Jun 11, 2024
A live online conversation with Eric Garland, Ph.D., and host Alejandro Chaoul, Ph.D.
Can we ease our physical and emotional pain simply by increasing our sensitivity to natural, healthy pleasures? In Dr. Eric Garland’s MORE research, participants learned a savoring practice in which they intentionally focused on the sights, sounds, smells, and touch of a pleasant experience, such as a beautiful sunset or their connection to a loved one. In appreciating and absorbing their positive emotional response to these sensory impressions, their pain and craving for opioids lessened. Eric and Alejandro will discuss how savoring relates not only to mindfulness meditation, but also to dzogchen meditation and its experiences of oneness, or non-duality.
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About the Presenters
Eric L. Garland, Ph.D., is Distinguished Endowed Chair in Research, Distinguished Professor, and associate dean for research at the University of Utah College of Social Work. Eric is the director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development, associate director of integrative medicine in Supportive Oncology and Survivorship (SOS) at Huntsman Cancer Institute, and research health scientist in whole health at the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eric has developed an innovative mindfulness-based healing intervention derived from insights of cognitive, affective, and neurobiological science. Called mindfulness-oriented recovery enhancement, or MORE, the system also draws on influences from the great nonduality practice traditions, including mahamudra, dzogchen, and Kashmir Shaiva tantra. To complement his extensive expertise in clinical research, Eric is a licensed psychotherapist (LCSW), with more than 15 years of clinical experience working with persons suffering from addictive behaviors, mood disorders, traumatic stress, chronic pain, and psychosomatic conditions. More about Eric Garland
Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D. (host) serves as director of research for Ligmincha International. He has studied in the Tibetan traditions since 1989, and for nearly 30 years in the Bön Tradition with Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. He holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan religions from Rice University and is the director of the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston. For the last 20 years he has been teaching and researching the benefits of Tibetan mind-body practices for people touched by cancer. He is a Contemplative Fellow at the Mind & Life Institute, and is the author of Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition (Snow Lion, 2009), Tibetan Yoga for Health & Well-Being (Hay House, 2018), and Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind (Wisdom Publications, 2021).