Previous experiences affect levels of stress

By Heidi Redlitz

To Susan Smalley, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, the mind is like a seesaw.

On the right-hand side sits the practical mind-set: the doing, thinking and logical part.

On the left-hand side sits the intuitive mind-set: the “being,” the emotional and creative outlook.

 But the human mind is no child’s play; its proper functionality is crucial to maintaining mental and physical health.

According to Smalley, when one side dominates the other, the mind – as the metaphorical teeter-totter – ceases to function properly.

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The California CureMeditating on the Possibilities: Dr. Sue Smalley

By Samantha Dunn

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.

Medical leave from work gave Smalley time to explore things she’d never done, like yoga, massage, meditation and the practice of really seeing the world as it was moment by moment—the “be here now” attitude otherwise called “mindfulness.” Doing this, Smalley experienced “unprecedented creativity and a profound sense of connectedness. I really felt changed.”

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Can Meditation Change Your Brain And Affect Your Genes?

By: Dr Patricia Fitzgerald

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.

PF: Sue, What was going through your mind as you contemplated going back to UCLA?

As I was thinking about going back to UCLA, Patricia, it became kind of a mission to go back and share what I learned with others. I wanted to be able to share it with people who might not be necessarily open to these ways of looking inward. I was interested in exploring how we open up the intuitive side of all of these scientists on campus. Of course there are plenty of brilliant scientists who are intuitive. Clearly, everybody has the capacity for both (reason and intuition), and there are varying degrees of both. At UCLA, like any business, there is a lot of emphasis on productivity and less on reflection… (more…)

What Inspired A Scientist To Open A Meditation Center At UCLA?

By: Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald

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. (more…)

Is it All in the Mind?
by Ajay Singh
“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

TWO YEARS AGO, Susan Smalley was a self-described “left-brain, cynical scientist” who saw the world through the materialistic lens of cold reason. One day, Smalley, a professor at the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), had an epiphany that radically changed the way she viewed her life and her work, which revolves around genetic research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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