Someone just brought me a wonderful box of pizza. You know, i see pizza like this and im sitting in front of the tv, i could eat four pieces of this pizza and not even know i ate it, and then eat the other four, and then its all gone. Okay . My reptilian brain is going crazy, my emotional brain is saying, wow, smell that cheese and its piping hot. But wait a minute, my neocortical brain just reminded me of something. Okay . If i have too much of that pizza, its not gonna be good for me. My balanced brain says, yeah, thats a greatlooking pizza you want to eat the whole thing, but the intellectual brain is coming in and overriding that burning desire overriding the reptilian brain saying, it wont be good for you if you have too much. So then, the cortical brain says, youre in control. Have some pizza, just have one piece. And then the reptilian brains says, yeah, but make it a big one. You know, soso thank you. So chuckles so, you know, thats the brain integrated, talking to each other, making sure everything is balanced. All three parts of my brain are satisfied and now in harmony. Next, id like to introduce an idea thatits a new idea, and this is an idea thats really taking the field of neuroscience by storm. Its a new subfield of neuroscience called contemplative neuroscience, like contemplation. Contemplative neuroscience. Its a bit difficult to explain, but i think the easiest way to do it, and this has to do with this concept of mind over brain, is to think about the term mindfulness, mindfulness. So what is mindfulness . One way to define mindfulness is that its the act of paying attention in a totally neutral manner. Devoid of judgment, devoid of analysis, devoid of calculation. When you are truly mindful, you dont just hear, you listen. You dont just look, you see. And maybe the best way to explain, you know, mindfulness is to give an example of lack of mindfulness. So, my wife, dora, called me the other day at the lab to remind me that we had to go to our daughters violin lesson the following week. And halfway through the call, i got an emailcause i was sitting at my deskand the email had some incredibly exciting data in it about a new alzheimers gene. So i couldnt help it. You know, i opened up the excel sheet, i started checking out the data. But iand i thought i was still talking to my wife on the phone. I thought i was. Andand then, you know, the following week came, and dora reminded me about little lailas lesson and i had no idea what she was talking about. And luckily, she just laughed, uh, cause my wife is nice. But the thing is that all of us, every one of us, tends to try to multitask. Okay . Who has not multitasked in this room . Thats an honest group. So, guess what . Multitasking is not possible. Multitasking is not possible. Your conscious brain can only do one thing at a time. To create your super brain, you need to develop mindfulness in different aspects of your life and remember that you have to concentrate on one thing at a time. The four areas where you need to think about how to be mindful include sensory awareness, body awareness, mental awareness, and social awareness. So let me give you an example first of sensory awareness. I want you all to imagine a beautiful sunset. Now, imagine a newly born infant crying. Now, imagine the smell of hot buttered popcorn. Mm. Now, imagine licking a lemon. chuckles and now, imagine touching the rough surface of sandpaper. So when you were imagining that sunset, your visual cortex, the vision area of the brain back here, was actually turned on activated, as if you were really seeing the sunset. When you heard that newborn, your auditory cortex was activated, as if you were really hearing that baby. When you smell the hot buttered popcorn, your olfactory cortex was activated. When you imagined licking that lemon, your sensory cortex, your taste was activated. You may even have started salivating. So, guess what, heres what you just did. You just became the user of your brain. An exercise like this shows you that you can turn on whatever brain region you want. You actually just did this. You even changed the chemistry the wiring of nerve cells, the gene activity in those brain regions as you turn them on. Can you imagine that . In these brain regions, things change, wiring change, chemistry change, genes were turning on and off, and you did all of this with just your mind. All through just mindfulness you changed the actual activities in your brain. And this is really one of the keys in terms of your path to a super brain, is to realize that you have the power to change your own brain. So now, how about a practical way to apply this . Im gonna use the example of sitting down to eat a meal. The next time you sit down to eat, try this. Try taking more time to Pay Attention to the taste and smell of your food. Take your time. Youll enjoy it more. And as you do, the Hunger Center in your brain, which tells you whether youre still hungry or be satiated earlier, if you just take your time. Essentially, with this type of mindful eating, lets call it that, youll actually lose weight because youll eat more slowly cause youre enjoying it and that area of your brain that needs to be satiated will be satiated earlier so youre gonna eat less food so youll lose weight. Mindful eating. Now, lets move on to the second category. This is mindful body awareness. And here you need to be aware of two aspects of your body. First, your muscular skeletal system and this includes, like your legs and arms. And you need to ask yourself how do i feel right now . Do i feel lethargic . Do i feel energetic . Do i feel heavy . Do i feel light . Ask yourself these things. Be in touch with your body. The second aspect is being aware of your internal body. Actually trying to be aware of your internal organs. For example, you can be mindful about whether your stomach is empty or full. You can be mindful of how you are breathing. Are you breathing slow or fast . Deep or shallow . You can be mindful of your heart rate. With this mindful body awareness, youll actually activate the parts of your brain that control these parts of the body and because youre just showing them a little tender loving care, youre paying attention to them, you will have your brain take care of your bodys needs in a better and healthier way. Youll also start, intuitively making the right decisions regarding your bodys needs. For example, youll be sure to get enough sleep when your body says it needs it. Youll know when your body needs sleep. Youll be listening. You wont eat when youre not really hungry. Thats body awareness. Next, lets talk about the third, mental awareness. With mental awareness, you need to be careful to observe whenever you can, the thoughts and feelings going through your mind. Their thoughts and feelings that have been generated by your brain in your mind all the time. And as you observed them, you need to always appreciate that you are not simply just the sum of your thoughts and feelings. You are much, much more. The real you is the one thats able to observe your thoughts and feelings. I said earlier, your brain has evolved to endow you with selfawareness. Selfawareness, this is an incredible gift and you need to use it. So instead of just mindlessly reacting to every situation, often with bad consequences, instead, youll make wise choices, the ones that will best serve you and those around you. And this brings us to social awareness. In social awareness, you need to think about being aware of those that are closest to us, our family members, our best friends, and then try to extend that same level of awareness to those you work with and then on to all of society, and as you do this, try to practice what we call the three as. The three as. First, attention. Really listen to what others have to say. Theyll appreciate it. And if theres appreciation, notice and mention something good about them. And finally, affection. Let them know you care about them. This can be a family member, a coworker, or just someone you know, you dont know very well. It costs you nothing. The three as, attention appreciation, and affection. And if you do this, you will become more connected to your world and your emotional brain will reward you. Youll have great feelings of joy, peace, happiness. And as a result, you will also enjoy better mental and physical health. So these are the four aspects of mindfulness that i want you to practice to achieve your super brain, sensory, body, mental and social awareness. As you start to live a more mindful life, you will gradually begin to reap its benefits. Youll find that youre less argumentative and its easier to stay calm. For example, when your coworker is blasting loud obnoxious music in the cubicle next to you, you wont go ballistic, raising your blood pressure, or maybe having a stroke. Thats not a good thing, okay . Youll find that youre shedding bad habits, that youre shedding addictive tendencies. Youll find that your sleeping better. And sleeping better, you know, getting good sleep is very, very important for the health of your brain. Ill tell you why later on. Youll start feeling like youre more in charge of your life and be making better choices. Basically, youre going to transform your life with mindfulness, from being reactive to being more creative and intuitive. Essentially with mindfulness youll be celebrating the greatest gifts provided to you by your brain. Insight, intuition, choice, and creativity. Now, in the next segment, well talk about how to keep your brain young and help stave off alzheimers disease. So ill see you in a moment. applause wow, what great stuff. Are you ready to make the simple changes in your life that will turn your brain into a super brain . Hi, im Greg Sherwood. Im delighted to be here in the studio once again with dr. Rudy tanzi, the host of this fascinating program. And rudy, i got to tell you, the more i watch this thing, the more i learn it really is great stuff. Thanks, and im so glad that so many people can hear about super brain and start changing their lives today. I know, and thats the whole idea. Right now, were gonna give you a few minutes before we get into the last segment of the program to encourage your support, and if you can do that at the 60 level, you will get the dvd of the program were enjoying right now, but get this. Its got an extra 30 minutes of great q a at the end where a lot of people ask the questions you probably have right now. But i would really encourage you to consider moving up to the 144 level because dr. Tanzi and dr. Chopra have created a users manual for our brain. Its called super brain, a users manual. It is an incredible package. Its got the book that the whole lecture is based on. Its got workbooks. Its got seven dvds and a library and they explore every one of the areas most of us are concerned about, whether its weight loss, money management, perhaps you worry and struggle a little bit with anxiety. They have tools and information to help you in all those areas. That is our gift to you for your phone call and gift of support right now at the 144 level. And when you think about it, rudy, this is the one network where science is really taken seriously. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, pbs is such a gift. Its a gift for the whole family. I love the science shows. I love nova. Ive been on nova several times. I love nova science now. So many great shows. I mean, i think, we mainly watch pbs at home. My little girl loves thomas the tank engine. And you know, where else can you get that . I mean, its just the bestby far, the best network. So actually, public broadcasting is good for you. It actually is good for you. I mean, you know, if youre watching a rerun of gilligans island, youre not doing much for your brain, but if youre learning new stuff and youre making new synapses, which you can only get at pbs, youre actually doing a lot of good for yourself. Youre creatinghelping create your super brain. And you know what, rudy, you actually, in the package clearly at the 144i love the notion of a users manual because its this ideawe all take our brains for granted, but what you and dr. Chopra have done has taken the science that you spent your life working in and synthesized it down into a package of tools so people who dont have phds in neuroscience can actually learn howcan make those connections to get to a place where youre healthier about how you make decisions. So perhaps you got some weight issues or you got anxiety issues. We even got a whole dvd about people struggling with money issues cause a lot of that has to do with which part of the brain youre using when you make bad financial choices. All these things are in this package and all of it goes back to the science that youre so famous for working on. Yeah, you know, we just wanted to really just make it simple. You know, i mean, there are lots of places you can get selfhelp about, you know, how to have a more positive attitude and help your brain. But in this package, what youre going to get is simple to understand science, newest breakthroughs about the incredible potential and ability of your brain. And then we say now, isnt it great you have this amazing organ in your head . But guess what, its not who you are. Youre the user of your brain. Now, heres how you can master your brain, reshape and remold your brain to your liking into a super brain so it will serve you better. And it begins with being mindful, just taking advantage of the fact that youre selfaware. You can observe whats going on in your brain. Learning to do that every day and you will, over timeit can happen more quickly for some versus others, but it does happen quickly cause its easy. You reshape, remold, rewire your brain to best serve you, make you a healthier, happier person, in all aspects of your life. Well, thats great. Let me tell you, if you are mindful of the Important Role that public broadcasting plays in your life and the life of your kids and your grandkids this is a great time to say thank you and get some great gifts coming your way starting at the affordable 60ayear membership level. We will thank you with a dvd of this lecture. That includes everything in todays broadcast, plus, over 30 minutes of your most frequently asked questions about how to take advantage of all these breakthroughs in the field of Brain Science. Now, as i said before, if you can move up to that 144 level of support, were gonna show our appreciation with super brain a users manual. This exclusive multimedia learning system includes everything you need to develop your brain into a super brain. Now, the package includes three books and a seven dvd library. Now, theres a quick start guide thats designed to help put you on the road to taking advantage of many of the super brain insights right away. The package features the super brain blissful sleep app. That is a downloadable app that will help you maybe get a better nights sleep than youve gotten in years. And you know, if you share your email address when you make the call, we will give you access to that download right away. Now, a better brain and a better nights sleep are waiting for you along with a lot of other things as soon as you make that call of support. And please remember, this package is a pbs exclusive. So please call or join safely online right now. Hi, im dr. Deepak chopra here. Dr. Rudy tanzi and i have created the ultimate in a sciencebased approach to improving every aspect of your life. The super brain, a users manual is a set of tools, a learning system really designed to give you the power to enjoy the benefits of being in charge of your brain. The books and dvd library provide you with simple techniques that can help you overcome bad habits that may have led you to suffer from Health Problems and weight problems, challenges in finding happiness with other people, even struggles with money management, stunning breakthroughs in Brain Science provide a way to overcome all of these issues and more. If the valuable programs on science and health found on this public station are as important to you and your family as they are to me, its time for you to make that call of support. Well show you our appreciation by sharing how you can get the power of a super brain working for you. Thank you. Pbs is just such a wonderful gift to the world that provides us with the ability to learn new things our entire lives. We can see new programs about music, sports, and science, good programs about science. As a scientist, i can tell you that, and great childrens program. My little daughter only watches pbs. Its all we let her watch. So i just hope you support pbs. You know, im a scientist partly today cause of watching pbs. The influence of carl sagan and the many science programs got my interest in science going from when i was a child. Ive been watching pbs my whole life. Ill continue to do so. So i really hope you choose to support your pbs station. Think about what a super brain could do for you. Better memory, mood, and concentration, smarter financial decisions, almost effortless weight loss, and help reducing the risk of alzheimers disease. All possible when you have the right tools, and all based upon the latest scientific research. At the 60gift level, we say thank you by sending you the complete program youre watching, plus an extensive audience q a. Step up to the 144gift level and we have super brain, a users manual. This exclusive multimedia toolkit includes everything you need to develop your brain into a super brain. This easytomaster learning system includes dr. Tanzi and dr. Chopras hardcover book, super brain, filled with the fascinating neuroscience and proven action steps you need to enhance your life and brain. Weve also included super brain, the handbook with quizzes and detailed checklists to help you define your brains needs and get specific steps to develop your super brain. This comprehensive package also includes the super brain seven dvd library. Every aspect of your life can be improved through this extensive, yet easytounderstand collection. Better memory, mood, and concentration, almost effortless weight loss and help reducing the risk of alzheimers disease. And to get you going right away, weve included our Getting Started guide, 11 items to do today to achieve a super brain. And dont let another night go by not enjoying the Important Health benefits of restful sleep with this super brain download blissful sleep. And when you make that call of support and give us your email address, we can send you that download code right away. Think about what having a super brain could do for you and your family. But it wont happen if you dont take action right now. Please call or click with your Financial Support to this wonderful pbs station. This is the station that brings you Quality Programming every single day throughout the year. Thank you. You know, rudy, weve talked about lots of the details in the super brain, a users manual package, but i want to step back for a minute before we get to the final segment of the program and let you describe to people briefly what the big benefits are. Why should i get over the phone right now and make this call and gift of support for this exclusive package .