The Great Courses: Better Living

Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."

Meditation offers deep and lasting benefits for mental functioning and emotional health, as well as for physical health and well-being. These 24 detailed lectures teach you the principles and techniques of sitting meditation, the related practice of walking meditation, and the highly beneficial use of meditative awareness in many important activities, including eating and driving. You will also learn how to use the skills of meditation in working with thoughts and emotional states.

Delve into the world of holistic healthcare, the range of nature-based methods and treatments that are both clinically proven and readily available to you-and that provide an alternative way for you to nurture your own optimal health, disarm stress, and deepen the experience of well-being.These 24 compelling and practical lectures offer a rich spectrum of choices and possibilities for your own healthcare, as well as practical tools for creating a truly healthful lifestyle.

Nutrition is essential to living a healthy, happy, and successful life. Yet a world of misconceptions and promises of easy results too often stands in our way-and can even be harmful to our overall health. The key is to cut through the noise and find the medically backed, statistically proven information about healthy eating and living. These 36 in-depth lectures explore the fundamentals of good nutrition and offer a practical guide for applying these fundamentals to your lifestyle.

Feeling stressed? You're not alone. Stress is an inherent aspect of life that can have tremendous negative effects on your mental and physical health. This makes coping with stress a critical part of how well we live.Once you understand the inner workings of your stress response system, you'll possess powerful knowledge that will help you understand and better deal with this common aspect of your busy life.

We all want to discover the secret to a long and healthy life. But how do you incorporate the secrets of personal wellness into the unique demands of your own schedule? What information would a knowledgeable and compassionate family physician offer someone looking for a reference guide to healthy living? These 36 comprehensive lectures offer you practical and expert advice that allows you to make your own personalized choices about healthy living, as well as ways to apply that knowledge to your lifestyle.

We all want to live long, healthy, and happy lives. But the path to achieve this-fitness and nutrition-is fraught with popular yet dangerously misleading myths about personal wellness. How do you separate the fact from the fiction? How can you recognize when you're doing your body more harm than good? Scientific knowledge has greatly expanded our understanding of how the human body works, laying many previously held ideas about fitness and nutrition to rest.

What if your memory suddenly vanished, so that you could no longer summon recollections of anything at all? What if you couldn't even remember yourself-not your name, your school, where you worked, or even the face of the total stranger staring back at you from the mirror? This intriguing series of 24 lectures by an honored researcher and teacher explains not only how the various aspects of your memory operate, but the impact memory has on your daily experience of life.

Although the courts have struggled to balance the interests of individuals, businesses, and law enforcement, the proliferation of intrusive new technologies puts many of our presumed freedoms in legal limbo. For instance, it's not hard to envision a day when websites such as Facebook or Google Maps introduce a feature that allows real-time tracking of anyone you want, based on face-recognition software and ubiquitous live video feeds.

In today's information age, medical myths are all around us. And using them to make decisions about your own health can be harmful. Even deadly. That's why it's critical to understand the accuracy of medical information and discover the truth about everyday health and well-being. That's the core of this important series of 24 eye-opening lectures from an acclaimed neurologist, educator, and science broadcaster.

Join an expert in self-control research for six engaging and inspirational lessons that shatter the myths about willpower and replace them with verifiable science that can make the seemingly unattainable finally possible. Packed with eye-opening studies, experiments, and exercises to strengthen your self-control when dealing with money, fitness, personal relationships, and more, this course will have you wondering why you ever doubted yourself.

Sleep is the subject of intense scientific debate among biologists and neuroscientists. Why must we spend about one-third of our lives asleep? What exactly is sleep? Why does a lack of sleep impair our cognitive abilities and leave us vulnerable to a host of medical issues ranging from obesity to reduced resistance to infectious disease?

Pediatrics, which focuses on the medical care of children from birth through adolescence, is one of the most fascinating areas of modern medicine. To step into the shoes of a trained pediatrician is to better understand how these medical heroes diagnose common and uncommon illnesses in their young patients, helping each child grow into his or her greatest potential. In these 24 lectures, don the doctor's white coat for an accessible journey into the world of pediatric medicine to solve medical mysteries.

The brain is an astounding organ, and today neuroscientists have more insights than ever about how it works - as well as strategies for helping us live better every day. These 24 practical lectures give you a wealth of useful strategies for improving your well-being. By presenting evidence-based "hacks" for your brain, Professor Vishton empowers you to take charge of your life and perform better all around.