Thanks for posting this. I never meditated because I was an atheist and I thought it was "spiritual ". It wasn't until I had a stroke in my 40's that I got interested in neuroplasticity and mindfulness. (I was half paralyzed but I'm back to normal now. Thanks science!) I'm using it to help with anxiety & ADHD. Reading Stoicism/Marcus Aurelius helps reinforce it.
Mindfulness is something I came to on my own out of a need to sort out the horrible shame I felt on a daily basis. I started to analyse the thoughts as they came to try to understand them and possibly reduce the shame. It is now second nature to me but the toxic shame is still there and its going to take me a while to reduce it as it is so deeply rooted
@LeoB you're right, it is tough. It can feel like such a burden at times and definitely gets me down. I have good days and bad days. I'm saddened that you were subjected to that I'm so sorry. Keep fighting it. Glad to know there are others out there though and we're not alone
Mindfulness is very useful, the two challenges I've found with it remaining effective is having good guidance in it, trying it without someone to help is hard, and the pre recorded guides only seem to work once or twice, luckily there are a lot of them out there, I really liked this guest, I love his explanation of acceptance and what that means, it may just make mindful meditation easier, great show! 💗
I think one reason for why social media is so addicting, moreover avoiding to face the disappointing feelings on daily basis, is to prevent ourselves to notice how tired we are. People are so busy these days. You're supposed to go on full gears from the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow at night. That's just inhumane. But what makes it more bearable, is to fill all the silent moments where you'd be connected with your body, with social media, to distract yourself from noticing your natural needs. And then you can keep going without noticing you're tired. At times it even seems like people are afraid to take a break because they're worried they wouldn't be able to get back to the pace they're expected to have. Ironically, social media makes us just more tired, for the brain is forced to work full steam constantly. However, social media postpones you noticing you're tired, which makes you think you're more efficient. While in reality when the moment comes, just small a break isn't enough anymore, but you're at the risk of having a total burn out.
Great to hear mindfulness and meditation presented from an academic view point. I came to mindfulness from a Buddhist tradition. (Although I don't consider myself a Buddhist) Its been very helpful to me in all aspects of life. I haven't heard them compared, but classic Roman stoicism works well with mindfulness.
Thinking Atheist, Seth, great conversation with Dr. Donald Siegel. I've always loved that analogy about our ancestors making type A or B mistakes. If it's the wind ok, a lion, you're lunch! It shows why we imbue, (did and still do) everything with 'agency'. Our main problem, in my admittedly undereducated opinion, is that we are a relatively young species. Evolution is a very long process. As Hitch said, our frontal lobes aren't quite big enough, our adrenals still too big! Unfortunately, our technology seems to be going faster than us. So we just have much more killing power, while our 'empathy' is still barely better than other social creatures. We have many individuals, as we have since ancient times. But it's only been in the last 500 years or so that enough people aren't so busy just surviving, that we can ponder things better. Hopefully we'll survive to save our planet enough to get into space beyond our galaxy and find another like ours. Before we collide with Andromeda. LOL. 👍❤🥰✌
Very interesting. Yes, your comment has made me realize that the short evolutionary time frame of humans has not allowed us to be rid of the idiocy of religion, so prominent still, as well as other superstitious nonsense.
i take life as it comes. it's always full of surprises, good and bad ones. you can never prepare, only be ready to experience and hope to be able to navigate difficulties. i dont call it mindfulness though, and i've no books to sell.
This was a really great listen. I practice DBT in counseling and I found this to be solidifying to me and what I am experiencing. As an Athiest and Member of the satanic temple, I often wondered about some of these things.
We have only a slim chance of changing the minds of others. The World 🌎 will not change for our benefit. We can learn to reduce our self imposed suffering. May you be at Peace.
The interviewer just made a comment about the duality of ego and insecurity, by correlating it to the duality of man/woman. (???) Is there some old reference to this someplace, that ego = man (but not woman) and insecurity = woman? I'm confused. It's at about 36:40- 36:49. Siegel was talking about how we fight within ourselves, as we create stories about ourselves and how THAT is polar to who we really are as authentic human beings. The interviewer followed up with the duality of ego and insecurity, which is a smart response and makes sense, (although he didn't seem to grasp the nondual part of empathy the Siegel was also stating)...It seems to me that the interviewer doesn't get what Siegel was talking about, and I'm not sure why he smirked at the end of his statement about ego-/insecurity is similar to man/woman....(WTF?) Did I miss something?
This constant preoccupation with the self ("How many good things and bad things have I done?") and the self-judgement that that entails is the essence of traditional institutional dogmatic religion, far from the mindfulness that we seek here.
Someone needs to explain mindfulness exercises better to me. I tend to try them and get super depressed. I feel like I fall into "the abyss" in my head.
We can all go down together. I don't know if this helps, but I was once told to remind myself, "That I think". Nothing more. Doing that might take you a tiny notch up (meta). The process reminds you. "Here I am doing some unhelpful thinking". I might ruminate about an impending storm that isn't likely to cause a massive catastrophe. Being mindful is reminding myself that heavy rain and strong wind means I will ensure lightweight stuff in the yard is packed away and hose/check the roof downpipes to make sure they are clear of leaves and the flashlights have new batteries. ua-cam.com/video/nR0lOtdvqyg/v-deo.html
JourneymanIC I'm not an expert, but I did have this explained to me. If it applies good. If not, just discount it. I was told that this mind state can be the same as a natural reaction to trauma in some people. If that is the case, you are actually reliving your trauma by doing this. Maybe that is what is making you depressed??? This is a guess, but it sure was accurate for me. When "mindfulness" first became a buzz word, I had the same trouble as you, and I found a place that actually taught an ancient form, and the family had owned the place for generations. Now, there is no scientific evidence for this that I am aware of. But the way they described what was happening, and why it did not work for me was pretty astounding. Especially since no one else said that. It really helped.
Great interview. Thanks Seth....But, remember, mindful or not. We have work to do, especially with the recent supreme court decisions. Our mindfullness against theirs. The war over wellness. Focus and win it.
Although I don't buy the 'Uncle Albert' analogy. Early humans must have been risk-takers, rather than risk-averse. I'm risk-averse and I have no children. : )
You need to clear your mind of distractions to move into the space where you can get to the deeper issues though. No one would claim meditation alone gets you to these deeper issues…
Please give credit to the Hindu sages from where this teachings come from. For example, mt Everest is a name given by the west. But for thousands of years it was always called Sagarmatha. Why are pagan identities, concepts rebranded? Please acknowledge the shoulders you stand on. In your own dictionaries this is called plagiarism.
I can imagine that if we had a large number of people practicing this "mindfulness" that divorce rates will increase.. How many relationships are using distractions to avoid accepting how horrible that other person is treating you? I know I'm doing that! ;)
Okay. I'm going to make myself unpopular here I think. If we believe that the causes of our unhappiness are largely internal and of our own making as we evaluate our experiences, rather than the result of external forces: the social, political and economic frameworks that shape us for instance, then how can we transform our circumstances '(not least for the sake of our children)? This is like saying "life is shit but keep smiling and it'll all get better". A secular version of magical thinking.
You dare to say it, and that's what counts. I will ramble a bit because I am not clear in my thinking. If someone's young child died yesterday in your suburb and you know nothing more than a child died, how sad will you be? Your neighbor's dog died the day before and the only time you thought about it was the wish it would stop incessant barking, how sad are you going to be? A close friend or family member is in their last living hours; how distressed will you be? All these scenarios affect you to varying degrees, and how you deal with them is the focal point of this video. You cannot do anything about the nearest person, but you can still do something for their family or at their house, if required. Help clean up, take their dog for a walk, cancel postage and newspaper delivery, or whatever the family ask of you. How you and I conduct our minds during these times is the mindfulness factor. It doesn't require us to sit idle and do nothing, but to be mindful and level-headed in our approach. Sorry if this was a bit crappy, and I am glad you brought up the possible downside of the process.Thanks for your interest and contribution.
Mindfulness is being steady, more effective, whether smiling or frowning, recognizing everything changes. Not magical thinking, everything is changing, some changes we can direct some we can't.
@@christopherhamilton3621 Ignorant am I? Be a mite careful: Your response makes you sound a bit like some Christian Apologist defending one of their untenable positions. Let's ask questions about stuff like this for Darwin's sake. In my experience, most of the things that have been sold to us as a cure-all are quack remedies designed to part us from our money. Acupuncture, Holistic Medicine, Crystal bloody healing and about ten thousand others. If you think that the concept of Mindfulness is exempt from the sort of scrutiny that has been brought to bear on those, then I think you're wrong. Are we not just being asked to look for the unhappiness within ourselves rather than identify the societal problems that are often the trigger for our ills? I think it could be a good old con trick and a distraction but I'm prepared to be wrong.
Yuck I hate this terminology. When I practice non violent communication it teaches you how to not mix the thing that happened with how you feel about the thing that happened. Which allows you to speak in a way that doesn't insinuate blame and allows you to take responsibility for your own needs and emotions and to ask for specific requests in a way that dies not imply a demand or an "or else" If that is what this is, I wish they wouldn't use all this woo talk. NVC has specific language challenges that when learned improve your communication.
Just another form of people selling nonsense. This guy’s just pimping his latest book - others monetise ads on UA-cam. It’s all pointless gibberish peddled to gullible people.
In layman's terms: start thinking critically about your practices instead of doing excercises in navelgazing reinforcing your self-importance and -elevation. This is nothing but a fancy sticker slapped onto plain consideration and sure as hell doesn't require a crash course nor a lecture series, obviously not to mention primarily for unscrupulously parting helpless ans misguided people from their money. For shame such irresponsible imbecillity explotation.
The shortest sentence to discribe mindfulness meditation is; Mindfulness is exercise for your brain.
Thanks for posting this. I never meditated because I was an atheist and I thought it was "spiritual ". It wasn't until I had a stroke in my 40's that I got interested in neuroplasticity and mindfulness. (I was half paralyzed but I'm back to normal now. Thanks science!) I'm using it to help with anxiety & ADHD. Reading Stoicism/Marcus Aurelius helps reinforce it.
The meditations of Marcus Aurelius?
Ron, if I had that gorgeous painting hanging in my home, I'd call myself a terrible artist, too. Seth, I LOVE this guy!
Acceptance is not agreement. Thank you Seth and Dr. Siegel for this wonderful needed discussion.
Yeah, acceptance is the first step to a powerful change.
Sometimes acceptance is recognizing the reality that in the interim things won't change, but to be at peace within yourself regardless.
Exceptional knowledge thank you 🤗
This was very enlightening for me. Thank you Seth and Dr. Ronald Siegel!
Absolutely love this!!! I started mindfulness meditation last year, I love it.
It's amazing to me to see psychology and psychologist start to basically just confirming Buddhist Dharma
This was an amazing interview. Lots of useful information. Thank you.
Mindfulness is something I came to on my own out of a need to sort out the horrible shame I felt on a daily basis. I started to analyse the thoughts as they came to try to understand them and possibly reduce the shame. It is now second nature to me but the toxic shame is still there and its going to take me a while to reduce it as it is so deeply rooted
@LeoB you're right, it is tough. It can feel like such a burden at times and definitely gets me down. I have good days and bad days. I'm saddened that you were subjected to that I'm so sorry. Keep fighting it. Glad to know there are others out there though and we're not alone
Great presentation Seth.
Mindfulness is very useful, the two challenges I've found with it remaining effective is having good guidance in it, trying it without someone to help is hard, and the pre recorded guides only seem to work once or twice, luckily there are a lot of them out there, I really liked this guest, I love his explanation of acceptance and what that means, it may just make mindful meditation easier, great show! 💗
Thoroughly enjoyed this talk, thanks!
I really enjoyed this, thank you!
this was great, thanks
Holy shit this was AMAZING! He blew my mind! Wow.
I think one reason for why social media is so addicting, moreover avoiding to face the disappointing feelings on daily basis, is to prevent ourselves to notice how tired we are. People are so busy these days. You're supposed to go on full gears from the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow at night. That's just inhumane. But what makes it more bearable, is to fill all the silent moments where you'd be connected with your body, with social media, to distract yourself from noticing your natural needs. And then you can keep going without noticing you're tired. At times it even seems like people are afraid to take a break because they're worried they wouldn't be able to get back to the pace they're expected to have.
Ironically, social media makes us just more tired, for the brain is forced to work full steam constantly. However, social media postpones you noticing you're tired, which makes you think you're more efficient. While in reality when the moment comes, just small a break isn't enough anymore, but you're at the risk of having a total burn out.
I used to do this stuff in the late 80's and early 90's, only under a different label and not backed by any scientific authorities.
very well done, thanks
Great to hear mindfulness and meditation presented from an academic view point.
I came to mindfulness from a Buddhist tradition. (Although I don't consider myself a Buddhist)
Its been very helpful to me in all aspects of life.
I haven't heard them compared, but classic Roman stoicism works well with mindfulness.
Thinking Atheist, Seth, great conversation with Dr. Donald Siegel. I've always loved that analogy about our ancestors making type A or B mistakes. If it's the wind ok, a lion, you're lunch! It shows why we imbue, (did and still do) everything with 'agency'. Our main problem, in my admittedly undereducated opinion, is that we are a relatively young species. Evolution is a very long process. As Hitch said, our frontal lobes aren't quite big enough, our adrenals still too big! Unfortunately, our technology seems to be going faster than us. So we just have much more killing power, while our 'empathy' is still barely better than other social creatures. We have many individuals, as we have since ancient times. But it's only been in the last 500 years or so that enough people aren't so busy just surviving, that we can ponder things better. Hopefully we'll survive to save our planet enough to get into space beyond our galaxy and find another like ours. Before we collide with Andromeda. LOL. 👍❤🥰✌
Very interesting. Yes, your comment has made me realize that the short evolutionary time frame of humans has not allowed us to be rid of the idiocy of religion, so prominent still, as well as other superstitious nonsense.
@@davesteadman1226 ikr
Yay
i take life as it comes. it's always full of surprises, good and bad ones. you can never prepare, only be ready to experience and hope to be able to navigate difficulties.
i dont call it mindfulness though, and i've no books to sell.
This was a really great listen. I practice DBT in counseling and I found this to be solidifying to me and what I am experiencing. As an Athiest and Member of the satanic temple, I often wondered about some of these things.
Total Tao, straddling yin and yang, total awareness.The Carlos Castaneda books get into this. How can you have bliss without blight?
We have only a slim chance of changing the minds of others. The World 🌎 will not change for our benefit. We can learn to reduce our self imposed suffering. May you be at Peace.
The interviewer just made a comment about the duality of ego and insecurity, by correlating it to the duality of man/woman. (???) Is there some old reference to this someplace, that ego = man (but not woman) and insecurity = woman? I'm confused. It's at about 36:40- 36:49. Siegel was talking about how we fight within ourselves, as we create stories about ourselves and how THAT is polar to who we really are as authentic human beings. The interviewer followed up with the duality of ego and insecurity, which is a smart response and makes sense, (although he didn't seem to grasp the nondual part of empathy the Siegel was also stating)...It seems to me that the interviewer doesn't get what Siegel was talking about, and I'm not sure why he smirked at the end of his statement about ego-/insecurity is similar to man/woman....(WTF?) Did I miss something?
Although mindfulness meditation is what the Buddha taught , it has nothing to do with religion.
At 15:00 ! Wow yes indeed!
Silly question, any relation to NPR's Robert Siegel?
What are ur vies on reiki.
I had two sessions and it fucking works
Einstein's great nephew?
This constant preoccupation with the self ("How many good things and bad things have I done?") and the self-judgement that that entails is the essence of traditional institutional dogmatic religion, far from the mindfulness that we seek here.
Someone needs to explain mindfulness exercises better to me. I tend to try them and get super depressed. I feel like I fall into "the abyss" in my head.
We can all go down together. I don't know if this helps, but I was once told to remind myself, "That I think". Nothing more. Doing that might take you a tiny notch up (meta). The process reminds you. "Here I am doing some unhelpful thinking".
I might ruminate about an impending storm that isn't likely to cause a massive catastrophe. Being mindful is reminding myself that heavy rain and strong wind means I will ensure lightweight stuff in the yard is packed away and hose/check the roof downpipes to make sure they are clear of leaves and the flashlights have new batteries. ua-cam.com/video/nR0lOtdvqyg/v-deo.html
JourneymanIC I'm not an expert, but I did have this explained to me. If it applies good. If not, just discount it. I was told that this mind state can be the same as a natural reaction to trauma in some people. If that is the case, you are actually reliving your trauma by doing this. Maybe that is what is making you depressed??? This is a guess, but it sure was accurate for me. When "mindfulness" first became a buzz word, I had the same trouble as you, and I found a place that actually taught an ancient form, and the family had owned the place for generations. Now, there is no scientific evidence for this that I am aware of. But the way they described what was happening, and why it did not work for me was pretty astounding. Especially since no one else said that. It really helped.
Like be u Seth keep up the quest
Great interview. Thanks Seth....But, remember, mindful or not. We have work to do, especially with the recent supreme court decisions. Our mindfullness against theirs. The war over wellness. Focus and win it.
Interesting how many are on anxiety meds and SSRI's which numb people out from experiencing real life.
What a beautiful mustache
"Kenya alarm after carrier bag with lion face in bushes mistaken for real stray lion" Better safe than sorry.
Although I don't buy the 'Uncle Albert' analogy. Early humans must have been risk-takers, rather than risk-averse. I'm risk-averse and I have no children. : )
I want to leave islam
And that is dangerous for my life
Please help me anyone
Befriending the dark side.
See: Carl Jung, shadow work.
I enjoyed this one 👌🏻 Anyone interested in mindfulness Jon kabat zinn also talks about mindfulness
Let’s also say that ‘mindfulness’ doesn’t work for everyone. It does nothing to sort out deep seated traumatic events/memories.
It helps to live in the moment, this moment, now.
The past will get sorted.
You need to clear your mind of distractions to move into the space where you can get to the deeper issues though. No one would claim meditation alone gets you to these deeper issues…
Please give credit to the Hindu sages from where this teachings come from. For example, mt Everest is a name given by the west. But for thousands of years it was always called Sagarmatha. Why are pagan identities, concepts rebranded? Please acknowledge the shoulders you stand on. In your own dictionaries this is called plagiarism.
I can imagine that if we had a large number of people practicing this "mindfulness" that divorce rates will increase.. How many relationships are using distractions to avoid accepting how horrible that other person is treating you? I know I'm doing that! ;)
But it can equally put one in a mindset where they are able to be open, honest & more capable of facing facts & dealing with issues.
Einsteins love child?
Okay. I'm going to make myself unpopular here I think. If we believe that the causes of our unhappiness are largely internal and of our own making as we evaluate our experiences, rather than the result of external forces: the social, political and economic frameworks that shape us for instance, then how can we transform our circumstances '(not least for the sake of our children)? This is like saying "life is shit but keep smiling and it'll all get better". A secular version of magical thinking.
You dare to say it, and that's what counts. I will ramble a bit because I am not clear in my thinking. If someone's young child died yesterday in your suburb and you know nothing more than a child died, how sad will you be?
Your neighbor's dog died the day before and the only time you thought about it was the wish it would stop incessant barking, how sad are you going to be?
A close friend or family member is in their last living hours; how distressed will you be?
All these scenarios affect you to varying degrees, and how you deal with them is the focal point of this video. You cannot do anything about the nearest person, but you can still do something for their family or at their house, if required. Help clean up, take their dog for a walk, cancel postage and newspaper delivery, or whatever the family ask of you.
How you and I conduct our minds during these times is the mindfulness factor. It doesn't require us to sit idle and do nothing, but to be mindful and level-headed in our approach. Sorry if this was a bit crappy, and I am glad you brought up the possible downside of the process.Thanks for your interest and contribution.
Mindfulness is being steady, more effective, whether smiling or frowning, recognizing everything changes. Not magical thinking, everything is changing, some changes we can direct some we can't.
It's just a brain state. If it helps, use it. If not, don't. Simple.
Anyone who thinks this is magical thinking is only being superficial here. Participation is key here. Unpopular? Nah. Ignorant? Quite possibly.
@@christopherhamilton3621 Ignorant am I? Be a mite careful: Your response makes you sound a bit like some Christian Apologist defending one of their untenable positions. Let's ask questions about stuff like this for Darwin's sake. In my experience, most of the things that have been sold to us as a cure-all are quack remedies designed to part us from our money. Acupuncture, Holistic Medicine, Crystal bloody healing and about ten thousand others. If you think that the concept of Mindfulness is exempt from the sort of scrutiny that has been brought to bear on those, then I think you're wrong. Are we not just being asked to look for the unhappiness within ourselves rather than identify the societal problems that are often the trigger for our ills? I think it could be a good old con trick and a distraction but I'm prepared to be wrong.
Yuck I hate this terminology. When I practice non violent communication it teaches you how to not mix the thing that happened with how you feel about the thing that happened. Which allows you to speak in a way that doesn't insinuate blame and allows you to take responsibility for your own needs and emotions and to ask for specific requests in a way that dies not imply a demand or an "or else"
If that is what this is, I wish they wouldn't use all this woo talk. NVC has specific language challenges that when learned improve your communication.
Whatever works for you.
In the absence of NVC (for manifold reasons), situational grounding is still important. Great suggestion though! (see 43 minutes in)
Just another form of people selling nonsense. This guy’s just pimping his latest book - others monetise ads on UA-cam. It’s all pointless gibberish peddled to gullible people.
Do you have evidence for your claim?
Just turn it off and get out in the world.🤔😒
This is so much yabba yabba about basic living.
In layman's terms: start thinking critically about your practices instead of doing excercises in navelgazing reinforcing your self-importance and -elevation. This is nothing but a fancy sticker slapped onto plain consideration and sure as hell doesn't require a crash course nor a lecture series, obviously not to mention primarily for unscrupulously parting helpless ans misguided people from their money. For shame such irresponsible imbecillity explotation.
Way to miss the point…🙄