Get into the spirituality of the holidays

>>> holidays are certainly upon us . in fact, 80 feet and 30,000 led lights as evidenced right outside our window right now. we are smack in the middle of the holiday madness here at 30 rock and this time of year can be magical but for many it's also the most stressful time of year so if your wish is to live the spirit of the season, it does not take a christmas miracle. only takes some simple steps from our own spiritual guru deepak chopra back at the table with us, co-author of "super

brain: unleashing the explosive power of your brain for health, happiness and spiritual well being ." thank you for joining us.

>> thank you, krystal.

>> now as a mom for me it's not so much stress of conflict with the family but i feel like as a mom i have to deliver the goods literally and figuratively for my daughter to make it as magical for her as it was for me as a child and then you also get in to, you know, your friends and co-workers and getting them the right gift and what's my relationship status with this person and are they going to get me something? all of that sort of weighs me down in the holiday season . how do we navigate those aspects without sort of getting bogged down?

>> one of the points that rudy who's a professor of neuro science of harvard medical school and i make in this book is conscious brain cannot multitask. if you're speaking to me and checking your e-mail at the same time on your iphone, you're doing neither. based on this, we think you have to really slice your time. which is sleep time. exercise time. relationship time with your daughter. and then all of the other things, you know, focused work time . which you're doing right now. if you do that, and you say there's play time , there's relationship time, there's sleep time, there's exercise time you won't get stressed. when you do get stressed, just stop and this is my formula. it's actually an acronym. stop. take a few deep breaths. observe your body and smile everywhere. from head to toe . and then proceed with consciousness, love, compassion.

>> but there's a crisis happening around the there's a rcrisis tha t happens around the holidays. we've made something of ourselves. we've run for congress or have a tv show or what have you. you get back with your family and everybody aks like you did when you were teenagers --

>> because your brain goes back to old memories.

>> and you hate to get back into those old emotional dynamics. how do you deal with being smooshed back into the box.

>> you have to be conscious it's going to happen. it happens to everyone. everything kind of reinforces that. the music, the red colors, the christmas colors, the memories come back and the neural networks start to refire. you stop and say what is my goal here. i'm with my family. what is my goal here? it is to be happy. and if that's your goal, then the fastest way you can be happy is to make everyone else happy and you don't have to actually give them gifts. you have to give them attention, which means listen to them, show them a little appreciation for all the things that they represent in your life, and affection. that's it and then give them the gift, too.

>> those are really proactive things. i'm wondering what are some of the myths or some of the trappings we all find ourselves falling into this time of year that we should just debunk right now.

>> the myths are that, you know, this is the way it is. and it doesn't have to be. it's a reactive response. we become bundles of conditioned reflexes and nerves and we then get triggered by people and circumstance into predictable outcomes year after year after year. one definition of neurosis is to keep going the same thing and expect a different result. so you have to just step back and observe and say, there's a better way to do it.

>> quickly, deepak, how do i get a super brain?

>> well, we now know that every experience that we have, there's a representation in the brain. i have talked about the mind/body connection for 30 years, but before you can have a mind/body connection, you need a mind/brain connection. so we know we have an instinctive brain, an emotional brain, and we have an intellectual brain and we need all three. the instinctive brain for survival, the emotional brain for relationship, and the intellectual brain to solve some of the big mysteries of our existence, also for intuition, insight, inspiration, creativity, and choice making. now we can see on a functional mri which thoughts, which feelings, and which images in your own mind are represented in the brain, it's literally possible to rewire your brain so that you enjoy health, happiness, spiritual insight. i wouldn't have done this book by myself. had i not met rudy who is a professor at harvard medical school , the director at the genetics lab at mass general , i said to him, rudy , is the brain a noun or a verb, and, you know, basically is it a structure or is it an activity that's changing by the second? depending on every flicker of thought. and he thought for a minute and he said it's a verb. i said let's write a book about it.

>> amazing stuff. thank you so much. and happy holidays to you.

>> and to you. and to you. and thanks for having me.

>> our pleasure. up next, toure has a lot of love for the supreme court , so we've got some supremes singing about love. you see what i did there? eat good