Even from our simple slang, it’s clear just how symbolically connected the gut is to our emotions. Now, there’s tangible proof to support these popular metaphors. We all have a microbiome, and they are as unique as our neural pathways Research has shown that the body is actually composed of more bacteria than cells. We are more bug than human! Collectively, these trillions of bacteria are called the microbiome. Most of those bacteria reside in our gut, sometimes referred to as the gut microbiota, and they play multiple roles in our overall health....

The repeaters, unburdened by the anxiety of creation, actually improve the clarity of the orator’s rhythm and intonation as they fall into a shared pulse. Orators learn quickly that the sentences with the highest torque are simple and well-metered; Michael Moore had to quickly drop his just-a-regular-guy banter, which in human-microphone-land makes him weak and self-deprecating. And Cornel West pulled the oration of Southern Baptism out of another decade and into the moment....

An emerging body of research points to the benefits of mindfulness for physicians. Practicing mindfulness can reduce physician burnout, and improve physician well being. Now research shows that physician mindfulness is good news for patients too: A new study published in the Annals of Family Medicine shows that physicians with mindfulness skills communicate well with patients, and provide better quality care. In the study, Mary Catherine Beach of John Hopkins University and her colleagues administered questionnaires to measure the mindfulness skills of 45 clinicians caring for patients with HIV across the United States....

Mounting scientific evidence from hundreds of universities—including dedicated centers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the United States and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom—strongly suggests that mindfulness gently builds an inner strength, so that future stressors have less impact on our happiness and physical well-being. Here are all the ways mindfulness can help you manage stress: Nine Ways Mindfulness Helps with Stress Try It Yourself: A Meditation for Navigating Stress

This is before, and in between, any actual conversation I have with my coworkers. And this is my qualm with articles on listening that have come across my desk lately: there is more to listening than the two-way between individuals. Case in point: lifehacker’s recent article on how to develop listening skills, entitled, “You’re Not Listening,” places the emphasis on the readers’ incomplete understanding of listening before narrowing the topic to the relationship between bosses and employees or between coworkers....

The mechanism through which practicing mindfulness affects us is not fully understood. From a medical perspective, it may relate to the impact of chronic stress. Some stress is inevitable, no matter what we do. And this is a good thing: Healthy stress can motivate and energize us to meet whatever daily challenges life throws our way. But a constant, uncomfortable level of stress increases our vulnerability to short-term and long-term health issues, from the flu to chronic high blood pressure....

Let’s try an experiment. Ask yourself the following questions: “How can I prove I’m right?” “How did I get stuck with these idiots?” “Who’s to blame here?” “How can I lose?” (…and what can I do to protect myself?) What do you experience when you read these questions? What does your body feel like? Light? Heavy? Open? Constricted? What if you were on the receiving end of them? How might they affect your motivation level?...

While adding more hours to our day may not be possible, a recent study suggests a little mindfulness meditation can help us at least feel like we have more time in our lives. Researcher Robin Kramer and his colleagues trained students at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom to link different shapes to either a short and a long period of time. Shapes shown on a computer screen for 400 milliseconds represented a short duration, while shapes shown for 1600 milliseconds represented a long duration....

These were some of the most hard-working minds in the company—partners, directors, managers and team specialists—from operations to HR to creative. Passionate about their craft and desire to impact in the world, they also struggled with some semblance of “work-life balance.” They were eager to learn how to transform their high levels of stress into wellbeing. As I watched the blood samples dry and packaged them to ship to the Social Genomics Core Lab at UCLA, I was overcome with a nervous excitement....

It makes sense for entrepreneurs to meditate, says Grainne McKeown, owner of Mindful Medicine Worldwide. “Meditation is to the mind what physical exercise is to the body,” she says. “It trains one to take control of thoughts, quelling fear and freeing the mind from ruminating on negative thoughts—essential qualities for a business owner.” As for why more women seem to be making this connection, McKeown suggests it has to do with the hugely multi-faceted lives female entrepreneurs lead....

During the pandemic, Rockefeller and Clark write, the community-care ethic underlying the project is more important than ever: “There are many other ways we can help each other that do not involve the movement of items from one person to another,” they write on BNP’s website, but rather “gifts of self” including virtual check-ins, sharing information and empathy. Their book, The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan, was published April 2020....

Researchers had a group of parents participate in the Mindfulness-Enhanced Strengthening Families Program as part of a longitudinal, randomized-controlled trial published in Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. After training, parents were more positive and shared better relationships with their teens. Additionally, the researchers made an interesting observation: adolescents of mindful fathers were also less aggressive. “Changes in positive parenting strategies can enhance relationships at a time when parent-child interactions typically increase in conflict,” said the study’s lead author, Doug Coatsworth, Ph....

One need look no further than our current political environment to see the intricacies of change in action. For some, the new presidency elicited feelings of joy and excitement—for others, fear and anger. However, no matter what one’s political leanings may be, there is no denying that one can see the reverberations of change across the globe. Rethinking How You Approach Setbacks As scary and difficult as it may be, change forces us to look at our lives, our communities, and ourselves, with fresh eyes....

But being comfortable being alone does not equate with acting in isolation. An important feature of programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is that you practice meditation along with others, and you share your insights, misgivings, struggles, questions, and joys with others in group discussion and inquiry. Donald McCown, a longtime MBSR teacher and coauthor of Teaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators, has made the point to me on several occasions that participants regard the eight-week mindfulness programs they take part in as “a group activity” and that’s one of the reasons they want to come back....

I used to think that “self-care” was for privileged, entitled, lucky folks who were out of touch with the lives of real people. And that made me angry. Jealous and snarky. I conjured self-care as something for Lululemon-wearing stay-at-home mommies heading off to pilates vs harried, hectic, frantic single working mothers like me who were barely keeping it together. Yep, I was one of those people who sneered at self-care....

I knew that it was done in successive stages and I began with a week of sending myself loving-kindness. All day long, I would go around the retreat building—sitting in my room, sitting in the hall—saying may I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I be liberated, and I felt absolutely nothing. At the end of the week, something happened to someone in the community and I, quite unexpectedly, had to leave the retreat....

For decades psychologists have dangled that grim future in front of people who choose immediate gratification rather than the postponement of same. The marshmallow reference is to the classic experiment in which researchers told 4-year-olds they could eat the tempting marshmallow in front of them now or, if they waited a bit, have two. The best postponers turned out to achieve greater academic success, higher emotional intelligence, and other accomplishments than the eat-it-now children....

Whether you’re looking for insightful conversations with teachers, skillful advice for working through a challenge, or simply inspiration for how to approach life with a little more compassion, we hope you enjoy the following mindfulness and meditation podcasts that stood out this year. The Top 10 Mindfulness and Meditation Podcasts of 2022 1) Meditative Story Episode: “How I Found Kindness as My Compass with Sharon Salzberg” For those who love to learn by listening to personal stories, Meditative Story offers both first-person narratives and guided meditations....