meditation as i would define it is
basically when we're accessing a
verifiable fourth state of consciousness
so different than waking different than
sleeping and different than dreaming
[Music]
when you start to cultivate a meditation
practice you actually move into a fourth
state of consciousness okay and in this
state of consciousness the right and
left hemispheres of the brain start to
function in unison
and this is important because your left
brain is in charge of the past and the
future and your right brain is in charge
of the right now
left brain critical thought right brain
creative thought
left brain aye sakai sakai
with cats eating my face
right brain
write that book call that guy
start that company
okay so we actually want to have both of
these guys functioning at the same time
right brain and left brain so when we
start meditating we're accessing this
fourth state of consciousness um and
when i say that it's like a verifiable
state of consciousness what i mean is
that if you were to hook your brain up
to an eeg machine which is electro and
topography hardware there are eight
classic points on the right brain and
eight classic points on the left and in
waking sleeping and dreaming states of
consciousness the right and left
hemispheres of the brain are functioning
separately
but in this fourth state of
consciousness all 16 leads of eeg rise
and fall in unison
now when you start meditating instead of
a small part of the brain lighting up
like it does in mindfulness the whole
brain lights up and that starts to
increase something called
neuroplasticity
and neuroplasticity is the brain's
ability to change itself it also
increases something called neurogenesis
which is the brain's ability to generate
new brain cells okay and that's
happening because you have this whole
brain cohesion happening when you're
doing this practice
when the whole brain lights up the right
and left brains are talking to each
other and that strengthens and thickens
something called the corpus callosum
now
the corpus callosum is the white strip
that connects the right and left
hemispheres of the brain and we've known
for a long time
that meditators have thicker corpus
callosums than non-meditators but we
weren't able to prove if it was causal
or correlated but now we know that the
longer you meditate the thicker this
thing becomes
which suggests that it is in fact causal
it suggests that it is the meditation
that is thickening the corpus callosum
so great why would i want a fat corpus
callosum
because
it is the very thing that allows you to
come up with a creative problem-solving
idea even in the middle of a high demand
situation
okay so your boss is yelling at you you
get kind of stressed and like it's like
i don't know i'm sorry goodbye
um or you get into a fight with your
partner and it gets pretty heated and
then it gets really heated and then
eventually you just like shut down and
retreat to the bedroom and about two
hours later you start coming up with all
these hilarious witty comebacks and
you're like why why couldn't i have
thought of that in the moment
um well my hypothesis is is that the
thicker your corpus callosum is the
easier it is for you to come up with all
those witty comebacks when it counts
right because none of you guys care how
hilarious or amazing or enlightening i
was last night in my hotel room when i
was making my notes for this
it doesn't matter it matters how well i
perform right now
and we really need the combination of
left brain and right brain happening
simultaneously also i don't think that
nature makes mistakes
and if you look at a human brain it's
actually 50 50.
right why would nature have given us 50
50 if it wanted us to use 90 10
and yet that's what most of us are doing
we're thinking we're taking action we're
achieving we're making money so we can
be happy in the future we think we take
action we achieve we make money so we
can be happy in the future and meanwhile
our poor little right brain is over here
like i have a creative i do
i have a suggestion like shut up right
brain i gotta think and take action to
achieve and make money so i can be happy
in the future
mantra is actually a sanskrit word man
means mind and truck means vehicle
so a mantra is actually a mined vehicle
and these mined vehicles are custom
designed to de-excite the nervous system
they're custom designed to take you into
more subtle states of consciousness
so that you can start to access your
bliss and fulfillment in the only place
that they reside
which is inside of you
and every spiritual text has been saying
this since the beginning of time what
you seek is in you the kingdom of heaven
is within
and that is a beautiful intellectual
concept to get in your brain
but it's a lot more powerful to be able
to experience that every day twice a day
physically viscerally in your bones and
your cells in your body
and that in no uncertain terms is what
meditation does for you it's giving you
access to your fulfillment inside of you
how kind are you how compassionate are
you how present are you how's your sleep
how's your sex how's your parking karma
how creative are you
okay
because when you give your body the rest
that it needs when you're giving your
body that deep healing rest rest that's
two to five times deeper than sleep then
the body knows how to heal itself
and one of the things that it heals
itself from is stress and
so that stuff has to go somewhere
and and in my experience when you
practice meditation when you give your
body this deep healing rest you're
handling not only the stress from the
right now but actually purging and
creating a catharsis from all your
stress from the past and that's actually
the thing that up levels your
performance capabilities
[Music]
you