Please join us in Moore Filene Auditorium (note: new location) February 28, 2020, at 3:30 p. m., as Judson Brewer, Director of Research and Innovation, Mindfulness Center at Brown University, presents "The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Cupcakes to Smartphones, the Mechanisms Underlying How Mindfulness Helps Change Habits."

Abstract: We are all vulnerable to craving. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social media, overeat, smoke, excessively drink, or any other behavior, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Can we learn how our minds work, and even tap into this very process to find a key to conquer the cravings we know are unhealthy for us and open our natural capacities for awareness and kindness? In this talk, using examples from his lab’s clinical studies of in-person and app-based mindfulness training as well as data from neuroimaging paradigms, Dr. Brewer will describe why habits are formed, and how awareness helps us tap into these very behavioral and brain mechanisms that encourage habitual behaviors in order to overcome them. He will also show how we can use these to build our natural capacities of awareness, kindness, and curiosity.

A reception will follow outside of Moore 202.