Monday night was amazing, with a packed house for the discussion on the Neuroscience of Meditation. Apologies to anyone that was unable to get inside, there was an overwhelming response to the evening. I am definitely working to find a bigger venue for these talks in the future.
Philippe’s presentation is below for those who wanted a second look at the slides. You can also download the presentation below. It includes Philippe’s contact info and how you can enroll in his future studies.
The Presentation
(To move to the next slide, click on …

On Monday night, the DtaS book club discussed Why Zebra’s Dont Get Ulcers by renowned stress expert and local science celebrity Robert Sapolsky. Robert does a great job of describing all the mechanisms and chemicals involved in our stress response, but his section on coping was a bit….ahem light. By his own admission, this is due to a lack of data surrounding the efficacy of some of the more popular treatments.
Our next speaker, Dr. Philippe Goldin, is trying to understand how meditation does impact stress, especially on those with social …

Social Anxiety disorder (SAD) affects roughly 12% of us at least at some point during our life. Our next speaker, Philippe Goldin, is studying the effects of Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) aka meditation on social anxiety.

“The idea is that if a person has the psychological flexibility to shift freely from one mode of thinking to another mode, then that is a sign of health,” said Goldin. “It’s when we get stuck in certain thinking patterns that our beliefs become maladaptive.”

Specifically, the MBSR proved effective silencing the inner critic…you …