In this episode, Wendy speaks with social psychologist and contemplative researcher David Creswell. David has been studying the effects of meditation on stress and resilience for over a decade, and has conducted some of the most rigorous studies to date investigating which aspects of mindfulness interventions bring benefit. This conversation covers many topics, including:
integrating psychology and Buddhism since high school;
understanding stress and resilience;
acceptance and equanimity in mindfulness;
bringing scientific rigor to the study of mindfulness through dismantling trials;
effects of equanimity on the stress response and positive emotions;
how contemplative skills spill over from the cushion into daily life;
how practice changes the brain and why those changes matter;
a risky study with a president's daughter;
the promise of apps to deliver mindfulness;
how acceptance differs from passive resignation;
and viewing biology and psychology as two sides of the same coin.

Full show notes and resources