Breaking Habits With Mindfulness
For this blog post, I chose to discuss the TED talk titled "A Simple Way To Break a Bad Habit" by Judson Brewer. His talk describes a basic idea with psychology research regarding mindfulness. Brewer discusses how simple pleasure through curiosity and mindfulness can be a natural way for us to notice bad habits, and begin to let them go. He uses anecdotes, discusses statistics and neuroscience to help listeners with the simple yet often overlooked concept of meditation in the context of habit breaking.
While listening to Judson Brewer speak, I noticed a lot of structural techniques that made his presentation easy to follow and his message easy to digest. The very first thing I noticed that he did was transition examples into theorems, and theorems back into examples. Brewer did a great job of timing anecdotes precisely when the audience needed them, and then pulling back and giving a big picture idea. For example, he uses the notoriously hard habit of smoking to illustrate the ideas of being mindful of how your body and mind feels. Smoking causes often irresistible cravings, and Brewer drifts in and out of this example to show how the conscious reasoning part of our brain can be used to silence cravings in much the same way as breathing exercises and meditation. Brewer uses graphics, statistics, and user endorsements to reinforce his points further.
Judson Brewer is not only excellent at logically explaining a complicated field of research, but is also excellent at presenting. He uses pauses in his speaking to create sign posts, speaks at just the right speed, and uses engaging opening sentences to grab the listener's attention. An excellent illustration of his ability to hold attention is his rare use of cursing in his talk. While at first jarring in the context of this very professional talk, his swear word surprised the listeners, brought them in, and humanized his speech to more of a normal conversation. Almost everything that Brewer says in the talk seems well planned out and rhythmic, which is the cause of my only complaint: he speaks somewhat robotically. Overall, I learned a lot not only from his research, but from his speaking style.
I chose this TED talk because the subject was something that was personally interesting to me. I believe that Brewer knows how this field is very relevant to almost all peoples' lives, and he creates a presentation that speaks to the average person, ultimately helping them improve their lives in ways big and small.
While listening to Judson Brewer speak, I noticed a lot of structural techniques that made his presentation easy to follow and his message easy to digest. The very first thing I noticed that he did was transition examples into theorems, and theorems back into examples. Brewer did a great job of timing anecdotes precisely when the audience needed them, and then pulling back and giving a big picture idea. For example, he uses the notoriously hard habit of smoking to illustrate the ideas of being mindful of how your body and mind feels. Smoking causes often irresistible cravings, and Brewer drifts in and out of this example to show how the conscious reasoning part of our brain can be used to silence cravings in much the same way as breathing exercises and meditation. Brewer uses graphics, statistics, and user endorsements to reinforce his points further.
Judson Brewer is not only excellent at logically explaining a complicated field of research, but is also excellent at presenting. He uses pauses in his speaking to create sign posts, speaks at just the right speed, and uses engaging opening sentences to grab the listener's attention. An excellent illustration of his ability to hold attention is his rare use of cursing in his talk. While at first jarring in the context of this very professional talk, his swear word surprised the listeners, brought them in, and humanized his speech to more of a normal conversation. Almost everything that Brewer says in the talk seems well planned out and rhythmic, which is the cause of my only complaint: he speaks somewhat robotically. Overall, I learned a lot not only from his research, but from his speaking style.
I chose this TED talk because the subject was something that was personally interesting to me. I believe that Brewer knows how this field is very relevant to almost all peoples' lives, and he creates a presentation that speaks to the average person, ultimately helping them improve their lives in ways big and small.
