#36: The Spectrum of Awareness - Diana Winston

Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She co-authored with Susan Smalley, Ph.D. a book called Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness. Diana has practiced mindfulness for over three decades, including spending a year as a Buddhist nun in Burma, and she has taught meditation for over two decades in hospitals, universities, corporations, non-profits, and schools throughout the U.S. and Asia. She's been called by the LA Times "one of the nation's best-known teachers of mindfulness." Diana is also a founding board member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and a member of the Teacher's Council at the famous Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California where she was trained to teach by Jack Kornfield. She's been mention in the New York Times, O Magazine, Newsweek, Women's Health, and a variety of other publications. In this episode, we discuss how Diana became a nun in Burma and then realized her meditation practice needed a big change, the concept of "enlightenment" and how it can be harmful, natural awareness, personalizing your meditation practice, and the infusion of meditation into the modern world. Diana also leads a powerful guided meditation. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com