Dr. Judson Brewer plays in the space where science collides with the ancient practice of mindfulness meditation. He is a is a thought leader in the ‘science of self-mastery’ and contemplative science. Over the last 20 years he has combined traditional mindfulness training with scientific research.
He has smashed out countless peer-reviewed articles, spoken at international conferences, and his work has been featured in 60 Minutes, TEDx, Time Magazine (top 100 new health discoveries of 2013), Forbes,BBC, NPR, BusinessWeek and others. He is Director of Research at the Center of Mindfulness and an at UMass Medical School and an associate professor in medicine and psychiatry at UMass Medical School. He also is adjunct faculty at Yale University School of Medicine and research affiliate at MIT.
Judson is also a psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for addictions, and is leading the way in developing new mindfulness programs for addictions, including both in-person and app-based treatments (ex. www.cravingtoquit.com).
He is also a keen mountain biker, and flow-seeker, and he sees the path to peak performance as simply learning “to get out of the way of yourself”.
In this awesome 30 minute episode, we get into rituals, technology, how flow is practically the same states as a meditative state, and the importance of just enjoying the practice!!
It was a real pleasure having him on the show- I love talking to people who study the science and theory… but then go and play outside to put into practice.
Flow & Mindfulness Quotes
-“Reality is so much more delicious than our concepts of it.”
-“I could see links between what the early Buddhist psychologists talked about and how my patients suffered”.
-“I would ask, was the Buddha a Buddhist? Or a guy trying to figure out where suffering was coming from.”
-“Buddhism is a very empirically derived process.”
-“Buddha was more concerned with figuring out how our minds worked than creating a religion.”
-“I experience flow when I get out of my own way”.
Useful links
–Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
-Why is it so hard to Pay attention- Or is it?– Research paper authored by Judson Brewer
–If you know any smokers who want to quit- send them this
