Vidyamala on Mindfulness and Pain

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Vidyamala Burch is founder of Breathworks, an organisation offering mindfulness-based approaches to managing chronic pain and stress.

This is based on her own experience of living with severe chronic back pain for many years following an injury in her teens. She started to meditate and is now an experienced meditation teacher who works all over the world. She offers ways to bring mindfulness and compassion to present moment experience - including pain and discomfort - so one can 'live well' with a free and relaxed mind, whatever the circumstances.

Professor Steven Hayes on ACT

This week we are fortunate to have Professor Steven Hayes. He developed one of the key mindfulness-based therapies in use today, called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

He's written over 30 books and published over 300 research papers, which is very impressive. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. His book, 'Get out of your Mind and into your Life' is a major bestseller and was featured in Time Magazine. When the book came out, it was the number 1 best-selling self-help book in the US.

Professor Steven Hickman on being stuck in meditation

Steve Hickman is director of UCSD Center for Mindfulness in California.

He is founder and director of the Center for Mindfulness, a program of clinical services, professional training, research and outreach.

Today, he talks about how to overcome common challenges with practising meditation. 

Sharon Salzberg on Compassion

Sharon Salzberg is one of America’s leading spiritual teachers and is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts.

She played a key role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the Western world. The foundations of her teaching are the ancient Buddhist practices of vipassana (which is mindfulness) and metta (which is lovingkindness). She’s author of many excellent books including ‘loving kindness’, ‘the power of meditation’ and ‘real happiness’. In this fascinating interview, Sharon talks about how she learnt about meditation, practical ways of managing difficult emotions, the importance of loving kindness practice and a lovely story about her meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Rubin Naiman on Mindful Sleep

Dr. Naiman is the sleep specialist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Naiman is the author of a number of groundbreaking works on sleep, including Healing Night, Healthy Sleep, The Yoga of Sleep and ToSleep ToNight. He blogs about sleep and dreams for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. We covered the following questions:

1. What initial got you interested in sleep?
2. Is getting to sleep a big issue nowadays, and why?
3. What is a mindful way to sleep?
4. What role does meditation play in improving sleep?
5. Can you offer a few practical tips for the listeners to help them improve the quality of their sleep?

Dr. Daniel Siegel on Mindfulness and Wellbeing

He has a special interest in the practice of mindfulness, especially in how it stimulates the brain to grow new, more integrated circuits

~ which may be at the heart of well-being, including emotional balance and resilience, enhanced relationships and friendships, and greater empathy and connectedness.

Dr Marsha Lucas - Rewire Your Brain for Love

Marsha Lucas, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and neuropsychologist. 

She has been practicing psychotherapy and studying the brain-behavior relationship for over twenty years. Prior to entering private practice, she was a neurops ychologist on the faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr Elisha Goldstein on the Now Effect

This week we have Dr. Elisha Goldstein. Elisha is the author of the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Workbook, and more recently a book called ‘The Now Effect’.

He’s in private practice in LA as a licensed Psychologist and is a speaker on the topic of Mindfulness. He has spoken alongside mindfulness teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh and Jack Kornfield and writes a lovely blog called Mindfulness and Psychotherapy.

Dr Richard Field on Mindfulness for Addiction

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Today we have the honour of having Dr. Richard Fields on the show. He is author of "Drugs in Perspective," "Awakening to Mindfulness" and recently edited a book called "A year of living mindfully”.

Dr Fields has a PhD in Psychology and 30 years experience in counselling specialising in drug and alcohol relapse prevention. Dr Fields also organises FACES conferences in the USA, focusing in the field of mindfulness at the moment. Dr Fields explains:

• What causes addiction
• How mindfulness can help
• Practical tips for managing addiction and the difficult emotions that go with it
• Relapse prevention techniques

He also talks about his new book on Mindfulness. 

Mirabai Bush on Mindfulness at Google

In this episode, Mirabai Bush talks about how to integrate mindfulness into the workplace, using her experience of creating the mindfulness programme at Google.

Most people today are asked to improve performance at work with fewer resources and tighter deadlines, all while dealing with equally stressed co-workers and clients. This toxic combination leads to employee burnout and harms organizations. While people may not have control over stressors at work, mindfulness-based exercises are a scientifically proven, natural way to manage one’s responses to them.

Mirabai Bush’s mindfulness trainings for the workplace are based on traditional Buddhist practices to help reduce stress, increase productivity, and encourage creative problem solving.

Mirabai is a Key Contributor to Google’s Search Inside Yourself Curriculum.

She has released a new CD called Working With Mindfulness. You can get this at morethansound.net

Also visit contemplativemind.org for lots of resources.

Mark Williamson on Action for Happiness

This week we have Mark Williamson, Director of Action for Happiness. Action for Happiness is essentially a movement for positive social change.

They focus on bringing together people from all walks of life who want to play a part in creating a happier society for everyone. Here's the questions we discussed on the show in this episode.

1. Why do you think happiness is important?
2. Can you say what you do in your work for action for happiness?
3. How has working for AfH changed your life personally?
4. Do you know any examples of how AfH has helped someone get out of depression/anxiety?
5. I know you're a fan of mindfulness. Why do you like it?
6. Could you finish with 3 practical tips to help our listeners be a bit happier?

Check out ActionforHappiness.org to join this wonderful movement!

Professor Frank Bond on Mindfulness, ACT and the workplace

Professor Bond is Director of the Institute of Management Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, here in the UK.

He’s co-author of ‘Acceptance and Commitment Theory’. He talks about his experience with using ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) to improve performance and reduce stress in the workplace. A fascinating episode. I hope you enjoy it and remember to leave a comment to let me know what you thought of the show, and if you would like more.

Professor Mark Williams on Mindfulness and Therapy

Mark Williams is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, Welcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.

He has been working closely with the Centre of Suicide Research since 2003 on a large Welcome Trust Programme to investigate psychological mechanisms in suicidal behaviour in recurrent depression. His research now continues as part of the Mindfulness Centre, focusing on understanding the psychological processes that underlie depression and suicidal behaviour and the development of new psychological treatments. He co-developed Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and is the author of several books, including "Suicide and Attempted Suicide", "The Mindful Way Through Depression" and "Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World" as well as authoring over 175 articles and chapters on psychological models and treatment of depression and suicidality.