Building a Daily Meditation Practice with Dr Craig Hassed

In this episode of the Living Well with MS podcast we are pleased to welcome Dr Craig Hassed as our guest to demystify the practice of meditation and provide very sound reasons for why you should consider meditating for its wondrous stress-relieving effects. Dr Hassed, an expert on mindfulness-based stress reduction, will also provide some commonsense tips for successfully working meditation into your daily life.

Topics and Timestamps

01:59 The scientific evidence base for mindfulness

05:57 What happens to the body under stress?

11:13 Is there a difference between chronic stress and acute stress?

14:38 Practicing mindfulness

16:51 Should you get professional help as well as mindfulness training if you experience anxiety or depression?

19:58 Does religious faith reduce stress?

22:28 Should we keep a journal?

24:53 Is mindfulness the same as meditation?

30:35 Is it necessary to follow guided meditations?

36:15 Free online course on mindfulness

Professor Craid Hassed’s Bio
Craig’s career
Professor Craig Hassed OAM has worked with the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University since 1989 but now teaches in many faculties as coordinator of mindfulness programs across Monash and the Director of Education at the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies (M3CS).

His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness, mind-body medicine and lifestyle medicine. Craig has authored 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals and published 14 books and 17 book chapters.

He is regularly invited to speak and run courses in his native Australia and overseas in health, educational, government and corporate contexts. He is patron of Meditation Australia, a regular media commentator and co-authored the world’s two leading mindfulness massive open online courses in collaboration with Monash University and FutureLearn.

In 2019 Craig was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Medicine.

Craig and Overcoming MS
Craig has previously worked with Overcoming MS as a facilitator at Overcoming MS retreats. He also wrote a chapter in the Overcoming MS Handbook on ‘Meditation, mindfulness and the mind-body connection’.
---
Overcoming MS is a positive lifestyle program that aims to help people live long, healthy lives without the usual problems associated with multiple sclerosis.

Find us on:
Web: www.overcomingms.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OvercomingMS
Instagram: www.instagram.com/OvercomingMS/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/OvercomingMS