back gets on a
computer finds out that all her friends
at the beach is that weekend and she’s
missing out she’s thinking she’s not
going to be part of that experience that
that group creates and she’ll be missing
out so what does that do it dulls her
experience at the wedding now if you
asked her to do it all again what would
she do
she’d still go to the wedding but what
she’s done is she’s taken herself out of
the present not enjoying something
that’s remarkable because of that
comparison so that’s what you have to
watch out for likewise we judge all the
time we think we know what’s what’s the
best thing for us the problem is we
don’t always know what the best thing is
for us so take the boy in the
neighborhood who gets a horse and
everybody says what a lucky boy next day
he falls off the horse breaks his leg
what an unlucky boy next day war breaks
out all able-bodied boys go to war he
stays home what a lucky boy we don’t
know what’s good or bad for us we think
we do you connect the dots later in life
there may be a silver lining if you make
it and no matter what happens to you so
if you get worked up about something
that’s not what you want keep this in
mind
so here’s my mental framework that I’m
suggesting that you try to use it’s
called getting in the zone so it’s kind
of summary what I’ve been talking about
you want to be in the present not the
past or the future you want to have a
positive mindset not a negative mindset
and that’s where you want to operate now
you say well Barry you just told me that
47 percent of time my mind’s wandering
how am I supposed to do this how am I
supposed to stay in the present my mind
keeps going the future in the past ha
that’s where meditation comes in
meditation is the concept of being able
to actually train your brain to be able
to stay in the present there are many
forms of presentation but the one we’re
going to talk about tonight actually
deals with concentration and how to keep
your mind in the present moment so what
we’re going to do is and we’re all going
to do this we’re going to focus on our
breathing we’re gonna do a little
meditation and a focus on our breathing
and what’s going to happen is your
mind’s gonna wander that’s what happens
so our milah wander and then we’ll
notice it’s wandering and then we’ll
bring our attention back to our
breathing and this circle the cycle will
continue by practicing this daily you
can develop the neural circuitry in your
brain to help better concentration and I
can tell you I really wish I knew about
this when I was younger because I would
have been a much better student a much
better person in life because it’s all
this other stuff that gets in our head
that causes us to have the problems we
have so this technique is one that you
can do and we’re gonna do it now
okay so if you would get your feet flat
on the floor you can either close your
eyes or you can lower your head looking
down at the floor and again we’ll start
off with a couple deep breaths if you
would inhale in hold in exhale
inhale hold and exhale now what I want
you to do is just breathe normally kill
yourself relax in your chair soften your
knees your stomach your shoulders your
jaw the muscles of your face and now
just focus on your breathing
notice when your in-breath begins when
you hold it on an end and find that
place in your body where it’s the
easiest place to notice your breathing
is that your nostrils your chest your
stomach
okay you get the idea that’s all it
takes the more you do that the more you
bring your your mind being able to bring
it back your breathing you’ll develop
the circuitry your brain to know oh my
mind wander to the present or the future
I need to bring it back to the present
so let me finish with the following this
is life it’s a continuous succession of
ups and downs twists and turns of
agreeable and disagreeable situations in
your life except that that’s what it is
except it’s not a straight road except
that you are not the star of the movie
there are all these other people in the
world that actually have other things
they want to do to try to be stay in the
present moment when these things happen
take a couple deep breaths when
something happens to you it strongly
suggests that’s what you do try to
understand how to be present so you can
best decide what to do and how to behave
if you do that I think you’ll find a
path to peacefulness and happiness thank
you very much for your time
[Applause]
good evening what I like to do is have a
start off taking a couple of deep
breaths together ready inhale hold in
exhale inhale hold in exhale it’s a
great way to prepare for any important
meeting activity or event actually
should relax you and get you more
focused and it’s certainly going to help
me in this presentation so how am i
doing so far you like me what category
would you put me in friend foe neutral
or possible mean
now before you while you’re pondering
that I should say because I have trouble
with it sometime I’m off the market okay
not available so if you had that uptake
on me ladies or gentlemen sort of a demo
the reason I asked that question is
because we make value judgments about
people we don’t even know in the first
few seconds we see them we all do it we
do it subconsciously we’re wired that
way we’re actually looking for threats
our ancestors many years ago we’re just
looking for the saber-toothed Tigers
they were worried about who they
encountered and whether they would be
Friend or Foe that’s how they survived
and we carry that with us today
Joseph LeDoux from New York University
says that we’re not there’s no evidence
that our brains are hard-wired for fear
what he does say is that we have the
circuitry that allows us detect and
respond in pre-programmed ways that’s
modifiable so what I’d like to talk
about tonight is mindfulness and
meditation so that you can better modify
and regulate
you’re pre-programmed to deal with this
global digital world in which we find
ourselves the the benefit of that is
when you get a bad email you don’t have
the same reaction as if you saw a
saber-toothed tiger and it’s bigger than
that
is not just for those events like that
but it’s for devastating events in your
lifetime how do you go about and make
sure that you can manage those properly
for me I had a divorce and what I found
is through mindfulness and meditation I
was better able to make better choices
make better decisions and found a way to
happiness and peacefulness faster than I
would have otherwise and that’s what
we’re gonna talk about tonight I’ve been
a student of this for some number of
years now and I became very annoying to
my friends because once I learned this I
kept telling him that all the time I
decided that wasn’t the right forum so
I’m glad I have an opportunity to speak
with you tonight about it the best way
to understand mindfulness is to
understand the circuitry of the brain
there’s three parts the first part is
the brain stem
it’s the oldest part it’s referred to as
reptilian brain 400 million years ago it
does basic things it regulates the body
and it also allows or initiates to fight
flight and fear of freeze response that
you see in ripped reptiles the next area
is the limbic system found in mammals
reference many times is the emotional
part of the brain this is the part that
records every memory of behavior that
that created both bad and good
experiences in your lifetime it
generates our emotions these two
together the brainstem and the limbic
system our causes many of our automatic
behaviors and impulses that come from
trained instinct trained reactions and
instincts from that area of the brain
the prefrontal cortex is the most of all
its most evolved in in humans and it’s
the executive function of the brain and
what it does is have the ability to
pause before we take impulsive behave
your actions it has the ability to calm
and regulate the limbic and brainstem
areas of the brain so you’re driving
your car and you’re supposed to be
merging and the guy or gal cuts in front
of you and if you engage your prefrontal
cortex you rationalize yourself well he
must be in such a big hurry that he cut
me off you don’t do anything if you
don’t engage your prefrontal cortex you
honk your horn you get all worked up
you flip them off and maybe even go into
road rage to be determined so
mindfulness awareness practices
according to Daniel Siegel is the
ability to create a state of activation
that allows you to harness the power of
the prefrontal cortex in that moment and
so that’s very important to be able to
do that it’s able to help you better
manage your thoughts and your emotions
through meditation practices if you look
at long-term meditators what you find
out is they have less emotional
reactivity than the rest of us they
don’t get worked up like we do the
brainstem and limbic system– prefrontal
cortex is what we’re gonna be talking
about tonight and we’re going to try to
deal with what you’ll find is that the
once you learn how to use these things
that you’re better able to be reflective
versus reflexive you can take stock in
the situation and do the right thing as
opposed to just not our best leaders
around the world are people who have
this skill some people call it emotional
intelligence but it’s the ability to
manage these things allows you to lead
people allowed to deal with difficult
situations difficult conversations I
think that today we find that we need to
employ these things even more so than
before because of the world in which we
live in does this look familiar to
anybody anybody here in school just got
past midterms whether you’re a parent
whether you’re a worker whether you’re
student the days have gotten longer and
more intense
we get more email more notifications
alerts messages Facebook Twitter
snapchat posts than ever before
if you want you can operate 24 by 7 365
unfortunately many people do and worse
are the people to expect you to pay that
way
60 minutes had a series Alliance saying
that in fact that the smartphone and the
applications like Facebook have become
addictive and you see people using them
all the time I’m sure you can relate to
that you can see people walking down the
street and almost hitting stops on
street signs because they’re focused on
their phone I almost did it this weekend
forcing and I’m supposed to be mindful
now worse is the fact we also in
addition to those externalities we have
the all this goes on in our lives in
general we have the fact that didn’t get
the fraternity or sorority that you
wanted to get in to get that job break
up with a girlfriend or boyfriend I mean
it’s tough being human it’s very tough
being human and I like to whoops I like
to describe it as that our lives are
continuous accessions of ups and downs
twists and turns of agreeable and
disagreeable situations the US Army War
College has a term they call bucha
volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous
they describe it for wartime situations
because you don’t know what’s going to
happen next
that’s what our lives are like 2017 is a
pretty good example that and I’m not
talking about the Cubs winning the World
Series so the problem is that we think
the world revolves around us we think
the road should be straight and flat we
think it should be simple simple certain
predictable that’s hey I’m the star of
the movie here right that’s the problem
because we want everything to go with
the way we want when the world is a
windy road we get stressed out so causes
our stress not having things work out
the way we expected them to work out
so what happens when that happens is two
things first if you look at the on a
macro basis Harris International did a
study and showed that we lose about 300
billion dollars a year in lost
productivity because work-related stress
on an individual basis
Matthew Killingsworth did a study with
happiness calm when he tracks your
happiness found out that 47% of the time
you were either distracted or your mind
is wandering because of issues going on
in your life
47% of time he also found that when your
mind wanders is typically negative I
think you’re not very happy when your
mind wanders because it’s about some
another issue now I take a section to
that because I when I was in business
school one of the professor’s was
noticing that one of the students I
haven’t happens to be the prettiest
students in the car class was not in the
lecture at all and he for whatever
reason decided to say so what are you
thinking about you’re clearly not
listening to my lecture she said well
I’m having a sexual fantasy
in the middle of the class that was the
end of that class we couldn’t even get
back to class because it that was it
yeah yeah he had to blow a class so this
is a this is a problem now
Matthew Killingsworth would tell you
that my wandering is a cause not a
consequence of unhappiness and then I
think that’s what we’re gonna dress
tonight
so we have to deal with this unhappiness
because being unhappy is really
detrimental to your success and
well-being there been over 200 studies
of 200 to 75,000 people that shows that
being happy improves every domain of
your life marriages your work your
health your relationships you know it’s
it’s a case where we all have a pursuit
of happiness and we and we’re actually
happy people by default problem is all
distress we bring in our life makes us
unhappy and that’s what we’re trying to
trying to deal with and then there’s the
other you know point which is how many
people like to be around work with
unhappy people anybody know
so we want there’s a there’s a desire to
be happy and and what I’m going to
propose tonight is one way to do that
this is my definition of mindfulness
paying attention in the moment in an
open accepting way to what you’re
experiencing paying attention the moment
an open accepting way to what you’re
experiencing let’s break that down a
little bit
paying attention the moment Eckhart
Tolle wrote the book called the power of
now it’s a groundbreaking book at a time
and what he talked about was the fact
that you never experience think do feel
anything outside the present moment and
you never will our lives are based on
the present moment so our focus should
be on making the present moment the best
we can
the problem we have is we have this
thing called the monkey mind or chatter
that comes in our brain from that limbic
system it remembers everything that ever
happened it was bad to you is like that
part of the memory is is like velcro for
bad things and Teflon for good things it
remembers every single bad thing that
ever happened you and it’s bringing this
forth so it’s it’s bringing out guilt
resentment bitterness sadness all these
things that cause you to get out of the
present moment that mind-wandering
what you’ve got to realize is you got to
let it go
you can’t those events are done there’s
nothing you can you can learn about them
but now they’re done you should have
learned and now you got to be in the
present you can’t take away from the
present did you see this a lot of times
with sports psychologists they say to
the players the football players who
missed the catch they say forget they
missed the catch next play
it’s always next play or the guy who
gets his car stuck in the mud and he
beats himself up I’m an idiot I got my
car stuck in the mud again I always do
this as opposed to saying hey I got my
car stuck in mud what I’m gonna do now
to get my car stuck out of mud dwelling
the past does it help it just it takes
you away from the present so your focus
should be on the present the same is
true of the future anxiety tension
unease and fear they’re all there if you
want them to be and they will be thing
is they’re the few they’re the future
and they take you away for the present
we try to predict the future but we
never do a very good job of it it’s
always worse than what we think it is I
remember my son got a bad grading in one
of his classes I thought he’s gonna get
a bad grade for their for the class
I thought his GPA was gonna go down I
thought he wouldn’t get into a good
college I thought he’d get depressed and
then he’d be homeless
right that’s what our mind does that’s
where our mind does so we’ve got a you
know basically the future will get here
and when it does get here it’s what our
actions and an attitude are at that
moment in time that matters that’s where
your focus should be so now we know we
don’t be in the past we don’t want to be
in the future when ever be in the
present but now we’re in the present so
now we need what we need the right
mindset we need a positive mindset and
in my definition of mindfulness we want
to be open accepting and learning we
want to be curious
we want to be growing we want to make
the present the best it can be by having
a good attitude as opposed to having a
negative mindset negative mindset
which is could be judging comparing
controlling all the negative things that
come in and the the problem is that you
know we compare all the time it’s what
we do it’s part of our egoic mind is
always comparing and I can tell you that
if you compare against better people
than yourselves you’re gonna be unhappy
I can tell you if you compare yourself
with less for forcing people you’ll be
you will be happy though if you’re going
to compare at least compare with lesser
people
but I’m not suggesting you compare in
the first place and I think the problem
we have today in our society is that
it’s much more easy to compare because
of social media everybody’s posting this
and that and you get to see everything
everybody is doing everywhere so Barbara
Khan at the University of Pennsylvania
has been studying this FOMO fear of
missing out for the parents what foam is
and she she’s done studies to show that
basically this is making you unhappy she
gives the example of a person who gets
to go to this exotic wedding and having
a great time at the wedding it’s a
there’s a really I mean unusual and
different wedding he goes back gets on a
computer finds out that all her friends
at the beach is that weekend and she’s
missing out she’s thinking she’s not
going to be part of that experience that
that group creates and she’ll be missing
out so what does that do it dulls her
experience at the wedding now if you
asked her to do it all again what would
she do
she’d still go to the wedding but what
she’s done is she’s taken herself out of
the present not enjoying something
that’s remarkable because of that
comparison so that’s what you have to
watch out for likewise we judge all the
time we think we know what’s what’s the
best thing for us the problem is we
don’t always know what the best thing is
for us so take the boy in the
neighborhood who gets a horse and
everybody says what a lucky boy next day
he falls off the horse breaks his leg
what an unlucky boy next day war breaks
out all able-bodied boys go to war he
stays home what a lucky boy we don’t
know what’s good or bad for us we think
we do you connect the dots later in life
there may be a silver lining if you make
it and no matter what happens to you so
if you get worked up about something
that’s not what you want keep this in
mind
so here’s my mental framework that I’m
suggesting that you try to use it’s
called getting in the zone so it’s kind
of summary what I’ve been talking about
you want to be in the present not the
past or the future you want to have a
positive mindset not a negative mindset
and that’s where you want to operate now
you say well Barry you just told me that
47 percent of time my mind’s wandering
how am I supposed to do this how am I
supposed to stay in the present my mind
keeps going the future in the past ha
that’s where meditation comes in
meditation is the concept of being able
to actually train your brain to be able
to stay in the present there are many
forms of presentation but the one we’re
going to talk about tonight actually
deals with concentration and how to keep
your mind in the present moment so what
we’re going to do is and we’re all going
to do this we’re going to focus on our
breathing we’re gonna do a little
meditation and a focus on our breathing
and what’s going to happen is your
mind’s gonna wander that’s what happens
so our milah wander and then we’ll
notice it’s wandering and then we’ll
bring our attention back to our
breathing and this circle the cycle will
continue by practicing this daily you
can develop the neural circuitry in your
brain to help better concentration and I
can tell you I really wish I knew about
this when I was younger because I would
have been a much better student a much
better person in life because it’s all
this other stuff that gets in our head
that causes us to have the problems we
have so this technique is one that you
can do and we’re gonna do it now
okay so if you would get your feet flat
on the floor you can either close your
eyes or you can lower your head looking
down at the floor and again we’ll start
off with a couple deep breaths if you
would inhale in hold in exhale
inhale hold and exhale now what I want
you to do is just breathe normally kill
yourself relax in your chair soften your
knees your stomach your shoulders your
jaw the muscles of your face and now
just focus on your breathing
notice when your in-breath begins when
you hold it on an end and find that
place in your body where it’s the
easiest place to notice your breathing
is that your nostrils your chest your
stomach
okay you get the idea that’s all it
takes the more you do that the more you
bring your your mind being able to bring
it back your breathing you’ll develop
the circuitry your brain to know oh my
mind wander to the present or the future
I need to bring it back to the present
so let me finish with the following this
is life it’s a continuous succession of
ups and downs twists and turns of
agreeable and disagreeable situations in
your life except that that’s what it is
except it’s not a straight road except
that you are not the star of the movie
there are all these other people in the
world that actually have other things
they want to do to try to be stay in the
present moment when these things happen
take a couple deep breaths when
something happens to you it strongly
suggests that’s what you do try to
understand how to be present so you can
best decide what to do and how to behave
if you do that I think you’ll find a
path to peacefulness and happiness thank
you very much for your time
[Applause]
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