Dave Mochel

Life is complex and challenging – the human capacity for calm, confidence, and compassion in the face of this is truly remarkable. Educator, neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Dave Mochel provides specific, research supported strategies for remaining grounded and resourceful in the midst of discomfort and uncertainty. Participants will leave with powerful tools and practices that can be applied in all aspects of their lives.

What is mindfulness? There are many promises and myths in the popular media about this simple practice. What does the research actually say? How can we integrate this our classrooms, advisories, and/or teams to enhance learning and growth? You will leave this session with helpful language and specific tools for helping students become more skillful in their use of attention.

What do we mean when we say “pay attention”? This presentation will look at the neuroscience of attentional control and how we develop what may be the single most important skill in life. Attention is a limited resource – the skillful use of this resource is foundational to learning and to living well. How we pay attention affects how we think, how we feel, what we remember, and even our physical health. We will look at the myths and misunderstandings about the human attentional system. We will discuss specific ways to focus as well as the unintentional things we do that make focusing more difficult.

We live in a society that constantly tells us that the secret to a good life is getting your circumstances just right – owning the right stuff, living in the right place, getting the right amount of recognition and admiration, knowing the right people… This is a great message if you are trying to sell stuff, but it is not an effective strategy for living a deep, fulfilling, and meaningful life. The evidence from scientific research, lasting wisdom, and personal reflection is that the good life is a practice. It is the practice of working peacefully with what is outside your control and powerfully with what is within your control. We will look at the fundamental skills of unconditional wellbeing and how to practice them in daily life.

Many of our efforts to avoid, suppress, or indulge discomfort fill our lives with struggle, heartache, and activities that are empty and exhausting. Organizing our lives in hopes of eliminating discomfort from uncertainty, failure, or loss can lead us to avoid worthwhile risks, meaningful pursuits, and loving connections. We can practice accepting feelings for what they are, identifying what matters, making small daily choices that serve our values, accepting responsibility for our choices, and learning from the consequences. We can do all of this with compassion for ourselves and others. We can live fully without being a slave to the compulsive pursuit of feeling better.

Resistance and disagreement are normal and useful. A healthy balance of affiliation and accountability is facilitated by working with resistance and disagreement gracefully and effectively. Awareness and acceptance of our internal reactions to resistance and disagreement allows us to be skillful externally. Participants with leave with an understanding of the neurobiology of resistance as well as specific, simple tools that they can use immediately to disarm resistance and build connections in the presence of disagreement.

There is tremendous pressure on leaders to solve problems – to have the answer. Many well-intentioned leaders fall into the trap of designing solutions for others without creating the buy-in that will allow the solution to succeed. How do we leverage the value of including others? How do we find the courage to be transparent and decisive in the face of skepticism and resistance? We will discuss principles and strategies for building the skills we need to build high performing teams.