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Rick Saldan is an excellent inspirational speaker who tailored the seminar to the needs of the individual students being instructed. This office thanks the Mayors Office of Information Services for having such a vendor.

 

Timothy K. Lynch

Office of Fleet Management

City of Philadelphia

 

 

Rick has a magical approach that provides a clear and concise message specifically designed to the needs of his audience. Rick will provide all the motivational magic you will ever need, propelling your organization to the next level of greater success.

 

Thomas Mulhern

Frontier Communications

 

 

Rick Saldan is a compelling and absorbing motivational speaker and magician.  I have been to five of his Motivational Magic presentations and it is amazing how he keeps our college audiences on the edge of their seats. A highly entertaining performer with great comedy flair. Rich content to increase students' productivity, peak performance and motivation. If you need an outstanding motivational speaker for colleges, Rick is definitely one of the world's greatest speakers and magicians!


Dr. Rob Gilbert, Sport Psychologist,

Montclair State University

 

 

Rick Saldan has the wit, wisdom and sorcery of a wizard. He has a dynamic personality, and all will enjoy his captivating stories, comedy and magic!

Dennis Slaughter
Credit Suisse First Boston

 

 

Rick Saldan delivers a first-class show! A pro in every sense of the word. Funny, unique, entertaining and polished.

Brian Letscher, Actor

Hawaii Five-O, NCIS, Cold Case, Law & Order and The Mentalist.

 

 

Rick Saldan is a wonderful combination of master magician, comic improviser and first class speaker. The audience loved his program, which was music to our ears. If you love celebrity motivational speakers such as Tom Hopkins, Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar, then you'll love Rick!

Dottie Burman, President
Burtley Productions, Inc.

 

Rick Saldan is an incredibly talented performer and motivational speaker with great insight. He shares many powerful motivational messages that will enhance your life for the better!

Jack Murray, President
Dream Illusions

 

Rick is one of the best inspirational speakers on the scene today. Funny, fun loving and highly energetic. If you want to make your next event into an extraordinary one, then invite professional speaker  Rick Saldan and his amazing  Motivational Magic.

 

Andres Lara, President

Inspiration Times Magazine

 
 

Mindfulness and Beliefs: Irrationally Yours
Author: Maya Talisman Frost

I can't help it--I am a confirmed neuroscience geek.

So I was very excited to attend the fifth brain lecture in a series (yes, I bought season tickets!) sponsored by Oregon Health Sciences University. You see, the guest speaker was Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, the father of cognitive neuroscience, and his topic was The Ethical Brain--which happens to be the title of a book he will publish this June.

He has written over 20 books, and in his work as the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, he continues to conduct research on how the brain enables the mind.

Dr. Gazzaniga believes there is nothing more fascinating than the mind, and he is exploring how we develop, hang on to, and change our beliefs. (Do you see why I love him?)

Mindfulness allows us to step back and watch our thoughts. By doing so, we can develop a clearer perspective regarding our beliefs and our attachment to them.

In his lecture, Dr. Gazzaniga discussed the power of the left brain. Remember, that is the side that handles logic and language, but the interesting part is how those two functions work together, continually creating words to justify our behavior.

Left => logic + language => lists

My favorite research illustrating this concept is the "scar face" experiment, in which a participant is fitted with a fake facial scar. The participant is told that they will be interviewed in order to see how the visible facial deformity might influence the way they are treated.

Then something sneaky happens: the scar is surreptitiously removed, and the participant enters the interview thinking the scar is still visible.

Right after the interview, in virtually every case, the participant is full of all kinds of examples of how the interviewer behaved negatively due to the scar. When viewing a video showing the interviewer only, the participant can point to several incidents which seemed to him to indicate distaste or prejudice-- "See? He's staring at the scar!” etc.

Even after being shown images that clearly indicate that the scar was not visible, the participant is likely to persist in his belief that the interviewer was focusing on it.

We all have invisible scars (irrational beliefs) about the way we are treated by others--and why. Our left brains are working overtime to reinforce our beliefs. We get so entangled in these thoughts that our entire view of ourselves and the world is strangled by them.

By paying attention to the language in our heads, we can learn to recognize the beliefs that might be sabotaging us. Observing our thoughts gives us a chance to step back and see the left brain in action.

Use mindfulness to see your invisible scars. Watch your knee-jerk responses whenever you feel slighted by someone, and look for the list of rationales that your left brain has been crafting. Somewhere in there is the kernel of your persistent belief.

Watch and listen. You don't have to be a neuroscience geek to find that fascinating.







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Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse in Portland, Oregon. Through her company, Real-World Mindfulness Training, she teaches eyes-wide-open ways to get calm, clear and creative. To subscribe to her free weekly ezine, the Friday Mind Massage, please visit http://www.MassageYourMind.com.

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