Associate Professor Craig Hassed
Stress, inattention and haste are becoming ubiquitous in the modern world and they come at a significant cost in terms of mental and physical health and quality of life, with significant implications for how we cope with ageing, chronic illness and discomfort. In a way, the popularity of mindfulness can be looked upon as an antidote to modern life. It can be described as both a form of meditation and a way of living. Although it is a generic skill it has an infinite number of applications. Being able to effectively engage attention in a mindful way is a pre-requisite for virtually anything else we want to do. This keynote presentation will explore the science, philosophy and practice of mindfulness across a wide variety of applications including managing personal stress, mental health, ageing and its potential to help with menopause and associated symptoms.
Biography:
Associate Professor Craig Hassed works at the Department of General Practice and is coordinator of mindfulness programs at Monash University. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness-based stress management, mind-body medicine, meditation, health promotion, integrative medicine and medical ethics. Craig is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas in health, educational, government and corporate contexts and has collaborated with a number of national and international universities helping them to integrate similar content. He was the founding president of Meditation Australia and is a regular media commentator. He writes regularly for medical journals and has published thirteen books. Craig also featured in the documentary, The Connection and wrote the companion e-book, “The Mindfulness Manual” and co-authored with Richard Chambers the free online Mindfulness course in collaboration with Monash University and FutureLearn. In 2019 Craig was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Medicine.