“When you recognize your interdependence and changing nature, you no longer see yourself as separate from another person, and this is the foundation for building stronger communities.”
—Susan Smalley

Sue Smalley thought she was “doing everything right.” A UCLA professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, she had a successful career; a long, happy marriage; and wonderful children. She ate right. She exercised faithfully. Then she was diagnosed with cancer.
Lucky for her the melanoma was arrested in its very early stages, but that brush with mortality “was the tipping point that allowed me to take stock of my life,” she recalls.

I recently attended a gathering of supporters of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at the University of California, Los Angeles. During this event, I heard MARC founder (and Huffington Post blogger) Susan Smalley, Ph.D., speak. Dr. Smalley, a research scientist for 25 years, shared her fascinating journey of how she was inspired to create a center for mindfulness research. Her audience was completely captivated. I was so moved by Dr. Smalley’s story, I wanted to share it with the HuffPost audience. I was fortunate enough to track her down for an interview.

In last week’s blog, Susan Smalley, Ph.D., founder of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA, shared with us her fascinating journey. After 25 years as a research scientist, she experienced a personal challenge that changed her life and eventually led her to founding MARC.