Physicians and nurses who work with patients dealing with serious, life-threatening illness experience stress, empathic overload, compassion fatigue, and burnout. In this qualitative study funded by the Mind & Life Institute and the John Templeton Foundation, we are conducting extended qualitative interviews with at least 25 clinicians with an established contemplative practice in the Buddhist …
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Concurrent Session 2 – Transforming Moral Distress: Lessons from Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Contemplative Practice
For clinicians exposed daily to pervasive suffering, death, and moral conflict in their work, maintaining composure, courage, and resilience is especially difficult and can lead to moral distress. In this experiential, interactive workshop, we will present collaborative work, supported by the Mind & Life Institute, between clinicians, philosophers, and leaders in contemplative practice and neuroscience. …
Concurrent Session 2 – The Social Side of Mindfulness: From Lab to Life
Traditional contemplative perspectives emphasize social benefits of mindfulnessand meditation, yet little research has investigated their social implications. Social situations involve distinct challenges for regulating affect, including the involvement of others’ emotions. This presentation briefly summarizes our prior lab-based work demonstrating that trait mindfulness predicts neural and behavioral responses consistent with efficient top-down attention to and …
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Concurrent Session 2 – Mindfulness in Education for Teachers and Students
Early childhood is an especially sensitive period in life, and a time when the brain undergoes rapid development. As such, training during this period has the potential for significant and lifelong impact. Educators of young children play a pivotal role in shaping student outcomes and success. Therefore, we are harnessing mental training techniques that have …
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Concurrent Session 1 – Can We Measure Mental Balance? Scientific and Contemplative Perspectives On Equanimity
In light of a growing interest in contemplative practices such as meditation, the emerging field of contemplative science has been challenged to describe and objectively measure how these practices affect health and well-being. We recently proposed that equanimity could serve as a measurable outcome of contemplative practices, both in basic science investigations and in clinical …
Concurrent Session 1 – Philosophical Foundations for Contemplative Pedagogy in Higher Education: New Research in the Field
As the field of contemplative education in higher education enjoys unprecedented growth and more and more faculty across disciplines are integrating contemplative pedagogical practices in their classrooms, it is vital to continue building the relatively new theoretical foundations for the field. This panel brings together five of the most innovative academics who are developing new …
Concurrent Session 1 – Investigating the Phenomenal and Neurocognitive Matrix of Mindfulness-Related Practices
Mindfulness meditation practices can be conceptualized as a set of attention-based, regulatory, and self-inquiry training regimes cultivated for various ends, including the training of well-being and psychological health. This panel discusses conceptual issues related to the construct of mindfulness in psychological research and reviews recent, nonclinical work in this area. Instead of proposing a single …
Concurrent Session 1 – Ancient Western Contemplative Philosophy: An Introduction to Plotinus and Neo-Platonism
This presentation introduces the contemplative thought of Plotinus (c. 205-270 CE), the Greek philosopher who has been called the father of the Western contemplative tradition. Plotinus’s philosophy — today described as ‘Neo-Platonism’ — influenced Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mystics as well as Renaissance humanists and scientists, touching thinkers as diverse as St. Augustine, Rumi, and …
Concurrent Session 1 – Contemplation as Organizational Transformation in a Research I University: The University of Virginia as a Case Study
The founding of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia provided an opportunity for institutional transformation across all schools in teaching and learning, research, engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The approach has been to assess the organizational culture, intellectual norms, pedagogical practices, and gaps in student outcomes to consider how contemplative ideas, values, and …
Concurrent Session 1 -Neurocognitive Processes of Addiction: A Therapeutic Role for Mindfulness?
Several neurocognitive processes have been implicated in addiction, including motivated attention, reward processing, emotion regulation, stress reactivity, delay discounting, and inhibitory control. These processes appear to depend on functionally integrated cortico-limbic-striatal circuits whose dysfunction supports the acquisition, maintenance, and reinstatement of addictive behaviors. Novel interventions that target the neurocognitive processes underlying addictive behavior may hold …
