The secret to self control | Jonathan Bricker | TEDxRainier

TEDx Talks

22 Dec 201415:14

EducationalLearning

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TLDRIn this inspiring TED Talk, the speaker shares personal stories of his parents' commitment to health and science, which shaped his values. He addresses the global epidemic of unhealthy living, including obesity and smoking, and introduces the concept of 'willingness' from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a key to self-control. Through clinical trials and personal anecdotes, he demonstrates the effectiveness of embracing cravings rather than avoiding them, offering a new perspective on behavior change.

Takeaways

🏃 The speaker's mother started exercising later in life and achieved significant physical milestones, including trekking to the base camp of Mt. Everest.
👨‍🏫 The speaker's father was a science enthusiast and also his calculus teacher, instilling in him the value of science.
💡 The speaker learned the values of health from his mother and science from his father, which have guided him throughout his life.
🌍 The script highlights the global epidemic of unhealthy living, with half a billion people worldwide being obese and a billion using tobacco.
🚭 Tobacco and obesity are identified as major preventable causes of premature death, yet they persist despite awareness efforts.
🧩 The speaker compares solving the problem of unhealthy living to solving a jigsaw puzzle, with various factors contributing, including genetics and environmental influences.
🔑 The concept of 'willingness' is introduced as a potential key to reversing unhealthy epidemics, emphasizing allowing cravings without acting on them.
🤔 The speaker initially dismissed the idea of willingness as 'psycho-babble' but later found it transformative after attending a workshop.
📚 Willingness is part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a broad approach to behavior change used for various issues, including anxiety disorders and addictions.
🔬 The speaker's research lab is conducting clinical trials to test the effectiveness of teaching people to be willing to experience their cravings as a method to quit smoking.
📈 The pooled data from six clinical trials suggest that the willingness approach is twice as effective in helping people quit smoking compared to the avoidance approach.
🌐 The speaker mentions various technologies, including a website and an app, that have the potential to reach millions with life-saving interventions.
📝 The speaker shares a personal story, 'Jane', to illustrate the process of using willingness to deal with cravings and the judgment and shame associated with addiction.
💪 The secret to self-control, according to the speaker, is to give up the struggle for control, allowing cravings to exist without acting on them, which can lead to their eventual dissipation.

Q & A

What significant change did the speaker's mother undertake at the age of 42?
-The speaker's mother started exercising for the first time in her life at the age of 42, beginning with running around the block and eventually participating in 5K and 10K races, a marathon, a triathlon, and trekking to the base camp of Mt. Everest by the age of 57.
What role did the speaker's father play in their life?
-The speaker's father was involved in their education, taking them to science classes as a child and teaching them calculus in high school.
What two values did the speaker learn from their parents that have influenced their life?
-The speaker learned the value of health from their mother and the value of science from their father.
What is the epidemic the speaker refers to that is not Ebola?
-The speaker refers to the epidemic of unhealthy living, which includes obesity and tobacco use, as the most significant health challenges we are facing.
How many people worldwide are affected by obesity according to the script?
-Half a billion people worldwide are obese.
What is the new science of self-control mentioned in the script?
-The new science of self-control mentioned in the script is called 'willingness', which involves allowing cravings to come and go without acting on them.
What is the core concept of willingness as described in the script?
-The core concept of willingness is to drop the struggle with cravings, open up to them, let them be there, and make peace with them.
How did the speaker's initial reaction to the concept of willingness differ from their later understanding?
-Initially, the speaker dismissed the concept of willingness as 'psycho-babble'. However, after attending a workshop at the University of Washington and reading more on the subject, they were 'blown away' and came to appreciate its significance in behavior change.
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and how is willingness related to it?
-Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a broad approach to behavior change used to help people with anxiety disorders and addictions. Willingness is part of acceptance in ACT, which involves acknowledging and embracing one's thoughts and feelings without acting on them.
What is the 'I am having the thought' exercise and how does it help with self-control?
-The 'I am having the thought' exercise is a technique where one acknowledges their thoughts by adding the phrase 'I am having the thought' to their internal dialogue. This creates a space between the thought and the action, allowing for a choice not to act on the thought.
How did the speaker's research lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center approach helping people quit smoking?
-The speaker's research lab conducted randomized clinical trials to test the effectiveness of teaching people to be willing to have their cravings without acting on them. They used various interventions including face-to-face sessions, a telephone quit smoking hotline, a website called webquit.org, and an app called SmartQuit.
What was the outcome of the clinical trials mentioned in the script regarding the effectiveness of the willingness approach compared to the avoidance approach?
-The pooled results from six clinical trials showed that twice as many people quit smoking when they were assigned to the willingness condition compared to the avoidance approach.
What is the secret to self-control as suggested by the speaker?
-The secret to self-control, as suggested by the speaker, is to give up control and allow cravings to be present without engaging in a tug-of-war with them. This involves making peace with the cravings and not acting on them.

Outlines

00:00

🏃‍♂️ Inspiring Parents' Influence on Health and Science

The speaker shares personal stories about their mother's late start in fitness, which led to impressive achievements like trekking to Everest's base camp, and their father's role in fostering a love for science. These experiences instilled in the speaker the values of health and science, which they apply to understand and address the global epidemic of unhealthy living, including obesity and tobacco use. The speaker emphasizes the importance of individual choices in combating these issues and introduces the concept of 'willingness' as a new approach to self-control and behavior change.

05:04

🧠 Rethinking Cravings: The Power of Willingness

The speaker delves into the concept of willingness as a method for managing cravings associated with unhealthy behaviors like smoking and overeating. They critique traditional avoidance strategies and introduce the idea of acceptance and commitment therapy, which includes willingness as a key component. The speaker's personal journey of skepticism to belief in willingness is outlined, along with its application in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for various issues, including in business environments to improve performance and reduce stress.

10:04

🚭 Clinical Trials and Personal Stories: Embracing Cravings

The speaker discusses their research on using willingness in clinical trials to help people quit smoking, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach compared to traditional avoidance methods. They share anecdotes from counseling sessions, using a composite character 'Jane' to illustrate the process of becoming aware of cravings, the use of thought exercises to create distance from these cravings, and the importance of self-compassion in dealing with associated feelings of shame. The speaker concludes with the paradoxical secret to self-control: giving up control, which allows cravings to lose their power without the struggle.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Self-control

Self-control refers to the ability to regulate one's emotions, desires, and impulses in order to achieve long-term goals or resist short-term temptations. In the video's context, self-control is essential for overcoming unhealthy habits like smoking and overeating. The speaker discusses a new science of self-control called 'willingness,' which involves acknowledging cravings without acting on them, as a key to reversing unhealthy epidemics.

💡Cravings

Cravings are intense desires for a particular food or activity, often linked to addiction or unhealthy habits. The video emphasizes the struggle with cravings as a central challenge in the fight against unhealthy living. The concept of 'willingness' introduced in the video suggests a different approach to cravings, which is to allow them to exist without acting on them, rather than using willpower to suppress them.

💡Willingness

Willingness, as discussed in the video, is a concept related to self-control that involves allowing cravings to come and go without acting on them. It is a part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a psychological approach that helps individuals change their behavior by accepting their feelings and thoughts. The speaker shares his personal journey and research findings that suggest willingness can be more effective than traditional avoidance techniques in quitting smoking.

💡Obesity

Obesity is a medical condition characterized by excessive body fat to the extent that health may be negatively affected. The video highlights the global epidemic of obesity, affecting half a billion people worldwide, and positions it as a preventable cause of premature death. The speaker uses obesity as an example of an unhealthy living epidemic that can be addressed through better self-control and behavioral change.

💡Tobacco

Tobacco refers to the product derived from the tobacco plant, often used in smoking, which is a major public health concern due to its addictive nature and health risks. The video mentions that despite awareness of its dangers, a billion people worldwide still use tobacco. The speaker discusses the role of self-control and willingness in addressing the tobacco epidemic.

💡Epidemic

An epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. In the video, the term is metaphorically used to describe the scale of unhealthy living conditions like obesity and tobacco use, emphasizing their impact on a global level. The speaker uses the term to draw attention to the urgency of addressing these preventable health issues.

💡Behavior change

Behavior change involves modifying one's actions or habits, often to improve health or well-being. The video discusses behavior change in the context of quitting smoking and losing weight, using the concept of willingness as a novel approach to achieving these changes. The speaker's research and personal anecdotes illustrate the effectiveness of willingness in facilitating behavior change.

💡Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, along with commitment and behavior change techniques, to help individuals increase their psychological flexibility. The video mentions ACT as the broader approach within which willingness is situated, and it is used to help people with various issues, including anxiety disorders and addictions.

💡Addiction

Addiction is a complex condition characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. In the video, addiction is discussed in the context of smoking and overeating, which are behaviors that can lead to negative health outcomes. The speaker suggests that the science of self-control, specifically willingness, can help individuals overcome addiction.

💡Health

Health refers to a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The video emphasizes the value of health as a guiding principle in the speaker's life, influenced by his mother's journey towards a healthier lifestyle. The speaker uses health as a benchmark to discuss the epidemic of unhealthy living and the importance of making better choices.

💡Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. In the video, the speaker mentions learning the value of science from his father and applies this value to understand and address the epidemic of unhealthy living. The new science of self-control, or willingness, is presented as a scientific approach to behavior change.

Highlights

The speaker's mother started exercising at 42, eventually completing a marathon and a triathlon, and trekked to Everest base camp at 57.

The speaker's father taught him calculus in high school and instilled a love for science.

The speaker learned the value of health from his mother and the value of science from his father.

Half a billion people worldwide are obese, and a billion use tobacco, two major preventable causes of premature death.

Unhealthy behaviors are influenced by genetics, neurotransmitters, and environmental factors like peers and media.

The new science of self-control called 'willingness' may help reverse unhealthy epidemics by allowing cravings to come and go without acting on them.

Willingness involves dropping the struggle with cravings, opening up to them, and making peace with them.

The speaker was initially skeptical about willingness but later found it transformative.

Willingness is part of acceptance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, used for anxiety disorders, addictions, and improving employee performance.

The speaker's research lab is conducting trials to see if teaching people to be willing to have their cravings helps quit smoking.

Preliminary data shows twice as many people quit smoking using the willingness approach compared to the avoidance approach.

The speaker shares a composite story of 'Jane', a 45-year-old smoker who tried to quit using the willingness method.

Jane learned to track her cravings and became more aware of them, initially leading to increased preoccupation with smoking.

The 'I am having the thought' exercise helped create space between Jane's thoughts and actions, reducing the urge to smoke.

Jane struggled with shame from smoking and learned to honor the feeling as part of the human experience, offering herself kindness.

The secret to self-control is to give up control and allow cravings to be present without acting on them.

The speaker encourages the audience to be aware of cravings during lunch and approach them with willingness, kindness, and care.

Transcripts

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Takeaways

Q & A

What significant change did the speaker's mother undertake at the age of 42?

What role did the speaker's father play in their life?

What two values did the speaker learn from their parents that have influenced their life?

What is the epidemic the speaker refers to that is not Ebola?

How many people worldwide are affected by obesity according to the script?

What is the new science of self-control mentioned in the script?

What is the core concept of willingness as described in the script?

How did the speaker's initial reaction to the concept of willingness differ from their later understanding?

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and how is willingness related to it?

What is the 'I am having the thought' exercise and how does it help with self-control?

How did the speaker's research lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center approach helping people quit smoking?

What was the outcome of the clinical trials mentioned in the script regarding the effectiveness of the willingness approach compared to the avoidance approach?

What is the secret to self-control as suggested by the speaker?