He understood. “Eat!” he encouraged, and eat we did, not because his heft was proof of his capabilities (when the truth is told, I think, the thin cook holds the edge on quality) but because he cast no cold eye on the largeness of our hunger. In fact, he (or she, for sex is no issue here) assuaged our guilt. No matter how much we put away, we never rose from it looking like him....

When you live in a big city it is easy to imagine that no one cares. It can feel difficult to connect with others or hold relationships together. We might feel isolated, and that we are not part of a community. But consider this: Community is an abundant ever-changing flow of spontaneous friendliness that might only be there for a precious moment. It can be composed of long-nourished friendships or family; or, it could be a kind nurse you might never see again....

Here are four ways to train your brain to practice more gratitude: 1. Take time to notice what’s around you Practicing mindfulness helps you tune in to the present moment. It is possible that if you are a grateful person, you are more mindful of others’ gestures. The more often you tune into your awareness, the greater the chances you will notice all the good that’s around you to feel gratitude for, which can then bring satisfaction and happiness....

A Guided Loving-Kindness Practice Invite your body to relax, rolling back your shoulders. Open up your heart space. And allow your breath with every inhale to move through the heart. And every exhale to move back to the heart. I have recently learned that the heart actually sends more messages to the brain and the brain to the heart. Drop your gaze or close your eyes, inviting the body to relax....

Listen: We all know what it looks like when someone’s not listening: rambling on, repeating a point of view, spacing out, fiddling with devices, even behaving as though they “know” what we’re about to say. But when someone truly listens, we sense a respectful attentiveness to more than our words—there’s an alertness to our being, tone of voice, body posture, and more. Not surprisingly, too, when we listen, people tend to offer their attention in return....

There can be some resistance to paying attention to your body, particularly if you and your body aren’t exactly on friendly terms. You may be unhappy with your body for the way it looks, the way it feels, or for not living up to your expectations. You might think you’re too busy to pay attention to the body and its needs for movement. Exercise may conjure up visions of the gym, being miserable doing some activity you don’t like, being around people who make you feel self-conscious (muscle-bound men and women in spandex), or being in pain....

Humans aren’t alone in having some ability to consider the future, a process that scientists call “prospection.” After all, your dog gets excited when they see you holding a leash because they anticipate a walk is imminent; your cat may show similar excitement at the sound of a can being opened. There’s even evidence that some animals—like bonobos and ravens—can choose and save tools that they plan to use in the future....

Returning to the Field Within I always believed in that field, but I didn’t know it was for me. And if it hadn’t been for one difficult decision 23 years ago, I wouldn’t be standing here. One quiet morning when everyone was asleep in the house, with one suitcase in hand, we tiptoed down the staircase to the car. My husband was dropping off our two-and-a-half-year-old son and me at the Delhi International airport....

Listen to Dr. Brewer discuss the study in the podcast. (9 minutes) Want to know more about meditation and brain science? Visit our Science section, or click here for news coverage on the subject on Mindful.org. 01/31/12

There’s a sense that this device points out or will help us get over our technological dependency. But can clutching a phone-shaped plastic device actually wean us off our bad habit? Just this month, a Google Glass user was treated for addiction to the device. I think we can imagine with the NoGlass will look like… Anyway, all confused, bewildered, or just texting individuals will clearly benefit from the demonstraton below:

When you first learn how to drive a car, you need to think about all the intricate movements and are so present to where the foot is and where the hand needs to be placed. When driving through a new neighborhood, you’re very attentive to the street signs. But when things are familiar, the mind says “I got it, go ahead and take a break, let the mind wander a bit....

I first became interested in mindfulness in 2002 while trekking in the Himalayas and reading a book by Thich Nhat Hanh called Being Peace. When I returned to the States after my 16 month trip in Asia, I quickly got sucked back into the craziness of graduate school and thoughts of mindfulness faded. This all changed when I became pregnant. I knew that I needed to become more centered and peaceful in order to be the parent I hoped to be (not to mention the wife I wanted to be)....

In this video from Vox, Liz Scheltens explores how mindfulness is making its way into US schools. Why Bring Meditation to Schools? Harvard researcher Sara Lazarstudies how yoga and meditation impact cognitive function. After noticing how her own yoga practice calmed her, she was interested in learning whether it was a placebo response of if meditation could change the brain. She decided to study the brains of people who had never meditated—first with a brain scan before they participated in an 8-week, 30-minute meditation program....

Linda Graham, MFT • New World Library Missing your bus, dropping dinner on the floor, screwing up at work: These everyday hiccups may fluster, frustrate, or at times even tax your coping system, but they don’t usually knock you down, writes Linda Graham. It’s the bigger distresses, such as illness, death, or loss of security—particularly if they come one after another, pile on top of unresolved trauma, or include a heap of self-criticism—that can threaten to overwhelm us to the point of “falling apart and not being able to recover....

Thirty years ago the business of advertising caught the attention of Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell, two psychologists at Northwestern University to develop the theory called the hedonic treadmill. Their concept explained that people are genetically wired to seek out what is novel and pleasurable. People get a positive feeling, or reward, from buying novel things—new food items, clothes, electronic gadgets, jewelry, etc. Like an addict, regardless of how much pleasure is initially derived, it takes more and more of the “consumption drug” to feel the same high feeling....