Five questions on the science, skill of well-being

On Tuesday, Dec. 9, renowned neuroscientists and psychologists will share research-based mental training techniques that have been shown to improve well-being and contribute to happiness, creativity and productivity.

The community lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Macky Auditorium. The event is free but registration is required

The event, “Well-being Is a Skill,” will be led by Richard J. Davidson, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology and psychiatry and founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

Last week, Davidson answered questions about his research. Here is a partial transcript:

In 2006, when Time magazine named you one of the 100 most influential people of the year, the magazine said that “East and West not only meet in Richard Davidson’s laboratory; they are also starting to exchange a great deal of useful information about human experience and human potential." Eight years after that assessment, how would you characterize progress in your field?

Well I think that there's been a huge amount of progress that was made. At the time, in 2006, it was relatively early on in this kind of work and since then there has just been an upsurge, a huge upsurge I would say, of interest in well-being, in the practice of different kinds of meditation techniques which can promote well-being, and in the scientific understanding of how these sorts of practices might work and also what their benefit might be.

So I've been really surprised in a very enjoyable way at the receptivity that I have experienced in many different sectors of our culture about this work – in the scientific community, in the medical community, in the education community, and in the business community.

Are westerners becoming more receptive to meditation and other practices as a means of improving mental well-being? If so, how do you gauge this?

Yes, I think westerners are becoming more receptive. Again, this is, I think, indicated by the increased interest in mainstream sectors of our culture, including the four sectors that I noted. Basic scientific research, medicine, education and healthcare—in every one one of those sectors, I think there are demonstrable changes which have occurred that mark the increased receptivity.

In the latest edition of Scientific American, you quote the Dalai Lama, who asked: “What relation could there be between Buddhism, an ancient Indian philosophical and spiritual tradition, and modern science?” How would you answer that question?

I think Buddhism has a very well developed psychological analysis of the mind and also of mental transformation. There is now increasing interest in modern neuroscience and understanding the brain mechanisms that might be associated with the detailed phenomenological descriptions that we find in the Buddhist account.

So there is just a tremendously ripe opportunity for a serious engagement between certain segments of Buddhism and modern science and the investigation of the neuroscientific basis of the mind and its potential transformation.

If well-being is a skill, is it a difficult skill to acquire?

First of all, I do think it's a skill, and no I don't think it's difficult to acquire. I think that the reason why people may think it's difficult is because they haven't practiced the strategies which can promote well-being. And it hasn't been something that has been a regular part of their daily routine for the bulk of their lives in this culture.

I think that if we were exposed to strategies to promote this skill starting early in life, starting in early-childhood, then it would seem much less daunting than it does seem to some people at this point in time.

If people knew only one thing about your research, what would it be?

If they knew only one thing, it would be that well-being and happiness are best regarded as skills that can be enhanced through training and that our brains are constantly being shaped wittingly or unwittingly – most of the time it is unwitting. And the invitation in this work is that we can all take responsibility for intentionally shaping our brains in ways that can promote happiness and well-being.

This interview was conducted by Robert Stein, a CU-Boulder senior majoring in English and an intern for Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine.

 

Dec. 7, 2014