This is huge stuff.
I think "flow" can be utilized to "do good" such as efforts to reform systems like education to facilitate development of a higher conscious society.
As with anything, this may also present avenues for selfish or low conscious work (i.e. feeding agendas of big business/government without realizing negative repercussions). Systems thinking is important here. Involvement is necessary to influence large-scale reformation, but it must be done in a conscious way.

Hey everyone! Hey @Leo! This is my first post even though I have been following Leo here from Norway since early 2015. You have had a profound influence on my own path. I can say we got some really major exciting things developing up here in cold. 
I have been pondering what sort of mechanism that would enable a team to develop a shared mind like in the series Sense8?
With the increasing complexity in the world, I think we need to learn to start operating as teams ( I am currently immersing myself in Steven Kotler's work on flow). I must say I am a bit disappointed that Leo has not made a video about this yet. I guess it could be a cultural blind spot, but I really think this needs to be emphasized to a  greater and greater degree as we move forward into the 21st century if the motivation is to have an impact in bridging the planet to an enlightened society. The road to enlightenment is of course on one level a personal one, but my experience is that the right group could amplify this process to a great degree for what I´ve seen in my work with teams. 
I think the people who are going to much of the heavy lifting going forward is the enlightened "navyseallike combat readiness grit and discipline" creative artistical entrepreneurial type of individuals (and teams). Be free to challenge this ideal, but this my working picture of the kind of person I am striving to be. 
So we need a place where we could develop these kinds indviduals. Here some inspiration of how such a retreat center could be: Architecture that faciliates flow.
https://juvet.com/
https://thearctichideaway.com/en/
 
A place like this will contain:
Small cabins for living around the actual center for participant
Neurofeedback brainwaves training technology like the biocybernaut center.
Floating tanks
Ceremonial room for psychedelics
meditation room
Gym
Located in the countryside near nature, but not too far from a city.
Cold exposure availability (no problem up here in arctic) 
Conference center
Creative/technology room for working with other teams across the globe.
 
What else? 
What sorts of practices could we engage in here?
What sort of skills would we need to train people inn?
 
 

He has a ton of amazing content on the Stoa YouTube channel. His "Dharma Inquiry" talk is one of my favorites. Check out my notes here: https://www.notion.so/pranab/Dharma-Inquiry-with-Daniel-Schmachtenberger-1b6fdfa69a674e4fa9dea37f804ab06b
There are a few interactive talks with him on Stoa.ca every now and then!
Also highly rec the podcasts Emerge, Rebel Wisdom, and Future Thinkers (in that order) for similar meta/"stage yellow" content

I clicked on the first mini-article on the actualized blog about Daniel when he posted it.
I got exactly what Leo promised... a Triple-A level systems thinker that is so unbelievably smart and clever and also aware of his bias and cognitive traps and also aware of his ethical footprint in a way that i hadn't seen yet before.
So, first i would suggest you to check him out if you hadn't yet. There are about a dozen of video with him on youtube, some of them have already being shared on the actualized blog.
Also, i would like to see him more engaged on youtube, at least in the IDW and communities alike. If @Leo Gura, that seemed to be a fan of him as well, wants to inverview him and can manage to bring him on the channel, that would be fucking awesome.

I skipped most of what your read (:P), but here's my general big picture perspective/advice:
Put things into these categories. Do first: The Sweet n' Juicies: Things you most want to do and/or things you think will have the highest return on investment (whatever the return is, be it financial, emotional, or getting more clear about your values, etc.) while also being things that are easiest to do, are the least risky, and require the least amount of personal investment and commitment to do. Do second: Tearing The Band-aid Off Quick (maybe third) Things that you don't necessarily think will help a ton and/or things you don't really want to do while also being things that are easy, least risky and costly, and require the least amount of personal investment to do. Do third: The Long-Term Game (maybe second depending on what you think/feel) Things that you really want to do and think will have a high return on investment while also being things that require a high personal investment, are risky, and aren't that easy to do. Do fourth: the Backburner Things you don't want to do nor do you think will have a large return on investment while also  being things that require a large personal investment and risk to do while not being easy.   Obviously it's just a template and use it as it suits you and what you think.  I think I got it from Jamie Wheal as a decision-making guide. 
It's a 4x4 grid:
Like Dislike              Hard to do ---- Easy to do Basically...
Do what you most want to do that easiest to do immediately.  Then do what's easiest to do but you don't really want to do next.  Then do what you really want to do but is hard to do.  Then leave things you don't want to do and are difficult to do last.   So do all the shit that you can right now.  All the easy stuff.  Go explore, have experiences.  Do some psychedelics if that's easy for you right now or something, while also thinking about longer-term goals that you really want to do but take more effort and planning etc.  And doing shit you don't like which is kinda easy might be a dud, but it also might lead you to discover something new and awesome.  Never know.  
Remember, hold this frame loosely.  I think life is more complicated than a 4x4 chart   Follow your intuition and inner voice and reason as top brass. 

Map of happiness: meaning and guidance and freedom
Dr Bronner's Almond Hemp
Supergoop Forever Young Body Butter
Raw cone marijuana
Angel muse Mugler
Black orchid
Alien mugler
Rothko
Pollock
Edward Hopper's Automat
Hieronymus Bosch The Harrowing of Hell
Pieter I Bruegel
Gustav Klimt
Amedeo Modigliani (enjoy these artists with a laptop, at least)
Francis Bacon
Egon Schiele
Vincent Van Gogh
Piet Mondrian
Edvard Munch
Paul Cézanne
Paul Gauguin
Henri Matisse
Claude Monet
Frida Kahlo
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Norman Rockwell
Michelangelo
Pablo Picasso
Berlin, Germany
Behave by Robert Sapolsky
U.S.A. by John Dos Passos
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Honore de Balzac
The 48 Laws of Power
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Encyclopedia Britannica
The Denial of Death
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Infinite Jest by DFW
1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Revised and Updated by Robert Dimery
Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad
The Mask of Sanity, 5th Edition by Hervey Cleckley
Without Conscience by Robert Hare
Sapiens by Harari
Food of the Gods by Terence McKenna
Psilocybin cubensis / Pan cyans
LSD (for deep inner work)
Cannabis
Catwalk Oatmeal and Honey shampoo and conditioner
It's a 10 miracle leave in product
Is it still good to ya? by Robert Christgau
Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton (recommended by John Updike)
Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan
Fear of Life by Alexander Lowen
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Korean bulgogi
Raspberry crème brule
Espresso
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
Lost and Found by Bruce Gilden
ASOIAF by George R.R. Martin
Shaved body
Denim jacket
Recapture the Rapture by Jamie Wheal
The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef
Earrings
Estrogen
Dove beauty bar as hand soap and butt soap
Spiral dynamics book
Personality type by lenore Thomson
Blonde hair ? Like Britney Spears
Depression is a lack of power. - Martin Butler
A people's history of the United States by Howard Zinn
Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Malignant Self-love by Sam Vaknin
Goal in life: to get through all this, through adversity, and help young people in the future who happen to be stuck in a similar situation,, to inspire and motivate, to bring light to, to share and care
^My source of meaning in life
I am a rebel of authenticity. This would be like my future ethos
 

I know Jamie and could connect @Leo Gura with him, if desired.

@PurpleTree
It all depends on the culture. In Germany they have the culture that by 18 you should leave the household. In other Asian cultures you could be living with your parents forever and is encouraged to do so.
I prefer to question all these things and not blindy accept them. Personally i find it good to have nice food prepared everyday by a person who cares about me. I don't care about fitting into any particular role or standard. It is a privilege to have good food cooked everyday by someone else. Nobody will ever love you as much as your mother. And you want to cut that relationship short because of some peer pressure? 
If you are doing it to become autonomous then that is good. And definitely you wanna be as autonomous as quick as possible. You should be able to cook your own food, and take care of  your needs without relying on anybody.
But you could be living next door to your mother, be autonomous and also have a nice meal every day cooked by her. I don't see any problem with that. This is a privilege.  An once in a lifetime opportunity. Your mother will soon be dead. You will be missing her meals in your 50s and 60s.
Every meal is a precious gift (if she cooks well and healthily lol).
Definitely there are pros and cons. But cooking your own food every day is no fun. Nor you will ever cook better than someone who has done it for decades lol. Nor is fun being alone in an apartment. 
Here in Greece , people are encouraged to stay with their parents for many years (I am not supporting this idea entirely).
Also i've noticed very very old siblings who share the same house. It is nice to have company especially if you are close to death. Nobody wants to die alone.

Also - despite what Leo claims - I'm a firm believer that psychedelics are unnecessary. The most spiritually advanced people I've ever met have never done them. Psychedelics are an effective method for shattering the ego mind identity, but they don't offer anything that will stick. You're never really ready for these experiences unless you match their level energetically. And if you match their level energetically, why do them? Meditation is far more powerful in the long run.

Raising children is both the most selfish and selfless thing someone will do, will not explain.

Just watched the Red Panda documentary, really cool stuff, I really wonder what the Science 2.0 explanation for it is, going to be exciting to see what we found out about the human body and mind in the next 50-100 years. 
If youre super skeptical and overly rational, just think about this, imagine if you were teleported from the 1300s to today and somebody gave you access to Facetime on an iPhone to talk to your mom, it would be just as unbelievable as telekinesis is to us today, yet here we are...

@Preety_India
That's basically a Rapture-Ideology (Jamie Wheal?). 
Me and my group will survive, while the rest will perish. Not a good / loving way to think about humanity if you divide us in your mind. 
Also feels like I need to post this over and over again here: "If there are whole chunks of populations that you only have pejorative strawman versions of, where you can't explain why they think what they think without making them dumb or bad, you should be dubious of your own modeling." - Daniel Schmachtenberger
There are NO stupid people, that´s your mind not understanding someone.

The opposite of conspiracy theory is that WE are responsible for the messed up state of the world, and have the freedom to do something positive about it. But that's hard work and shakes us out of our selfish bubbles, so it's easier to blame someone else and pass the buck. 

Because normies are too unwise let the highest wisdom lead them. They need something cruder, like a mule needs a whip. You can't lead a mule with philosophy.

Leadership is rarely done by the wisest and most peaceful. Leadership is usually done by the strongest and most ambitious.
The problem with those other countries you mentioned is that they lack the ambition and power necessary for leadership. You must want to lead and you must be willing to crack some skulls in the process. You don't lead by asking nicely.

Yeah, it's almost like their own stage orange shadow which is money and selfishness is projected outwards so they come to belive that other people want control, power and money when it instead is they themselves that want it but deny it.
The anti vax hipsters is like a 180 degree reaction against what is not " meaningful" which to them Is the 3D world but then at the same time hold beliefs that everything that is meaningful is power, money ect.. cause that's what they are focused on. 
They think that it is them, the enlightened wokesterz who don't care about power VS shallow Sociey.. yet they are the one who focuses on what the ego wants. It's facinating!

“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”
~Terence Mckenna

Hey Leo, I beg you to please look up "Dr Morse Herbal Health Club" And youtube "Dr Morse ND"
Dr Morse has been practicing Medicine for over 50 years and healing people for that long as well. 
I am in no way financially connected to what he does. 
I know it seem's to good to be true but I promise he has all the solutions to your health problems. 
I have been studying his content for years now and he has gotten me and my family better from illness that medical Dr's said we absolutely couldn't. 
I know how much your suffering with your stomach and bacteria illness, I beg you, please give him a shot.
Thank you for everything you do.

This video is Great!
This is the kind of thinking that goes inside the mind of a vMEME Yellow person prior to their action taking. 

@Rilles They sort of adress these issues in the audiobook mentoning for instance how poverty programms to get the homless of the street do not seem to work, as well as other programms and how counter-intuitive approaches can work, for instance smth. simple such as less is more. They also talk about the second law of thermodynamics and entropy and some equation that is similar to the definition of how stream entry is achieved as well as how important virtue is and sort of the issues with green from my perspective and laissez-faire leadership it's very fun to listen to it.

Nice post with the wicked problems gives me another synchronistic event today lol. 

The dao of systems thinking is freaking awesome def. recommend listening to it. Explains a lot of politics also lol. 

https://www.actualized.org/insights/absolute-love
Just wanted to share this here so that more people find it. Well done Leo, that was great.
I had a funny feeling when I read it. It is such a direct and clear communication. I can feel something in me resisting it. Yet, I know it's the truth.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/
 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/#33f6ce451465
Meditation Helps Preserve the Aging Brain
Last week, a study from UCLA found that long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged. Participants who’d been meditating for an average of 20 years had more grey matter volume throughout the brain — although older meditators still had some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it wasn’t as pronounced as the non-meditators. "We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating," said study author Florian Kurth. "Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain."

 
Meditation Reduces Activity in the Brain’s “Me Center"
One of the most interesting studies in the last few years, carried out at Yale University, found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts – a.k.a., “monkey mind.” The DMN is “on” or active when we’re not thinking about anything in particular, when our minds are just wandering from thought to thought. Since mind-wandering is typically associated with being less happy, ruminating, and worrying about the past and future, it’s the goal for many people to dial it down. Several studies have shown that meditation, though its quieting effect on the DMN, appears to do just this. And even when the mind does start to wander, because of the new connections that form, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.
 
Its Effects Rival Antidepressants for Depression, Anxiety
A review study last year at Johns Hopkins looked at the relationship between mindfulness meditation and its ability to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain. Researcher Madhav Goyal and his team found that the effect size of meditation was moderate, at 0.3. If this sounds low, keep in mind that the effect size for antidepressants is also 0.3, which makes the effect of meditation sound pretty good. Meditation is, after all an active form of brain training. “A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing,” says Goyal. “But that’s not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways.” Meditation isn’t a magic bullet for depression, as no treatment is, but it’s one of the tools that may help manage symptoms.
 
Meditation May Lead to Volume Changes in Key Areas of the Brain
In 2011, Sara Lazar and her team at Harvard found that mindfulness meditation can actually change the structure of the brain: Eight weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to increase cortical thickness in the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory, and in certain areas of the brain that play roles in emotion regulation and self-referential processing. There were also decreases in brain cell volume in the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress – and these changes matched the participants’ self-reports of their stress levels, indicating that meditation not only changes the brain, but it changes our subjective perception and feelings as well. In fact, a follow-up study by Lazar’s team found that after meditation training, changes in brain areas linked to mood and arousal were also linked to improvements in how participants said they felt — i.e., their psychological well-being. So for anyone who says that activated blobs in the brain don’t necessarily mean anything, our subjective experience – improved mood and well-being – does indeed seem to be shifted through meditation as well.

 
Just a Few Days of Training Improves Concentration and Attention 
Having problems concentrating isn’t just a kid thing – it affects millions of grown-ups as well, with an ADD diagnosis or not. Interestingly but not surprisingly, one of the central benefits of meditation is that it improves attention and concentration: One recent study found that just a couple of weeks of meditation training helped people’s focus and memory during the verbal reasoning section of the GRE. In fact, the increase in score was equivalent to 16 percentile points, which is nothing to sneeze at. Since the strong focus of attention (on an object, idea, or activity) is one of the central aims of meditation, it’s not so surprising that meditation should help people’s cognitive skills on the job, too – but it’s nice to have science confirm it. And everyone can use a little extra assistance on standardized tests.

 
Meditation Reduces Anxiety — and Social Anxiety
A lot of people start meditating for its benefits in stress reduction, and there’s lots of good evidence to support this rationale. There’s a whole newer sub-genre of meditation, mentioned earlier, called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness (now available all over the country), that aims to reduce a person’s stress level, physically and mentally. Studies have shown its benefits in reducing anxiety, even years after the initial 8-week course. Research has also shown that mindfulness meditation, in contrast to attending to the breath only, can reduce anxiety – and that these changes seem to be mediated through the brain regions associated with those self-referential (“me-centered”) thoughts. Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to help people with social anxiety disorder: a Stanford University team found that MBSR brought about changes in brain regions involved in attention, as well as relief from symptoms of social anxiety.
 
Meditation Can Help with Addiction
A growing number of studies has shown that, given its effects on the self-control regions of the brain, meditation can be very effective in helping people recover from various types of addiction. One study, for example, pitted mindfulness training against the American Lung Association's freedom from smoking (FFS) program, and found that people who learned mindfulness were many times more likely to have quit smoking by the end of the training, and at 17 weeks follow-up, than those in the conventional treatment. This may be because meditation helps people “decouple” the state of craving from the act of smoking, so the one doesn’t always have to lead to the other, but rather you fully experience and ride out the “wave” of craving, until it passes. Other research has found that mindfulness training, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) can be helpful in treating other forms of addiction.
 
Short Meditation Breaks Can Help Kids in School
For developing brains, meditation has as much as or perhaps even more promise than it has for adults. There’s been increasing interest from educators and researchers in bringing meditation and yoga to school kids, who are dealing with the usual stressors inside school, and oftentimes additional stress and trauma outside school. Some schools have starting implementing meditation into their daily schedules, and with good effect: One district in San Francisco started a twice daily meditation program in some of its high-risk schools – and saw suspensions decrease, and GPAs and attendance increase. Studies have confirmed the cognitive and emotional benefits of meditation for schoolchildren, but more work will probably need to be done before it gains more widespread acceptance.
 
 
 
This Is Your Brain on Meditation
The science explaining why you should meditate every day

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/use-your-mind-change-your-brain/201305/is-your-brain-meditation
For those of you who are curious as to how meditation changes the brain, this is for you. Although this may be slightly technical, bear with me because it’s really interesting. The brain, and how we are able to mold it, is fascinating and nothing short of amazing. Here are the brain areas you need to know:
Lateral prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that allows you to look at things from a more rational, logical and balanced perspective. In the book, we call it the Assessment Center. It is involved in modulating emotional responses (originating from the fear center or other parts of the brain), overriding automatic behaviors/habits and decreasing the brain’s tendency to take things personally (by modulating the Me Center of the brain, see below).
Medial prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that constantly references back to you, your perspective and experiences. Many people call this the “Me Center” of the brain because it processes information related to you, including when you are daydreaming, thinking about the future, reflecting on yourself, engaging in social interactions, inferring other people’s state of mind or feeling empathy for others. We call it the Self-Referencing Center.
What’s interesting about the Medial PreFrontal Cortex (mPFC) is that it actually has two sections:
Ventromedial medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) – involved in processing information related to you and people that you view as similar to you. This is the part of the brain that can cause you to end up taking things too personally, which is why we referred to it as the unhelpful aspect of the Self-Referencing Center in the book. (In reality, this brain area has many important and helpful functions – since we were focusing on overcoming anxiety, depression and habits you want to change, we referred to it as unhelpful because it often causes increases in rumination/worry and exacerbates anxious or depressive thoughts/states/feelings.)
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (dmPFC) – involved in processing information related to people who you perceive as being dissimilar from you. This very important part of the brain is involved in feeling empathy (especially for people who we perceive of as not being like us) and maintaining social connections.
Insula: the part of the brain that monitors bodily sensations and is involved in experiencing “gut-level” feelings. Along with other brain areas, it helps “guide” how strongly you will respond to what you sense in your body (i.e., is this sensation something dangerous or benign?). It is also heavily involved in experiencing/feeling empathy.
Amygdala: the alarm system of the brain, what most refer to as the “Fear Center.” It's a part of the brain that is responsible for many of our initial emotional responses and reactions, including the “fight-or-flight” response. (Along with the Insula, this is what we referred to as the Uh Oh Center.)
The Brain Without Meditation – Stuck on Me
If you were to look at people’s brains before they began a meditation practice, you would likely see strong neural connections within the Me Center and between the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers of the brain. This means that whenever you feel anxious, scared or have a sensation in your body (e.g., a tingling, pain, itching, whatever), you are far more likely to assume that there is a problem (related to you or your safety). This is precisely because the Me Center is processing the bulk of the information. What's more, this over-reliance on the Me Center explains how it is that we often get stuck in repeating loops of thought about our life, mistakes we made, how people feel about us, our bodies (e.g., “I’ve had this pain before, does this mean something serious is going on?) and so on.
Why is the Me Center allowed to process information this way, essentially unabated? The reason this happens, in part, is because the Assessment Center’s connection to the Me Center is relatively weak. If the Assessment Center was working at a higher capacity, it would modulate the excessive activity of the vmPFC (the part that takes things personally) and enhance the activity of the dmPFC (the part involved in understanding other’s thoughts and feelings). This would lead us to take in all the relevant information, discard erroneous data (that the Me Center might want to focus on exclusively) and view whatever is happening from a more balanced perspective – essentially decreasing the overthinking, ruminating and worrying that the Me Center is famous for promulgating. One helpful way to think of the Assessment Center is as a sort of “brake” for the unhelpful parts of the Me Center.
The Brain on Meditation – I Can See Clearly Now
In contrast, if you meditate on a regular basis, several positive things happen. First, the strong, tightly held connection between the Me Center (specifically the unhelpful vmPFC) and the bodily sensation/fear centers begins to break down. As this connection withers, you will no longer assume that a bodily sensation or momentary feeling of fear means something is wrong with you or that you are the problem! This explains, in part, why anxiety decreases the more you meditate – it’s because the neural paths that link those upsetting sensations to the Me Center are decreasing. Said another way, your ability to ignore sensations of anxiety is enhanced as you begin to break that connection between the unhelpful parts of the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers. As a result, you are more readily able to see those sensations for what they are and not respond as strongly to them (thanks to your strengthened Assessment Center).
Second, a heftier, healthier connection forms between the Assessment Center and bodily sensation/fear centers. This means that when you experience a bodily sensation or something potentially dangerous or upsetting, you are able to look at it from a more rational perspective (rather than automatically reacting and assuming it has something to do with you). For example, when you experience pain, rather than becoming anxious and assuming it means something is wrong with you, you can watch the pain rise and fall without becoming ensnared in a story about what it might mean.
Finally, an added bonus of meditating is that the connection between the helpful aspects of the Me Center (i.e. dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) – the part involved in processing information related to people we perceive as being not like us – and the bodily sensation center – involved in empathy – becomes stronger. This healthy connection enhances your capacity to understand where another person is coming from, especially those who you cannot intuitively understand because you think or perceive things differently from them (i.e., dissimilar others). This increased connection explains why meditation enhances empathy – it helps us use the part of the brain that infers other people’s states of mind, their motivations, desires, dreams and so on, while simultaneously activating the part of the brain involved in the actual experience of empathy (insula). The end result is that we are more able to put ourselves in another person’s shoes (especially those not like us), thereby increasing our ability to feel empathy and compassion for everyone.
Daily Practice is Important
Essentially, the science “proves” what we know to be true from the actual experience of meditating. What the data demonstrate is that meditation facilitates strengthening the Assessment Center, weakening the unhelpful aspects of the Me Center (that can cause you to take things personally), strengthening the helpful parts of the Me Center (involved with empathy and understanding others) and changing the connections to/from the bodily sensation/fear centers such that you experience sensations in a less reactive, more balanced and holistic way. In a very real way, you literally are changing your brain for the better when you meditate.
In the end, this means that you are able to see yourself and everyone around you from a clearer perspective, while simultaneously being more present, compassionate and empathetic with people no matter the situation. With time and practice, people do truly become calmer, have a greater capacity for empathy and find they tend to respond in a more balanced way to things, people or events in their lives.
However, to maintain your gains, you have to keep meditating. Why? Because the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant (I’m referencing the idea of neuroplasticity here). This means you have to keep meditating to ensure that the new neural pathways you worked so hard to form stay strong.
To me, this amazing brain science and the very real rewards gained from meditation combine to form a compelling argument for developing and/or maintaining a daily practice. It definitely motivates me on those days I don’t “feel” like sitting. So, try to remind yourself that meditating every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes, will keep those newly formed connections strong and those unhelpful ones of the past at bay.
Addendum: For those wanting to start a meditation practice or who might be experiencing emotional issues, memories, etc. when meditating, please seek out an experienced meditation teacher. I have received some comments from people stating they do not believe meditation works (which is likely true for some people) or that it could be harmful if done incorrectly. Obviously, meditation has been very positive for me, but I have always worked with a meditation teacher or mentor and I would suggest you do the same, as a teacher can help you figure out what is right for you and guide you through any difficulties you may be having.
 

Name
Guided hypnosis, hypnotherapy
Purpose/Effects
In a hypnotherapy session led by a professional hypnotherapist, the subject is slowly led through a monologue given by the therapist that relaxes the body and mind while keeping the latter in a state of subdued alertness. In this trance state, the mind becomes more open to forms of suggestion toward specific or general healthy behaviors. Hypnosis also promotes relaxation and is a good stress relief technique. Hypnotherapy has been strongly indicated as a treatment for gastrointestinal problems, chronic pain, anxiety, and countless other conditions.
Method Summary
Find a hypnotherapist and undergo sessions with her or him, addressing your individual needs.
Long Version
1.    To decide if hypnotherapy is right for you, you should first make a list of what you feel you need to address. Many individuals use hypnosis for very specific reasons, quitting smoking and weight loss being two of the most popular, but hypnotherapy is also very effective as a general stress and emotion management technique.
2.    Decide what kind of hypnotherapist interests you: you can find social workers, counselors, and psychologists certified in hypnotherapy. If you are interested in talk therapy in addition to hypnotherapy, many professionals will offer a combination of both. This can be especially helpful if you tend to bottle up your emotions; by talking a bit first, your hypnotherapist can suggest messages that would be particularly helpful.
3.    Look around. You can start by going through the National Board of Certified Hypnotherapists’ website or do a Google search using your area. If you know people in the mental health community, you may want to ask around for recommendations. When you find a hypnotherapist, ask her or him about areas of specialization. There are hypnotherapists who specialize in anxiety, in eating disorders, in irritable bowel syndrome, and nearly anything else you might need. When you find someone who looks promising, make an appointment.
4.    During your first appointment, you and your therapist will probably begin by just talking. She or he will want to know about your life and what concerns brought you in. Be honest and forthright, as you would be with any therapist. The information you give now will help her or him tailor the hypnosis session to your needs.
5.    She or he might suggest a mini-session during the first appointment, so that you can see how you respond to the trance state. If she or he doesn’t recommend it, and you have time, you can choose to bring it up as a possibility.
6.    Your hypnosis session will begin with you relaxing into a comfortable position in a chair or on a couch and closing your eyes. Your practitioner will then begin to read or recite a monologue that encourages your body to relax. Don’t think too hard about what’s going on or worry that you’re not relaxing enough. Try to just listen.
7.    You will start to sink into a relaxed state of trance. In this state, you may find your body reacting in strange ways: your limbs might tingle, you might hallucinate that you are rocking back and forth, etc. Don’t be afraid; these are perfectly normal and safe.
8.    The therapist will then take the opportunity to offer messages that correspond to the needs you addressed earlier, often in addition to messages of general physical and emotional wellbeing. Hypnosis will have put you in a state of susceptibility to these suggestions.
9.    Slowly, your therapist will ease you out of the trance, gently and with easy breaths. You will remember what has been said, but it will most likely seem a little hazy. You body may feel extremely relaxed, to the point of being on pins and needles. Be sure to get up slowly.
10.  Adjust your appointment schedule to your needs. Maintenance for anxiety reduction and general wellbeing may only require a session or two a month, while appointments intending specific results like quitting smoking may require more frequent sessions at first that taper off over time.
History
The 18th-century German physician Franz Mesmer developed a primitive form of hypnosis based on what he called "animal magnetism" that became known as "Mesmerism". In 1841 the Scottish physician James Braid took these ideas and developed what he called hypnotism. Many psychologists of the day became fascinated by hypnotism and began used its effects on suggestion in their own experiments and trails. Freud began as an enthusiastic proponent of hypnotism but eventually abandoned it in favor of psychoanalysis. Now hypnotherapy is a discipline divided into many divergent branches used to treat almost every condition you could think of.
Cautions
Hypnosis can often bring about powerful emotions. You may feel the urge to cry afterward, or you might feel light-headed and airy. This is normal and okay.
Notes
A hypnotherapist will not have control over you; you will still be awake and rational. The stage hypnosis you see on TV where the hypnotist can bend people to his will is just showbiz.
Hypnotic regression is a controversial procedure in which the hypnotherapist sometimes uses the trance state to access repressed memories, generally of traumatic experiences like child abuse.. Most hypnotherapists do not do these extreme forms of hypnotic regression and many are strongly opposed to it. However, if you are interested in this form of hypnotherapy, consult with your practitioner.

Elisabeth- Definitely could just be a mental hurdle/fear of the 20. In which case, I'd err on the side of sticking to the 20 and just power through until it click.
MeditationDude- I mediate first thing on waking-- make myself a tea and then sit. While I've been regular with the habit, I've been irregular with the modality in that time-- sometimes tracks, sometimes not. I went through a phase where I was doing more hypnosis-style work during that time, and "woke up" one day realizing that time had become "work," not true meditation, so I backed back out to just silent awareness meditation and it was lovely again (but still around that 10 minute range. I wonder if I've just mentally trained myself to that being the range.)
I am a consultant as a career-- tried to do a "pivot" this past year to teaching people to do what I do, so that took me down a path of the kind of "self development" the entrepreneurial circles gravitate towards (aka: not really so much meditation at all, but more meditation applied to the change of mindset-- that's when I pivoted back to just silent or MBRS, which is what the lion's share of my time has been spent doing.) Addictions/Bad Habits: I recently turned the corner on an overdrinking habit that's been following me for most of my adult life (though when I spell it out, most garden-variety sloshy executives just laugh-- but it was too much FOR ME)-- SO grateful it seems to have finally clicked in that! Bad habits: I'd say worry is my worst bad habit, being an "entrepreneur" introduces all those fears of being totally solo if things don't go as planned, impostor syndrome and all of that-- though, again, I think a lot of "entrepreneurial" space is a load of horsepoop- I'm an entrepreneur because I made the life choice to leave San Francsico and move to the mountains two years ago, so "entrepreneur" is my business form by necessity vs as a lifestyle choice. My lifestyle choice is to do what i need to to pay the bills and provide a life for my kids, and then spend time in nature, running, self-exploration. I'm not trying to be a two-comma, passive-income guru. I have two young kids. In the middle of a divorce. So, I guess I have "a lot going on" on the surface, but I do also integrate mindful moments throughout my day (5 minutes silent sitting when I sit down to my desk every morning and before I close the laptop every evening, etc.) and feel present and grounded throughout the day. I feel it's possible that I've just trained myself at that 5-10 minutes range and there's a mental hurdle getting past it. Using the running analogy-- a 50K is no more difficult than a road marathon (and way more fun!), but people have a mental level added to it. The hardest race to run for me (and one I've only run well once) is actually a 10K, but relatively untrained people "do" those all the time-- so, yeah, that's all mental.  If it's just a mental hurdle, I'll stick with the 20. There is also a voice that my time might be better spent elsewhere (I "know" this isn't true, but the thought does creep in-- should I be learning something else, reading a book, etc. Doing vs being. Perhaps too much focus on outcomes again?) My morning routine is all self-development stuff until my kids wake up, so it's not like I transition from meditation to washing dishes or something. The time is still applied in a similar pursuit... Anyhow, sorry for the wall of text, but-- yeah. Any insight appreciated!