Usually I share interviews with scientists doing research that can shed light on how we can live better, healthier lives. But this week you'll hear from a different kind of expert – a mindfulness teacher who has made a big impact on my life. Timothea Goddard led the eight week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course that I participated in during the production of my film My Year of Living Mindfully. Tim (as she’s affectionately known to us Aussies) is a psychotherapist who has taught more than 2000 students and trained more than 200 new mindfulness teachers. But you might... Read full article »

I know this sounds crazy but over the course of my latest project – My Year of Living Mindfully – I spent more than $30,000 on scientific tests. I'm often asked why I went to such lengths to get objective measures to see what, if anything, changed as a result of my daily mindfulness training. And my answer is simple. Because I believe that science matters. You can read a piece called Why I Stopped Looking for Miracles and Started Reading Science to get the full story on this, but in essence, it wasn’t until I was in my late... Read full article »

If you're interested in learning how your brain works and how to use that knowledge to make healthy changes in your life, then this week's podcast is for you. This episode is my extended interview with Dr. Judson Brewer, who is an Associate Professor and the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. As an addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies how we form unhealthy habits and routines, he's researching mindfulness-based techniques to help us change for good.     ALSO AVAILABLE ON:   SOMETHING YOU WANT TO KNOW? If you have a question for my... Read full article »

When I interviewed Matthieu Ricard, the world-famous French cellular geneticist-turned Buddhist monk, I remember thinking, whatever he’s on, I want some. I was struck by how the 71-year old (whose busy schedule involves international speaking tours and writing deadlines for his best-selling books, as well as overseeing 200 humanitarian projects) could possibly juggle everything and still seem so… well... happy. Matthieu has earned a place in popular media as the ‘happiest man on earth’ after neuroscientists published a series of seminal experiments involving his brain. I drove home from my interview with him thinking, could it be possible for me,... Read full article »

In 2007 a 27-year old man known as ‘Mr A’ collapsed on the floor of a hospital emergency department after taking a drug overdose. His blood pressure was crashing, he was hyperventilating and shaking, and nurses sprang into action to insert an intravenous line into his arm to try and flush his system and save his life.  The man had been taking part in an antidepressant drug trail, and although he had reported that his mood had improved significantly in the first month, in the second month he had an argument with his ex-girlfriend and became suicidal. He took the... Read full article »