A Guided Meditation to Fully Experience the Present Moment Watch the Video: Listen to the Audio: read more Amanda Hester June 8, 2020 David Rome June 10, 2020 Rick Hanson May 27, 2020

A Guided Compassion Meditation read more Mark Coleman October 4, 2021 Oyinda Lagunju April 30, 2021 Amber Tucker, Ava Whitney-Coulter, Heather Hurlock, Kylee Ross, Oyinda Lagunju, and Stephanie Domet June 22, 2021 Ruth King August 10, 2021

Mindful Staff March 17, 2022 Oyinda Lagunju March 25, 2022 Lili Powell January 18, 2022

In this contemplative practice, we take a moment to drop beneath the chatter and appreciate the quality of our being—just being. So we’ll begin with a few minutes of basic mindfulness practice. A 20-Minute Guided Practice to Connect with What Matters Now First settle into your body. If you’re seated in a chair or on a cushion, feel your bottom touching the cushion. If you have to lean back in the chair, feel how the back of the chair is touching your body....

Ammi’s Adventures: Trees Hi! I’m Ammi. My name means “the whole world is inside of me,” and I think it’s true: I carry the whole world in my mind and heart and body. I know you do, too! I like to play games, explore, and discover what makes me, me. I’m so glad we’re together on this journey! When was the last time you hugged a tree? I can hardly imagine how many trees I’ve sat with, whispered to, climbed on, eaten from, been shaded by, and hugged in my life!...

(If you’re having trouble viewing the clip, click here). Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of Headspace, talked to Bloomberg TV about meditation making its way to the mainstream and how it can be practiced on a day-to-day basis. Nearly 1 million people have downloaded the Headspace app, and Puddicombe spoke to the newfound popularity of learning the skill of being present: “The neuroscience now is showing us that we can have a calmer mind, a clearer mind, our attention can be stronger, our focus can be stronger, performance improves, efficieny, productivity....

The elevator door opens and you’re about to get out, but several people, eager to enter, are blocking your exit. You have to jostle through. On the way into a mindfulness event, I encounter a man who nearly knocks me over as he leaves the event, intent on whatever is on his phone. Excuse me is not in his vocabulary. Is the speed of our lives and the many distractions in a universe flooded with information making us ruder?...

She shared that ”Blackberries used to be something we consumed, not something that consumed us.” At the time, I remember being stopped by this notion of consumption. I certainly had many days and weeks of feeling over-busy, over-scheduled, etc. But, had it reached a point of feeling or being consumed? Of losing completely who I am, what my dreams are, what is important to me? I sat with that for quite some time back then and when I was being completely honest with myself, I had to say that the answer was “yes....

Like a few billion of my dearest friends, I have been sheltering at home for what feels like multiples of dog years. Overall, I think I am handling the whole pandemic-thingy rather well. But it turns out that I am human after all, and in the face of a global pressure cooker, a small irritation has been known to turn me into a weapon of mass destruction. I have never been through a world-wide shut down before, and I need to regularly remind myself to go gently, because I have a lot to learn....

In my October installment of “Brain Science,” I described what cognitive psychology has shown about why misinformation is “sticky.” I delved into why many people still believe something like the erroneous claim that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after the 2003 invasion even after hearing that claim disproved repeatedly. Once we think something is a fact, it’s hard to replace it with a new fact. The reasons I cited then were numerous....

Mirabai caught up with Stephany Tlalka, Mindful.org’s digital editor, this September. In this interview, Mirabai talks about bringing mindfulness and contemplative practices to a broader, secular audience and the common misconceptions people have about mindfulness (namely, that you have to empty your mind and be completely calm all of the time). Mindfulness practice is discussed towards the end of the video, as Stephany asks Mirabai how “observing your thoughts without judgment” actually works....

The event is a collaborative effort by Newton Community Education, the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Tickets are $10; for more information or to register for the talk, call 617-559-6999, or visit www.newtoncommunityed.org. MORE RELATED STORIES PODCAST: Congressman Tim Ryan and Dr. Saki Santorelli in conversation at the JCC VIDEO: Ohio Congressman talks “A Mindful Nation” VIDEO: Why the military needs mindfulness

Harris currently works as a co-anchor for ABC’s “Nightline” and is a “Good Morning America” weekend correspondent. When he had an on-air panic attack in 2004, it prompted him to visit a psychiatrist and find a way to cope with his “well-hidden and well-managed” drug use and depression—both of which had developed after he returned from covering the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and Palestine. Harris explained to Colbert how meditation is akin to a “bicep curl for your brain” and helped him change some automatic, negative behaviors: It’s a very simple brain exercise, and the superpower is that it gives you a different relationship to the voice in your head…your inner anchorman is yammering at you all day long having you compare yourself to other people, judging, wanting, not wanting, casting yourself forward into an idealized future or remembering the past and not focusing on what’s happening right now....

A small study conducted at the University of Waterloo suggests that just 10 minutes of mindfulness helps. In the study, 82 participants who experience anxiety were given a computer task to complete, but were regularly disrupted. They were then split into two groups: one group listened to a guided meditation for 10 minutes, while the other group listened to an audio book for 10 minutes. Participants were then sent back to the computer while the disruptions continued....

As with body sensations, being mindful of emotions creates practical awareness of something that profoundly impacts our lives. It’s not a cliché that bottling up emotions creates internal pressure, much like shaking a bottle of carbonated soda. And it’s not a platitude that simply describing and labeling how we feel can decrease the hold some emotions have over us. But those ideas only scratch the surface. Without greater awareness, unattended emotions may steer us away from longer term happiness and well-being....

Financial Times finds that the refrain is the same among these leaders: meditation is not a wonky practice, it’s integral to focusing and making decisions. So, if executives in high places are embracing meditation instead of raising their eyebrows at it, what are some of the hurdles? Perhaps not suprisingly, time constraints. From the article: Others, such as Philipp Hildebrand, vice-chairman of BlackRock and a former head of the Swiss National Bank, who has meditated for seven years, slot it into their schedules when they can – in aeroplanes or while being chauffeured between meetings....

“No! I’m not wearing it!” Celia screamed. My anger surged. Thoughts of “I’m sick of this” and “She’s doing this on purpose” swept through my mind. I was scheduled to conduct a 9 a.m. parent training therapy session, and her resistance would make me late. Ironically, it was on “mindful parenting.” Mindlessly, I pressed my agenda. Understandably, she pushed back. “NO!!” she yelled, dropping rag-doll-style to the kitchen floor. I lost it....

When I wake up in the morning, before the sun comes up, and stumble to my espresso machine, bleary eyed and still ridiculously tired, a neat space seems to beckon me to use my time in the way I so desire. I try to wake up early to practice mindfulness, set an intention for the day, and then either finish patient notes from the day before, or do some writing—although I’d like this to happen more regularly than it does, I am gentle with myself when it doesn’t....