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When I was first learning to meditate,

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the instruction was

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to simply pay attention to my breath,

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and when my mind wandered,

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to bring it back.

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Sounded simple enough.

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Yet, I'd sit on these silent retreats,

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sweating through T-shirts
in the middle of winter.

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I'd take naps every chance I got
because it was really hard work.

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Actually, it was exhausting.

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The instruction was simple enough

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but I was missing something
really important.

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So why is it so hard to pay attention?

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Well, studies show

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that even when we're really trying
to pay attention to something --

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like maybe this talk,

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at some point,

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about half of us will
drift off into a daydream,

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or have this urge
to check our Twitter feed.

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So what's going on here?

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It turns out

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that we're fighting one of the most

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evolutionarily-conserved
learning processes

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currently known in science,

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one that's conserved back

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to the most basic nervous
systems known to man.

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This reward-based learning process

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is called Positive and
Negative Reinforcement,

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and basically goes like this:

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we see some food that looks good,

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our brain says, "calories ... survival,"

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we eat the food, we taste it --

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it tastes good --

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and especially with sugar,

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our bodies send a signal
to our brain that says,

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"remember what you're eating
and where you found it."

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We lay down this context-dependent memory

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and learn to repeat the process next time.

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See food,

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eat food,

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feel good,

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repeat.

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Trigger, behavior, reward.

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Simple, right?

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Well after awhile,

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our creative brains say,

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"you know what? You can use this for more
than just remembering where food is,

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you know, next time you feel bad

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why don't you try eating something good
so you'll feel better?"

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We thank you brains for the great idea,

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try this,

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and quickly learn

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that if we eat chocolate or ice cream
when we're mad or sad,

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we feel better.

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Same process,

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just a different trigger.

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Instead of this hunger signal
coming from out stomach,

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this emotional signal --

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feeling sad --

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triggers that urge to eat.

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Maybe in our teenage years,

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we were a nerd at school,

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and we see those rebel kids
outside smoking,

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we think, "hey, I want to be cool,"

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so we start smoking.

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The Marlboro man wasn't a dork
and that was no accident.

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See cool,

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smoke to be cool,

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feel good.

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Repeat.

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Trigger, behavior, reward.

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And each time we do this,

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we learn to repeat the process
and it becomes a habit.

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So later,

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feeling stressed out triggers
that urge to smoke cigarette,

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or to eat something sweet.

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Now with these same brain processes,

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we've gone from learning to survive

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to literally killing ourselves
with these habits.

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Obesity and smoking

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are among the leading preventable causes
of morbidity and mortality in the world.

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So back to breath.

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What if instead of fighting our brains,

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or trying to force ourselves
to pay attention,

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we instead tapped into this natural,
reward-based learning process ...

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but added a twist?

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What if instead we just got really curious

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about what was happening
in our momentary experience?

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I'll give you an example.

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In my lab,

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we studied whether mindfulness training
could help people quit smoking.

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Now, just like trying to force myself
to pay attention to my breath,

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they could try to force
themselves to quite smoking.

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And the majority of them

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had tried this before and failed --

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on average, six times.

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Now with mindfulness training,

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we dropped the bit about forcing

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and instead focused on being curious.

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In fact,

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we even told them to smoke.

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What?

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Yeah, we said, "go ahead and smoke,

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just be really curious about
what it's like when you do."

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And what did they notice?

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Well here's an example
from one of our smokers.

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She said, "Mindful smoking:

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smells like stinky cheese,

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and tastes like chemicals,

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YUCK!"

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Now she knew, cognitively
that smoking was bad for her,

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that's why she joined our program.

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What she discovered just by being
curiously aware when she smoked,

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was that smoking tastes like shit.

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(Laughter)

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Now, she moved from knowledge to wisdom.

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She moved from knowing in her head
that smoking was bad for her

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to knowing it in her bones.

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And the spell of smoking was broken.

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She started to become
disenchanted with her behavior.

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Now, the Prefrontal cortex,

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that youngest part of our brain
from an evolutionary perspective,

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it understands on an intellectual level
that we shouldn't smoke.

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And it tries it's hardest

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to help us change our behavior,

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to help us stop smoking,

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to help us stop eating that second,
that third, that fourth cookie.

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We call this cognitive control.

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We're using cognition
to control our behavior.

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Unfortunately,

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this is also the first part of our brain

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that goes offline when
we get stressed out,

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which isn't that helpful.

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Now, we can all relate to this
in our own experience.

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We're much more likely

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to do things like yell 
at our spouse or kids

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when we're stressed out or tired,

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even though we know
it's not going to be helpful,

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we just can't help ourselves.

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When the prefrontal cortex goes offline,

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we fall back into our old habits,

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which is why

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this disenchantment is so important.

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Seeing what we get from our habits

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helps us understand
them at a deeper level --

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to know it in our bones

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so we don't have to force
ourselves to hold back

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or restrain ourselves from behavior.

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We're just less interested
in doing it in the first place.