![]() Just as any 7-year-old can now do, I had looked it up on the web. She answered the obvious question first: Why is Goldie Hawn speaking at a brain conference? I already partly knew the answer. If the neuroscience community was going to be delivered an advocate, they could have done a lot worse. Unlike most people who wing it, Hawn strung together rhythmic sentences that made sense. As she talked, it occurred to me that vivaciousness and beauty did not alone propel her to stardom. Hawn spoke without notes, claiming to be a born communicator, a claim she backed up by her performance. I watched her stop to enthusiastically greet–hug, kiss–various other conference attendees, who seemed equally eager to chat her up, whether to advance their work or sidle up to celebrity, I couldn’t say. Her trademark laugh and general effervescence mark her like a strobe light, quite visible even in the bright Colorado sun. It wasn’t so much her looks, though, that made her instantly recognizable. A grandmother now, Hawn looked fabulous in over-the-knee black leather boots and a chunky silver belt strung around a black miniskirt. I knew she was about to give the keynote address, but I was startled to practically run into the actress. When I arrived at the Aspen Meadows Resort for the Second Annual Aspen Brain Forum last Thursday evening, Goldie Hawn was getting out of a vehicle near the entrance. Though there is a lot to worry about and a lot of uncertainty, I can still return to this sense of steadiness, and trust myself that I can get through it.ASPEN. “It didn’t take me any more moments in my day to do it, but it just gave me a little sense of I’m still here, I’m still experiencing the unfolding of my life. “Remember, mindfulness is always here for us,” Jha says. “Usually you don’t even remember brushing your teeth,” but if you focus on each step-holding the toothbrush, applying toothpaste, noticing the sensations that arise as you guide it around your mouth-you’re practicing mindfulness. One easy way to sneak in mindfulness without devoting any extra time to it is to infuse it into everyday activities, like brushing your teeth, Jha says. “My orientation at this point is to really lower the bar: to not have any aspirations to crush it.” The more you demand of yourself during difficult periods, the greater the stress. ![]() ![]() “I’m experiencing depletion, worry, uncertainty,” Jha says. “We can pick up these practices at any moment, and it takes as little as 15 minutes a day to see benefits,” Jha says.Įnduring stressful stretches of time-like the coronavirus pandemic-isn’t easy for anyone, and neither is perfectly adhering to healthy practices during them. Practices that can strengthen attention can be as simple as tracking sensations of the breath, fostering kindness and connection with other people, or imagining a flashlight scanning the entire body and focusing where the light hits. Attention is important because “we need it for everything: focusing, noticing, making decisions, regulating our emotions,” Jha says. Jha’s research has found that mindfulness training tools strengthen attention in people under high-stress circumstances-even for active-duty military service members. “It’s hijacking the energy and the ability of the prefrontal cortex to stay awake, for the lightbulb to go off.” Thinking of the brain in this way helps kids understand that to calm down, all they have to do is “quiet the dog down in the doghouse for a while.” One way to do this is to take a “brain break”-Hawn’s kid-friendly term for a quick meditation. “The amygdala is like a barking dog, and when he barks, the wise old owl in the prefrontal cortex can’t think, and can’t remember, and can’t do anything,” Hawn says. ![]() In MindUP, kids learn nicknames for key parts of the brain involved in regulating emotions. ![]()
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