After taking a meditation retreat, Anderson Cooper has been meditating daily, and is curious to see if it’s had an impact on his brain. Research and analysis are conducted by Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of Massachusetts. (Mindful readers may know Brewer’s name already—he wrote “Beware the Habit-Forming Brain!” in Mindful‘s December 2014 issue.)
Cooper also interviewed Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) for the 60 Minutes segment. Ryan is the author of A Mindful Nation and is considered Washington’s mindfulness guy. In Mindful‘s June 2013 issue, Ryan talks about how it’s time for Americans to find quiet—for their own well-being and for the good of the country.
During the segment, Cooper speaks with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on why he thinks mindfulness is the answer for people “who are so overwhelmed by life, they feel they aren’t really living at all.”
Kabat-Zinn’s talks about how we can build mindfulness into everyday life:
When your alarm goes off and you jump out of bed, what is the nature of the mind in that moment? Are you already like, “oh my God,” your calendar pops into your mind and you’re driven already, or can you take a moment and just lie in bed and just feel your body breathing. And remember, “oh yeah, brand new day and I’m still alive.” So, I get out of bed with awareness, brush my teeth with awareness. When you’re in the shower next time check and see if you’re in the shower.
You can watch the segment on the 60 Minutes website or catch the segment on television again this Sunday.