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(whooshing)
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— [Narrator] This
program is a presentation
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of UCTV for educational and
non-commercial use only.
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(upbeat music)
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— Marty is a delight to have here
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and a delight to introduce,
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especially to a room full of people who
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is interested in learning
about mind-body medicine.
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Marty Rossman has
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probably done more to
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bring integrative
medicine to where it’s at,
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especially regarding mind-body medicine
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than any other one person I
will ever get to introduce
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or perhaps even get to shake hands with.
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Marty was very early on was the
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one of the proponents
of medical acupuncture.
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He was a founding board member
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of the American something or other.
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American Board of,
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American Academy of Medical
Acupuncture, he tells me.
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He has been instrumental in
developing guided imagery
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to the robust field that it is today.
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He works as well a great
deal with hypnosis,
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with many different techniques to help
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calm us down to help us get
to a point of relaxation.
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Using hypnosis, health hypnosis,
biofeedback, body work,
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but especially guided imagery.
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He is a member of the advisory board
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for the Osher Center for
Integrative Medicine,,
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and I was interested to
discover he’s also a member
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of the advisory board
for the Rosenthal Center
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for Complementary Medicine
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at Colombia University in New york.
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I’ve known Marty for
a number of years now.
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I’ve been privileged
to attend several talks
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that he’s given.
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I know that he’s a great speaker.
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— Well, thank you very much.
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That was very kind of you to say.
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Good evening, everybody.
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So how many of you have
ever worried about anything?
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(audience laughing)
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Has anybody here ever
worried about anything?
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Okay, good, that’s our topic tonight.
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And of course, everybody
worries sometimes,
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and some people worry all the time.
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And if you’re one of those people
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who finds themselves worried all the time,
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I think that you might
get something very useful.
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I hope that you get something very useful
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out of tonight’s talk.
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If you just worry intermittently,
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I hope you get something useful anyhow,
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but you don’t probably
don’t need it quite as much.
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So I’m calling my topic
tonight Worrying Well,
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and I’m still looking for a subtitle,
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but tonight we’ll call
it how to use your brain
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to relieve anxiety and stress
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and turn it into more desirable things
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like calmness and confidence.
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Worry, I think, gets a lot of bad press
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because we don’t use it very well,
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and so when I call it Worrying Well,
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it’s really about what is worry?
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How do we do it?
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What’s the purpose of it?
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Is it possible that worrying
has a positive function,
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which it does.
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Worry basically is an adaptive function.
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It’s something that allows us
to go over and over something
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in our minds in an
attempt to solve a problem
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or resolve a situation,
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so I think that that’s the adaptive.
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We humans have been born
with faculties in our brain
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that as far as we know don’t belong
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to any other creature on Earth,
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and it has allowed us to
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come from being a pretty
vulnerable prey animal
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on the African savanna
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to becoming the dominant
creature on Earth.
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We don’t have many tools for survival
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if you look at a human as an animal.
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We’re pretty vulnerable.
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We don’t run very fast.
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We don’t have big teeth.
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We don’t have big claws.
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We can swim a little
bit but not very well.
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We can’t fly very well.
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So out there, without a lot of technology
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and on the African savanna,
we are meat basically.
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And we’ve got systems
built into our system
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that we inherited from the development
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of other prey animals that lead
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to things like fight and flight response,
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which are adaptive in some situations
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and maladaptive in another.
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But one of the things that our,
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that one of the qualities
that we’ve developed is,
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or one of the mental abilities
and functions is imagination.
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I could really make a
strong case that imagination
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is one of the key things, and
maybe the key mental faculty
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that separates the human
from all other forms of life.
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Imagination lets us
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remember things from the past.
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It lets us project things into the future
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and think about how things
would be in the future
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if you did something this way or that way.
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And everything that exists on Earth
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that wasn’t made by God or nature,
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take your pick, or some
combination of the two.
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Everything else that exists,
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everything that human
kind has created started
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in somebody’s imagination.
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That’s where it made its
first appearance on Earth,
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as somebody’s imagination.
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«Ooh, we could do that.
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«Could make it round, it’ll roll.
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«We could chip these.»
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They noticed that two rocks
chipping together makes fire
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and they figured out a way to do that.
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So imagination, you could make a case
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that outside of God or nature,
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that the human imagination
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is the most powerful force on Earth.
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And the thing is,
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very few of us have ever really
been taught how to use it.
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Most of our education,
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especially all the way
through to higher education,
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is on using other mental faculties,
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which also have made us very powerful.
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The ability to analyze.
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The ability to calculate.
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Linear, logical, rational,
scientific ways of thinking
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have also contributed to
us being very powerful
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because they allow us to take the things
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that we imagine and make them real
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in a certain way, but a lot
starts in the imagination.
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Worry is a function of imagination.
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If you didn’t have an imagination,
you wouldn’t be worried.
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That’s what lobotomies are about.
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(audience laughing)
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And that’s what a lot of
certain medications are about.
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So we used to joke at our
academy for guided imagery
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that if we could find a simple,
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nontoxic way to do an imaginectomy,
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we could resolve everybody’s
worry and stress problems.
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You just wouldn’t be very worried.
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You wouldn’t do much, either.
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You wouldn’t be creative,
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but you wouldn’t be worried
if we could do that.
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So I think rather than
taking the imagination out,
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what we wanna do is learn
how to use it better,
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and so a lot of what I’m gonna share
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with you about Worrying Well
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or worrying more effectively has to do
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with how you use your imagination.
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So worry and stress have
a lot of overlap, right?
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And we often use them interchangeably.
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I’m gonna spend a little time
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to differentiate these
things a little bit,
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but they do overlap quite a bit.
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And then anxiety also overlaps
with worry and stress.
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They’re all a little bit different,
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and they’re very interrelated.
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They share in a lot of
different kinds of ways.
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The reason this is important
is because our consciousness
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and our ability to become self-conscious
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is potentially the
greatest tool that we have
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for improving our lives.
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And it also, if we don’t
know how to use it,
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can be something that can
make our life miserable.
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So I like this Ashleigh Brilliant quote.
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«Due to circumstances beyond my control,
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«I am master of my fate
and captain of my soul.»
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So you’re it.
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If you wanna do something about
your anxiety, your stress,
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the way that you think, the
way that you create your life.
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You are the captain
whether you like it or not.
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So we might as well learn
how to use these capacities
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’cause there’s really no going back.
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I think sometimes
unconsciously we try to go back
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with other ways of
managing anxiety and stress
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like drinking too much or taking drugs,
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medications, or eating too much.
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All the millions of ways we
have of going unconscious
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and kind of trying to just
put our head in the sand
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and maybe it’ll go away,
which it frequently does.
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So it’s not that it’s not a
good strategy in the short run,
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but as a total life plan,
it’s kind of lacking, okay?
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It won’t take you where you want to go.
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So how are worry, stress,
and anxiety different?
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So worry is a type of, this
is how I think about it,
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and I can be argued with.
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I’m not sure that any of
this is actually true.
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I’m kind of throwing it out there.
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I’m writing a book on it.
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So if I’m wrong, please tell
me before the book is written.
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But it seems to me that worry
is a type of thinking, okay?
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And our friend here Ziggy says,
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«The figments of my
imagination are out to get me.»
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That’s kind of the most
common use of the imagination
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is just letting your imagination kind
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of go to the worst scene scenarios,
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getting kind of entranced or
hypnotized by your worries
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and letting your imagination scare you.
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‘Cause I think in a sense,
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the most common unconscious
use of the imagination
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is to drive ourselves crazy
or worry ourselves sick.
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So the bar is set pretty low.
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That’s the good news.
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We can learn to use it more on purpose
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and do better than that.
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So worry is a type of thinking.
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It’s a repetitive kind of thinking.
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Sometimes a rumination,
it’s generally troubled.
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It often has to do with
things that are either
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in the past or in the future, okay?
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It’s the opposite of be here now.
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It’s the opposite of present center.
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That doesn’t mean it’s bad,
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and that doesn’t meant that
it doesn’t have a function.
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But we’re in our brain, we’re
thinking about something.
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We’re going over and over it.
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And again, I think that’s because
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the adaptive function of worry,
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I always assume that something
is there is an attempt
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by nature or by life to solve a problem
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or to give us an advantage.
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So if you think about what
could the advantage be
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of being able to go over a
problem over and over in my mind?
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Well, I think it’s kind
of like if you have a big,
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tangled ball of yarn or thread.
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And you’re trying to untangle
it and you find a place
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that’s loose and you pull it for a while
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and you get some looseness,
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and then it gets stuck again
so you turn the ball over
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and you find another loose place
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and you free up some more stuff,
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and you turn it over again and
you free up some more stuff.
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And if you keep doing that,
turning it over and over,
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looking at it from different angles,
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finding the loose places,
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finding where things are knotted together.
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Excuse me, if you persevere
with it, more often than not,
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you’re gonna get that
whole thing untangled
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and then go on to the next
tangled mess that you find, okay?
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But you are likely to
get that one untangled,
248
00:12:29,830 —> 00:12:31,960
and I think that’s the function of worry.
249
00:12:31,960 —> 00:12:36,850
It lets us, it makes our
concerns transportable
250
00:12:38,030 —> 00:12:40,410
so you can think about it at any time,
251
00:12:40,410 —> 00:12:44,046
and that can be an
advantage or a disadvantage.
252
00:12:44,047 —> 00:12:46,020
And I think that that depends
253
00:12:46,020 —> 00:12:48,150
on whether you’re using your brain
254
00:12:49,305 —> 00:12:51,260
or you’re being run by it.
255
00:12:51,260 —> 00:12:55,560
That your brain is an incredible organ.
256
00:12:55,560 —> 00:12:58,084
Your mind has something to do with it.
257
00:12:58,085 —> 00:13:01,610
And at least in certain circumstances,
258
00:13:01,610 —> 00:13:05,420
your mind can learn to use
your brain in better ways.
259
00:13:05,420 —> 00:13:07,103
That’s what this is about.
260
00:13:08,020 —> 00:13:10,749
So it’s very easy though
for this adaptive function
261
00:13:10,749 —> 00:13:13,350
of problem-solving and turning things over
262
00:13:13,350 —> 00:13:15,818
and over to become a habit
263
00:13:15,818 —> 00:13:19,670
or to become repetitive
and to become ruminative
264
00:13:19,670 —> 00:13:23,231
and just kind of become it’s own thing.
265
00:13:23,231 —> 00:13:26,120
And I think there’s a
couple reasons for that.
266
00:13:26,120 —> 00:13:30,460
One is that worry can
267
00:13:30,460 —> 00:13:32,848
serve kind of a magical function.
268
00:13:32,848 —> 00:13:36,663
There’s a magical,
unconscious function of worry.
269
00:13:38,230 —> 00:13:39,500
A couple of ’em actually.
270
00:13:39,500 —> 00:13:41,990
So one is that most things
271
00:13:41,990 —> 00:13:44,363
that you worry about never happen.
272
00:13:45,530 —> 00:13:47,540
Most things that you
worry about never happen,
273
00:13:47,540 —> 00:13:51,020
and if you, that’s an old
rubric that we’ve all heard
274
00:13:51,020 —> 00:13:52,177
and I found myself wondering,
275
00:13:52,177 —> 00:13:54,056
«Well, is that really true?»
276
00:13:54,056 —> 00:13:57,810
So I’ve been teaching
this as a six-week class,
277
00:13:57,810 —> 00:13:58,939
this Worrying Well class.
278
00:13:58,940 —> 00:14:00,250
I’ve taught it a few times now,
279
00:14:00,250 —> 00:14:03,473
and I’ve asked people at
the beginning of the class
280
00:14:03,473 —> 00:14:06,300
to list all the things
that they find themselves
281
00:14:06,300 —> 00:14:08,319
repetitively worrying about.
282
00:14:08,320 —> 00:14:10,799
And then some time later on,
283
00:14:10,799 —> 00:14:12,890
we’ve just checked in
with the first class,
284
00:14:12,890 —> 00:14:14,610
which was about nine months ago,
285
00:14:14,610 —> 00:14:17,150
to see how many of those
things have happened
286
00:14:17,150 —> 00:14:19,260
and not very many of them have happened.
287
00:14:19,260 —> 00:14:20,310
So I don’t know if anybody’s
288
00:14:20,310 —> 00:14:22,589
ever studied that really before,
289
00:14:22,590 —> 00:14:24,610
but you could do it yourself
by writing them down
290
00:14:24,610 —> 00:14:28,030
and then checking it in
about six months or a year.
291
00:14:28,030 —> 00:14:29,560
Now the interesting thing about that,
292
00:14:29,560 —> 00:14:32,361
the way that the brain works is,
293
00:14:32,361 —> 00:14:35,622
at some unconscious level of the brain,
294
00:14:36,560 —> 00:14:41,349
the brain could conclude
that the thing didn’t happen
295
00:14:41,350 —> 00:14:42,800
because you worried about it,
296
00:14:44,250 —> 00:14:46,100
right?
(audience laughing)
297
00:14:46,100 —> 00:14:48,526
That’s the function,
and there’s an old story
298
00:14:48,526 —> 00:14:51,209
about a woman who walks around her house.
299
00:14:51,210 —> 00:14:52,043
She’s an old woman.
300
00:14:52,043 —> 00:14:54,250
She’s walking around her house every day.
301
00:14:54,250 —> 00:14:56,327
Mumbling, walking around her house.
302
00:14:56,327 —> 00:14:58,100
She walks around her house all day long
303
00:14:58,100 —> 00:15:00,600
until she’s curved a rut around her house,
304
00:15:00,600 —> 00:15:03,160
and that goes up to about
the middle of her thighs.
305
00:15:03,160 —> 00:15:06,060
And finally, one of their
neighbors can’t take it anymore.
306
00:15:06,990 —> 00:15:08,082
He goes over and he says,
307
00:15:08,082 —> 00:15:11,287
«I hope you don’t mind if I ask you
308
00:15:11,287 —> 00:15:15,860
«why you walk around your
house all the day, every day.»
309
00:15:15,860 —> 00:15:19,146
And she says, «Well, I’m
keeping it safe from tigers.»
310
00:15:19,146 —> 00:15:22,072
And he says, «Well, we’re in Indiana.
311
00:15:22,072 —> 00:15:24,430
«There aren’t any tigers here.»
312
00:15:24,430 —> 00:15:26,358
And she says, «See?»
313
00:15:26,358 —> 00:15:29,449
(audience laughing)
(laughs)
314
00:15:29,450 —> 00:15:33,670
So it’s possible that we
get rewarded for worrying
315
00:15:33,670 —> 00:15:36,010
because so many of those
things don’t happen,
316
00:15:36,010 —> 00:15:38,800
and at some magical,
unconscious primitive level
317
00:15:38,800 —> 00:15:43,290
of thought those two things
could possibly be connected.
318
00:15:43,290 —> 00:15:46,271
The other thing that has been researched
319
00:15:46,272 —> 00:15:51,272
is that in sometimes, worrying
about things distracts us
320
00:15:52,410 —> 00:15:54,973
from things that are
actually bothering us.
321
00:15:54,973 —> 00:15:58,319
So that worrying about
little things and do-lists
322
00:15:58,320 —> 00:16:02,610
and so on and so forth, always
fussing and always worrying
323
00:16:02,610 —> 00:16:05,447
and always having
something to fuss up about
324
00:16:05,447 —> 00:16:08,970
and to worry about actually distracts us
325
00:16:08,970 —> 00:16:12,694
from something that might
be deeper and more emotional
326
00:16:12,694 —> 00:16:16,569
and actually be harder for us to take.
327
00:16:16,570 —> 00:16:19,510
So, and we know that that’s a function.
328
00:16:19,510 —> 00:16:20,720
That’s actually been studied.
329
00:16:20,720 —> 00:16:23,860
So that worry prevents deeper, richer,
330
00:16:23,860 —> 00:16:27,710
more emotional-laden thinking,
331
00:16:27,710 —> 00:16:30,070
which typically comes in images
332
00:16:30,070 —> 00:16:32,228
and comes in the quiet times.
333
00:16:32,228 —> 00:16:35,939
So if there’s a lot of feeling
there that’s hard to process
334
00:16:35,940 —> 00:16:38,339
or hard to feel or that’s unprocessed
335
00:16:38,339 —> 00:16:41,640
and that we’ve never dealt with,
336
00:16:41,640 —> 00:16:45,663
it’s in a sense useful to
keep the mind very busy.
337
00:16:46,530 —> 00:16:50,423
Because if you get quiet,
your emotions will come up.
338
00:16:51,380 —> 00:16:54,510
And ultimately, we think
that that’s a good thing.
339
00:16:54,510 —> 00:16:56,319
Emotions are natural, they’re healthy.
340
00:16:56,320 —> 00:16:58,600
They have a wisdom to them that most
341
00:16:58,600 —> 00:17:01,332
of us have not also been educated in.
342
00:17:01,332 —> 00:17:03,910
But they can be hard to feel.
343
00:17:03,910 —> 00:17:08,683
Nobody, very few people have
very much trouble feeling joy.
344
00:17:11,156 —> 00:17:14,310
Although a lot of times we’re
blocked from feeling joy
345
00:17:14,310 —> 00:17:18,530
because we are unable or
unwilling to feel other emotions.
346
00:17:18,530 —> 00:17:20,372
When you start feeling one emotion,
347
00:17:20,372 —> 00:17:23,066
the others go, «Hey, the door’s open.»
348
00:17:23,066 —> 00:17:26,343
And they might wanna come up and be felt.
349
00:17:27,710 —> 00:17:30,230
So there are functions of worry,
350
00:17:30,230 —> 00:17:34,471
and again, some of them
unconscious, magical,
351
00:17:34,471 —> 00:17:38,260
maybe not in our best interest over time.
352
00:17:38,260 —> 00:17:42,200
Others adaptive, problem-solving,
go over the problem.
353
00:17:42,200 —> 00:17:44,760
So it behooves us to kind of learn
354
00:17:44,760 —> 00:17:46,870
what we’re doing with the worry,
355
00:17:46,870 —> 00:17:49,040
and that gives us choices in terms
356
00:17:49,040 —> 00:17:51,389
of what we’re doing with the rest, okay?
357
00:17:51,390 —> 00:17:53,630
So worry’s a thinking function,
358
00:17:53,630 —> 00:17:58,630
whereas anxiety, anxiety is
an uncomfortable feeling.
359
00:17:59,180 —> 00:18:02,290
It’s usually in the chest
or the upper abdomen.
360
00:18:02,290 —> 00:18:04,110
Not always, but it’s most often up
361
00:18:04,110 —> 00:18:05,867
in this area or this area.
362
00:18:05,867 —> 00:18:07,780
It’s an uncomfortable feeling
363
00:18:07,780 —> 00:18:11,160
of fear or apprehension or dread.
364
00:18:11,160 —> 00:18:12,705
Dread is, it’s that feeling,
365
00:18:12,705 —> 00:18:16,917
«Oh my God, something bad is
going to happen, I know it.
366
00:18:16,917 —> 00:18:19,020
«Something bad is going to happen.»
367
00:18:19,020 —> 00:18:19,908
You don’t know.
368
00:18:19,908 —> 00:18:21,822
It may be attached to something
369
00:18:21,822 —> 00:18:25,449
or it may be free-floating
and not attached to anything.
370
00:18:25,450 —> 00:18:28,910
And anxiety often comes
with physical symptoms
371
00:18:28,910 —> 00:18:33,740
like rapid heartbeat, pain
in the chest, sweating,
372
00:18:33,740 —> 00:18:35,070
shortness of breath.
373
00:18:35,070 —> 00:18:37,580
There’s often a feeling with anxiety
374
00:18:37,580 —> 00:18:41,621
if anxiety is very strong,
like panic attacks.
375
00:18:41,622 —> 00:18:44,360
There’s often a very
characteristic feeling
376
00:18:44,360 —> 00:18:45,740
that comes with panic attacks
377
00:18:45,740 —> 00:18:49,580
and the feeling is of impending doom.
378
00:18:49,580 —> 00:18:53,020
People with panic attacks,
they feel they’re about to die.
379
00:18:53,020 —> 00:18:55,129
And it’s often, again,
380
00:18:55,130 —> 00:18:59,039
since the symptoms are often
in the chest or in the abdomen,
381
00:18:59,039 —> 00:19:01,879
we see these things in
medicine all the time.
382
00:19:01,880 —> 00:19:05,720
And you could really make
a case for one of the
383
00:19:05,720 —> 00:19:09,280
maybe the primary function
of a primary care doctor
384
00:19:09,280 —> 00:19:12,686
is seeing if there’s anything
else but anxiety going on,
385
00:19:12,686 —> 00:19:15,560
because anxiety can cause so many symptoms
386
00:19:15,560 —> 00:19:20,273
in so many systems of the
body and make us afraid.
387
00:19:21,510 —> 00:19:24,510
A sense that something
bad is gonna happen.
388
00:19:24,510 —> 00:19:27,240
Anxiety is a function
of a part of the brain
389
00:19:27,240 —> 00:19:29,170
that is the emotional part of the brain.
390
00:19:29,170 —> 00:19:32,310
It’s called a limbic system
or the emotional brain,
391
00:19:32,310 —> 00:19:35,254
so worry belongs to the
thinking part of the brain.
392
00:19:35,255 —> 00:19:37,180
And there’s a lot of interaction,
393
00:19:37,180 —> 00:19:40,130
but worry belongs in the thinking part
394
00:19:40,130 —> 00:19:41,620
of the brain, the cortex.
395
00:19:41,620 —> 00:19:44,669
Anxiety typically comes from the limbic
396
00:19:44,670 —> 00:19:46,190
or emotional part of the brain,
397
00:19:46,190 —> 00:19:47,740
and I’ll show you what that looks like.
398
00:19:47,740 —> 00:19:50,240
And stress, which is the third leg
399
00:19:50,240 —> 00:19:53,153
of our uncomfortable stool here,
400
00:19:54,340 —> 00:19:58,879
is actually a physical
response to a threat,
401
00:19:58,880 —> 00:20:00,700
real or imagined.
402
00:20:00,700 —> 00:20:05,540
And in modern life, most of the threats
403
00:20:05,540 —> 00:20:10,540
are either perceived or
imagined, but they’re not.
404
00:20:12,662 —> 00:20:13,700
So somebody’s probably told you the story
405
00:20:13,700 —> 00:20:14,697
of the saber-toothed tiger
406
00:20:14,697 —> 00:20:16,763
and the fight-or-flight
response and so on.
407
00:20:16,763 —> 00:20:20,129
That this was a response we
think was designed by nature.
408
00:20:20,130 —> 00:20:21,610
So when you walked out of the cave
409
00:20:21,610 —> 00:20:25,092
and you ran into a big predator
like a saber-toothed tiger,
410
00:20:25,998 —> 00:20:27,950
part of your nervous system fires off
411
00:20:27,950 —> 00:20:29,820
and you get a big shot of adrenaline
412
00:20:29,820 —> 00:20:33,700
and your heart beats faster
and your blood clots faster
413
00:20:33,700 —> 00:20:35,440
and your blood pressure goes up
414
00:20:35,440 —> 00:20:37,300
and your muscles get super charged
415
00:20:37,300 —> 00:20:38,532
and you’re ready to run,
416
00:20:38,532 —> 00:20:43,310
or run the fastest two miles
you’ve ever run in your life
417
00:20:43,310 —> 00:20:45,550
or fight the tiger to death.
418
00:20:45,550 —> 00:20:47,470
And then it super charges you.
419
00:20:47,470 —> 00:20:48,860
It’s that kind of thing we hear about
420
00:20:48,860 —> 00:20:52,286
when a mother moves a
car to save the baby.
421
00:20:52,287 —> 00:20:55,310
The thing is that this response can go off
422
00:20:55,310 —> 00:20:59,909
in response to threats
that are not predators.
423
00:20:59,910 —> 00:21:01,960
That are not, it can go off in response
424
00:21:01,960 —> 00:21:06,543
to stock market movements,
economic changes,
425
00:21:07,963 —> 00:21:09,763
thinking about aging,
426
00:21:11,260 —> 00:21:14,990
thinking about whether you can
meet your responsibilities.
427
00:21:14,990 —> 00:21:17,792
All kinds of stuff, and
all kinds of stuff that is,
428
00:21:17,792 —> 00:21:20,980
that unless you know
where the off button is
429
00:21:20,980 —> 00:21:24,540
on your television or your
radio or your computer,
430
00:21:24,540 —> 00:21:29,540
that you can just literally
pump into your brain 24/7
431
00:21:29,760 —> 00:21:30,593
if you stay up.
432
00:21:30,593 —> 00:21:33,490
All the bad news of every bad thing
433
00:21:33,490 —> 00:21:37,410
that has happened around
the world to anybody,
434
00:21:37,410 —> 00:21:41,213
or if it’s a slow news day,
what could happen, okay?
435
00:21:42,851 —> 00:21:46,830
Like the H1N1 flu, ’cause
it’s not a terribly,
436
00:21:46,830 —> 00:21:49,460
doesn’t look like a terribly
dangerous flu right now,
437
00:21:49,460 —> 00:21:51,713
but it could become really dangerous.
438
00:21:53,049 —> 00:21:55,414
And that’s what’s got everybody scared
439
00:21:55,414 —> 00:21:57,530
and everybody freaked
out and standing line.
440
00:21:57,530 —> 00:21:59,820
What could happen, so.
441
00:21:59,820 —> 00:22:02,080
And yes, there’s a balance between,
442
00:22:02,080 —> 00:22:04,029
again, being able to predict the future
443
00:22:04,029 —> 00:22:07,360
and take measures to
prevent things happening
444
00:22:07,360 —> 00:22:09,679
that don’t need to happen,
445
00:22:09,680 —> 00:22:13,778
and freaking out for
months about something
446
00:22:13,778 —> 00:22:16,083
that probably will never happen.
447
00:22:17,180 —> 00:22:19,300
It’s a yin-yang kind of relationship.
448
00:22:19,300 —> 00:22:21,480
So stress is, the important
thing here is that stress
449
00:22:21,480 —> 00:22:23,080
is a physical response.
450
00:22:23,080 —> 00:22:25,270
It’s not stuff that happens to you.
451
00:22:25,270 —> 00:22:28,437
It’s a physical response
that your body has
452
00:22:28,438 —> 00:22:31,927
to survive a short-term stress.
453
00:22:31,927 —> 00:22:34,550
And if you survive that short-term stress
454
00:22:34,550 —> 00:22:36,789
like fight like the saber-toothed tiger,
455
00:22:36,789 —> 00:22:40,566
you’ve either killed it or
you’ve run away from it.
456
00:22:40,566 —> 00:22:43,040
And run as fast as you can,
457
00:22:43,040 —> 00:22:44,420
climb the highest tree that you can.
458
00:22:44,420 —> 00:22:46,402
You’ve burned up all
these stress chemicals,
459
00:22:46,402 —> 00:22:47,920
and when the tiger goes away,
460
00:22:47,920 —> 00:22:49,730
you kind of limp back to the cave
461
00:22:49,730 —> 00:22:51,420
and breathe a big sigh of relief
462
00:22:51,420 —> 00:22:53,570
and tell everybody about
how you killed the tiger
463
00:22:53,570 —> 00:22:54,810
or ran away from the tiger.
464
00:22:54,810 —> 00:22:59,780
And your body rested and
compensated and recharged itself
465
00:22:59,780 —> 00:23:02,420
and replaced all the
chemicals that it used
466
00:23:02,420 —> 00:23:05,270
during that intense 20 to 30 minute fight.
467
00:23:05,270 —> 00:23:06,639
Or else the tiger has eaten you
468
00:23:06,640 —> 00:23:08,020
and you don’t have anymore
469
00:23:08,020 —> 00:23:09,020
stress.
(audience laughing)
470
00:23:09,020 —> 00:23:10,430
But one way or another,
471
00:23:10,430 —> 00:23:12,782
it’s all over in about 20 or 30 minutes.
472
00:23:12,782 —> 00:23:15,199
(audience laughing)
Okay?
473
00:23:15,200 —> 00:23:19,600
So there’s none of this years of stress
474
00:23:19,600 —> 00:23:21,790
that go on if you’re a good worrier,
475
00:23:21,790 —> 00:23:23,600
where you wake up in the morning
476
00:23:23,600 —> 00:23:25,184
and the first thing on your mind is,
477
00:23:25,184 —> 00:23:27,277
«Oh my God, what’s gonna happen with this?
478
00:23:27,277 —> 00:23:28,400
«Am I gonna be able to do this?
479
00:23:28,400 —> 00:23:30,030
«Am I gonna be able to beat that?»
480
00:23:30,030 —> 00:23:31,210
And so on and so forth.
481
00:23:31,210 —> 00:23:33,100
And of course, the really good worriers
482
00:23:33,100 —> 00:23:34,790
are not only doing it during the daytime.
483
00:23:34,790 —> 00:23:38,520
You’re up at night, too,
because you can’t sleep, right?
484
00:23:38,520 —> 00:23:39,580
And so it’s taking your,
485
00:23:39,580 —> 00:23:41,370
and that takes your resilience away,
486
00:23:41,370 —> 00:23:45,632
and it becomes a real
negative, vicious cycle.
487
00:23:49,720 —> 00:23:51,733
So, to review.
488
00:23:52,800 —> 00:23:56,020
Worry is a type of
repetitive, circular thinking.
489
00:23:56,020 —> 00:23:59,690
Anxiety is an uncomfortable
feeling of fear or dread.
490
00:23:59,690 —> 00:24:01,550
Stress is a physical response
491
00:24:01,550 —> 00:24:04,250
that prepares you to meet challenges
492
00:24:04,250 —> 00:24:06,630
and so it’s interesting to look at.
493
00:24:06,630 —> 00:24:10,030
This is sort of a somewhat
dated model of the brain.
494
00:24:10,030 —> 00:24:11,753
It’s called the Triune Brain,
495
00:24:13,780 —> 00:24:17,953
but it’s good enough for government work.
496
00:24:18,900 —> 00:24:20,630
We can work with this model, okay?
497
00:24:20,630 —> 00:24:23,630
This is that, there is what’s
called the cortical brain
498
00:24:23,630 —> 00:24:24,950
or the neo-cortex.
499
00:24:24,950 —> 00:24:28,449
The big, gray matter, wrinkled, big brain
500
00:24:28,449 —> 00:24:30,767
that we’re so proud of
that allows us to speak
501
00:24:30,767 —> 00:24:34,980
and add and calculate and
reason and so on and so forth.
502
00:24:34,980 —> 00:24:37,320
And imagine, and do all
these things that again,
503
00:24:37,320 —> 00:24:40,050
as far as we know, no other
creature on Earth does,
504
00:24:40,050 —> 00:24:42,389
and that is really the most adaptive thing
505
00:24:42,390 —> 00:24:45,720
that’s helped us survive and dominate.
506
00:24:45,720 —> 00:24:50,463
Lower down, limbic
system, mid-brain, okay.
507
00:24:51,700 —> 00:24:54,130
The basic brain, we call
it the reptilian brain.
508
00:24:54,130 —> 00:24:57,040
That’s the brain we share with lizards
509
00:24:57,040 —> 00:24:58,420
and reptiles and amphibians.
510
00:24:58,420 —> 00:25:00,240
That’s the oldest part of the brain.
511
00:25:00,240 —> 00:25:03,420
That part of the brain basically
concerned with survival.
512
00:25:03,420 —> 00:25:07,893
It basically sorts things
into two or three categories.
513
00:25:08,797 —> 00:25:10,207
«Can I eat this?
514
00:25:10,207 —> 00:25:11,777
«Can it eat me?
515
00:25:11,777 —> 00:25:13,400
«Can I mate with it?»
516
00:25:13,400 —> 00:25:15,446
That’s basically what
it’s concerned with, okay?
517
00:25:15,446 —> 00:25:16,990
(audience laughing)
518
00:25:16,990 —> 00:25:19,441
It sorts down all the
information that you receive
519
00:25:19,441 —> 00:25:21,760
into those three things, okay?
520
00:25:21,760 —> 00:25:23,800
And it acts like that.
521
00:25:23,800 —> 00:25:26,080
It acts reflexively and instantaneously.
522
00:25:26,080 —> 00:25:29,053
Just like if you come
across a lizard on the path
523
00:25:29,053 —> 00:25:32,020
and you make a move towards
it, it’s gone like that.
524
00:25:32,020 —> 00:25:33,340
It doesn’t go inside.
525
00:25:33,340 —> 00:25:35,857
It doesn’t do a Woody Allen thing.
526
00:25:35,857 —> 00:25:36,690
«Should I move?
527
00:25:36,690 —> 00:25:37,523
«Should I not move?
528
00:25:37,523 —> 00:25:38,356
«Would it be better for me?
529
00:25:38,356 —> 00:25:39,189
«Is this dangerous?
530
00:25:39,189 —> 00:25:40,187
«Is it not dangerous?
531
00:25:40,187 —> 00:25:41,530
«How dangerous is it?»
532
00:25:41,530 —> 00:25:44,320
It doesn’t do any of it,
it’s just gone, okay?
533
00:25:44,320 —> 00:25:46,450
If there’s any indication
that there’s a threat,
534
00:25:46,450 —> 00:25:50,460
it sets off the stress
response and it’s gone.
535
00:25:50,460 —> 00:25:52,890
The thing is, this
developed evolutionarily
536
00:25:52,890 —> 00:25:55,030
from the bottom up, okay?
537
00:25:55,030 —> 00:25:58,639
This was, this part of
the brain developed first.
538
00:25:58,640 —> 00:26:00,800
And then as animals developed,
539
00:26:00,800 —> 00:26:03,466
the limbic system pretty
much developed in mammals,
540
00:26:03,466 —> 00:26:06,139
and other, in warm, furry creatures,
541
00:26:06,139 —> 00:26:10,460
who characteristically
have social relationships.
542
00:26:10,461 —> 00:26:14,375
And for mammals, for most
mammals, not all mammals,
543
00:26:14,375 —> 00:26:18,320
social relationships like prides of lions
544
00:26:18,320 —> 00:26:22,149
and packs of wolves and families of people
545
00:26:22,150 —> 00:26:24,820
and things like that have adaptive value.
546
00:26:24,820 —> 00:26:27,730
We do better when we’re
connected to groups.
547
00:26:27,730 —> 00:26:29,090
We have more strength.
548
00:26:29,090 —> 00:26:30,665
We have more problem-solving ability.
549
00:26:30,665 —> 00:26:32,481
We have emotional support.
550
00:26:32,481 —> 00:26:34,710
We are social creatures,
551
00:26:34,710 —> 00:26:37,020
and our social positions mean a lot to us.
552
00:26:37,020 —> 00:26:40,520
And all that emotional
processing happens mostly
553
00:26:40,520 —> 00:26:43,769
in this limbic system,
and then on top of it,
554
00:26:43,769 —> 00:26:48,108
the big, smart, intellectual brain.
555
00:26:48,108 —> 00:26:52,669
Every layer added new
possibilities and new complexity
556
00:26:52,670 —> 00:26:54,970
to our ability to understand our world
557
00:26:54,970 —> 00:26:56,430
and to navigate our world.
558
00:26:56,430 —> 00:27:00,910
And part of the problem when
we look at this whole issue
559
00:27:00,910 —> 00:27:05,910
is that the new guy is very
entranced with himself, okay?
560
00:27:06,330 —> 00:27:10,110
The thinking brain thinks that nothing
561
00:27:10,110 —> 00:27:12,370
was important before he came along.
562
00:27:12,370 —> 00:27:14,090
And I saw he kind of deliberately.
563
00:27:14,090 —> 00:27:17,679
It could be she too, but it’s a kind of,
564
00:27:17,680 —> 00:27:21,210
it’s not that there
aren’t tremendously bright
565
00:27:21,210 —> 00:27:22,390
and intellectual women,
566
00:27:22,390 —> 00:27:26,323
but it’s kind of thinking analysis, logic,
567
00:27:27,300 —> 00:27:30,879
that kind of thinking on a yin-yang scale
568
00:27:30,880 —> 00:27:33,930
we typically characterize as a
kind of a masculine thinking.
569
00:27:33,930 —> 00:27:35,500
Not that it doesn’t belong to women too.
570
00:27:35,500 —> 00:27:38,090
Whereas the feeling, the intuitive,
571
00:27:38,090 —> 00:27:40,870
tends to be a more kind
of receptive, softer.
572
00:27:40,870 —> 00:27:44,080
It has its own logic,
but it’s not the same
573
00:27:44,080 —> 00:27:47,659
as the logic of mathematics
and science, okay?
574
00:27:47,660 —> 00:27:50,570
So this brain is very good at,
575
00:27:50,570 —> 00:27:52,300
especially part of the brain,
576
00:27:52,300 —> 00:27:57,300
the part that’s suited for
verbal and mathematical skills,
577
00:27:57,647 —> 00:28:01,120
which typically is in the
left hemisphere of the brain.
578
00:28:01,120 —> 00:28:02,209
And there’s some variation,
579
00:28:02,210 —> 00:28:04,342
but that typically is in the left brain,
580
00:28:04,342 —> 00:28:06,380
which is called the dominant hemisphere.
581
00:28:06,380 —> 00:28:09,930
Speech capability, mathematical
capability and so on.
582
00:28:09,930 —> 00:28:12,553
Whereas in the right side of
the brain in the same area,
583
00:28:12,553 —> 00:28:16,280
lie areas of the brain that
have to do with the body image,
584
00:28:16,280 —> 00:28:18,976
with emotional recognition
and facial expressions,
585
00:28:18,976 —> 00:28:22,510
and tone of voice, and
those kinds of skills.
586
00:28:22,510 —> 00:28:24,610
So they each have their place.
587
00:28:24,610 —> 00:28:27,330
I mean, logical skills have to do
588
00:28:27,330 —> 00:28:31,070
with building buildings
like this and building MRIs
589
00:28:31,070 —> 00:28:32,919
and doing the kind of incredible science
590
00:28:32,920 —> 00:28:36,300
that goes on in a
university setting like UCSF
591
00:28:36,300 —> 00:28:38,409
and looking through electron microscopes
592
00:28:38,410 —> 00:28:40,020
and doing chemical analysis.
593
00:28:40,020 —> 00:28:44,290
And these are tremendous
feats, don’t misunderstand me.
594
00:28:44,290 —> 00:28:49,290
They’re completely useless
in a relationship, okay?
595
00:28:49,380 —> 00:28:51,871
It doesn’t matter how many
Nobel prizes you have.
596
00:28:51,871 —> 00:28:54,493
You may not be able to
maintain a marriage.
597
00:28:55,490 —> 00:28:57,340
Would be if that’s the only kind
598
00:28:57,340 —> 00:29:00,803
of intelligence you have, right?
599
00:29:01,743 —> 00:29:02,889
And you may not be able
600
00:29:02,890 —> 00:29:05,730
to maintain good
relationships with people.
601
00:29:05,730 —> 00:29:08,050
Whereas somebody who emotionally,
602
00:29:08,050 —> 00:29:10,240
and in terms of social networking
603
00:29:10,240 —> 00:29:12,642
and understanding and
compassion and empathy,
604
00:29:12,642 —> 00:29:15,050
may have a different kind of intelligence,
605
00:29:15,050 —> 00:29:17,730
as well as an intellectual
kind of intelligence.
606
00:29:17,730 —> 00:29:19,960
So my point is that these
607
00:29:19,960 —> 00:29:21,780
are different kinds of intelligences
608
00:29:21,780 —> 00:29:24,149
that are useful in different situations.
609
00:29:24,150 —> 00:29:29,150
What has happened since the
advent of the age of reason
610
00:29:29,498 —> 00:29:33,400
and which is, and the
advent of discovering
611
00:29:33,400 —> 00:29:37,140
the immense power of our
intellectual capabilities,
612
00:29:37,140 —> 00:29:41,000
I think has been a devaluing and ignoring
613
00:29:41,000 —> 00:29:43,700
of the earlier kind of
intelligence that has to do
614
00:29:43,700 —> 00:29:45,490
with our relations with each other
615
00:29:45,490 —> 00:29:48,589
and with other living things
and with our environment.
616
00:29:48,589 —> 00:29:51,750
And I think that a lot of
the crisis we’re seeing
617
00:29:51,750 —> 00:29:53,700
is we’re trying to come back to that
618
00:29:53,700 —> 00:29:55,450
and own those relationships
619
00:29:55,450 —> 00:29:58,240
while still maintaining our
ability to be technically
620
00:29:59,395 —> 00:30:02,600
creative and help solve
those problems that way.
621
00:30:02,600 —> 00:30:05,770
I think that these have
been around a lot longer.
622
00:30:05,770 —> 00:30:07,796
This guy’s really fascinated with himself
623
00:30:07,796 —> 00:30:12,010
and sometimes thinks he’s
the only game in town.
624
00:30:12,010 —> 00:30:13,438
So the reason we used to say,
625
00:30:13,438 —> 00:30:15,710
when we’re talking about
left and right hemisphere,
626
00:30:15,710 —> 00:30:17,590
and I don’t wanna go into
it too deeply tonight,
627
00:30:17,590 —> 00:30:19,810
but the reason that the left hemisphere
628
00:30:19,810 —> 00:30:21,812
is called the dominant hemisphere …
629
00:30:22,960 —> 00:30:24,113
Can anybody guess?
630
00:30:26,260 —> 00:30:29,090
It does dominate, but the main reason
631
00:30:29,090 —> 00:30:30,649
that it’s called the dominant hemisphere
632
00:30:30,650 —> 00:30:32,803
is that it’s the one that names things.
633
00:30:34,150 —> 00:30:35,500
It’s the verbal hemisphere.
634
00:30:35,500 —> 00:30:37,467
It’s the one that gives people, thinks,
635
00:30:37,467 —> 00:30:39,687
«I’m the dominant hemisphere,
636
00:30:39,687 —> 00:30:41,437
«and you’re the subdominant hemisphere.
637
00:30:41,437 —> 00:30:44,107
«I’m the major hemisphere,
you’re the minor hemisphere.»
638
00:30:44,107 —> 00:30:48,399
And it’s kind of a joke,
but I think it’s also true,
639
00:30:48,400 —> 00:30:50,410
and we have valued that.
640
00:30:50,410 —> 00:30:51,660
Think about your education.
641
00:30:51,660 —> 00:30:54,413
How many hours of emotional
education did you get?
642
00:30:56,678 —> 00:30:58,226
How many hours of education
643
00:30:58,226 —> 00:31:01,090
in using your imagination did you get?
644
00:31:01,090 —> 00:31:02,352
Or your intuition?
645
00:31:03,390 —> 00:31:07,010
So your education, and I’m
not saying that it was,
646
00:31:07,010 —> 00:31:08,810
hopefully, at least when I went to school,
647
00:31:08,810 —> 00:31:11,080
it was reading, writing, arithmetic.
648
00:31:11,080 —> 00:31:14,129
It was those left brain,
analytic, logical skills.
649
00:31:14,130 —> 00:31:19,130
Tremendously useful, but not all of us.
650
00:31:19,172 —> 00:31:21,100
And this other kind of intelligence,
651
00:31:21,100 —> 00:31:24,120
I think we need a lot more
education experience with it.
652
00:31:24,120 —> 00:31:26,800
Learn how to communicate with it,
653
00:31:26,800 —> 00:31:28,230
and that’s why in a little while
654
00:31:28,230 —> 00:31:31,125
I’m gonna talk about imagery,
which is its coding language
655
00:31:31,125 —> 00:31:35,023
in a sense of this more
emotional and intuitive brain.
656
00:31:36,637 —> 00:31:38,590
So here’s a kind of a picture
657
00:31:38,590 —> 00:31:40,822
of a real brain cut in half this way.
658
00:31:42,820 —> 00:31:44,820
And I don’t know how
well you can see this,
659
00:31:44,820 —> 00:31:49,179
but there’s the wrinkled
cortex, neo-cortex.
660
00:31:49,180 —> 00:31:50,380
It goes all the way around.
661
00:31:50,380 —> 00:31:54,124
And then in the center,
this area here more or less
662
00:31:54,124 —> 00:31:56,510
is the limbic or emotional brain.
663
00:31:56,510 —> 00:31:57,810
And you can see that there’s an,
664
00:31:57,810 —> 00:32:00,030
and then this would be the reptilian,
665
00:32:00,030 —> 00:32:03,200
reflexive, survival brain.
666
00:32:03,200 —> 00:32:07,990
And you can see there’s lots
of connections between the two,
667
00:32:07,990 —> 00:32:11,240
so that this brain could
send messages into this brain
668
00:32:11,240 —> 00:32:13,180
and create an emotional reaction,
669
00:32:13,180 —> 00:32:15,900
which would send messages
down to this part of the brain
670
00:32:15,900 —> 00:32:18,503
and sent it out to the
body and vice versa.
671
00:32:20,370 —> 00:32:21,912
Like for this guy.
672
00:32:21,913 —> 00:32:25,410
So this guy’s having a,
he’s not having a good day.
673
00:32:25,410 —> 00:32:27,151
He’s having a rage reaction,
674
00:32:27,151 —> 00:32:29,900
and without going through
all of these things,
675
00:32:29,900 —> 00:32:32,150
just if you want to study this, you can,
676
00:32:32,150 —> 00:32:37,150
but something didn’t match up
with his expectations, okay?
677
00:32:38,890 —> 00:32:41,403
That’s where most anger comes from.
678
00:32:42,550 —> 00:32:43,790
He had an expectation.
679
00:32:43,790 —> 00:32:45,456
Something didn’t come up to it.
680
00:32:45,456 —> 00:32:48,610
It sent some kind of a message of danger
681
00:32:48,610 —> 00:32:52,548
or threat to this emotional brain.
682
00:32:52,548 —> 00:32:57,548
It’s signaled his lower brain
that to get ready for a fight,
683
00:32:57,860 —> 00:32:58,979
and this thing sends out,
684
00:32:58,980 —> 00:33:02,220
through all the cranial nerves
and spinal cord and so on,
685
00:33:02,220 —> 00:33:04,300
messages to every organ in his body
686
00:33:04,300 —> 00:33:06,970
and your physiology
changes very dramatically.
687
00:33:06,970 —> 00:33:08,960
When you’re angry, when you’re frightened,
688
00:33:08,960 —> 00:33:12,420
when you’re sad, when you’re
happy, when you’re calm,
689
00:33:12,420 —> 00:33:16,060
you are physiologically
different than, okay.
690
00:33:16,060 —> 00:33:17,530
So there’s plenty of connections
691
00:33:17,530 —> 00:33:19,700
and this is basically just to show yes,
692
00:33:19,700 —> 00:33:21,860
there’s a real wiring diagram
693
00:33:21,860 —> 00:33:24,504
and a real chemical messaging system.
694
00:33:24,504 —> 00:33:26,300
So anxiety, stress, and worry
695
00:33:26,300 —> 00:33:28,790
are interactive, they’re bidirectional.
696
00:33:28,790 —> 00:33:31,460
If you have a tendency to be anxious,
697
00:33:31,460 —> 00:33:32,640
that emotional brain is gonna
698
00:33:32,640 —> 00:33:37,040
be pumping out more
messages of, «Look out.»
699
00:33:37,040 —> 00:33:38,603
It may not know what it’s looking out for,
700
00:33:38,603 —> 00:33:40,790
but it’s gonna be more vigilant.
701
00:33:40,790 —> 00:33:42,860
It’s going to raise the,
702
00:33:42,860 —> 00:33:44,899
it’s gonna send more
messages to the cortex
703
00:33:44,900 —> 00:33:46,470
to be on guard for problems.
704
00:33:46,470 —> 00:33:47,940
And then the cortex is gonna be able
705
00:33:47,940 —> 00:33:50,710
to imagine all the problems
that there could be out there,
706
00:33:50,710 —> 00:33:52,390
and it’s gonna send messages back
707
00:33:52,390 —> 00:33:53,770
and they can get into a real,
708
00:33:53,770 —> 00:33:55,562
kind of a reverberating circuit.
709
00:33:57,046 —> 00:34:01,480
All these parts of the brain
are chemically sensitive,
710
00:34:01,480 —> 00:34:03,186
and of course in medicine,
711
00:34:03,186 —> 00:34:06,570
typically we try to chemically
manipulate these things
712
00:34:06,570 —> 00:34:09,040
if somebody’s got a real anxiety disorder.
713
00:34:09,040 —> 00:34:11,330
We’re not talking about anxiety disorders
714
00:34:11,330 —> 00:34:15,080
which where the anxiety
level is just cranked up high
715
00:34:15,080 —> 00:34:17,177
in spite of the thinking here.
716
00:34:17,177 —> 00:34:20,168
But we try to manipulate
that with medications.
717
00:34:20,168 —> 00:34:23,070
Those of us who have studied
nutritional medicine know
718
00:34:23,070 —> 00:34:25,420
that there are naturally
occurring molecules.
719
00:34:25,420 —> 00:34:26,950
That there are molecules in our foods
720
00:34:26,949 —> 00:34:31,949
that can be used as nutraceuticals
to modify how active
721
00:34:32,610 —> 00:34:35,990
or upregulated the nervous
system is or downregulated,
722
00:34:35,989 —> 00:34:38,842
so we try to do it through
more natural molecules,
723
00:34:38,842 —> 00:34:41,159
but the other thing to know about this
724
00:34:41,159 —> 00:34:43,312
is that they’re also thought-sensitive.
725
00:34:44,290 —> 00:34:49,290
That thoughts that become
chemicals at a certain level
726
00:34:50,730 —> 00:34:53,889
and those chemicals stimulate
the physical mechanisms
727
00:34:53,889 —> 00:34:56,129
that underlie our reactions, so.
728
00:34:56,130 —> 00:34:59,083
And that’s gonna be our focus
tonight, is about thinking.
729
00:34:59,950 —> 00:35:04,950
For any of you who have any
doubts that the mind and body
730
00:35:05,090 —> 00:35:08,270
are really connected
and create physiology,
731
00:35:08,270 —> 00:35:11,170
just a real quick, this
is biofeedback data.
732
00:35:11,170 —> 00:35:14,810
And to make it simple,
this is muscle tension.
733
00:35:14,810 —> 00:35:17,360
This is electrical response in the skin.
734
00:35:17,360 —> 00:35:19,900
This is fingertip temperature,
735
00:35:19,900 —> 00:35:22,400
which is a sign of either
stress or relaxation.
736
00:35:22,400 —> 00:35:26,470
This nice, even white
line here is respiration.
737
00:35:26,470 —> 00:35:29,859
So this guy is sitting in a
biofeedback therapist’s office
738
00:35:29,860 —> 00:35:32,503
with a bunch of sensors
hooked up to his muscles
739
00:35:32,503 —> 00:35:35,940
and his fingertips to measure the way
740
00:35:35,940 —> 00:35:40,940
that his circulation responds to stress.
741
00:35:41,224 —> 00:35:43,484
And he’s got a belt around his chest,
742
00:35:43,484 —> 00:35:47,130
and he’s just breathing
nice and around his abdomen,
743
00:35:47,130 —> 00:35:48,835
this is actually his abdomen.
744
00:35:48,835 —> 00:35:51,370
And he’s breathing nice
and normally, even.
745
00:35:51,370 —> 00:35:52,630
He’s just sitting there relaxing.
746
00:35:52,630 —> 00:35:54,346
There’s not much going on, so.
747
00:35:54,346 —> 00:35:56,830
You won’t be able to read all this stuff.
748
00:35:56,830 —> 00:35:58,130
Just watch what happens here.
749
00:35:58,130 —> 00:35:59,250
So he’s a guy.
750
00:35:59,250 —> 00:36:02,790
This is an actual patient who has a phobia
751
00:36:02,790 —> 00:36:05,220
about driving over bridges
752
00:36:05,220 —> 00:36:06,995
and he lives here.
753
00:36:06,996 —> 00:36:08,403
(audience laughing)
Okay.
754
00:36:09,990 —> 00:36:11,772
Bad combination, right?
755
00:36:12,730 —> 00:36:15,021
So he’s sitting, so he goes
to the biofeedback therapist.
756
00:36:15,021 —> 00:36:17,630
Here he’s just sitting there relaxing.
757
00:36:17,630 —> 00:36:20,723
Then the biofeedback therapist
asks him just to think about,
758
00:36:20,723 —> 00:36:23,903
just imagine approaching
the Golden Gate Bridge.
759
00:36:25,500 —> 00:36:28,840
And all of this goes
in the same direction.
760
00:36:28,840 —> 00:36:32,380
There’s an immediate
fight-or-flight response.
761
00:36:32,380 —> 00:36:36,880
Just goes off from imagining
driving across the bridge.
762
00:36:36,880 —> 00:36:39,130
You can see it best here,
what happens to his breathing.
763
00:36:39,130 —> 00:36:40,150
It just goes to pod.
764
00:36:40,150 —> 00:36:42,407
It’s just very shallow, very irregular.
765
00:36:42,407 —> 00:36:45,368
Stops breathing into his abdomen.
766
00:36:45,368 —> 00:36:48,770
His skin temperature,
actually this reversed.
767
00:36:48,770 —> 00:36:50,770
It should go decrease.
768
00:36:50,770 —> 00:36:52,770
His muscle tension goes up.
769
00:36:52,770 —> 00:36:56,560
He’s physiologically
ready to defend his life
770
00:36:56,560 —> 00:36:58,400
by imagining going to the bridge.
771
00:36:58,400 —> 00:37:00,460
Now, if he can learn
772
00:37:00,460 —> 00:37:03,081
to get his breathing under control again
773
00:37:03,081 —> 00:37:06,210
and his therapist can guide him to think
774
00:37:06,210 —> 00:37:08,760
about some other things
that are more relaxing.
775
00:37:08,760 —> 00:37:10,337
They typically break it down.
776
00:37:10,337 —> 00:37:11,897
«Just think about coming down the stairs
777
00:37:11,897 —> 00:37:13,860
«and seeing your car keys.»
778
00:37:13,860 —> 00:37:16,030
In a person who’s developed a phobia,
779
00:37:16,030 —> 00:37:18,910
that would be enough to
stimulate a huge reaction.
780
00:37:18,910 —> 00:37:23,899
Now, if the person then can
learn to breathe more deeply
781
00:37:23,900 —> 00:37:28,043
and to induce a relaxation
response, which most people can,
782
00:37:29,750 —> 00:37:34,750
while he’s imagining that, go
back to the calm physiology.
783
00:37:35,300 —> 00:37:36,910
By the time he gets to the place
784
00:37:36,910 —> 00:37:38,629
where he can actually imagine driving
785
00:37:38,630 —> 00:37:40,920
across the bridge and staying calm,
786
00:37:40,920 —> 00:37:43,190
he’ll be able to go across that bridge.
787
00:37:43,190 —> 00:37:45,113
That could take months to get to.
788
00:37:45,953 —> 00:37:47,920
There’s a lot of practice in here,
789
00:37:47,920 —> 00:37:52,920
but it’s a good example
of a mind-body connection
790
00:37:53,050 —> 00:37:56,593
and how much we respond to
just thinking about things.
791
00:37:58,320 —> 00:37:59,880
So there’s a lot,
792
00:37:59,880 —> 00:38:02,193
how many have heard the
term neuroplasticity?
793
00:38:03,170 —> 00:38:04,620
Has that been talked about here?
794
00:38:04,620 —> 00:38:06,720
So it doesn’t mean your
brain is made of plastic.
795
00:38:06,720 —> 00:38:09,799
It means that your brain is changeable,
796
00:38:09,800 —> 00:38:11,840
and there’s been a lot
of literature lately
797
00:38:11,840 —> 00:38:14,410
about how changeable the
adult human brain is.
798
00:38:14,410 —> 00:38:16,339
Up until very recently,
799
00:38:16,340 —> 00:38:19,280
the dictum was we have an
adult brain, that’s it.
800
00:38:19,280 —> 00:38:22,020
Your cells die off, but that’s about it.
801
00:38:22,020 —> 00:38:24,759
And you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,
802
00:38:24,759 —> 00:38:26,100
and all that kind of stuff.
803
00:38:26,100 —> 00:38:27,330
And we know now,
804
00:38:27,330 —> 00:38:29,757
how many of you have read
this book by Norman Doidge,
805
00:38:29,757 —> 00:38:31,617
«The Brain That Changes Itself?»
806
00:38:31,617 —> 00:38:35,359
It’s an astounding book on brain science.
807
00:38:35,359 —> 00:38:39,740
A couple of, an example,
there are researchers now
808
00:38:39,740 —> 00:38:41,729
that have developed techniques,
809
00:38:41,730 —> 00:38:45,463
sending, taking people who
have been blind since birth.
810
00:38:46,670 —> 00:38:50,760
Hooking up a little video
camera to an electric device
811
00:38:50,760 —> 00:38:55,610
that kind of draws a picture
on their back by poking ’em.
812
00:38:56,805 —> 00:39:00,549
Kind of a thing that puts
multiple little pokes
813
00:39:00,550 —> 00:39:02,850
and gives them a picture on their back,
814
00:39:02,850 —> 00:39:04,913
and they start to see.
815
00:39:04,913 —> 00:39:07,950
Okay, they can see so
that they can walk around.
816
00:39:07,950 —> 00:39:10,730
Now they have it where a
little video camera and a glass
817
00:39:10,730 —> 00:39:12,410
goes to a little wafer on the tongue
818
00:39:12,410 —> 00:39:14,279
that sends out little electrical signals.
819
00:39:14,280 —> 00:39:18,190
And they start, and they are able to see.
820
00:39:18,190 —> 00:39:19,880
Probably not like most of us who
821
00:39:19,880 —> 00:39:22,450
are able to see naturally and normally,
822
00:39:22,450 —> 00:39:23,540
but they are able to see.
823
00:39:23,540 —> 00:39:26,440
They can walk around the room
and not bump into objects
824
00:39:26,440 —> 00:39:28,640
and so on and so forth, okay?
825
00:39:28,640 —> 00:39:30,469
And what happens over time,
826
00:39:30,469 —> 00:39:33,400
what they found was, in these people,
827
00:39:33,400 —> 00:39:37,120
that watching a device
called a functional MRI,
828
00:39:37,120 —> 00:39:39,140
which can show us what parts of the brain
829
00:39:39,140 —> 00:39:41,350
are active while people are thinking,
830
00:39:41,350 —> 00:39:44,420
that it was the part of the
brain in the occipital cortex
831
00:39:44,420 —> 00:39:46,268
that processes visual information,
832
00:39:46,268 —> 00:39:49,820
that took all of this data
from their back or their tongue
833
00:39:49,820 —> 00:39:51,952
and started putting pictures together.
834
00:39:51,952 —> 00:39:55,410
So the brain’s taking this data
835
00:39:55,410 —> 00:39:58,529
and putting pictures together
’cause that’s what it does.
836
00:39:58,530 —> 00:40:01,100
Normally it gets the input from your eye,
837
00:40:01,100 —> 00:40:04,150
but if we can get it the
information some other way,
838
00:40:04,150 —> 00:40:07,469
it can create new pathways
that create these abilities.
839
00:40:07,469 —> 00:40:08,569
Isn’t that astounding?
840
00:40:09,730 —> 00:40:13,300
So part of Jeffrey Schwartz at UCLA,
841
00:40:13,300 —> 00:40:14,790
his research has been with people
842
00:40:14,790 —> 00:40:16,740
with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,
843
00:40:16,740 —> 00:40:17,899
which has been traditionally
844
00:40:17,900 —> 00:40:20,453
a very difficult condition to treat,
845
00:40:20,453 —> 00:40:24,221
and finding very structured,
repetitive exercises,
846
00:40:24,221 —> 00:40:27,510
which fortunately,
obsessive-compulsive people
847
00:40:27,510 —> 00:40:28,603
are very good at.
848
00:40:29,740 —> 00:40:32,250
(laughs)
(audience laughing)
849
00:40:32,250 —> 00:40:34,299
By focusing their mind in a certain way,
850
00:40:34,299 —> 00:40:36,210
that they literally can change,
851
00:40:36,210 —> 00:40:38,120
not only their behavioral patterns,
852
00:40:38,120 —> 00:40:42,232
but that their brains change
after a decent period.
853
00:40:42,233 —> 00:40:44,387
We’re talking about months of practice
854
00:40:44,387 —> 00:40:47,826
so that you can actually
lay new hard wiring down,
855
00:40:47,826 —> 00:40:50,160
as well as changing your mind.
856
00:40:50,160 —> 00:40:52,457
You can change your mind in a nanosecond,
857
00:40:52,457 —> 00:40:56,502
but it seems to take weeks to
months to change your brain.
858
00:40:56,503 —> 00:40:58,610
But when you change your brain,
859
00:40:58,610 —> 00:41:02,504
now you’ve got a new
default position installed,
860
00:41:02,504 —> 00:41:06,133
and you don’t have to be the
same way that you were before.
861
00:41:06,133 —> 00:41:08,399
Louann Brizendine, who’s a professor
862
00:41:08,400 —> 00:41:10,814
of psychiatry here at UCSF, wrote this,
863
00:41:10,814 —> 00:41:13,317
how many have read this
book, «The Female Brain?»
864
00:41:14,320 —> 00:41:17,432
If you never read another
book in your life,
865
00:41:17,432 —> 00:41:20,066
and if you’re either male or female,
866
00:41:20,066 —> 00:41:21,580
(audience laughing)
867
00:41:21,580 —> 00:41:22,690
you should read this book.
868
00:41:22,690 —> 00:41:24,850
This is an astounding book.
869
00:41:24,850 —> 00:41:26,730
A really astounding book about the brain
870
00:41:26,730 —> 00:41:27,850
and how it’s organized
871
00:41:30,030 —> 00:41:32,720
and what different capabilities there are.
872
00:41:32,720 —> 00:41:34,930
Both genders have similar capabilities,
873
00:41:34,930 —> 00:41:38,390
but it’s a bit of a digression,
874
00:41:38,390 —> 00:41:43,390
but it was tremendously useful
to me to learn from this book
875
00:41:44,586 —> 00:41:49,542
that all fetuses as they’re
growing in the womb are female,
876
00:41:49,542 —> 00:41:52,190
are male at the beginning.
877
00:41:52,190 —> 00:41:57,190
And at eight weeks,
yeah, they’re all female.
878
00:41:57,375 —> 00:41:59,040
They’re all female.
879
00:41:59,040 —> 00:42:03,430
At eight weeks, the fetus
with the Y chromosome
880
00:42:03,430 —> 00:42:05,700
gets a wash of testosterone,
881
00:42:05,700 —> 00:42:09,542
and do you know what that
testosterone does to the brain?
882
00:42:11,730 —> 00:42:13,292
You’re gonna love this.
883
00:42:13,292 —> 00:42:15,739
(audience laughing)
It explains so much.
884
00:42:15,739 —> 00:42:18,510
(audience laughing)
885
00:42:18,510 —> 00:42:23,510
It kills 80% of the
neurons in the male brain
886
00:42:23,540 —> 00:42:26,926
that process emotional communication.
887
00:42:26,926 —> 00:42:29,529
(audience laughing)
888
00:42:29,530 —> 00:42:32,093
This is apparently brain science.
889
00:42:33,210 —> 00:42:36,400
And when they get it again
when they’re 14 or 15,
890
00:42:36,400 —> 00:42:39,830
I don’t know how many of
you remember being 14 or 15,
891
00:42:39,830 —> 00:42:42,930
or if you have a 14 or
15-year-old son who sits
892
00:42:42,930 —> 00:42:45,870
at the table like this
and looks like a cretin
893
00:42:45,870 —> 00:42:50,870
and spends all of his time in
his room and is barely human,
894
00:42:51,370 —> 00:42:53,910
and he was a brilliant, loving little kid.
895
00:42:53,910 —> 00:42:56,350
He’s got testosterone poisoning,
896
00:42:56,350 —> 00:42:58,600
which is again, seriously,
(audience laughing)
897
00:42:58,600 —> 00:43:01,100
is again, killing neurons in his brain
898
00:43:01,100 —> 00:43:03,350
that have to do with
emotional communication.
899
00:43:05,300 —> 00:43:07,320
And increasing the parts of his brain
900
00:43:07,320 —> 00:43:11,670
that have to do with sexuality
and aggressiveness, okay?
901
00:43:11,670 —> 00:43:14,920
While the female’s brain is
still maintaining this big part
902
00:43:14,920 —> 00:43:18,344
about four to five times
as much brain area devoted
903
00:43:18,344 —> 00:43:21,104
to emotional communication.
904
00:43:21,104 —> 00:43:25,560
To talking about sensing
emotional nuances.
905
00:43:25,560 —> 00:43:27,600
Which is why in general you ladies
906
00:43:27,600 —> 00:43:29,490
are so much better at it than we are
907
00:43:29,490 —> 00:43:31,944
and you like to talk to each
other about all that stuff.
908
00:43:31,945 —> 00:43:34,385
You like to talk to us about it.
909
00:43:34,385 —> 00:43:37,224
You don’t understand
why we don’t understand.
910
00:43:37,224 —> 00:43:40,280
Okay, this would be like,
and this is no offense.
911
00:43:40,280 —> 00:43:41,630
I need a better archetype,
912
00:43:41,630 —> 00:43:43,850
but this would be like my dog
913
00:43:43,850 —> 00:43:48,009
who has 20,000 times the smell neurons
914
00:43:48,010 —> 00:43:49,990
in his nose than I do.
915
00:43:49,990 —> 00:43:51,707
This would be like my dog asking me,
916
00:43:51,707 —> 00:43:56,297
«Why don’t you smell that
Jake was here earlier?
917
00:43:56,297 —> 00:43:57,477
«I’m sniffing his book.
918
00:43:57,477 —> 00:44:01,327
«Why don’t you, I’m living
in a world of smell.
919
00:44:01,327 —> 00:44:03,530
«Smell is all around us.»
920
00:44:03,530 —> 00:44:06,530
It’s a world of smell to the dog, right?
921
00:44:06,530 —> 00:44:08,490
I don’t smell any of it.
922
00:44:08,490 —> 00:44:10,370
I don’t hear the high-pitched sounds
923
00:44:10,370 —> 00:44:12,792
’cause his brain is tuned differently, so.
924
00:44:13,890 —> 00:44:15,942
This is has saved my marriage.
925
00:44:15,943 —> 00:44:17,900
(audience laughing)
This discover.
926
00:44:17,900 —> 00:44:20,000
And when you wonder, and when the guys,
927
00:44:20,000 —> 00:44:21,610
these are all overgeneralizations
928
00:44:21,610 —> 00:44:22,820
and I’m playing it up a little bit,
929
00:44:22,820 —> 00:44:27,820
but your guy may not be able
to tell what you’re feeling
930
00:44:28,332 —> 00:44:31,174
as easily as you can
tell what he’s feeling.
931
00:44:31,174 —> 00:44:32,690
It’s a different world.
932
00:44:32,690 —> 00:44:34,310
He just may not, he’s just like,
933
00:44:34,310 —> 00:44:36,787
and this is what guys
always say to each other.
934
00:44:36,787 —> 00:44:38,109
«Why is she mad?
935
00:44:38,110 —> 00:44:39,417
(audience laughing)
936
00:44:39,417 —> 00:44:40,777
«I don’t get it.
937
00:44:40,777 —> 00:44:42,637
«Why is she mad?
938
00:44:42,637 —> 00:44:44,867
«I asked her out to lunch on Tuesday.
939
00:44:44,867 —> 00:44:45,747
«She got mad at me.
940
00:44:45,747 —> 00:44:46,937
«I don’t know why.»
941
00:44:48,150 —> 00:44:51,500
So one mystery not exactly solved,
942
00:44:51,500 —> 00:44:53,400
but the brains are organized differently.
943
00:44:53,400 —> 00:44:54,420
It’s really fascinating.
944
00:44:54,420 —> 00:44:55,674
That is a great read.
945
00:44:55,674 —> 00:44:57,180
All right, I’m gonna go ahead
946
00:44:57,180 —> 00:44:59,490
and go on before I get stoned here.
947
00:44:59,490 —> 00:45:01,129
The brain changes throughout life
948
00:45:01,130 —> 00:45:04,080
and here’s the basis of my interest
949
00:45:04,080 —> 00:45:06,569
in thinking about how we think.
950
00:45:06,570 —> 00:45:08,380
Thinking about how we worry.
951
00:45:08,380 —> 00:45:12,460
That if the blind can learn to see,
952
00:45:12,460 —> 00:45:15,163
then the anxious should
be able to learn to relax.
953
00:45:16,200 —> 00:45:19,460
I would think it’s much
easier to learn to relax
954
00:45:19,460 —> 00:45:22,550
than it is to see when
you’ve never seen before.
955
00:45:22,550 —> 00:45:25,670
I may be wrong, but this is
kind of at the center of it.
956
00:45:25,670 —> 00:45:28,370
If our brain is capable
of that kind of learning,
957
00:45:28,370 —> 00:45:32,009
then what do we need to
do in order to teach it?
958
00:45:32,010 —> 00:45:33,710
And this is a great term that comes
959
00:45:33,710 —> 00:45:37,056
from Jeffrey Schwartz
self-directed neuroplasticity,
960
00:45:37,056 —> 00:45:40,910
which is fascinating because
you’re using your own mind
961
00:45:40,910 —> 00:45:42,442
to change your own brain.
962
00:45:43,810 —> 00:45:45,423
Really an interesting concept.
963
00:45:46,812 —> 00:45:49,270
As one of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons
964
00:45:49,270 —> 00:45:50,600
that has to do with this,
965
00:45:50,600 —> 00:45:53,303
this is the ultimate self-help technique.
966
00:45:54,240 —> 00:45:56,640
And the guys here are reading these books,
967
00:45:56,640 —> 00:46:00,761
like «Do It By Instinct»
and «Dare To Be Nocturnal.»
968
00:46:00,761 —> 00:46:02,047
(audience laughing)
969
00:46:02,047 —> 00:46:04,632
«Predator-Prey Relationships.»
970
00:46:04,632 —> 00:46:06,610
And the best one of course
971
00:46:06,610 —> 00:46:08,510
is «How to Avoid Natural Selection,»
972
00:46:08,510 —> 00:46:10,160
which is (mumbles).
(audience laughing)
973
00:46:10,160 —> 00:46:15,160
So this is ultimately, I mean,
our greatest self-care tool.
974
00:46:15,240 —> 00:46:18,759
So let’s talk about how
we can think about this,
975
00:46:18,760 —> 00:46:20,660
and this is how I’m thinking about it now.
976
00:46:20,660 —> 00:46:23,529
I’m thinking that there’s
good worry and bad worry.
977
00:46:23,529 —> 00:46:27,330
And by that, I mean good
worry is functional worry.
978
00:46:27,330 —> 00:46:29,620
It’s worry that’s trying
to solve a problem
979
00:46:29,620 —> 00:46:32,596
and that has some potential
to solve a problem.
980
00:46:32,597 —> 00:46:36,640
And that, and if we separate our worries
981
00:46:36,640 —> 00:46:41,549
into good worries and bad
or futile worries, okay,
982
00:46:41,550 —> 00:46:44,760
we can treat each one of
them in a different manner.
983
00:46:44,760 —> 00:46:46,950
We can use our brain in a different way.
984
00:46:46,950 —> 00:46:48,307
So good worry is,
985
00:46:48,307 —> 00:46:49,587
«I’m worried about this project.
986
00:46:49,587 —> 00:46:51,217
«I’m worried about where to go to school.
987
00:46:51,217 —> 00:46:52,547
«I’m worried about
whether I’m gonna be able
988
00:46:52,547 —> 00:46:54,460
«to pay for my kid’s education.»
989
00:46:54,460 —> 00:46:56,250
Real stuff to worry about.
990
00:46:56,250 —> 00:46:58,977
It’s not that there’s any lack
of real stuff to worry about,
991
00:46:58,977 —> 00:47:01,276
but stuff that, if you asked
yourself, «Is it likely
992
00:47:01,276 —> 00:47:04,750
«that I could actually
do something about this?»
993
00:47:04,750 —> 00:47:08,791
That you would say either yes or maybe?
994
00:47:08,791 —> 00:47:11,210
As opposed to, when you actually write out
995
00:47:11,210 —> 00:47:12,587
the stuff you’re worrying about,
996
00:47:12,587 —> 00:47:14,970
a lot of times you find out,
997
00:47:14,970 —> 00:47:17,033
you look at stuff and you say, «Well,
998
00:47:19,977 —> 00:47:23,057
«I can’t do much about that, ‘2012.’
999
00:47:24,637 —> 00:47:27,790
«Gee, I’m worried that the
world’s gonna end in 2012.»
1000
00:47:27,790 —> 00:47:29,915
What are you gonna do about that?
1001
00:47:29,915 —> 00:47:32,790
Okay, are you likely to be
able to do anything about that?
1002
00:47:32,790 —> 00:47:35,793
You might wanna put that on
your bad worry list, okay?
1003
00:47:37,082 —> 00:47:42,082
And just enjoy the movie as
a great roller coaster ride.
1004
00:47:42,130 —> 00:47:44,250
So good worry anticipates
and solves problems.
1005
00:47:44,250 —> 00:47:47,630
Bad worry, circular, habitual, magical.
1006
00:47:47,630 —> 00:47:48,800
Doesn’t go anywhere.
1007
00:47:48,800 —> 00:47:51,723
Doesn’t lead to solutions, scares you.
1008
00:47:51,723 —> 00:47:53,590
In a sense, it starts to become
1009
00:47:53,590 —> 00:47:55,410
a type of auto-suggestion, right?
1010
00:47:55,410 —> 00:47:57,540
‘Cause you’re thinking about
this thing all the time,
1011
00:47:57,540 —> 00:47:58,745
you’re scaring yourself.
1012
00:47:58,745 —> 00:48:02,830
You’re sending out those
fear pathway and that makes
1013
00:48:02,830 —> 00:48:06,343
it harder to use your brain
when you’re feeling that way.
1014
00:48:07,690 —> 00:48:08,820
And so, how many of you
1015
00:48:08,820 —> 00:48:10,907
are familiar with the Serenity Prayer?
1016
00:48:10,907 —> 00:48:13,300
How many of you have heard of it before?
1017
00:48:13,300 —> 00:48:14,897
Okay, now I wanna ask how many of you
1018
00:48:14,897 —> 00:48:16,938
are in 12-step programs?
1019
00:48:16,938 —> 00:48:17,900
(audience laughing)
1020
00:48:17,900 —> 00:48:20,400
The 12-step programs
adopted the Serenity Prayer.
1021
00:48:20,400 —> 00:48:22,420
The Serenity Prayer goes back probably
1022
00:48:22,420 —> 00:48:24,440
as far as Roman times,
1023
00:48:24,440 —> 00:48:27,977
and then in modern times was attributed
1024
00:48:27,977 —> 00:48:28,990
to a theologian in WWII,
1025
00:48:28,990 —> 00:48:31,589
but the 12-step programs have adopted it.
1026
00:48:31,590 —> 00:48:34,330
It’s a brilliant prayer thought.
1027
00:48:34,330 —> 00:48:38,259
If you don’t like prayer, just
take off the God word, okay?
1028
00:48:38,260 —> 00:48:39,347
But the Serenity Prayer goes,
1029
00:48:39,347 —> 00:48:44,017
«God,» or whatever, «grant me the serenity
1030
00:48:44,017 —> 00:48:46,156
«to accept the things I cannot change,
1031
00:48:46,157 —> 00:48:49,257
«the courage to change
the things I can change,
1032
00:48:49,257 —> 00:48:51,820
«and the wisdom to know the difference.»
1033
00:48:51,820 —> 00:48:55,460
Okay, so if we use the Serenity Prayer
1034
00:48:55,460 —> 00:49:00,460
as kind of the skeleton of
our Worrying Well practice,
1035
00:49:01,240 —> 00:49:04,509
we wanna think about separating
things we’re worrying about
1036
00:49:04,510 —> 00:49:06,780
into things you can change,
1037
00:49:06,780 —> 00:49:08,773
things you probably can’t change.
1038
00:49:09,670 —> 00:49:11,760
And then if there are
some that are left over
1039
00:49:11,760 —> 00:49:13,220
that you’re not sure of,
1040
00:49:13,220 —> 00:49:15,895
where you need the wisdom
to know the difference,
1041
00:49:15,895 —> 00:49:19,000
I’m gonna talk to you at least about ways
1042
00:49:19,000 —> 00:49:22,300
that you can use imagery to help
1043
00:49:22,300 —> 00:49:24,430
with all three of those things.
1044
00:49:24,430 —> 00:49:27,091
So the first question is if
you’re not sure about something
1045
00:49:27,091 —> 00:49:30,453
and you need more wisdom,
how do get more wisdom?
1046
00:49:30,453 —> 00:49:35,040
Besides living another
30 or 40 years, okay?
1047
00:49:35,040 —> 00:49:37,913
By which, I mean that’s
not all that useful
1048
00:49:37,914 —> 00:49:40,090
when you’ve got an immediate problem.
1049
00:49:40,090 —> 00:49:44,600
So there’s ways, ordinary
ways to access more wisdom.
1050
00:49:44,600 —> 00:49:47,279
Talk to people that you think are wise.
1051
00:49:47,280 —> 00:49:49,614
If you have wise friends,
if you have wise teachers,
1052
00:49:49,614 —> 00:49:52,770
see if they’ll talk to you and
you can share your problem,
1053
00:49:52,770 —> 00:49:54,650
listen to ’em, consider what they say.
1054
00:49:54,650 —> 00:49:56,453
That’s one good source of wisdom.
1055
00:49:58,270 —> 00:49:59,280
This stands for what would
1056
00:49:59,280 —> 00:50:02,402
Jesus, Buddha, Dalai Lama, or Yoda do?
1057
00:50:02,402 —> 00:50:04,130
(audience laughing)
1058
00:50:04,130 —> 00:50:09,130
So if you don’t have access
to a wise friend or teacher,
1059
00:50:10,254 —> 00:50:13,330
this is a type of imagery technique.
1060
00:50:13,330 —> 00:50:16,345
Think about what would somebody
1061
00:50:16,345 —> 00:50:19,060
that you imagine is genuinely wise,
1062
00:50:19,060 —> 00:50:21,600
what would they say in that situation?
1063
00:50:21,600 —> 00:50:23,880
Remember Hillary Clinton got all kinds
1064
00:50:23,880 —> 00:50:27,500
of flack from people when
she was the First Lady
1065
00:50:27,500 —> 00:50:29,730
’cause she said she was in a circumstance
1066
00:50:29,730 —> 00:50:31,130
where she wasn’t sure what to do
1067
00:50:31,130 —> 00:50:33,770
and she thought a lot
about Eleanor Roosevelt
1068
00:50:33,770 —> 00:50:35,410
and what Eleanor Roosevelt would have done
1069
00:50:35,410 —> 00:50:36,995
in that situation, and of course,
1070
00:50:36,995 —> 00:50:39,439
all the kooks got up on her.
1071
00:50:39,439 —> 00:50:42,616
«She’s into spiritualism,»
and so on and so forth.
1072
00:50:42,617 —> 00:50:46,100
She was conjuring the
ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt.
1073
00:50:46,100 —> 00:50:50,319
She was imagining what a wise, ethical,
1074
00:50:50,320 —> 00:50:53,420
role-model would do in that situation.
1075
00:50:53,420 —> 00:50:57,012
It’s a perfectly natural and
very intelligent thing to do.
1076
00:50:57,012 —> 00:51:01,370
What would somebody with
class and wisdom and caring
1077
00:51:02,617 —> 00:51:04,217
and morals do in this situation?
1078
00:51:05,060 —> 00:51:06,960
And if you took it another step
1079
00:51:06,960 —> 00:51:09,670
and you do it a guided imagery
where you actually relax,
1080
00:51:09,670 —> 00:51:12,570
you go into a meditative or
relax, just a relaxed state,
1081
00:51:12,570 —> 00:51:14,750
and you kind of daydream
that you were walking
1082
00:51:14,750 —> 00:51:16,576
in the garden with Eleanor Roosevelt,
1083
00:51:16,576 —> 00:51:18,800
and you told her what was going on
1084
00:51:18,800 —> 00:51:21,393
and you imagined that
she spoke back to you.
1085
00:51:22,391 —> 00:51:24,030
That’s not spooky.
1086
00:51:24,030 —> 00:51:29,030
As long as you know that it’s
not really Eleanor Roosevelt,
1087
00:51:29,768 —> 00:51:32,880
or if it is, that she’s,
1088
00:51:32,880 —> 00:51:35,180
that you’re not identifying with her.
1089
00:51:35,180 —> 00:51:36,819
You’re not the person in the crazy house
1090
00:51:36,820 —> 00:51:38,720
who thinks that they’re Jesus,
1091
00:51:38,720 —> 00:51:41,009
but you could imagine
what Jesus would say.
1092
00:51:41,010 —> 00:51:42,360
What Jesus would do,
1093
00:51:42,360 —> 00:51:45,150
if Jesus is important
and meaningful to you.
1094
00:51:45,150 —> 00:51:47,440
Or if what the Dalai Lama would do
1095
00:51:47,440 —> 00:51:49,553
or what your wise grandmother would do,
1096
00:51:49,553 —> 00:51:52,540
or what your wise grandmother would do
1097
00:51:52,540 —> 00:51:55,210
if you had a wise grandmother, right?
1098
00:51:55,210 —> 00:51:57,068
So you start accessing,
1099
00:51:57,068 —> 00:52:00,660
what would it be like if I were
1100
00:52:00,660 —> 00:52:02,870
to approach this from a wise place
1101
00:52:02,870 —> 00:52:05,250
and you take the time to quiet down
1102
00:52:05,250 —> 00:52:07,708
and take the time to get deeper inside.
1103
00:52:07,708 —> 00:52:10,510
And that’s what we do with an imagery
1104
00:52:10,510 —> 00:52:12,730
we sometimes call inner wisdom imagery
1105
00:52:12,730 —> 00:52:17,730
or inner advisor, inner guide,
inner ally, inner whatever.
1106
00:52:18,360 —> 00:52:22,724
You can have your higher
power, guardian angel.
1107
00:52:22,724 —> 00:52:24,253
People have called this
1108
00:52:24,253 —> 00:52:27,550
by different names throughout history,
1109
00:52:27,550 —> 00:52:28,717
and some people feel like,
1110
00:52:28,717 —> 00:52:31,039
«Well, you are calling on on a spirit.»
1111
00:52:31,039 —> 00:52:33,257
And other people feel like,
1112
00:52:33,257 —> 00:52:35,397
«It’s just a way to get
to the part of my brain
1113
00:52:35,397 —> 00:52:37,308
«that has this wisdom.»
1114
00:52:37,308 —> 00:52:38,993
Because there is a part of all of us
1115
00:52:38,993 —> 00:52:40,350
that has a lot of wisdom.
1116
00:52:40,350 —> 00:52:41,299
You know when it comes out?
1117
00:52:41,300 —> 00:52:43,010
It comes out when your
friend’s in trouble.
1118
00:52:43,010 —> 00:52:44,890
When your friend comes to you for advice
1119
00:52:44,890 —> 00:52:46,661
’cause they can’t figure it out, right?
1120
00:52:46,661 —> 00:52:48,700
And have you ever noticed how easy it is
1121
00:52:48,700 —> 00:52:50,250
to give advice to your friends?
1122
00:52:51,230 —> 00:52:52,733
Good advice, usually.
1123
00:52:52,733 —> 00:52:54,800
And if it’s a serious thing,
1124
00:52:54,800 —> 00:52:56,480
you take time to think about it.
1125
00:52:56,480 —> 00:52:58,144
You don’t just give them a glib answer.
1126
00:52:58,144 —> 00:53:00,680
You take some time and you think about it.
1127
00:53:00,681 —> 00:53:04,340
You go down as deep as
you can inside yourself
1128
00:53:04,340 —> 00:53:07,024
and you give them that wise advice.
1129
00:53:07,024 —> 00:53:09,529
The thing is, it’s probably easier for you
1130
00:53:09,530 —> 00:53:11,900
to get to your wisdom than your friend
1131
00:53:11,900 —> 00:53:13,700
if your friend is really frightened.
1132
00:53:14,960 —> 00:53:16,550
Because when we are frightened,
1133
00:53:16,550 —> 00:53:18,747
when we’re anxious, when we’re worried,
1134
00:53:18,747 —> 00:53:22,214
there’s a psychological
phenomenon called regression.
1135
00:53:22,215 —> 00:53:23,790
We tend to regress.
1136
00:53:23,790 —> 00:53:27,610
We tend to feel like we’re
too little, we’re too weak,
1137
00:53:27,610 —> 00:53:30,697
we don’t have the resources,
we don’t know what to do.
1138
00:53:30,697 —> 00:53:34,850
We’re wishing that somebody
bigger, wiser, stronger
1139
00:53:34,850 —> 00:53:36,759
were there to tell us what to do.
1140
00:53:36,760 —> 00:53:39,500
And we feel more childlike
1141
00:53:39,500 —> 00:53:42,179
and that blocks our
access to our own wisdom.
1142
00:53:42,179 —> 00:53:45,220
And that’s why taking the time to go
1143
00:53:45,220 —> 00:53:47,580
to actually do a relaxation practice,
1144
00:53:47,580 —> 00:53:50,060
relax your body, shift your mind,
1145
00:53:50,060 —> 00:53:51,560
imagine that you go to a place
1146
00:53:51,560 —> 00:53:53,528
that’s beautiful and peaceful and safe,
1147
00:53:53,528 —> 00:53:56,439
so that you get out of that fearful loop.
1148
00:53:56,440 —> 00:54:00,757
You imagine, or you invite an
image, of someone or something
1149
00:54:00,757 —> 00:54:04,630
that’s wise and loving,
and that cares about you,
1150
00:54:04,630 —> 00:54:06,840
whether it’s someone or
something you’ve ever met
1151
00:54:06,840 —> 00:54:08,520
or something you just make up.
1152
00:54:08,520 —> 00:54:11,820
You just imagine, you imagine
what it would tell you
1153
00:54:11,820 —> 00:54:13,270
or show you or do with you,
1154
00:54:13,270 —> 00:54:15,441
and it’s quite remarkable what can come
1155
00:54:15,441 —> 00:54:18,584
from a meditation like this.
1156
00:54:18,585 —> 00:54:20,830
Does that make sense to people?
1157
00:54:20,830 —> 00:54:23,100
And so it’s easier to
do that for your friend
1158
00:54:23,100 —> 00:54:26,120
because as much as you love your friend,
1159
00:54:26,120 —> 00:54:28,490
you’re probably not gonna be
as freaked out as they are
1160
00:54:28,490 —> 00:54:30,221
if it’s a serious situation.
1161
00:54:30,222 —> 00:54:32,390
We see this all the time.
1162
00:54:32,390 —> 00:54:34,930
The most common place that
I see this in my practice
1163
00:54:34,930 —> 00:54:37,772
is with people who’ve just been
newly diagnosed with cancer,
1164
00:54:37,772 —> 00:54:42,772
and they’re just shocked and
freaked out as most people are.
1165
00:54:43,270 —> 00:54:45,370
And in the meantime,
they’re visiting all these
1166
00:54:45,370 —> 00:54:47,210
different doctors and oncologists,
1167
00:54:47,210 —> 00:54:50,530
and trying to become an
oncologist in two weeks
1168
00:54:50,530 —> 00:54:52,550
and learn the whole field of oncology
1169
00:54:52,550 —> 00:54:53,942
and figure out their best option.
1170
00:54:53,942 —> 00:54:57,404
While emotionally, they’re
feeling like a three-year-old.
1171
00:54:57,404 —> 00:55:00,290
So, and it’s very difficult for them
1172
00:55:00,290 —> 00:55:02,950
to make the decisions that way.
1173
00:55:02,950 —> 00:55:05,180
These kinds of techniques,
if you start early
1174
00:55:05,180 —> 00:55:07,990
and help them connect
to a deeper level enough
1175
00:55:07,990 —> 00:55:10,950
that scared child can
really make a difference
1176
00:55:10,950 —> 00:55:13,743
in terms of wise decision-making.
1177
00:55:15,764 —> 00:55:18,180
So sometimes they give, your inner advisor
1178
00:55:18,180 —> 00:55:19,257
will say something like this.
1179
00:55:19,257 —> 00:55:21,587
«The secret of living
without frustration and worry
1180
00:55:21,587 —> 00:55:25,776
«is to avoid becoming personally
involved in your own life.»
1181
00:55:25,776 —> 00:55:29,649
This is definitely a good
treatment for worry, okay?
1182
00:55:29,650 —> 00:55:33,532
But usually, and that’s not bad advice.
1183
00:55:33,532 —> 00:55:36,780
Here’s how I think this
thing kind of works.
1184
00:55:36,780 —> 00:55:39,690
So if we go through this process
1185
00:55:39,690 —> 00:55:40,930
of thinking about the worries,
1186
00:55:40,930 —> 00:55:43,048
I actually have people
in class write them down
1187
00:55:43,048 —> 00:55:45,270
and then go through and separate them.
1188
00:55:45,270 —> 00:55:46,530
I mean, it sounds mechanical.
1189
00:55:46,530 —> 00:55:48,570
It’s just using our ordinary intelligence.
1190
00:55:48,570 —> 00:55:50,150
Separate them into three columns.
1191
00:55:50,150 —> 00:55:51,763
Things you think you could
change if you wanted to,
1192
00:55:51,763 —> 00:55:54,665
things you think you couldn’t
change if you wanted to,
1193
00:55:54,665 —> 00:55:57,223
and things that you’re not sure about.
1194
00:55:58,210 —> 00:56:00,410
And people rarely do this,
1195
00:56:00,410 —> 00:56:02,089
so we carry it around in our head.
1196
00:56:02,090 —> 00:56:04,274
Just writing it down is often very helpful
1197
00:56:04,274 —> 00:56:06,420
for people in sorting it out.
1198
00:56:06,420 —> 00:56:10,510
And then where we want
to get to is down here,
1199
00:56:10,510 —> 00:56:12,983
either if it’s something you can’t change,
1200
00:56:14,050 —> 00:56:16,470
basically what you wanna
do is get to a place
1201
00:56:16,470 —> 00:56:20,319
where you either get to a place
of some kind of acceptance.
1202
00:56:20,320 —> 00:56:22,151
Some kind of coming to terms.
1203
00:56:22,151 —> 00:56:27,151
Or you turn it around into
an intention or a prayer.
1204
00:56:27,356 —> 00:56:29,590
So in other words, you’re
worrying about something.
1205
00:56:29,590 —> 00:56:31,900
That something’s gonna
happen, but it’s not something
1206
00:56:31,900 —> 00:56:34,083
that you can physically
do something about.
1207
00:56:34,980 —> 00:56:36,730
It’s interesting to see what happens
1208
00:56:36,730 —> 00:56:38,410
if you take it and you turn it around
1209
00:56:38,410 —> 00:56:40,640
and you put it into a
positive visualization
1210
00:56:40,640 —> 00:56:44,089
of what you would rather
have happen, okay?
1211
00:56:44,090 —> 00:56:47,570
So, and I’m gonna skip the
whole argument here about
1212
00:56:47,570 —> 00:56:50,488
whether or not that has a
physical effect and the secret.
1213
00:56:50,488 —> 00:56:53,210
Whether we just make something happen
1214
00:56:53,210 —> 00:56:54,477
by changing our intention,
1215
00:56:54,477 —> 00:56:58,399
and sometimes it seems that
we do and sometimes we don’t.
1216
00:56:58,400 —> 00:57:00,878
But what does happen when
people, in other words,
1217
00:57:00,878 —> 00:57:04,300
some friend gets diagnosed with cancer
1218
00:57:04,300 —> 00:57:05,840
and you are overcome with worry
1219
00:57:05,840 —> 00:57:09,140
because you are just worried
that she’s gonna die, okay.
1220
00:57:09,140 —> 00:57:11,069
Or be sick or go through
some horrendous thing
1221
00:57:11,070 —> 00:57:12,460
’cause you care for your friend.
1222
00:57:12,460 —> 00:57:14,390
That’s a typically normal reaction.
1223
00:57:14,390 —> 00:57:16,520
But you find yourself losing sleep
1224
00:57:16,520 —> 00:57:17,528
and you’re thinking about
1225
00:57:17,528 —> 00:57:19,336
and you’re just getting obsessed with it
1226
00:57:19,336 —> 00:57:20,169
and so on and so forth.
1227
00:57:20,169 —> 00:57:23,060
Well, and there’s nothing
more that you can do.
1228
00:57:23,060 —> 00:57:25,640
You’re bringing her
food and you’re a source
1229
00:57:25,640 —> 00:57:27,160
of support and so on and so forth,
1230
00:57:27,160 —> 00:57:29,100
but you aren’t personally going to be able
1231
00:57:29,100 —> 00:57:31,072
to cure that cancer, okay?
1232
00:57:31,072 —> 00:57:32,777
But now you start to say,
1233
00:57:32,777 —> 00:57:36,027
«Okay, instead of constantly imagining
1234
00:57:36,027 —> 00:57:37,667
«what I don’t wanna have happen,
1235
00:57:37,667 —> 00:57:40,482
«I’m gonna think about what
I would rather have happen,
1236
00:57:40,483 —> 00:57:44,517
«so I’m gonna start to imagine
that she gets great treatment
1237
00:57:44,517 —> 00:57:46,096
«and that her cancer responds
1238
00:57:46,097 —> 00:57:47,796
«and that she comes through that treatment
1239
00:57:47,796 —> 00:57:50,667
«and she survives it
and she comes out being
1240
00:57:50,667 —> 00:57:53,027
«an even stronger and healthier person.
1241
00:57:53,027 —> 00:57:54,602
«That if it’s up to, if it was up to me,
1242
00:57:54,602 —> 00:57:56,836
«if I was God, that’s what would happen.»
1243
00:57:56,836 —> 00:57:59,133
And I don’t know if that’ll
make any difference,
1244
00:57:59,133 —> 00:58:01,899
but that’s where I’m gonna put my energy,
1245
00:58:01,900 —> 00:58:04,094
instead of putting my energy over here.
1246
00:58:04,094 —> 00:58:09,094
And whether it changes the
outcome or not, way beyond me,
1247
00:58:09,292 —> 00:58:11,600
but what it does do is that
1248
00:58:11,600 —> 00:58:14,470
when people start focusing on that image,
1249
00:58:14,470 —> 00:58:16,270
they become less anxious.
1250
00:58:16,270 —> 00:58:19,927
You become less anxious
because you feel like,
1251
00:58:19,927 —> 00:58:21,637
«I’m doing what I can be doing
1252
00:58:21,637 —> 00:58:25,270
«and I’m putting my energy
into what I wanna see happen.»
1253
00:58:25,270 —> 00:58:26,730
Does that make sense?
1254
00:58:26,730 —> 00:58:29,640
And there’s a lot of
principles of suggestion
1255
00:58:29,640 —> 00:58:31,482
that are at work there.
1256
00:58:33,180 —> 00:58:35,810
There’s a couple analogies
I use for people.
1257
00:58:35,810 —> 00:58:38,657
One is, I’m not a skier myself.
1258
00:58:38,657 —> 00:58:40,700
A mountain biker and I skied.
1259
00:58:40,700 —> 00:58:42,493
I don’t know how many of you are,
1260
00:58:42,493 —> 00:58:43,410
but you can imagine being a skier.
1261
00:58:43,410 —> 00:58:46,009
So imagine that you’re up
on the top of a very steep,
1262
00:58:46,009 —> 00:58:48,698
very challenging ski run.
1263
00:58:48,698 —> 00:58:51,147
What you wanna do when
you’re up there at the top
1264
00:58:52,244 —> 00:58:53,220
before you start, before you push off,
1265
00:58:53,220 —> 00:58:54,740
you wanna check it all out.
1266
00:58:54,740 —> 00:58:56,587
You wanna see, «Hey, there’s
a big rock over here.
1267
00:58:56,587 —> 00:58:58,357
«I don’t wanna bump, hit that.
1268
00:58:58,357 —> 00:58:59,567
«There’s big trees over here.
1269
00:58:59,567 —> 00:59:01,736
«I don’t wanna hit those.»
1270
00:59:01,736 —> 00:59:05,029
Then what you wanna do, and
any skier will tell you,
1271
00:59:05,030 —> 00:59:07,270
that you wanna see what the line is
1272
00:59:07,270 —> 00:59:10,660
that takes you through
safely through those things.
1273
00:59:10,660 —> 00:59:12,772
And once you start skiing
and you’re going fast
1274
00:59:12,773 —> 00:59:15,230
or riding your bike downhill
1275
00:59:15,230 —> 00:59:17,190
or any other thing that’s like that,
1276
00:59:17,190 —> 00:59:19,270
what you wanna focus on is you wanna focus
1277
00:59:19,270 —> 00:59:20,810
on where you wanna go,
1278
00:59:20,810 —> 00:59:22,770
not on where you don’t wanna go
1279
00:59:23,620 —> 00:59:27,701
because if you fixate on that
rock, you will crash into it.
1280
00:59:27,701 —> 00:59:31,270
Because that is how your
body-mind is put together.
1281
00:59:31,270 —> 00:59:33,473
It tends to go where you look.
1282
00:59:34,330 —> 00:59:35,830
The other example I use for people
1283
00:59:35,830 —> 00:59:38,900
is if you wanna hit a
bullseye in a dartboard,
1284
00:59:38,900 —> 00:59:42,286
it helps if you look at it, okay?
1285
00:59:42,286 —> 00:59:44,781
If you look at it, you’re
not guaranteed to hit it
1286
00:59:44,781 —> 00:59:47,148
but you’re much more likely to hit it
1287
00:59:47,148 —> 00:59:48,930
than if you close your eyes
1288
00:59:48,930 —> 00:59:50,740
or your attention is
just all over the place.
1289
00:59:50,740 —> 00:59:53,540
And if you keep looking at
it, even if you keep missing,
1290
00:59:53,541 —> 00:59:58,541
your whole nervous system is
wired to recruit resources
1291
00:59:58,620 —> 01:00:00,536
and to control your body
so that you get closer
1292
01:00:00,536 —> 01:00:03,730
and closer to it and that you
hit it more and more often.
1293
01:00:03,730 —> 01:00:07,061
So it’s goal-setting, it’s
focusing your intention
1294
01:00:07,061 —> 01:00:09,380
on what you wanna have happen.
1295
01:00:09,380 —> 01:00:10,286
Does that make sense?
1296
01:00:10,286 —> 01:00:13,230
Without doing that, I was
talking to a psychiatrist friend
1297
01:00:13,230 —> 01:00:15,392
of mine the other day
about this and he says,
1298
01:00:15,392 —> 01:00:19,431
«I think you’re talking about
intention deficit disorder.»
1299
01:00:19,431 —> 01:00:20,960
(audience laughing)
1300
01:00:20,960 —> 01:00:24,280
‘Cause a lot of this comes down
to whether how much control
1301
01:00:24,280 —> 01:00:26,851
we can have about where
we put our attention.
1302
01:00:26,851 —> 01:00:30,710
So we put our attention in this case on a,
1303
01:00:30,710 —> 01:00:33,410
if you’re a prayer, if
you’re a religious person
1304
01:00:33,410 —> 01:00:34,759
and you have a way of praying,
1305
01:00:34,760 —> 01:00:37,240
then you pray for the
outcome that you desire.
1306
01:00:37,240 —> 01:00:39,830
If you’re not a religious
person, if you don’t pray,
1307
01:00:39,830 —> 01:00:41,770
you visualize or you intend it.
1308
01:00:41,770 —> 01:00:43,147
You say, «If it’s up to me,
1309
01:00:43,147 —> 01:00:45,553
«I’m worried that my friend will succumb.
1310
01:00:45,553 —> 01:00:47,393
«I don’t want that to happen.»
1311
01:00:47,393 —> 01:00:50,487
«But the way that I’m gonna put my energy
1312
01:00:50,487 —> 01:00:51,987
«into her getting better,
1313
01:00:51,987 —> 01:00:54,578
«into imagining that she gets better.»
1314
01:00:54,578 —> 01:00:57,750
And if nothing else, it’ll help you.
1315
01:00:57,750 —> 01:01:00,200
It’ll help reduce your anxiety level.
1316
01:01:00,200 —> 01:01:02,477
Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
1317
01:01:02,478 —> 01:01:05,970
So the other thing is, is
that on the other side,
1318
01:01:05,970 —> 01:01:07,923
is if something that you can change,
1319
01:01:08,848 —> 01:01:12,110
there’s a couple of
processes for doing this.
1320
01:01:12,110 —> 01:01:14,760
One of the questions is
sometimes people don’t act
1321
01:01:14,760 —> 01:01:15,960
on things that they can change
1322
01:01:15,960 —> 01:01:19,720
because they feel like they
don’t have enough creativity.
1323
01:01:19,720 —> 01:01:21,529
They haven’t been able to solve a problem.
1324
01:01:21,530 —> 01:01:24,010
They don’t have the guts,
the courage to act on it.
1325
01:01:24,010 —> 01:01:25,250
They don’t have the assertiveness.
1326
01:01:25,250 —> 01:01:26,507
They don’t have the confidence.
1327
01:01:26,507 —> 01:01:29,310
So imagery, and I’m gonna hopefully share
1328
01:01:29,310 —> 01:01:31,552
with you an imagery that you
can experiment with yourself
1329
01:01:31,552 —> 01:01:34,910
is a fantastic way of both accessing
1330
01:01:34,910 —> 01:01:38,939
and building these kinds of
personal qualities in yourself
1331
01:01:38,939 —> 01:01:42,359
so that you can be more
effective in making changes
1332
01:01:42,360 —> 01:01:43,680
that you want to, okay.
1333
01:01:43,680 —> 01:01:45,649
And leading to an action
1334
01:01:45,650 —> 01:01:47,700
that can actually resolve these problems.
1335
01:01:49,180 —> 01:01:51,106
So imagery is a type of thinking,
1336
01:01:51,106 —> 01:01:54,500
people often say that
it involves your senses.
1337
01:01:54,500 —> 01:01:58,973
Thoughts that you can see,
hear, smell, feel, daydreams.
1338
01:02:00,320 —> 01:02:02,633
It’s a language, it’s
an emotional language.
1339
01:02:02,633 —> 01:02:05,520
It’s a synthetic, just thought language.
1340
01:02:05,520 —> 01:02:07,440
It’s a language of the arts.
1341
01:02:07,440 —> 01:02:12,440
It’s all the visual arts,
drama, poetry, painting.
1342
01:02:14,480 —> 01:02:18,280
Even music, dance, images that bring,
1343
01:02:18,280 —> 01:02:19,750
convey a lot of information,
1344
01:02:19,750 —> 01:02:20,720
but not in the same way
1345
01:02:20,720 —> 01:02:24,379
that an equation conveys information.
1346
01:02:24,380 —> 01:02:26,280
That it makes sense.
1347
01:02:26,280 —> 01:02:28,182
It’s the difference between listening.
1348
01:02:28,182 —> 01:02:30,009
I think Einstein once said,
1349
01:02:30,009 —> 01:02:32,487
«You could break a Beethoven sonata down
1350
01:02:32,487 —> 01:02:34,557
«into wavelengths and frequencies,
1351
01:02:34,557 —> 01:02:36,537
«but you’d be missing the point.»
1352
01:02:37,703 —> 01:02:41,810
So there’s that linear, scientific part.
1353
01:02:41,810 —> 01:02:43,360
There’s that experiential part.
1354
01:02:43,360 —> 01:02:44,363
We’re after that.
1355
01:02:45,330 —> 01:02:48,134
So imagery, it’s a
natural way that we think.
1356
01:02:48,135 —> 01:02:50,776
It’s very closely linked to the emotions.
1357
01:02:50,776 —> 01:02:54,620
It’s a natural, if you think
about it as a coding language,
1358
01:02:54,620 —> 01:02:57,741
it’s a coding language of the
emotional, intuitive gray.
1359
01:02:57,741 —> 01:02:59,680
And it’s just that we haven’t
1360
01:02:59,680 —> 01:03:02,390
had much education in using it,
1361
01:03:02,390 —> 01:03:06,216
and runaway imagination is
probably the primary source
1362
01:03:06,216 —> 01:03:07,743
of modern stress.
1363
01:03:08,720 —> 01:03:10,129
It’s not just what’s happening,
1364
01:03:10,130 —> 01:03:12,670
it’s what you think will happen to you,
1365
01:03:12,670 —> 01:03:14,120
and how it will affect you
1366
01:03:14,120 —> 01:03:16,470
that sends the signals
down into your body.
1367
01:03:16,470 —> 01:03:19,890
On the other hand, developing
a skillful imagination,
1368
01:03:19,890 —> 01:03:23,810
one that you can use to
send messages of calmness,
1369
01:03:23,810 —> 01:03:27,279
of confidence, creativity,
of there’s a lot
1370
01:03:27,280 —> 01:03:29,410
of different ways to use it.
1371
01:03:29,410 —> 01:03:31,890
Your most potent tool for stress relief,
1372
01:03:31,890 —> 01:03:33,799
but you need to learn some skills
1373
01:03:33,800 —> 01:03:36,067
in order to use it on purpose.
1374
01:03:36,067 —> 01:03:39,789
So the imagery, what the
imagery does is if we’re having
1375
01:03:39,789 —> 01:03:42,547
a problem that we can’t
solve in that cortex,
1376
01:03:42,547 —> 01:03:45,840
the imagery brings the
limbic brain into it.
1377
01:03:45,840 —> 01:03:49,470
It brings the emotional,
intuitive intelligence
1378
01:03:49,470 —> 01:03:51,169
to that issue or problem,
1379
01:03:51,170 —> 01:03:54,990
so it just brings a whole
other big area of the brain
1380
01:03:54,990 —> 01:03:57,484
to bear on whatever the problem is.
1381
01:03:57,485 —> 01:03:59,270
So it doesn’t take anything away.
1382
01:03:59,270 —> 01:04:02,603
It adds intelligence to
your problem-solving.
1383
01:04:03,577 —> 01:04:05,690
So you can calm your brain with imagery,
1384
01:04:05,690 —> 01:04:09,363
just like you can make it anxious.
1385
01:04:10,200 —> 01:04:13,720
I could take you through a little imagery,
1386
01:04:13,720 —> 01:04:15,589
just ask you to imagine the scariest thing
1387
01:04:15,590 —> 01:04:16,423
you’ve ever been through.
1388
01:04:16,423 —> 01:04:17,870
Don’t do that right now.
1389
01:04:17,870 —> 01:04:19,596
If we went through it and had you really,
1390
01:04:19,597 —> 01:04:20,430
«What do you see?
1391
01:04:20,430 —> 01:04:21,263
«What do you hear?
1392
01:04:21,263 —> 01:04:22,096
«What do you smell?
1393
01:04:22,096 —> 01:04:22,929
«Imagine you’re there again.»
1394
01:04:22,929 —> 01:04:24,744
You could work up pretty good anxiety.
1395
01:04:24,744 —> 01:04:27,640
If I asked you instead to
imagine that you go to a place
1396
01:04:27,640 —> 01:04:29,287
that’s peaceful and beautiful to you
1397
01:04:29,287 —> 01:04:31,223
and that you just loved to be in,
1398
01:04:31,223 —> 01:04:34,031
we have nothing to do and it’s safe
1399
01:04:34,031 —> 01:04:36,424
and it’s the right temperature
1400
01:04:36,424 —> 01:04:39,300
and notice what you see and hear and smell
1401
01:04:39,300 —> 01:04:41,975
and immerse yourself in that daydream.
1402
01:04:41,975 —> 01:04:44,082
Your brain will send messages down
1403
01:04:44,082 —> 01:04:47,480
through the limbic system,
down into the lizard brain.
1404
01:04:47,480 —> 01:04:50,407
It’ll say, «It looks
beautiful, peaceful, and safe.
1405
01:04:50,407 —> 01:04:52,317
«It sounds beautiful, peaceful, and safe.
1406
01:04:52,317 —> 01:04:53,827
«It smells nice.
1407
01:04:53,827 —> 01:04:55,627
«It’s peaceful here, it’s safe.
1408
01:04:55,627 —> 01:04:57,179
«Hit the All Clear button.»
1409
01:04:57,179 —> 01:04:59,590
And your body will shift into that.
1410
01:04:59,590 —> 01:05:01,027
So there’s that place is,
1411
01:05:01,027 —> 01:05:05,957
«Where right now do I
wanna focus my attention?
1412
01:05:07,157 —> 01:05:12,157
«What train of thought do I
wanna put my attention on?»
1413
01:05:15,000 —> 01:05:17,540
And again, few people have
ever really been taught this,
1414
01:05:17,540 —> 01:05:18,843
so we have got …
1415
01:05:19,730 —> 01:05:21,670
I’ll get to the commercial aspect later,
1416
01:05:21,670 —> 01:05:23,830
but it’s one reason that
I’ve devoted as much time
1417
01:05:23,830 —> 01:05:27,840
as I have to writing books and
doing audio CDs and downloads
1418
01:05:27,840 —> 01:05:30,000
for to teach people these skills.
1419
01:05:30,000 —> 01:05:32,648
They’re very, they’re simple skills.
1420
01:05:32,648 —> 01:05:34,070
Your imagination is your birthright.
1421
01:05:34,070 —> 01:05:35,550
It’s built into you.
1422
01:05:35,550 —> 01:05:38,150
Nobody ever really just taught you how
1423
01:05:38,150 —> 01:05:41,760
to do some fairly simple,
but potentially profound
1424
01:05:43,366 —> 01:05:48,117
moves with them that can
literally change your life
1425
01:05:49,049 —> 01:05:51,543
depending on what you’re doing.
1426
01:05:51,543 —> 01:05:53,743
It can certainly improve your life.
1427
01:05:55,950 —> 01:05:59,609
So rather than talk with you more,
1428
01:05:59,610 —> 01:06:01,110
I wanna offer you a chance.
1429
01:06:01,110 —> 01:06:05,109
Let’s do, would you
like to do some imagery?
1430
01:06:05,109 —> 01:06:07,150
Some guided imagery instead.
1431
01:06:07,150 —> 01:06:08,513
We’ll rest your left brain.
1432
01:06:09,811 —> 01:06:11,970
We’ll fan it off, cool it off.
1433
01:06:11,970 —> 01:06:15,399
So I wanna share with you
a fairly simple imagery
1434
01:06:15,400 —> 01:06:18,267
that we call evocative imagery.
1435
01:06:18,267 —> 01:06:21,942
How many of you have used guided
imagery on purpose before?
1436
01:06:23,730 —> 01:06:24,563
So a fair number.
1437
01:06:24,563 —> 01:06:27,489
Maybe half or a little more than half.
1438
01:06:27,489 —> 01:06:30,660
So this is a way to use imagery
1439
01:06:30,660 —> 01:06:34,080
to help you access particular quality
1440
01:06:34,080 —> 01:06:36,018
that you might wanna have more of.
1441
01:06:36,018 —> 01:06:39,000
Okay, and that could be,
1442
01:06:39,000 —> 01:06:41,050
it could be courage,
it could be confidence,
1443
01:06:41,050 —> 01:06:43,510
it could be creativity,
it could be patience,
1444
01:06:43,510 —> 01:06:47,136
it could be humor, it
could be assertiveness.
1445
01:06:47,136 —> 01:06:50,790
Any quality that you wanna think about.
1446
01:06:50,790 —> 01:06:52,821
And the way that we usually use this,
1447
01:06:52,821 —> 01:06:55,290
and you could do this is to think
1448
01:06:55,290 —> 01:06:58,113
about the situation that
you’ve got going on,
1449
01:06:58,113 —> 01:07:03,113
that you have had difficulty
solving or resolving.
1450
01:07:03,130 —> 01:07:04,580
And you just feel like you
1451
01:07:04,580 —> 01:07:06,116
just haven’t been able to resolve it
1452
01:07:06,117 —> 01:07:07,460
and it seems like something
1453
01:07:07,460 —> 01:07:11,191
that you could potentially
solve or resolve.
1454
01:07:11,191 —> 01:07:13,180
Well, you just don’t feel you have
1455
01:07:13,180 —> 01:07:18,180
enough fill in the blank to do this.
1456
01:07:18,280 —> 01:07:22,180
You need a little more,
again, courage, assertiveness,
1457
01:07:22,180 —> 01:07:27,180
patience, humor, whatever it is, okay?
1458
01:07:27,890 —> 01:07:29,973
If you can’t think of
one right off the bat,
1459
01:07:29,974 —> 01:07:33,560
just think about a quality
that you would like
1460
01:07:34,640 —> 01:07:37,853
to experience more of in yourself.
1461
01:07:38,810 —> 01:07:43,810
Joy, calmness, again,
confidence, self-love.
1462
01:07:50,240 —> 01:07:51,981
Whatever floats your boat.
1463
01:07:51,981 —> 01:07:55,283
Just some quality you’d
like to experience more of.
1464
01:07:56,643 —> 01:07:58,256
And give it a name.
1465
01:07:58,256 —> 01:08:00,495
Think about what the name of it,
1466
01:08:00,495 —> 01:08:03,710
and you could do a couple of qualities.
1467
01:08:03,710 —> 01:08:05,130
I wouldn’t do more than,
1468
01:08:05,130 —> 01:08:07,050
sometimes it’s unclear
what you need more of.
1469
01:08:07,050 —> 01:08:08,570
I feel like I need more,
1470
01:08:08,570 —> 01:08:11,267
I don’t know if it’s courage
or I need more strength,
1471
01:08:11,267 —> 01:08:13,627
so you could do them
both kind of together.
1472
01:08:13,627 —> 01:08:15,890
Kinda know what you’re after.
1473
01:08:15,890 —> 01:08:18,729
But think about a specific
quality or a couple qualities
1474
01:08:18,729 —> 01:08:22,952
that you would just like to
feel more of in yourself, okay?
1475
01:08:28,430 —> 01:08:30,530
And then let yourself be as comfortable
1476
01:08:30,529 —> 01:08:32,319
as you can be in your seats.
1477
01:08:32,319 —> 01:08:33,299
You can close your eyes.
1478
01:08:33,300 —> 01:08:34,393
You don’t have to.
1479
01:08:35,800 —> 01:08:38,627
But it’s usually easier to pay
attention to your imagination
1480
01:08:38,627 —> 01:08:40,503
and your inner world if you do.
1481
01:08:43,370 —> 01:08:45,099
And then just let yourself take a couple
1482
01:08:45,100 —> 01:08:46,590
of deeper breaths in your breathing.
1483
01:08:46,590 —> 01:08:50,181
Let your breathing get a little
deeper into your abdomen,
1484
01:08:50,180 —> 01:08:52,740
and-
(exhaling)
1485
01:08:52,740 —> 01:08:56,633
let your out breath be kind of
a letting go kind of breath.
1486
01:08:59,928 —> 01:09:02,700
Without forcing anything
or straining anything,
1487
01:09:02,700 —> 01:09:05,120
just, again, drawing a deeper breath
1488
01:09:05,120 —> 01:09:07,962
into your abdomen and to your belly,
1489
01:09:09,013 —> 01:09:12,470
letting the out breath be
a letting kind of a breath.
1490
01:09:12,470 —> 01:09:15,793
Just inviting your body to
begin to soften or relax.
1491
01:09:16,639 —> 01:09:18,470
And just another time or two
1492
01:09:18,470 —> 01:09:20,840
as you welcome the breath into your body.
1493
01:09:20,840 —> 01:09:23,870
Just notice that you’re
literally bringing fresh energy
1494
01:09:23,870 —> 01:09:27,450
and oxygen into your body.
1495
01:09:27,450 —> 01:09:31,080
You can invite it to circulate
and flow around your body
1496
01:09:31,080 —> 01:09:34,326
in the bloodstream to
every cell of your body.
1497
01:09:34,326 —> 01:09:36,353
Brings fresh energy.
1498
01:09:37,966 —> 01:09:40,609
And as you let the
breath out, if you like,
1499
01:09:40,609 —> 01:09:43,130
just let it be an invitation to your body,
1500
01:09:43,130 —> 01:09:45,000
your mind, even your spirit,
1501
01:09:45,000 —> 01:09:46,720
to just let go of any tension
1502
01:09:46,720 —> 01:09:49,233
or discomfort you don’t
have to hold right now.
1503
01:09:51,590 —> 01:09:53,830
And you don’t even have to worry
1504
01:09:53,830 —> 01:09:57,200
about whether you need to hold
or what you can let go of.
1505
01:09:57,200 —> 01:09:59,348
Just invite the body to soften.
1506
01:09:59,348 —> 01:10:01,623
The mind to begin to quiet.
1507
01:10:02,631 —> 01:10:06,910
And invite your body to
continue to soften and relax.
1508
01:10:06,910 —> 01:10:09,440
Perhaps to become a little more spacious
1509
01:10:12,205 —> 01:10:14,883
without worrying about how it does that.
1510
01:10:16,080 —> 01:10:19,263
Feel free to shift or move
to be even more comfortable.
1511
01:10:21,025 —> 01:10:24,888
And if you haven’t already
let yourself go inside
1512
01:10:24,888 —> 01:10:27,896
to a place that’s very beautiful to you,
1513
01:10:27,896 —> 01:10:30,057
let yourself daydream yourself to a place
1514
01:10:30,057 —> 01:10:33,853
that’s very beautiful, peaceful, safe.
1515
01:10:36,031 —> 01:10:37,600
And that might be a place
1516
01:10:37,600 —> 01:10:39,550
that you’ve actually been in your life.
1517
01:10:42,690 —> 01:10:45,793
Either in your outer life
or even in your inner life.
1518
01:10:47,730 —> 01:10:50,150
Or it might be a place that
just comes to mind right now,
1519
01:10:50,150 —> 01:10:52,763
an imaginary place or some combination.
1520
01:10:53,805 —> 01:10:55,250
It doesn’t really matter,
1521
01:10:55,250 —> 01:10:57,600
as long as it’s a place
that’s beautiful to you
1522
01:10:58,910 —> 01:11:02,153
and peaceful and safe.
1523
01:11:05,340 —> 01:11:08,895
And if more than one place comes to mind,
1524
01:11:08,895 —> 01:11:13,083
just pick whichever one
attracts you the most right now.
1525
01:11:15,550 —> 01:11:19,423
And imagine in your own way
that you’re actually there.
1526
01:11:21,319 —> 01:11:23,710
And take a few moments to just look around
1527
01:11:23,710 —> 01:11:25,560
and notice what you imagine seeing
1528
01:11:25,560 —> 01:11:27,663
in this beautiful, peaceful place.
1529
01:11:30,850 —> 01:11:32,790
Notice the colors and the shapes
1530
01:11:32,790 —> 01:11:34,363
and the things that are there,
1531
01:11:36,870 —> 01:11:39,960
and don’t worry about whether
it’s very vivid and clear
1532
01:11:40,857 —> 01:11:43,982
like your usual eyesight or
whether it’s kind of vague
1533
01:11:43,982 —> 01:11:46,010
or it comes and goes,
1534
01:11:46,010 —> 01:11:48,010
but just notice what you imagine is there
1535
01:11:48,010 —> 01:11:50,743
in this peaceful, beautiful
place, safe place.
1536
01:11:53,486 —> 01:11:57,490
And notice what you imagine
hearing in that place,
1537
01:11:57,490 —> 01:11:59,143
or if it’s just very quiet.
1538
01:12:00,605 —> 01:12:03,383
Notice any sounds you imagine hearing.
1539
01:12:07,060 —> 01:12:09,640
Notice if there’s an aroma or a fragrance
1540
01:12:09,640 —> 01:12:12,123
or a quality of the air.
1541
01:12:14,140 —> 01:12:17,063
And notice what time of day
or night it seems to be.
1542
01:12:18,560 —> 01:12:21,510
And I wonder if you can tell
what season of the year it is.
1543
01:12:25,070 —> 01:12:28,940
Just notice, find the spot in that place
1544
01:12:28,940 —> 01:12:31,139
where you feel most
comfortable and at ease.
1545
01:12:33,320 —> 01:12:34,809
And just trusting your instincts
1546
01:12:34,810 —> 01:12:37,504
just like a dog or a
cat will circle around
1547
01:12:37,504 —> 01:12:40,940
and find the most comfortable place to be
1548
01:12:41,812 —> 01:12:44,282
and let yourself get comfortable there.
1549
01:12:46,824 —> 01:12:49,219
And then think about a quality
1550
01:12:49,220 —> 01:12:51,320
that you think you’d like to feel more of.
1551
01:12:54,730 —> 01:12:59,549
The name of a quality, a
particular quality or feeling state
1552
01:12:59,550 —> 01:13:01,223
that you’d like to feel more of.
1553
01:13:05,050 —> 01:13:08,250
And then let yourself
go back in your memory
1554
01:13:08,250 —> 01:13:11,710
to some time when you experienced yourself
1555
01:13:12,660 —> 01:13:14,663
having that quality in yourself.
1556
01:13:18,040 —> 01:13:20,630
Just let your memory go back to some time
1557
01:13:21,520 —> 01:13:25,563
when you felt that quality in yourself.
1558
01:13:33,969 —> 01:13:36,040
And some of you may not have a memory
1559
01:13:36,040 —> 01:13:40,830
of having that quality, so
let yourself go to some time
1560
01:13:40,830 —> 01:13:44,550
when you witnessed
somebody else expressing
1561
01:13:44,550 —> 01:13:47,413
that quality or embodying that quality.
1562
01:13:49,770 —> 01:13:52,630
that could be a real person
or a fictional person
1563
01:13:52,630 —> 01:13:54,253
or a historical person.
1564
01:13:55,860 —> 01:13:59,210
And if you found a time when
you yourself had this quality,
1565
01:13:59,210 —> 01:14:02,173
imagine that you’re there again now.
1566
01:14:05,116 —> 01:14:10,116
And notice what you see,
what you hear, what you feel
1567
01:14:12,421 —> 01:14:17,163
as you’re feeling that
particular quality within you.
1568
01:14:19,700 —> 01:14:22,110
And if you’re imagining somebody else
1569
01:14:22,110 —> 01:14:23,772
embodying that quality,
1570
01:14:25,130 —> 01:14:28,310
imagine that you bring them inside you
1571
01:14:29,200 —> 01:14:32,327
so that you can feel what it feels like
1572
01:14:32,328 —> 01:14:35,253
to have that quality inside you.
1573
01:14:39,480 —> 01:14:41,320
And then notice where you feel
1574
01:14:41,320 —> 01:14:44,223
that quality most strongly in your body.
1575
01:14:46,830 —> 01:14:50,920
You might want to just
gently scan through your body
1576
01:14:50,920 —> 01:14:54,980
with your attention from
head to toe and back up,
1577
01:14:54,980 —> 01:14:59,423
as if your attention were a
sonar beam or a radar beam,
1578
01:15:00,370 —> 01:15:02,650
and just see if you, where do you feel
1579
01:15:02,650 —> 01:15:07,083
that particular quality
most strongly in your body?
1580
01:15:08,810 —> 01:15:11,763
Strongest in your feet or your legs?
1581
01:15:13,180 —> 01:15:14,223
Your pelvis?
1582
01:15:16,010 —> 01:15:17,073
Abdomen?
1583
01:15:19,090 —> 01:15:19,923
Chest?
1584
01:15:23,270 —> 01:15:24,703
Your neck and shoulders?
1585
01:15:26,990 —> 01:15:28,303
Arms and hands?
1586
01:15:30,060 —> 01:15:31,173
In your face?
1587
01:15:34,140 —> 01:15:37,733
Just notice wherever it
seems to be strongest.
1588
01:15:41,860 —> 01:15:43,860
And let it grow a little bit larger.
1589
01:15:43,860 —> 01:15:45,530
Imagine that you can just allow it
1590
01:15:45,530 —> 01:15:48,683
to grow a little bit larger and
stronger, just a little bit.
1591
01:15:49,860 —> 01:15:54,492
And notice how it feels to
feel that quality in yourself.
1592
01:15:58,970 —> 01:16:01,850
And notice what your
posture wants to be like
1593
01:16:01,850 —> 01:16:06,203
as you feel that quality
more strongly in yourself.
1594
01:16:07,990 —> 01:16:10,380
And if you’re comfortable with it,
1595
01:16:10,380 —> 01:16:12,300
imagine that you turn up the volume
1596
01:16:12,300 —> 01:16:14,780
on that quality like you had a control,
1597
01:16:14,780 —> 01:16:18,070
like a volume control on
a radio or television,
1598
01:16:18,070 —> 01:16:20,570
and you turn it up so that it radiates out
1599
01:16:20,570 —> 01:16:25,120
from wherever it’s
centered in all directions.
1600
01:16:25,120 —> 01:16:27,910
Radiates out and fills your body
1601
01:16:28,817 —> 01:16:31,023
with that particular quality.
1602
01:16:35,080 —> 01:16:36,750
And as you feel that in your face,
1603
01:16:36,750 —> 01:16:38,743
notice how your face feels.
1604
01:16:40,810 —> 01:16:42,280
And as you feel that quality,
1605
01:16:42,280 —> 01:16:44,858
notice what you imagine
your voice would be like
1606
01:16:44,859 —> 01:16:48,103
if you were in touch with
that quality when you spoke.
1607
01:16:49,700 —> 01:16:51,870
And if you like the
feeling of this quality,
1608
01:16:51,870 —> 01:16:55,688
go ahead and turn it up even more so that
1609
01:16:55,688 —> 01:16:58,560
it overflows the space of your body
1610
01:16:58,560 —> 01:17:00,850
and fills the space around your body
1611
01:17:00,850 —> 01:17:02,833
for a foot in every direction.
1612
01:17:04,650 —> 01:17:07,299
And imagine that it
radiates inside your body
1613
01:17:07,300 —> 01:17:10,403
and touches every cell in
your body with that quality.
1614
01:17:12,650 —> 01:17:17,650
From the deepest part of your
bone marrow to your bones.
1615
01:17:22,270 —> 01:17:27,270
To your connective tissues, your muscles.
1616
01:17:31,500 —> 01:17:34,423
The organs and your pelvis.
1617
01:17:36,960 —> 01:17:37,993
In your abdomen.
1618
01:17:41,770 —> 01:17:42,753
In your chest.
1619
01:17:45,890 —> 01:17:47,433
Especially in your brain.
1620
01:17:49,230 —> 01:17:52,230
Your spinal cord and your nervous system.
1621
01:17:52,230 —> 01:17:54,389
As if every cell of your body were touched
1622
01:17:54,390 —> 01:17:56,333
by a ray of this quality.
1623
01:17:58,320 —> 01:18:02,269
As if you were a sponge and you
were bathing in this quality
1624
01:18:03,157 —> 01:18:05,093
and could soak up as much as you’d like.
1625
01:18:08,660 —> 01:18:09,599
And if you like, you can turn it up
1626
01:18:09,600 —> 01:18:11,030
even stronger and bigger,
1627
01:18:11,030 —> 01:18:12,740
fill the space around your body
1628
01:18:12,740 —> 01:18:15,223
for several feet in every direction.
1629
01:18:16,700 —> 01:18:18,429
You can experiment with that.
1630
01:18:18,430 —> 01:18:21,170
Never turn it up so strongly
that you’re uncomfortable,
1631
01:18:21,170 —> 01:18:23,340
but if you like the way it feels,
1632
01:18:23,340 —> 01:18:24,710
imagine you can turn it up.
1633
01:18:24,710 —> 01:18:28,922
That there’s an abundant
source of this quality,
1634
01:18:28,922 —> 01:18:31,469
and you can turn it up so
that you fill the space
1635
01:18:31,470 —> 01:18:35,883
around your body for
12, 15, 20 feet around.
1636
01:18:38,420 —> 01:18:39,520
Fill the room with it.
1637
01:18:40,740 —> 01:18:42,143
Fill the bay area with it.
1638
01:18:43,730 —> 01:18:44,892
Fill the world with it.
1639
01:18:49,000 —> 01:18:53,550
Just experimenting, and then
let yourself turn the volume
1640
01:18:53,550 —> 01:18:56,543
into whatever’s most
comfortable for you right now.
1641
01:18:58,040 —> 01:19:02,143
No matter how strong or weak,
how big or small that is,
1642
01:19:03,745 —> 01:19:07,164
just give yourself permission
to let it be like listening
1643
01:19:07,164 —> 01:19:10,093
to music when you’re all by yourself.
1644
01:19:12,359 —> 01:19:16,920
Whatever volume is most
comfortable for you right now
1645
01:19:16,920 —> 01:19:18,683
is exactly the right volume.
1646
01:19:22,440 —> 01:19:26,322
And just let yourself rest in
that for a few more minutes.
1647
01:19:29,140 —> 01:19:30,510
And just take a moment before you
1648
01:19:30,510 —> 01:19:32,953
bring your awareness back into the room.
1649
01:19:37,300 —> 01:19:39,170
Just take a moment to
review what’s happened
1650
01:19:39,170 —> 01:19:41,473
in this brief imagery experience.
1651
01:19:43,678 —> 01:19:47,563
What quality you were looking
to experience more of.
1652
01:19:51,147 —> 01:19:53,113
Whether you have or not.
1653
01:19:54,910 —> 01:19:55,992
What it was like.
1654
01:19:57,678 —> 01:19:58,740
And if there’s anything in particular
1655
01:19:58,740 —> 01:20:00,980
that you want to bring
back form this experience
1656
01:20:00,980 —> 01:20:03,892
and remember when you come
back to the outer world.
1657
01:20:05,540 —> 01:20:08,880
And before you come back to
the outer world, take a moment.
1658
01:20:08,880 —> 01:20:10,680
If there’s a particular situation
1659
01:20:10,680 —> 01:20:15,680
that you wanted more of this
quality in order to address,
1660
01:20:16,660 —> 01:20:18,930
imagine addressing that situation
1661
01:20:18,930 —> 01:20:21,103
while being in touch with this quality.
1662
01:20:22,770 —> 01:20:24,610
And just notice whatever you notice.
1663
01:20:24,610 —> 01:20:28,022
Notice whether it seems the
same or different in any way.
1664
01:20:33,260 —> 01:20:35,070
Whether bringing more of this quality
1665
01:20:35,070 —> 01:20:38,250
into the situation seems
to change anything about it
1666
01:20:39,290 —> 01:20:40,803
or your relationship to it.
1667
01:20:43,140 —> 01:20:45,190
And before you come
back to the outer world,
1668
01:20:45,190 —> 01:20:48,522
just remember that you
can recall this quality,
1669
01:20:49,480 —> 01:20:50,892
access it, feel it,
1670
01:20:51,850 —> 01:20:55,440
built it more strongly in
yourself anytime you like
1671
01:20:56,392 —> 01:20:58,442
just by going through this process again.
1672
01:21:04,270 —> 01:21:05,440
And so when you’re ready,
1673
01:21:05,440 —> 01:21:08,139
just let the images go back
to wherever they came from
1674
01:21:09,820 —> 01:21:12,420
and become aware of the
room that we’re in together.
1675
01:21:13,550 —> 01:21:15,620
And just gently start
to bring your awareness
1676
01:21:15,620 —> 01:21:18,120
from your inner world back
out to the outer world.
1677
01:21:18,980 —> 01:21:20,623
Us in this room here together.
1678
01:21:21,739 —> 01:21:24,780
And if you like, just very
gently stretch your body
1679
01:21:25,893 —> 01:21:29,483
and feel your fingers and toes
and everything in between.
1680
01:21:31,050 —> 01:21:33,170
I wanna give you just
a few minutes to write
1681
01:21:33,170 —> 01:21:35,380
or draw anything that you wanna remember
1682
01:21:35,380 —> 01:21:36,480
about this experience.
1683
01:21:36,480 —> 01:21:37,713
This is just for you.
1684
01:21:38,940 —> 01:21:40,580
I’m gonna give you about
three or four minutes
1685
01:21:40,580 —> 01:21:42,710
just to write or draw anything,
1686
01:21:42,710 —> 01:21:46,270
and I would recommend that
you do it, whatever happened.
1687
01:21:46,270 —> 01:21:48,490
Even if nothing happened.
1688
01:21:48,490 —> 01:21:49,639
Let’s take three or four minutes
1689
01:21:49,640 —> 01:21:51,470
and write about the experience,
1690
01:21:51,470 —> 01:21:55,070
especially about anything
that you want to remember
1691
01:21:55,070 —> 01:21:56,349
that you thought was important
1692
01:21:56,350 —> 01:21:59,253
or that you thought was
interesting about this experience.
1693
01:22:00,670 —> 01:22:02,970
Let’s just have some discussion.
1694
01:22:02,970 —> 01:22:05,670
Comments, questions?
1695
01:22:05,670 —> 01:22:07,210
Did everybody hear that?
1696
01:22:07,210 —> 01:22:09,770
It sometimes you get into
such a stressful state
1697
01:22:09,770 —> 01:22:11,708
and an anxious state, it’s just.
1698
01:22:11,708 —> 01:22:14,062
She’s had experiences where relaxation,
1699
01:22:14,062 —> 01:22:16,559
guided imagery have been very useful.
1700
01:22:16,560 —> 01:22:18,610
And other times when
she’s been so stressed
1701
01:22:18,610 —> 01:22:22,410
and so anxious and upset that
she couldn’t even get into it,
1702
01:22:22,410 —> 01:22:24,820
or if she did, it just
didn’t even touch it.
1703
01:22:24,820 —> 01:22:27,059
And yes, that can happen.
1704
01:22:27,060 —> 01:22:29,630
This is not a magic panacea.
1705
01:22:29,630 —> 01:22:31,614
So sometimes that’s a place
1706
01:22:31,614 —> 01:22:35,584
where you can use
somebody else to help you
1707
01:22:35,584 —> 01:22:39,590
or to take enough time, or
to do some things that are,
1708
01:22:39,590 —> 01:22:41,653
get a massage, take a hot tub.
1709
01:22:41,653 —> 01:22:43,760
Talk to a friend.
1710
01:22:43,760 —> 01:22:46,030
This is a place where
medications may come in.
1711
01:22:46,030 —> 01:22:49,623
I find a double shot of Jack
Daniels works really well.
1712
01:22:52,440 —> 01:22:55,030
I wouldn’t recommend it as a daily diet,
1713
01:22:55,030 —> 01:22:58,710
but it certainly helps really
get your anxiety level down,
1714
01:22:58,710 —> 01:23:02,930
and you may be able then to
relieve enough of the anxiety
1715
01:23:02,930 —> 01:23:04,940
that you can pay
attention to these things.
1716
01:23:04,940 —> 01:23:07,790
So there are many other things we can do,
1717
01:23:07,790 —> 01:23:12,790
from medications to
nutrients to other relaxants
1718
01:23:12,960 —> 01:23:17,150
to doing whatever you
need to get to that place,
1719
01:23:17,150 —> 01:23:19,224
where you can focus.
1720
01:23:19,225 —> 01:23:22,200
One of the qualities of imagery thinking
1721
01:23:22,200 —> 01:23:25,410
is that it can help you
connect with the bigger picture
1722
01:23:25,410 —> 01:23:27,930
and how things are connected
in kind of a bigger picture,
1723
01:23:27,930 —> 01:23:30,460
so that can include your faith.
1724
01:23:30,460 —> 01:23:32,337
Or you may find, «Well, if that happens,
1725
01:23:32,337 —> 01:23:34,127
«I don’t want that to happen.
1726
01:23:34,127 —> 01:23:36,195
«But maybe there’s a good part of it,
1727
01:23:36,195 —> 01:23:41,195
«or maybe I’ll just deal
with it the best that I can.»
1728
01:23:41,530 —> 01:23:45,048
So that’s just to expand
the picture and let yourself
1729
01:23:45,048 —> 01:23:48,710
kind of go out to what
the consequences might be.
1730
01:23:48,710 —> 01:23:51,090
Because that’s part of
really sorting it into things
1731
01:23:51,090 —> 01:23:52,030
that you might be able to do,
1732
01:23:52,030 —> 01:23:54,775
something about things you
can’t do something about,
1733
01:23:54,775 —> 01:23:58,494
is to let yourself run it out.
1734
01:23:58,494 —> 01:24:00,759
Does that make sense to you?
1735
01:24:00,760 —> 01:24:02,241
Yeah?
1736
01:24:02,241 —> 01:24:05,040
So sometimes when people
are making treatment choices
1737
01:24:05,040 —> 01:24:06,120
that are very difficult,
1738
01:24:06,120 —> 01:24:10,130
I’ll invite them to imagine
that they’re at a crossroads.
1739
01:24:10,130 —> 01:24:14,470
Again, this happens when, and
if they go down this road,
1740
01:24:14,470 —> 01:24:16,060
they choose this kind of treatment,
1741
01:24:16,060 —> 01:24:18,190
and just imagine walking down that road
1742
01:24:18,190 —> 01:24:20,219
and just imagine it
going as far as you can
1743
01:24:20,220 —> 01:24:22,970
and see what you imagine go down this road
1744
01:24:22,970 —> 01:24:25,170
or go down as far as you
can see what you imagine.
1745
01:24:25,170 —> 01:24:29,580
Along the way, you’re just
gonna flesh out the picture,
1746
01:24:29,580 —> 01:24:31,683
and part of that’s gonna be able to see,
1747
01:24:32,627 —> 01:24:34,077
«Is there something I can do about that?
1748
01:24:34,077 —> 01:24:36,134
«Is there not something
I can do about that?
1749
01:24:36,134 —> 01:24:37,797
«Which one do I imagine
1750
01:24:37,797 —> 01:24:40,419
«is gonna ultimately be better for me?»
1751
01:24:40,420 —> 01:24:42,372
And kind of make that choice.
1752
01:24:42,372 —> 01:24:45,330
What’s the difference between
imagining going to the beach
1753
01:24:45,330 —> 01:24:46,580
and being at the beach?
1754
01:24:46,580 —> 01:24:50,480
So imagining being in a
quiet, peaceful, safe place
1755
01:24:50,480 —> 01:24:52,852
is the next best thing
to actually being there.
1756
01:24:53,705 —> 01:24:55,670
And it has certain advantages
1757
01:24:55,670 —> 01:24:57,930
in that you can go anytime you want.
1758
01:24:57,930 —> 01:25:01,363
And it’s, you can be there very quickly,
1759
01:25:02,460 —> 01:25:04,264
and it’s very inexpensive.
1760
01:25:04,264 —> 01:25:06,881
So you can go, so I’d like to go
1761
01:25:06,881 —> 01:25:10,500
to the beach in Hawaii a lot.
1762
01:25:10,500 —> 01:25:12,513
But I can’t go every day ’cause I work
1763
01:25:12,513 —> 01:25:14,940
and I have responsibilities and so on,
1764
01:25:14,940 —> 01:25:17,000
and I’m lucky if I can
go every couple of years.
1765
01:25:17,000 —> 01:25:19,407
But, I can, when I decide,
1766
01:25:19,407 —> 01:25:21,120
«I’ve had enough, I need a break.»
1767
01:25:21,120 —> 01:25:23,777
I can take a few deep breaths
and I can close my eyes
1768
01:25:23,777 —> 01:25:26,230
and I can be back in a particular,
1769
01:25:26,230 —> 01:25:28,790
floating in the water just off of a beach.
1770
01:25:28,790 —> 01:25:31,160
And I can immerse, when
I do immerse myself
1771
01:25:31,160 —> 01:25:34,590
and take the time to notice the
different sensory qualities.
1772
01:25:34,590 —> 01:25:37,360
What we know now from looking at brains
1773
01:25:37,360 —> 01:25:39,429
on the functional MRI,
1774
01:25:39,430 —> 01:25:41,670
is that if I make an effort to notice
1775
01:25:41,670 —> 01:25:44,760
what I imagine seeing
and hearing and feeling
1776
01:25:44,760 —> 01:25:46,220
in the weightlessness of my body
1777
01:25:46,220 —> 01:25:49,240
as I’m floating and the lapping
of the waves on the surf
1778
01:25:49,240 —> 01:25:52,780
and the smell of the plumerias
and the humidity in the air,
1779
01:25:52,780 —> 01:25:55,330
and I go through all that sensory stuff,
1780
01:25:55,330 —> 01:25:58,040
that when I’m noticing what I’m seeing,
1781
01:25:58,040 —> 01:26:00,599
the part of my brain that
processes vision is active.
1782
01:26:00,599 —> 01:26:03,110
When I’m noticing the sounds I’m hearing,
1783
01:26:03,110 —> 01:26:06,000
the parts of my brain that
process sound is active.
1784
01:26:06,000 —> 01:26:08,100
When I’m noticing the sensory details,
1785
01:26:08,100 —> 01:26:11,110
that part of my brain’s
sensory cortex is active.
1786
01:26:11,110 —> 01:26:14,710
So what you have is you
have more and more parts
1787
01:26:14,710 —> 01:26:18,780
of your cortex sending
messages down to those lower,
1788
01:26:18,780 —> 01:26:21,876
more reflexive parts of your
brain, and they’re saying,
1789
01:26:21,877 —> 01:26:26,507
«It looks like I’m in Hawaii,
sounds like I’m Hawaii.
1790
01:26:26,507 —> 01:26:28,375
«It feels like I’m in Hawaii.
1791
01:26:28,375 —> 01:26:31,100
«It smells like I’m in Hawaii.»
1792
01:26:31,100 —> 01:26:32,687
And that part of your brain just goes,
1793
01:26:32,687 —> 01:26:35,099
«Okay, all clear.»
1794
01:26:35,100 —> 01:26:36,592
Sends out the All Clear signal,
1795
01:26:36,592 —> 01:26:39,820
and a lot of things in your
body start to go to work
1796
01:26:39,820 —> 01:26:42,580
in a more effective manner
that haven’t been able
1797
01:26:42,580 —> 01:26:45,047
to work as well when
you’re constantly reacting
1798
01:26:45,047 —> 01:26:47,862
to messages of, «Look out.
1799
01:26:47,863 —> 01:26:49,707
«What’s next?
1800
01:26:49,707 —> 01:26:50,807
«How am I gonna get that done?
1801
01:26:50,807 —> 01:26:53,440
«Danger, threat, problem.»
1802
01:26:53,440 —> 01:26:54,750
So on and so forth.
1803
01:26:54,750 —> 01:26:57,190
Which is where we spend
so much of our time,
1804
01:26:57,190 —> 01:26:59,440
and that, so this little lizard brain
1805
01:26:59,440 —> 01:27:01,853
is sitting there, «Look out.»
1806
01:27:01,854 —> 01:27:03,030
Right?
1807
01:27:03,030 —> 01:27:05,429
And it’s constantly
getting the body prepared
1808
01:27:05,430 —> 01:27:07,740
for that and that’s exhausting.
1809
01:27:07,740 —> 01:27:10,510
So if we’re spending
98% of our waking time
1810
01:27:10,511 —> 01:27:13,890
and half our sleeping time dealing
1811
01:27:13,890 —> 01:27:15,040
with those kinds of things,
1812
01:27:15,040 —> 01:27:16,810
we see why we get exhausted.
1813
01:27:16,810 —> 01:27:18,130
We get wired and tired.
1814
01:27:18,130 —> 01:27:19,528
We have trouble sleeping.
1815
01:27:19,528 —> 01:27:22,310
The body starts to signal
that it needs something.
1816
01:27:22,310 —> 01:27:25,210
So finding a way to get
to those deeper levels
1817
01:27:25,210 —> 01:27:29,685
and plug in a couple of
those relaxation places
1818
01:27:29,685 —> 01:27:33,480
as just a basic tool is I think one
1819
01:27:33,480 —> 01:27:36,929
of the real fundamental
benefits of guided imagery,
1820
01:27:36,930 —> 01:27:39,840
which is a type of
meditation at that level.
1821
01:27:39,840 —> 01:27:41,950
And I really appreciate your attention.
1822
01:27:41,950 —> 01:27:42,782
Thank you very much.
1823
01:27:42,783 —> 01:27:44,078
I hope it was useful.
1824
01:27:44,078 —> 01:27:47,797
(audience clapping)
1825
01:27:47,797 —> 01:27:50,464
(upbeat music)