NEW YORK The recorded sounds of chanting Tibetan monks many worlds away might seem out of place in a Manhattan psychiatrists waiting room, but this is also the headquarters of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.

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The main problem in our human condition has to do with the fact that our natures were adapted for life in the wild, and that because of civilization, we are living in very unnatural conditions, says Loizzo, who believes this is the primary source of stress for most people. "The stress instincts are what prepare us to fight or fly or freeze sometimes in dangerous situations. But since civilization began to sort of take over our whole lives, these stress reactions are a less and less useful part of our makeup.

However, its difficult to control our reactions to stressful situations, such as when your supervisor at work tells you to produce something on a deadline you feel unable to meet. The shortness of breath, the sweaty palms, the adrenaline surge, the sense of wariness and unease come unbidden.

According to Loizzo, thats because your nervous system instinctively bypasses your rational mind when your boss seems to be posing a threat to your well-being.

And because really what is challenging us is not a predator, but is another human being," he says, "whom we need to cooperate with and we need to negotiate with, essentially we become maladapted.

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The idea is that if youre mindful, you are able to assess things more clearly, and you are able to catch the misperceptions and over-reactions as they occur and opt out of them and choose the alternative [and] to see what is happening to you. Meditation becomes sort of a teachable simple pragmatic system for strengthening the parts of our mind and our brain that we need to be healthy and happy.

But Loizzo says that Buddhist-based psychotherapy is more than meditation. Like classic psychoanalysis, it involves a deep and committed search for the meaning of ones life through personal storytelling.

Thats the way our minds work. Our minds produce stories and images and things. And so some of the skills we teach have to do with learning to tell ourselves more constructive stories that empower us and help us to build the life that we really want to live - not the one we are trying to survive, or are afraid of being stuck in forever.

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Doctor Melds Western Practices, Eastern Spirituality