We often waste time focusing on what isn’t working, which spills over into time required to deal with bruised feelings. If you’re looking for what isn’t working, you may notice a lot, but you’ll limit what you can learn and use. Look for strengths, in yourself and others, as a conscious practice, and you will find how much more energy—and time—you have to accomplish things. Notice your state of mind during this practice....

Many of these confounding habits undermine the mindfulness practice we’re trying to establish to work with them in the first place. If you’re a new meditator, someone has hopefully explained that nothing is going to happen right away, and that you can’t force yourself to have a quiet mind or feel relaxed. But even so, you imagine yourself sitting perfectly still, blissfully at peace and that you’re going to do this for 30 minutes every day, without fail....

And that kind of rigorous training, steeped in competition, often can’t be fully actualized without training the mind as well. Some of the athletes have been vocal about their penchant for mindfulness meditation as an integral part of their quest for gold. For example, Tom Daley, a diver from Great Britain, told the Telegraph: “You can only do so much in the gym or in the pool.” He continued, “Every morning I do 10 minutes of mindfulness where I do meditation and I use that in competition and every day life… It’s helped me massively and I feel like that’s one of the reasons why this year I’ve been the most consistent that I’ve been in competition....

Here’s why you might be having a hard time getting started: 5 Reasons it’s Hard to Be Mindful 1. You don’t understand what it is. Mindfulness isn’t about being perfectly present and focused at all times. It’s not about moving through life in a happy haze. Mindfulness is about choosing to pay attention to the moment with kindness and curiosity. It’s about noticing when your mind has wandered and bringing it back to what’s right in front of you....

First, let me be clear. I am not sharing from the perspective of a mother who got it all right—feel free to check with my now-adult children on that—but as someone who has continued to learn along the way. I hope that I can offer even one takeaway you may find helpful and I fully acknowledge that hindsight is on my side here. And let’s be honest, right now, and maybe even always, all children are struggling in some ways....

Writing in 1922, the American philosopher Walter Lippmann, described the modern human condition as one of living in “pseudo-environments”—mental worlds that define our values, beliefs, and opinions. As a result, he observed that citizens “live in the same world, but they think and feel in different ones.” Nearly 100 years later, we are experiencing this kind of polarization like never before. 24-hour cable news, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and the fracturing of media have made it so that we can each filter our news, entertainment, and social interactions to reinforce our existing beliefs and shield ourselves from oppositional views—not to mention the fake news out there deliberately trying to separate us....

So that’s really what this last practice is about—a little bit of the basic breath-awareness practice, followed by a generosity practice. A 12-Minute Breathing Meditation to Cultivate Attention By doing such a generosity practice, we’re not saying there will be immediate relief of the pain and need in the world, but it rouses our own intention and goodwill to keep working toward that. It’s a very good way to end something in which we’ve developed some well-being together....

One of the most important (free!) tools for strengthening our communities is gratitude. Research confirms that experiencing gratitude enhances trust and empathy, nurturing cooperation and effective problem-solving in communities. Practicing gratitude for each other also leads to upstream reciprocity, which means that feeling gratitude increases our propensity not only to help someone who helped us but also to “pay it forward” to strangers. Try this gratitude practice to help you notice, appreciate, and shift your mindset toward ways of being in community with others that benefit us all while respecting our differences....

A 12-Minute Meditation to Set the Tone for Your Leadership READ MORE Ruth King August 10, 2021 Amber Tucker, Ava Whitney-Coulter, Heather Hurlock, Kylee Ross, Oyinda Lagunju, and Stephanie Domet June 22, 2021 Janice Marturano April 23, 2019

With walking, we have the opportunity to be in our bodies in a somewhat different way than when sitting or lying down. We can bring our attention to our feet and feel the contact of the foot with the floor or ground with every step. Walking is a controlled falling forward, a process it took us a long time to master, and one that we often take completely for granted, forgetting just how wondrous and wonderful it is....

According to Dr. Tish Jennings of the Garrison Institute, which developed CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education), “Both groups have clearly benefited from the mindfulness and emotion training, but for Harrisburg teachers it’s already become a lifeline, an essential skill, that may be keeping them in their jobs.” While nearly half of all teachers quit during their first five years, Jennings notes that attrition rates in poorer urban areas are another 50 percent higher....

Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that you have to stop thinking or cease all thought. In fact, research suggests that our minds naturally wander approximately 50 percent of the time. Being able to exercise focused attention simply means being able to direct your attention, becoming aware if your mind has wandered, and then being able to redirect your focus. In this simple exercise, I’ll ask you to direct your full, undivided attention to a single object of focus, which is the experience of breathing....

The week is devoted to rigorous investigation, reflection, writing, and discussion, guided by distinguished scholars and experienced contemplative educators. Faculty will include Daniel Barbezat, Loriliai Biernacki, Veta Goler, Paul Wapner and Arthur Zajonc. Educators from all disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives in arts, humanities, sciences, humanities-related sciences, and social sciences, and higher education professionals in mental health, counseling and administrative offices are invited to apply. For more information or to submit an application, click here....

There is research suggesting that using cell phones for only a half hour a day for ten years doubles one’s risk of brain cancer.The soreness in our fingers and wrists from texting too much is so prevalent that the term “text claw” has entered our lexicon.“Problematic Internet Use” (PIU) is now considered a behavioral addiction, with almost half (48 %) of participants in one study considered “Internet addicts.”In her remarkable book, Reclaiming Conversation (2015), MIT professor Sherry Turkle discusses research pointing to how a quarter of teens in the US are connected to a device within five minutes of waking up each morning, and that most teens send at least one hundred text messages per day....

A recent study, however, might give employers a good reason to embrace meditation: Canadian researchers found that when call center employees participated in a brief mindfulness program, their client satisfaction increased. Every workday for five weeks, 43 full-time call center employees in Canada listened to 10 minutes of guided meditation before work and five minutes after lunch on their computers. Compared with typical programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which requires eight weeks of classroom instruction and nearly an hour per day of meditation practice, this one was particularly short and accessible....

He has dedicated his career to exploring the multifaceted ways in which emotional experiences shape decision-making and social behavior. His lab is internationally renowned for its findings and paradigms related to studying social emotions and moral behavior in real-time. For details about the lecture, presented by The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, click here.

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan will also make an appearance to discuss his new book, in which he advocates using contemplative practices to address a host of current national concerns. Wellesley College past-president Diana Chapman Walsh will deliver the opening keynote address. To access the livestream, click here. To consult the schedule, visit the conference website here.

As a psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher, it was my job to help people cope with troubling emotions and medical problems. Now I had to be, as I told others, “more than my disease” and focus on what was right rather than wrong with me. I knew that mindfulness, the ability to be in the present moment with clarity and kindness, would help me, as it has aided the thousands of patients I have worked with since 1984....

In times of adversity, some fundamental traits allow us to continue moving. I’ve seen these traits in people who have learned to thrive in unimaginable situations. Motivated by the current state we find ourselves in, I’ve created a list of five things to keep in mind to continue being at your best. 1. Take an Honest Look at Yourself One of the first activities I take a client through is taking an honest look at oneself....