This document discusses tapping into neuroplasticity and habit change through meditation. It provides an overview of neuroplasticity and how habits are formed through cues, routines, and rewards. Meditation is presented as a way to change habits by utilizing neuroplasticity. Research on meditation is summarized that shows it can increase focus, attention, and positively impact brain activity and structure. Microhabits and small wins are presented as effective strategies for habit change supported by meditation.
2. Remo Uherek
• 31 years
• BA in Business (University of Basel)
• Serial Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor
• Co-Founded Small-n-Tall GmbH in 2003
Idea incubator
• Co-Founded Trigami AG in 2007, sold in 2011
Social Media Marketing network
• Meditation practitioner since 2008
• Co-Founded ZenFriend.com in 2014
App that motivates you to meditate daily
4. Purpose of this session
• Overview over the Theory & Practice of Habit
Change
• Why do habits stick? Why not?
• What is neuroplasticity?
• What are results from meditation research?
• How can technology help us?
• What can we learn from ZenFriend.com?
5. What is neuroplasticity?
• Before: notion that the connections in the
brain develop until maturity, and then get
stuck
• After: Neuroscience has proven that this is
WRONG. The brain remains flexible and able
to change
6. Habits
• That means that it‘s possible to change habits.
Even the deepest ones.
7. Habits
• So how do we change habits effectively?
8. „Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.“
- Mahatma Gandhi
9. Why are habits important?
• More than 40% of the actions people perform
each day are habits (Duke University, 2006)
• If you want to live a richer, more meaningful
life, focusing on habits makes a lot of sense
(Main source for this part: Pavlok.com)
11. Psychology behind habit formation
• We are not born with habits
• Habits free up time and energy
• This is why you have great ideas while you are
taking a shower, or walking – your actions are
automatic so your mind is free to thing about
something else
13. Psychology behind habit formation
• BAD habits are the problem
• The unproductive and unhealthy ones are
14. Psychology behind habit formation
• Complex habits are just a combination of
several smaller habits that are being
performed in succession.
• The completion of one smaller habit triggers
another.
16. Three-step process
• Cue = the trigger, the motivator to do
something
• Routine = Action that we perform
• Reward = (Positive) result
17. Three-step process
• Example: Chocolate bar at supermarket
checkout
• The first time you did it, it was a conscious
decision.
• After the first time, the brain doesn‘t even
think about what is happening. The habit is
triggered automatically.
• Eventually, the cue will trigger a craving for
the reward, leading to action
18. Three-step process
• As long as there is a consistent cue and a
pleasurable reward, you‘ll form a habit.
• This leads to habits that we don‘t really want
19. Three-step process
• We can use this process to our benefit
• We can identify habits that are desirable and
use the cue-routine-reward process to ingrain
them into our everyday life
• We can also use this process to change our
habits.
20. Changing habits
• It is very hard to destroy habits. Instead, they
should be replaced.
• The best way to replace habits is to keep the
same cue and reward, and replace the
routine.
• Example: Instead of eating ice cream you have
a bowl of frozen berries, fulfilling the desire
for a cold treat.
21. Changing habits
• Willpower alone is not sufficient.
• Habits cannot be formed from brute force
alone. You‘ll fail if your method relies on
willpower alone.
• You need to have a reason. You need to know
the WHY, the big-picture goal.
22. „Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what
keeps you going.“
- Jim Rohn
23. Microhabits and Small wins
• One large obstacle is lacking the ability to
complete the target action (Stanford
psychologist BJ Fogg)
• Solution:
– Focusing on Microhabits and Small Wins
– Instead of wanting to meditate for 20 minutes,
you just do a 10 sec meditation every day, doing
two mindful breaths
24. Success Spiral
• Once a small win has been accomplished,
forces are set in motion that favor another
small win (Prof. Alan Krueger)
Success spiral
25. How to motivate employees?
• Help them perform a small win every day
26. Peer Support
• People might be skeptical about their ability to
change if they‘re by themselves, but a group
will convince them to suspend disbelief. A
community creates belief (Lee Ann Kaskutas)
• Example: 12 Step Groups e.g. Alcoholics
Anonymous
27. Reward and Punishment
• One way to establish new habits is to have an
accountability partner
• You check in with your accountability partner
every day
• If you don‘t do your habit, you have to take a
punishment (e.g. blame or paying money)
• If you succeed, you get rewarded by being
praised
28. Example: Excercising
• Instead of 30 min workouts, just start with a
microhabit
• 7 Min Workout every day, no matter what
• Do this for 20-30 days in a row, don‘t miss one
day
29. Example: Pavlok
• There are many wearable devices.
• Most focus on tracking, but the biggest
problem is not tracking
• The biggest problem is motivation
• Pavlok is one of the first devices that aspires
to change that
• Science: Pavlovian Conditioning
– Dogs get meat powder after bell
– Ringing bell enough to get saliva running
32. Example: Pavlok
• Pavlok combines (social) penalties,
accountability and rewards
• Stimulation is not only through positive things
(rewards), it‘s also through the fear of loss, or
the fear of a negative stimuli
33. Example: Pavlok
• Pavlok combines (social) penalties,
accountability and rewards
• Stimulation is not only through positive things
(rewards), it‘s also through the fear of loss, or
the fear of a negative stimuli
34. Example: Pavlok
• Example: Wake up without hitting the
„snooze“ button
• Every time who hit the „snooze“ button, you
get an electric shock
35.
36. What is Meditation?
• To meditate = to cultivate
• Cultivate what? Cultivate the mind, cultivate
certain human qualities
38. Brain Activity
• Anterior cingulate cortex
• Plays a role in:
– Regulating blood pressure and heart rate
– Rational cognitive functions, such as reward
anticipation, decision-making, empathy, impulse
control, and emotion
39. Meditation Research
• Meditation and its effect on brain activity and
the central nervous system became a focus of
collaborative research in neuroscience,
psychology and neurobiology during the latter
20th century
• Since 1987: Mind and Life Conferences Co-
Founded by Dalai Lama, dedicated to
exploring the relationship of science and
Meditation/Buddhism
40. Mind & Life Institute
„The Mind & Life Institute is a non-profit organization
committed to building a scientific understanding of
the mind as a way to help reduce suffering and
promote human flourishing. To accomplish this, we
foster interdisciplinary dialogue between Western
science, philosophy, humanities, and contemplative
traditions, supporting the integration of first-person
inquiry through meditation and other contemplative
practices into traditional scientific methodology. “
- www.mindandlife.org
42. EEG Studies
• Studies found that meditation lowers theta
waves (4–8 Hz) and alpha waves (8–12 Hz)
(Cahn and Polich, 2006)
• Findings suggest that in a meditative state a
person is more relaxed but maintains a sharp
awareness.
43. EEG Studies
• Increase in the specific frequencies expressed
in the alpha range, increased alpha band
power, and an overall slowing (reduction in
frequency) in EEG activity in experienced
meditators versus less experienced meditators
while meditating (Kasamatsu and Hirai, 1966)
45. fMRI Studies
• Increased activity in the anterior cingulate
cortex, frontal cortex, prefrontal cortex and
cingulate cortex (Holzel et al, 2007)
• Indicates greater sensitivity to emotional
expression and positive emotion due to the
neural circuitry activated (Davidson et al,
2008)
46. fMRI Studies
• Evidence to suggest meditation plays a
protective role against the natural reduction
in grey matter volume associated with aging
• Which plays a role in learning, cognitive
flexibility and attentional processing. This
could suggest a better attentiveness in aging
meditators versus non-meditators
(Pagnoni et al, 2007)
47. fMRI Studies
• Long-term meditation practitioners have also
shown to have a higher tolerance for pain
(Grant et al, 2009)
• Meditation increases self-regulation and
attentiveness (Fox et al, 2014)
48. Meditation Research
• Kaul et al. found that sleep duration in long-term
experienced meditators was lower than in non-meditators
and general population norms
• Meditation induces a host of biochemical and
physical changes in the body collectively referred
to as the "relaxation response“, including changes
in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood
pressure and brain chemistry (Benson, 1997)
49. Western therapeutic use
• Meditation has entered the mainstream of
health care as a method of stress and pain
reduction.
• Example: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR) by Jon Kabat-Zinn
50. Decreased processing
• Brain stops processing information as actively
as it normally would, shown by decreased
beta waves
52. Survey of Beginners
• People who meditated for at least one month
reported:
– 75% said meditation improved their focus at work
– 90% learned skills that they could apply to other
areas
– 73% experienced spiritual or emotional changes
(via https://www.lift.do/meditation)
53. Cognitive control
• Meditation requires a strong cognitive control
• This is why it cannot be practices by children
and teenagers, because they haven‘t fully
developed their cognitive abilities
• For children and teenagers, the most
important factor is role-modeling, by parents,
teachers and other people.
54. Biofeedback
• Can you increase the efficiency of meditation
by applying biofeedback?
• Experiment:
– Electrodes were implanted in the brain of rats
– Pleasurable sensations could be stimulated by
pressing a button
– The pleasure was so intense, that rats stopped
doing other activities, including sex and eating
– Rats died from exhaustion
– Conclusion: Applying biofeedback can be
dangerous
56. Meditation as a Trend
• Studies suggest that one million more
Americans take up meditation every year -
mostly in healthcare contexts (...) because
they're suffering from chronic pain or post-traumatic
stress.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/sn-goenka-dead_
b_4016374.html
57. Meditation as a Trend
• Google, Twitter, Apple, or dozens of other
technology companies using mindfulness to
improve the performance and well-being of
employees
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/sn-goenka-dead_
b_4016374.html
58. Meditation as a Trend
• Economic benefit: decrease healthcare costs,
improve productivity, and speed processes of
healing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/sn-goenka-dead_
b_4016374.html
59. What is Meditation?
• Meditation is the process of focusing and
watching the mind. That's it. It doesn't matter
how you sit, if you sit, or even how long you
do it, as long as you give the mind time to
slow down. You can meditate while eating,
running, even going to the bathroom. Why?
Because it's in the intention, not the action --
it's the how, not the what.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/meditation-on-the-
run_b_578104.html
60. What is Meditation?
• The point of meditation is not to sit in the
shape of a pretzel or chant in Sanskrit. These
are the means, not the end. The point is: focus
and watch the mind. Mostly, this is
accomplished by not-doing: not thinking, not
getting things done, not rushing, not trying to
accomplish a goal. Just sit for a moment, right
now, without seeking or desiring anything at
all.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/meditation-on-the-run_
b_578104.html
61. What is Meditation?
• As neuroscientists have verified, these
practices are just like lifting weights: they
cause part of the mind to strengthen, and
grow. More time spent with meditation, more
synaptic connections in the pre-frontal
cortex.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/meditation-on-the-run_
b_578104.html
62. 2500 years ago
• 2,500 years ago, a renegade Indian prince
proposed that it is possible to unlearn the
basic human tendencies toward wanting the
pleasant, hating the unpleasant, and ignoring
the neutral, and in so doing to suffer less,
grow wiser, and act more compassionately.
63. 2500 years ago
• He became known as the Buddha
• Quickly, this teaching, became what its
founder claimed it wasn't: an ideology, even a
religion. Subsequent teachers said the path is
too difficult, so we must pray to semi-divine
beings and hope that they will help us. Or it's
only for some people and not for the rest of
us. And so on.
64. 2500 years ago
• The Buddha did not understand the brain
scientifically, but he did understand the mind
experientially. It is possible, he found, to
upgrade your mind through the practice of
meditation, just as today you might upgrade
your biceps by doing curls at the gym.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/
meditation_b_3741544.html
65. Negativity Bias
• Dr. Laura Kiken and Dr. Natalie Shook
investigated whether meditation could reduce
negativity bias. They learned that just one 15-
minute meditation session was all it took to
reduce someone’s susceptibility to negativity
bias and help them think more positively.
http://blog.lift.do/meditation-reduces-negativity-bias-interview-dr-laura-
kiken-dr-nat/
http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/01/08/194855061039
6585.abstract
66. The Wandering Mind
• Did you know that your mind wanders about
50% of the time?
(Source: Harvard University)
67. Focus
• Meditation retrains your brain to focus on one
task at a time. One study at Stanford
University found that people with just 8 weeks
of mindfulness meditation practice stuck to
tasks longer and switched tasks less
frequently than people with no meditation
experience. (...) In Lift’s own research, 75% of
people who meditated reported an increase in
focus at work within 1 month of their practice.
http://meditationbook.lift.do/2014/07/productivity/
68. The Muse
• Heart rate monitor for the mind
• Realtime biofeedback
• Video:
http://store.choosemuse.com/products/muse
70. Applied meditation
• What do we do with this awareness?
• How do we spend our limited time as a
human?
71. Applied meditation
• I believe that these things can help us focus on
what is really important, to make the world a
better place
72. Focusing on the real problems
• Focusing on the 99%
• Global warming is real
• Depression, addictions, suicides are real
• Feeding 10 billion people is real
73.
74. Focusing on the real problems
• We are a family of 7 billion people (soon 10b)
• We need awareness about ecology, ending
violence, mental wellbeing
• We need to focus more on basic human
values and what the Dalai Lama calls „moral
ethics“
• A lot of progress has been made in 20th
century (civil rights, human rights). This trend
needs to continue!
76. Focusing on the real problems
• We are a family of 7 billion people (soon 10b)
• Why not focusing on things that will improve
humanity in 100 years?
• We need more people who think long-term
and globally
78. Focusing on the REAL problems
• We are a family of 7 billion people (soon 10b)
• Why not focusing on things that will improve
humanity in 100 years?
• We need more people who think long-term
and globally
80. Why did I start ZenFriend.com?
• Meditation very important part of my life
– Helps me get aware of the truly important things
– Helps me to live a more meaningful life
– Helps me find a healthy balance in life
81. How I Simplified my Life:
http://remo.fm/2010/03/21/how-i-simplified-my-life/
82. My Street Living Experiences Bielefeld 2011:
http://remo.fm/2011/07/15/street-living-experiences/
83. My Street Living Experiences Basel 2014:
http://remo.fm/2014/09/14/street-retreat-2014/
84. My Street Living Experiences Basel 2014:
http://remo.fm/2014/09/14/street-retreat-2014/
85. Why did I start ZenFriend.com?
• Used Runkeeper successfully for my running
96. ZenFriend.com
• Why?
– My experience is that you cannot sustain
meditation on your own
– I visit 2-3 group meditations every week and it‘s
fundamentally important for my own practice
– Combine the best of online/mobile/offline
98. ZenFriend.com
• Future developments:
– Add audio/video instructions
– Connect with Biofeedback devices through APIs
– Groups where people can exchange experiences
and connect even more deeply
– Synchronized meditations (meditate at the same
time with other users)
– Offline/Online combination, meeting people in
real life
99. Your Help is Appreciated
• We don‘t have a marketing budget. Please tell
one friend or relative about it or share this
presentation via slideshare.net/remouherek!
:)
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