Book Launch | Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress

Join Dr. Elizabeth Stanley for a book launch discussion about the neurobiology of stress, trauma, and resilience—and how they can affect national security and foreign policy. For instance, human neurobiology has interacted with certain features of the post-9/11 military (and its assigned missions) to contribute to the dramatic incidence of suicides and physical and mental health problems suffered by military service-members and veterans since 2001. Likewise, stress and emotion contagion – two effects of our social neurobiological wiring – exacerbate profound polarizations in the United States, especially regarding race and gender. The micro-dynamics of decision-making during stress and trauma also reinforce conflict-lengthening tendencies.

Widen the Window examines the cultural norms that impede resilience in America, especially our collective tendency to disconnect stress from its consequences and override our need to recover. In addition to diving deeply into the science behind stress, trauma, and resilience, the book explores how recovery and resilience are skills that can be trained. It weaves together stories with experimental and empirical research—including findings from four Department of Defense neuroscience studies with the U.S. military about the efficacy of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT)®, a resilience program Stanley created.