David R. Hamilton
David Hamilton has a PhD in organic chemistry and spent 4 years in the pharmaceutical industry developing drugs for cardiovascular disease and cancer. Inspired by the placebo effect, he left the industry to write books and educate people on how they can harness their mind and emotions to improve their health.
An advocate for kindness and for inspiring a kinder world, David is the author of 11 books, including, The Little Book of Kindness, How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body, I Heart Me, Why Woo-Woo Works, and the Amazon bestseller, The Five Side Effects of Kindness. His newest book, The Joy of Actually Giving a F*ck, which explores kindness, its impacts on mental health, and the importance of being kind to oneself and others, will be released in May 2024.
David is the "Kindness Tsar" for Psychologies Magazine and writes "The Kindness Conversation" and the "Kindness Project." David is featured in the award-winning documentary, HEAL. He appears regularly in the media and has been featured on Channel 4’s live show Sunday Brunch in the UK and CBS Sunday Morning in the USA.
Topics
The Science of Self Esteem
David defines self esteem as an inner sense of worthiness and value. I discuss the ’3 stages of self love’ that a person goes through as they develop their self esteem – I am not enough, I have had enough, I am enough. He also explains simple principles for ’wiring in’ a greater sense of self esteem into the brain by harnessing the two-way body-mind and mind-body connection. And he will cover how to replace self criticism with self compassion, and share some simple practices, I discuss how vulnerability can be a strength, and why being yourself can be a healthy way to develop self esteem.
The Health Benefits of Kindness
David discusses how kindness impacts mental and physical health and how it is contagious. Research shows that kindness boosts happiness and is also protective against depression. These effects are due to kindness activating and causing physical change in key brain regions. Kindness also impacts the heart and immune system through production of ’kindness hormones’, which are akin to stress hormones, but opposite in their effects. He also discusses the importance of kindness to one’s self – what it is and tools for how to practice it. And kindness is contagious. In fact, it is one of the most contagious of phenomena known to science, with an R-number of between 4 and 5.
How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body
David discusses the mind-body connection and how to harness is to optimize health and wellness. He covers the placebo effect and the impact of belief on health, how mind and emotions impact the brain and body, how meditation affects the brain, how visualization can alter brain circuits and can be targeted to different parts of the body. He will also share examples of visualization strategies used by people around the world that helped facilitate their recoveries from injury and illness and teach the simple principles involved.
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