Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate
Speaker 1: for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure,
Speaker 1: reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier,
Speaker 1: healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help
Speaker 1: you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
Speaker 1: dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story,
Speaker 1: offer a simple practical tip about how you or a
Speaker 1: loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life,
Speaker 1: and then we'll end each episode together with a moment
Speaker 1: of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what
Speaker 1: I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably,
Speaker 1: take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey. Today,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Russell Brand, the outrageous comedian,
Speaker 1: award winning actor, best selling author, activist, and now a
Speaker 1: global advocate for helping people recover from addiction. And Russell
Speaker 1: knows of what he speaks. He became a heroin junkie
Speaker 1: at the age of sixteen and remained a junkie for
Speaker 1: fourteen years. I met Russell in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: when he had been sober for five years, and Russell
Speaker 1: wanted to meet with me because he was working on
Speaker 1: a documentary film called Happiness and he was interested in
Speaker 1: learning to meditate to see if that could be a
Speaker 1: path to happiness. Well, when I told some of my
Speaker 1: friends I was going to be meeting Russell, and they said,
Speaker 1: be careful. He's a very funny man, but he probably
Speaker 1: is not going to take this seriously. So we met
Speaker 1: in a hotel lobby in Manhattan. He walked up to
Speaker 1: me and he he stood about three inches from my face
Speaker 1: and he said, so, I understand you're going to teach
Speaker 1: me to meditate. And I said, well, maybe, are you interested?
Speaker 1: And he said yeah, I'd like to learn. But he
Speaker 1: was sort of casual, so I said, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a time commitment. He just looked at me directly into
Speaker 1: the eyes and he said, Bob, I've been searching for
Speaker 1: the timeless my whole life. I'll take as much time
Speaker 1: as you'll give me. Well, a few days later I
Speaker 1: did teach him transcendental meditation, and he's been meditating now
Speaker 1: for twenty minutes twice a day for thirteen years, and
Speaker 1: it has become a cornerstone of this twelve step approach
Speaker 1: for maintaining his recovery, and Russell have been very generous
Speaker 1: with his time. He's helped to David Lynch Foundation bring
Speaker 1: the meditation to thousands of people who are battling substance
Speaker 1: use disorder. But along the way, I've learned a lot
Speaker 1: about addiction, the brain and how meditation helps with addiction.
Speaker 1: Addiction is part of the dopamine system of the brain.
Speaker 1: Dopamine is the so called pleasure neurotransmitter. If you do
Speaker 1: something good, like exercise or eating properly, or study hard,
Speaker 1: and you get an A on the exam, then your
Speaker 1: brain releases dopamine to your reward center and you feel
Speaker 1: good from that, and it motivates you to want to
Speaker 1: do that again. The problem with addictive drugs is it
Speaker 1: just floods the reward center in your brain with dopamine,
Speaker 1: and now you are craving that experience. The problem is
Speaker 1: the more drugs you take, the pleasure that comes from
Speaker 1: those drugs diminishes. So while you're craving gets stronger, you
Speaker 1: need more and more and more of to even come
Speaker 1: close to that high you had before. And this is
Speaker 1: why it's so difficult to break addiction. So where does
Speaker 1: meditation come in? Transcendental meditation is part of the serotonin
Speaker 1: system in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that's associated
Speaker 1: with longer term happiness, sense of well being when the
Speaker 1: mind settles down and we access those deeper, quieter levels
Speaker 1: of our own self. In meditation, it creates a whole
Speaker 1: constellation of changes in the brain and the body. One
Speaker 1: of the most significant is an increase in serotonin. That's
Speaker 1: why when you're done meditating, you feel happy. You have
Speaker 1: a sense of being settled at home with yourself. Now,
Speaker 1: what is the relevance to addiction. To break an addiction,
Speaker 1: the first step is you have to have a desire
Speaker 1: to recover from addiction, and the second step is you
Speaker 1: have to have the will power to sustain that desire
Speaker 1: and actually change the brain wiring. When you experience that
Speaker 1: increase of serotonin during meditation and afterwards, the contrast is
Speaker 1: so great you think, I feel good now, I want
Speaker 1: to stop taking drugs. And as you continue to meditate regularly,
Speaker 1: you increase in your resilience and your will power to
Speaker 1: make that change in order to change. It's not a
Speaker 1: change over a horizontal level. I'm going to break my
Speaker 1: addiction to cocaine, but then I'm going to fulfill that
Speaker 1: craving with alcohol. It has to be an inner growth,
Speaker 1: an inner evolution. We have to outgrow that craving, and
Speaker 1: that's why it's so important to have a regimen. Transcendental
Speaker 1: meditation alone is not enough to overcome addiction, but meditation
Speaker 1: along with a good diet exercise very important. My tip
Speaker 1: that I leave you with today is a point that
Speaker 1: Russell brings out all the time. We can be lonely
Speaker 1: to break an addiction. In order to sustain that will power,
Speaker 1: learn how to work with a mentor to keep you
Speaker 1: on track. That's a lesson I think we can all
Speaker 1: take advantage of. In the ancient meditation text, they talk
Speaker 1: about how important it is to maintain the company of
Speaker 1: the wise. This means maintain the company of friends who
Speaker 1: share your vision of what life could be like and
Speaker 1: are not constantly pulling you down. All right, Let's end
Speaker 1: this time together doing something that I think should be
Speaker 1: a feature of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude.
Speaker 1: Let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take
Speaker 1: a break. Just take a moment. It turns out when
Speaker 1: we do that, it's good for our health as well.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back all right. Thank you for joining.
Speaker 1: This is Bob Roth. Keep calm. Thanks for listening today.
Speaker 1: I hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you
Speaker 1: and that you can incorporate into your own life. Until
Speaker 1: next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and be true to yourself.
Speaker 1: M Hey, all of you out there, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your stories, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else on your mind. Just connect with me
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can
Speaker 1: also send me an email at meditation Bob Roth at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing from you.