How Do We Change?

This question is a topic iBELIEVE focuses on everyday. That's why we were excited to receive an invitation to attend a conference at Yale University asking the same question. The conference is a combination of the country's top minds in medicine, psychology, law and philosophy.

The purpose of the conference is to examine how "human beings can act both habitually and reflectively, both automatically and in a controlled fashion. How can we harness these two components to increase well-being? How do we change maladaptive patterns of response? What enables us to choose better strategies for momentary regulation of emotion and action, and what enables us to sustain these changes over time? How do we break habits and act in accordance with our long-term goals?" These are exactly the types of issues we address in our educational programs and mental training sessions.

Stanford Psychologist James Gross kicked-off by eloquently discussing his modal model of emotion (Situation-Attention-Appraisal-Response). Regulating emotions is essential in long-term, sustainable change. This was a highlight for me as I referenced much of this work when I was a researcher at NIH. Another highlight was listening to esteemed philosopher Richard Holton speak with no formal presentation about finding space for an addict's self control. "Either addictive behavior is freely chosen, and addicts are free to resist and hence responsible. Or it is the result of a pathology, and they are not free to resist and hence not responsible." It was really cool to hear a philosopher discuss free will, self control and decision making.

Day 1 ended with Dr. Roy Baumeister who has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and 30 books on self-esteem, will-power, and ego. His most recent research results suggest that self-regulation (will-power) is in fact a limited resource.

We believe this conference is the beginning of something really great! Looking forward to Day 2