The science behind why most pickup guru's out there recommend you check out: "The power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.

Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6Q0G1iHBI

Spoiler: It's because it reduces social anxiety (and helps you eliminate negative self-beliefs).


Speaker: Philippe Goldin
Philippe is a research scientist and heads the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience group in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University.

(It's kinda boring at the start, but it gets better after about 10 minutes, just bare with it)


tl;dw (too long; didn't watch)
When nervous and/or in an anxiety state, focus on your breathing a.k.a meditate. When practicing this many times (couple of weeks/months) it becomes unconsciously automatic, thus greatly reducing (and even eliminating) social anxiety depending on how often the exercise is practiced.

Social anxiety/phobia is usually preceded by development of depression, substance abuse and/or other anxiety disorders




Funny fact from the video (at 40 minutes): In the east people with social anxiety have very poor self-esteem and they're worried about negative evaluations about themselves.
In Japan there's another form of social anxiety, the fear isn't about negative evaluations about themselves, but that they are going to do something that will have a negative evaluation about someone else. (e.g. I'm terrified that I'm going to do something that's going to emberass you)
Thit is culturally influenced.


DISCLAIMER: The video is entertaining and educational to watch, but is mostly just mental masturbation.

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An approach a day keeps the guru away.