Come to live TV taping for Yoga for Pain Relief!

In the SF Bay Area and want to attend a live TV show taping on 2/15? See invitation below -- I'll be leading the two hosts in some yoga movements and the audience in some breathing.

----FROM THE PRODUCERS OF VIEW FROM THE BAY

I would like to extend a special invitation to Kelly McGonigal's friends, family and colleagues to be in our studio audience the day that she will be appearing on “The View From The Bay” Monday Feb. 15th, 2010.

Meet Spencer Christian and Janelle Wang and get a chance to see the behind the scenes of a live television broadcast. Tickets for the show must be reserved in advance. Audience doors open at 2:15pm with a cut-off time of 2:30pm, the show is live from 3-4pm.

To reserve your seats please call the ticket request line at (415)-954-7733 or visit www.viewfromthebay.com and click on “be in our audience” and fill out a ticket request form. Or click on this link to go to our online ticket request form. Simply fill out your information and press submit.

Please be sure to note under “comments” if you are requesting a specific date to support someone scheduled to be on the show.

We strongly encourage you to post this invitation and its contents on any blog or webpage that you host or participate in. Please pass this email on to any friends, family or colleagues who may be interested in being in our studio audience.

You can also post an announcement on your webpage!

*Please note that all seats must be reserved in advance. Tickets that have been requested will be sent via an email confirmation with detailed instruction on where and when to arrive at the ABC studio. Also note that audience members come in a separate entrance and time than guests appearing on the show. If you are a guest on the show and you will be bringing your guests with you they will need to check in with me (Rachel Wyatt) by 2:30pm to be seated in the audience.

Book Trailer for Yoga for Pain Relief

I was inspired by blogger Nathan Bransford to create a simple trailer for my new book. The music (a composition called "Ritual") is by Kevin MacCleod, the photographer is Kim Shetter, and the voice is myself reading an excerpt from the book's introduction.

Link to youtube video.

You Are What You Eat

My latest Science of Willpower column is up on Psychology Today:

"My apologies to any PhD students reading this blog. I recently stumbled upon two studies that suggest you can get college students to abandon an unhealthy behavior if you can convince them it's what graduate students do. Apparently grad students are so uncool, college students do not want to be identified with their habits. Even when those habits include junk food and binge drinking, two mainstays of undergraduate life for many.

The studies, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, provide insight into potential strategies for public health. They also reveal how our desire to shape our self-image, and how others perceive us, lead us to make healthy or unhealthy choices."

Read the full Psychology Today post here.

On a side note, one of the studies was conducted at Stanford University, using dorm flyers warning undergrads they might be mistaken for a "sketchy grad student" if they drank too much. Having been a grad student at Stanford back in the day, I found this enormously funny. As much as the pressures to finish your dissertation might drive you to drink, I personally never met a sketchy grad student who crashed the undergrad parties. But whatever it takes to keep those undergraduates sober (enough)!

New Guided Meditation Practice

I just added a guided meditation practice to the Yoga for Pain Relief resources page.

This 15-minute audio meditation is a concentration and mindfulness practice to help stabilize and focus your mind. I created it as a basic introductory meditation for a course I'm teaching at Stanford this quarter, The Science of a Calmed Mind. It's a great track for people who need a little extra encouragement to practice.

After I review the instructions, you will hear silence. Every five minutes, you will hear the sound of a meditation bowl being struck. You can finish your practice at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes.

In the first 5-minute segment, I check in twice to remind you to notice where your mind is, in case it has wandered. At the first 5-minute mark, I invite you to drop the counting practice and focus on the sensations of breathing. At the 10-minute mark, I remind you to stay resting with the sensations of the breath and body.

When you finish, acknowledge the success of sitting, no matter how focused or distracted you were. Your focus will be different on different days, even as you cultivate more and more skill at concentration. The success of this practice is your sitting down and staying put, and honoring the intention of the practice.

For more guided practices, check out the Yoga for Pain Relief resources page.