Anderson Cooper Learns to Love Silence
Anderson Cooper reports on what it's like to try to achieve mindfulness, a self-awareness scientists say is very healthy, but rarely achieved in today's world of digital distractions.
From "Mindfulness," CBS 60 Minutes, December 14, 2014
Jon Kabat-Zinn, who has written 10 books on mindfulness and led nearly a hundred retreats, describes meditation as a mental workout.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: The mind wanders away from the breath and then you gently and nonjudgmentally just bring it back.
Anderson Cooper: So it's okay that the mind drifts away but you just bring it back.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: It's the nature of the mind to drift away. The mind is like the Pacific Ocean, it waves. And mindfulness has been shown to drop underneath the waves. If you drop underneath the agitation in the mind, into your breath deep enough calmness, gentle undulations.
See also: "The Newly Mindful Anderson Cooper"