The FitMind Podcast: Mental Fitness, Neuroscience & Psychology

FitMind: Neuroscience, Meditation & Mental Fitness Training
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Feb 18, 2020 • 5min

Mind Nugget 4: Inner Chatter - Mastering the Voice in Your Head

Mind Nuggets are mini-episodes on how the mind works and how to apply it for the best life possible. They are taken directly from the FitMind meditation training app.  Inner Chatter talks about that voice in your head that can prove so challenging sometimes, offering a skillful method for understanding and relating to it. Topics covered: • Mind-Wandering • Where do thoughts come from? • The first obstacle in meditation FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Feb 11, 2020 • 45min

#33: Can Meditation Be Harmful? - Willoughby Britton, PhD

Dr. Willoughby Britton is a neuroscientist at Brown University studying the neurocognitive effects of mindfulness-based interventions for mood and anxiety disorders. She's currently the Director of Brown's Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory and has research service awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As a clinician, Dr. Britton has been trained as an instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and has taught mindfulness to both clinical and non-clinical populations, as well as in federally-funded clinical trials. She also runs an organization called Cheetah House, a non-profit that supports meditators in distress. In this episode, we discuss the potential dark sides of meditation practice. In a western world where meditation has been taken out of eastern traditions and spread widely in a secular context, we need to be pragmatic and aware of the risks. Dr. Britton's research has demonstrated that some meditators experience adverse side effects as a result of their practice, and she helps us understand how to avoid such pitfalls. For example, she talks about the specific meditation techniques one should employ and also avoid if they have a history of trauma. It's important to note that this shouldn't scare you away from meditation, but rather help you to understand that meditation is fundamentally reordering of the mind, a delicate instrument that determines our realities, in ways that we can't take lightly. Dr. Britton's work is important because it challenges dogma and seeks to help a minority group of meditators who are experiencing some life-threatening adverse phenomena. And while she admits that there's much more research to be done, her early findings are both fascinating and essential knowledge for any meditator. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Jan 21, 2020 • 5min

Mind Nugget 3: Modern Survival - The Struggle for Fulfillment

Mind Nuggets are mini-episodes on how the mind works and how to apply it for the best life possible. They are taken directly from the FitMind meditation training app.  Modern Survival is all about our newest challenge as a species: the struggle for fulfillment. Topics covered: • Innate psychological needs • The modern meaning crisis • The evolution of happiness • Meditation as an antidote FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Jan 14, 2020 • 39min

#32: Neuroscience, Meditation & Elite Performance - Ash Sangoram, MD, PhD

Dr. Ash Sangoram is a neuroscientist, neonatologist, former assistant Stanford Golf coach, and the founder of GoaLoGolf, an elite performance training company. Ash trained under two National Academy of Science neuroscientists and implemented this understanding of the brain into his golf practice to drop his handicap by 15 points while rehabilitating from a spinal cord injury. Ash is also an experience insight meditation practitioner, and he is currently working on bringing neuroscience and meditation principles into the Stanford golf program. Ash believes that meditation and elite athletic performance are inextricably linked, with neuroscience providing the glue that grounds how to go about practicing for elite performance. This is a wide-ranging conversation on how the mind works and how to optimize it. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Jan 7, 2020 • 10min

Mind Nugget 2: Attention Economy - Skillfully Applying a Valuable Resource

Mind Nuggets are mini-episodes on how the mind works and how to apply it for the best life possible. They are taken directly from the FitMind meditation training app.  Attention Economy is all about the value of attention and how to use it skillfully throughout the day. Topics covered: • Attention engineers • Subconscious programming • Attention Deficit Disorder • Eliminating low-quality, dopamine-rich information FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Dec 31, 2019 • 46min

#31: Brooklyn Mahamudra Nondual Meditation - Loch Kelly, M.Div., LCSW

Loch Kelly is a meditation teacher and psychotherapist who combines western science and psychology with ancient eastern methods for training the mind. He's the Founder of Open-Hearted Awareness Institute and author of Shift Into Freedom and The Way of Effortless Mindfulness. Loch served on the New York Insight Teachers Council, studied extensively with Mingyur Rinpoche, and was invited to teach by Adyashanti, two very famous meditation teachers. Given his extensive experience meditating and decades studying with teachers in Sri Lanka, Nepal and all around the world, Loch was asked to collaborate with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn, and NYU in the study of how meditation training can enhance the brain. In this episode, we discuss flow states, non-duality, and how to shift out of a thought-based operating system, and Loch leads a powerful guided meditation. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Dec 17, 2019 • 5min

Mind Nugget 1: Pleasure vs. Fulfillment - Lasting Happiness in an Age of Instant Gratification

Mind Nuggets are mini-episodes on how the mind works and how to apply it for the best life possible. They are taken directly from the FitMind meditation training app.  Pleasure vs. Fulfillment is all about why we ought to aim for lasting happiness in an age of instant gratification. Topics covered: • Psychology of YOLO • The Downstairs Brain • Struggling for fulfillment FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com
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Dec 10, 2019 • 35min

#30: Neuromyths, Productivity & Cognitive Biases - Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs and former Google employee, discusses burnout, imposter syndrome, neuromyths, the cobra effect, joy triggers, FOBO, and time anxiety in this engaging podcast.
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10 snips
Nov 26, 2019 • 56min

#29: The Science of Blue Mind - Wallace J. Nichols, PhD

Wallace J. Nichols, a scientist, activist, and author of the bestselling book 'Blue Mind', discusses the transformative power of water on mental health. He contrasts 'blue mind', a serene state fostered by proximity to water, with 'red mind', characterized by stress and overstimulation. Nichols explores water's therapeutic benefits for anxiety and autism, and innovative practices like float therapy. He also highlights how marketers tap into emotional connections with water, while environmental groups often miss the opportunity to leverage this unique bond.
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Nov 13, 2019 • 45min

#28: Attention Diets - Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha is the bestselling author of six books including The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation and most recently You are Awesome. His books are New York Times and #1 international bestsellers and have sold millions of copies across dozens of languages. He also has a 100 million-hit award-winning blog called 1000 Awesome Things, a very popular TED talk, and has spoken at places like Google and South by Southwest. We talk about his path from Harvard Business School to working at Walmart and eventually researching and writing about happiness, why he likes hanging out with 3-year-olds, attention diets, quitting social media, untouchable days, echo chambers, resilience, and failure budgets. Neil gives some great direct takeaways for improving your mindset. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

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