by Judson Brewer

an associate Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, where he is Director of Research at the Center for Mindfulness.  He is a leader in the “science of self mastery,” having nearly 20 years of experience with the scientific study of mindfulness.

First preview the vocabulary below.  Then do the exercise by first reading a single question and then listening for the answer.  When you hear the answer, pause the video and answer the question.  Then read the next question and do the same thing.  If you get the answer wrong, then go back to where the answer is given and listen again.

Vocabulary:

retreats:  short courses held away from the city
exhausting:  very tiring
pay attention: focus on something
urge:  need
calories:  food energy
survival:  continuing to live
trigger:  something that makes you take action
reward:  a good thing you get as a result of an action
nerd:  a person who likes to study and learn
obesity:  being too fat
morbidity and mortality:  unhealthiness and death
tap into:  start using
curious:  wanting to know something
cognitively:  in your brain
disenchanted:  not liking
intellectual:  of the brain
on a visceral level:  with deep understanding
letting go:  releasing, giving up, stopping
paradox:  opposite thing that’s also true
cravings:  things that you strongly want
sensations:  feelings in the body
clobbered:  dominated, beat up
perpetuate:  keep doing