Dan Harris – Hack Your Brain's Default Mode with Meditation – [Script]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAcTIrA2Qhk from Big Think
0:00 There’s no way a fidgety and skeptical news anchor would ever have started meditating
0:04 were it not for the science. The science is really compelling. It shows that meditation
0:09 can boost your immune system, lower your blood pressure, help you deal with problems ranging
0:16 from irritable bowel syndrome to psoriasis. And the neuroscience is where it really gets
0:22 sci-fi. There was a study out of Harvard that shows that short daily doses of meditation
0:27 can literally grow the gray matter in key areas of your brain having to do with self-awareness
0:33 and compassion and shrink the gray matter in the area associated with stress.
0:37 There was also a study out of Yale that looked at what’s called the default mode network
0:42 of the brain. It’s a connected series of brain regions that are active during most
0:47 of our waking hours when we’re doing that thing that human beings do all the time which
0:52 is obsessing about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, doing
0:56 anything but being focused on what’s happening right now. Meditators not only turn off the
1:02 default mode network of their brain while they’re meditating but even when they’re
1:06 not meditating. In other words, meditators are setting a new default mode. And what’s
1:11 that default mode? They’re focused on what’s happening right now.
1:14 In sports this is called being in the zone. It’s nothing mystical. It’s not magical.
1:18 You’re not floating off into cosmic ooze. You are just being where you are – big cliché
1:25 in self-help circles is being in the now. You can use that term if you want but because
1:30 it’s accurate. It’s slightly annoying but it’s accurate. It’s more just being
1:35 focused on what you’re doing. And the benefits of that are enormous. And this is why you’re
1:43 seeing these unlikely meditators now, why you’re seeing the U.S. Marines adopting
1:48 it, the U.S. Army, corporate executives from the head of Ford to the founders of Twitter.
1:52 Athletes from Phil Jackson to many, many Olympians. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, school children.
1:59 There’s this sort of elite subculture of high achievers who are adopting this because
2:03 they know it can help you be more focused on what you’re doing and it can stop you
2:07 from being yanked around by the voice in your head.
2:10 My powers of prognostication are not great. I bought a lot of stock in a company that
2:14 made Palm Pilot back in 2000 and that didn’t go so well for me. But having said that I’m
2:18 going to make a prediction. I think we’re looking at meditation as the next big public
2:22 health revolution. In the 1940s if you told people that you went running they would say,
2:27 who’s chasing you. Right now if you tell people you meditate – and I have a lot of
2:31 experience with telling people this, they’re going to look at you like you’re a little
2:34 weird most of the time. That’s going to change. Meditation is going to join the pantheon
2:39 of no brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking the meds that your doctor
2:43 prescribes to you. These are all things that if you don’t do you feel guilty about. And
2:48 that is where I think we’re heading with meditation because the science is so strongly
2:52 suggestive that meditation can do really, really great things for your brain and for your body.
2:58 The common assumption that we have, and it may be subconscious, is that our happiness
3:04 really depends on external factors – how was our childhood, have we won the lottery
3:09 recently, did we marry well, did we marry at all. But, in fact, meditation suggests
3:15 that happiness is actually a skill, something you can train just the way you can train your
3:18 body in the gym. It’s a self-generated thing. And that’s a really radical notion. It doesn’t
3:26 mean that external circumstances aren’t going to impact your happiness. It doesn’t
3:30 mean you’re not going to be subject to the vagaries of an impermanent, entropic universe.
3:35 It just means you are going to be able to navigate this with a little bit more ease.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAcTIrA2Qhk from Big Think
0:00 There’s no way a fidgety and skeptical news anchor would ever have started meditating
0:04 were it not for the science. The science is really compelling. It shows that meditation
0:09 can boost your immune system, lower your blood pressure, help you deal with problems ranging
0:16 from irritable bowel syndrome to psoriasis. And the neuroscience is where it really gets
0:22 sci-fi. There was a study out of Harvard that shows that short daily doses of meditation
0:27 can literally grow the gray matter in key areas of your brain having to do with self-awareness
0:33 and compassion and shrink the gray matter in the area associated with stress.
0:37 There was also a study out of Yale that looked at what’s called the default mode network
0:42 of the brain. It’s a connected series of brain regions that are active during most
0:47 of our waking hours when we’re doing that thing that human beings do all the time which
0:52 is obsessing about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, doing
0:56 anything but being focused on what’s happening right now. Meditators not only turn off the
1:02 default mode network of their brain while they’re meditating but even when they’re
1:06 not meditating. In other words, meditators are setting a new default mode. And what’s
1:11 that default mode? They’re focused on what’s happening right now.
1:14 In sports this is called being in the zone. It’s nothing mystical. It’s not magical.
1:18 You’re not floating off into cosmic ooze. You are just being where you are – big cliché
1:25 in self-help circles is being in the now. You can use that term if you want but because
1:30 it’s accurate. It’s slightly annoying but it’s accurate. It’s more just being
1:35 focused on what you’re doing. And the benefits of that are enormous. And this is why you’re
1:43 seeing these unlikely meditators now, why you’re seeing the U.S. Marines adopting
1:48 it, the U.S. Army, corporate executives from the head of Ford to the founders of Twitter.
1:52 Athletes from Phil Jackson to many, many Olympians. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, school children.
1:59 There’s this sort of elite subculture of high achievers who are adopting this because
2:03 they know it can help you be more focused on what you’re doing and it can stop you
2:07 from being yanked around by the voice in your head.
2:10 My powers of prognostication are not great. I bought a lot of stock in a company that
2:14 made Palm Pilot back in 2000 and that didn’t go so well for me. But having said that I’m
2:18 going to make a prediction. I think we’re looking at meditation as the next big public
2:22 health revolution. In the 1940s if you told people that you went running they would say,
2:27 who’s chasing you. Right now if you tell people you meditate – and I have a lot of
2:31 experience with telling people this, they’re going to look at you like you’re a little
2:34 weird most of the time. That’s going to change. Meditation is going to join the pantheon
2:39 of no brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking the meds that your doctor
2:43 prescribes to you. These are all things that if you don’t do you feel guilty about. And
2:48 that is where I think we’re heading with meditation because the science is so strongly
2:52 suggestive that meditation can do really, really great things for your brain and for your body.
2:58 The common assumption that we have, and it may be subconscious, is that our happiness
3:04 really depends on external factors – how was our childhood, have we won the lottery
3:09 recently, did we marry well, did we marry at all. But, in fact, meditation suggests
3:15 that happiness is actually a skill, something you can train just the way you can train your
3:18 body in the gym. It’s a self-generated thing. And that’s a really radical notion. It doesn’t
3:26 mean that external circumstances aren’t going to impact your happiness. It doesn’t
3:30 mean you’re not going to be subject to the vagaries of an impermanent, entropic universe.
3:35 It just means you are going to be able to navigate this with a little bit more ease.
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