Introduction

In this episode, Wendy speaks with social psychologist and contemplative researcher David Creswell. David has been studying the effects of meditation on stress and resilience for over a decade, and has conducted some of the most rigorous studies to date investigating which aspects of mindfulness interventions bring benefit. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• integrating psychology and Buddhism since high school;
• understanding stress and resilience;
• acceptance and equanimity in mindfulness;
• bringing scientific rigor to the study of mindfulness through dismantling trials;
• effects of equanimity on the stress response and positive emotions;
• how contemplative skills spill over from the cushion into daily life;
• how practice changes the brain and why those changes matter;
• a risky study with a president's daughter;
• the promise of apps to deliver mindfulness;
• how acceptance differs from passive resignation;
• and viewing biology and psychology as two sides of the same coin.

Full show notes and resources