Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says the brainwaves of long-term meditators may look a lot different than the rest of ours. Inside the mind of long-term meditators In this video from BigThink, Goleman describes how neuroscientist Richard Davidson, his co-author on the book Altered Traits, measured the brainwaves of advanced meditators. Davidson found their brainwaves showed never-before-seen levels of gamma, one of the strongest types of brain waves, theorized to appear when the different regions of the brain harmonize....

The brain is amazing at spotting potential threats. When you are under attack, hormone blasts turn you into a temporary superhero so you can run like hell or fend off acute pain. In small doses, this cocktail of adrenaline, cortisol, and a thousand other herbs and spices can keep you alive and kicking just a little bit longer. When overused, however, these very same hormones are the source of chronic sleep problems, digestive difficulty, anxiety, and poor brain function....

Davidson works to find connections between the brain and our happiness, and his research has shown that we can intentionally change our brain and learn to be happier. Davidson explains: The 5-3-1 Practice One method for learning to be happier that Davidson and his colleagues at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) recommend are three daily tasks that are simple, easy, and rewarding. 1. Start with five minutes of meditation every day....

So often in the practice of mindfulness we tend to think it’s about doing a specific practice, while all the time our body knows it’s a lot about just being. If you want to learn more about all that your body has to teach you about mindfulness and awareness, I highly recommend that you attend the Embodied Listening program given by David Rome and Hope Martin at Windhorse farm this weekend....

At the launch event, all three of the co-chairs of the MAPPG mentioned how glad they were of mindfulness practice when the stress of a looming general election was upon them. “Thoughts are not facts—who knew?” smiled Liberal Democrat MP Lorely Burt, revealing how she has experienced ‘moments of inexplicable joy’ since taking the course. Conservative MP Tracey Crouch spoke movingly of her mindfulness-assisted recovery from depression and subsequent bemusement at becoming a political spokesperson for meditation....

I know the term “practice” may sound overwhelming, but I promise that creating a daily mindfulness practice doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, you can easily incorporate it into your daily chores. You just need to start with one small behavior and when you’re ready, add another. This is how you create new habits—break it down into small steps, and then stack them. We call this “habit-stacking” and it’s how you can make your mindfulness practice sustainable and lasting....

Ellen Langer, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Harvard University, is author of Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility—among a dozen other mindfulness titles and more than 200 articles. She recently sat down with Alison Beard, senior editor of the Harvard Business Review, to talk about how mindfulness and work life. Here are a few keys points from Langer: Rules should guide, not govern: “The rules you were given were the rules that worked for the person who created them....

Dr. Doty is now a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. He founded and directs the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), where the Dalai Lama was a founding benefactor. As a philanthropist, he has given millions of dollars to support health care and educational charities around the world. He attributes his success partly to a kind woman named Ruth, who took 12-year-old Doty under her wing....

We accept this state of affairs as normal, but maybe we shouldn’t. If we can’t get ourselves to do something like exercise, which is pretty much unequivocally beneficial—to our health, no less—what hope do we have in motivating ourselves toward more complex goals and aspirations? Past research has linked mindfulness to better health, so a group of researchers set out to investigate whether mindfulness might play a role in the interplay between feeling motivated to exercise and actually getting up and doing it....

How are moods different than emotions? “Emotions have been called ‘action potentials’ because they alert you and they energize you towards taking some kind of action based on your appraisal,” says Zindel Segal, Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto. “Moods, on the other hand, are the states of mind that are fed by continually thinking, problem solving, and ruminating, and they work to keep emotions in place....

While we might want to try meditation, it can sometimes be difficult to find the time, to be able to sit still, or to keep the mind from racing. The chart below asks you to examine some reasons you might have for not trying meditation, and lists a few benefits you could realize if you do try. What are the benefits of mindfulness meditation? Read More Mindful Staff December 26, 2018...

2) GROWING UP MINDFUL Essential Practices to Help Children, Teens, and Families Find Balance, Calm, and Resilience Christopher Willard (Sounds True) According to Chris Willard, in a kid’s world there are three main elements: studying, social life, and sleeping. The problem is that, because of limited time and other constraints, you only get to pick two of those. As a result, kids are more stressed than ever, and their parents are in a very similar boat....

Walking is a movement we do every day, and like breathing, is usually something we do without much thought. Getting outside to walk deliberately in nature can open our eyes, offering new perspectives different from those we encounter indoors or inside our digital devices. Author Richard Louv, among others, writes about “nature-deficit disorder” and how it affects our physical and emotional well-being, suggesting even just a little exposure to green spaces boosts happiness and attention....

Appreciation is about deepening the connection you feel for what you are grateful for. One of my favorite examples is being grateful for having food to eat. If you’re grateful for the food, you can then be appreciative of what you’re eating, if you consciously pay attention and take the time to notice the flavors, odors, and textures of the food and how it feels to nourish yourself. You can be grateful for things or people in your life without really appreciating them, but it’s difficult to appreciate them and not be grateful....

Journaling Prompts: Let Go of Your Limiting Habits In your journal, with gentleness and over time, explore these writing prompts: Where in your life does “power over” versus “power with” manifest? What is the cost?What survival strategies were you indoctrinated into within your family of origin?What survival strategies can you name that operate on the level of the collective? Examples of places to look: “We must win at all costs.” “We should follow the rules and play the game....

Thanks to the rapidly growing science of mindfulness, we are now understanding the seamless interconnectedness of brain, mind, body, experience, and well-being — to say nothing of the contributions to health and well-being that stem from social interconnectedness and environmental/planetary concerns. Our scientific understanding of mindfulness has the potential to inform the development of increasingly effective and targeted clinical programs under the umbrella of a far more participatory model of medicine and health care, in which our patients learn to engage in mindfulness practices shown to beneficially affect health and well-being as a complement to their medical treatments....

As we enter this season of holidays, it is easy to be carried away with trappings and commercialization and, in the process, lose the deep historical, religious or heart-centered meaning of this time of year. Our already busy calendars just get busier as our ‘to-do’ lists grow longer and longer. There is food to prepare, presents to buy, and parties to attend. Or perhaps this is a season where our thoughts are dominated by ‘what used to be’ or ‘what we hoped would be different this year....

When I close my eyes and imagine living my life with contentment, it is liberating. My mind feels relaxed, receptive, serene, and tender. While these feelings are positive, I also feel a sense of vulnerability. Who would I be without that habitual comparing mind? It feels permissible to let go of an envious mind while on my meditation cushion, but what about when I’m off the cushion? The “comparing mind” is universal....

“I noticed,” I thought to myself. Carolyn was in my office for an evaluation of possible ADHD, and it was a struggle to keep her focused. Many of my questions were met with long descriptions and too many details. Other times, she veered to another topic. She seemed to be insightful, and her answers were often interesting or humorous—but they didn’t always address the question. Along with a restless body, a busy or restless mind is common with ADHD....

I would be remiss, as an elder of the planet, to remain silent at this point about some of the ways to deal with this period of emotional, psychological, ideological, and financial instability. For I have by now lived relatively long, compared to some of you who are mere children, though you might be in your twenties and thirties. I am definitely at a plateau that makes the teenage years seem doable....