Pitch: In this day of sky-rocketing mental illness, prescription drug abuse and overdose, a broken criminal justice system, and a presidential election characterized by divisive language and an emphasis on blaming others, it's nice to hear that modern neuroscience indicates that we use the power of neuroplasticity to cultivate and strengthen our overall wellbeing.
Through years of study and rigorous mental training, guided by generous mentors and teachers, John Lykurgus Wade overcame alcholism, depression, severe PTSD, and 8 1/2 of incarceration, and now teaches Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), developed at Emory University and is now even taught at the Emory School of Medicine. In fact Research is currently being conducted at Emory and other universities to examine the benefits of CBCT for a variety of populations including medical students, nurses, cancer survivors, veterans with PTSD, HIV+ individuals, school children, and parents of autistic children.
In 2014, John and his wife Roxy reached out to Timothy Harrison, the Assistant Director of CBCT and Carol Beck, the Assistant Director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership (ETP) to learn more about CBCT and its ability to develop and cultivate well-being. Realizing compassion training’s (which includes “mindfulness") ability to foster prosocial mental states (including mental stability, resilience, gratitude, empathy, and compassion), John, and his wife Roxy, travelled from their home in the Hill Country of Central Texas to Atlanta Georgia to attend the Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) Foundation Course. Acceptance into the extensive CBCT Teacher Training program followed, led by Geshe Lobbing Tenzin Negi, PhD.
In 2015, John and Roxy, working with Timothy Harrison, and with the approval of Dr. Negi, led an initiative to bring Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) to an online platform, motivated by the wish to bring the program to a wider audience. And after months of research and experimentation, John and Roxy were given approval to launch the world’s first platform (Living Heart+Mind) to offer Online Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT).
