Aug 31, 2021
Amanda Gilbert is a meditation teacher, lecturer of mindfulness at the University of Southern California, speaker, and author. She leads meditation for top companies like NBC, Paramount Pictures, W Hotels, Merrill Lynch, Macy’s, and YouTube. Before dedicating herself to teaching full-time, Amanda was the center director for the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center at the University of California, San Francisco, a world-renowned health psychology laboratory conducting scientific research and publishing investigations on the biological and psychological effects of mindfulness, meditation, and stress resilience. Her formal meditation training has been with UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, Deepak Chopra, and in the Insight Meditation tradition. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Amanda's new book, "Kindness Now" introduces her 28-day guided meditation program aimed at helping you become a kinder, more compassionate, and radically loving person. With each daily practice, you will learn how to be more resilient in the face of common stressors, including anxiety, feelings of depression, "imposter" syndrome, and social media comparison effects, and ultimately make meditation an essential part of your life and self-care practice.
I talked with Amanda about:
- Getting into meditation in high school
- Feeling at home during meditation
- How she describes "the mind"
- Being more heart centered
- The power of Love
- Honoring your identity
- Using your practice for the benefit of all beings
- How she chose Kindness for the topic of her book, "Kindness Now"
- The power of the heart practices or brahma viharas
- Living our truths
- What if we don't like the word Kindness?