Monday, March 2, 2020, 12-1pm
Old Chapel, UMass Amherst
Reception following talk 1-2pm
Judson Brewer, PhD, MD
Director of Research and Innovation, Mindfulness Center
Associate Professor, Psychiatry
Brown University School of Medicine
The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Cupcakes to Smartphones, the Mechanisms Underlying How Mindfulness Helps Change Habits
We are all vulnerable to craving. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social media, overeat, smoke, excessively drink, or any other behavior, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Can we learn how our minds work, and even tap into this very process to find a key to conquer the cravings we know are unhealthy for us and foster our natural capacities for awareness and kindness? Drawing on his clinical work, research studies and development of next-generation therapeutics for habit change, Dr. Brewer will discuss the underlying behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of why habits are formed and how mindfulness can paradoxically tap into these very processes to uproot them. He will also discuss how we can apply these insights to our own lives.
Check out Judson Brewer’s TED talk: A simple way to break a bad habit
This event is presented by PBS Clinical Colloquium Committee and IONs