Meditation can certainly be challenging, and even more so if we are uncertain as to why we are doing it. It can seem very odd to sit there just listening to the incessant chatter in our head, and we easily get bored if we do nothing for too long, even if it’s only 10 minutes. After years of hearing a plethora of reasons why people find it hard to meditate, we have whittled it down to just a few....

In Latin, the word “vagus” means wandering, a fitting description for this meandering nerve that stretches from the brain stem down to the colon, connecting to the middle ear, vocal cords, heart, lungs, and intestines along the way. The longest and most complicated of the body’s 12 cranial nerves—each connects the brain to other parts of the body—the vagus nerve plays many roles, affecting our emotional states, heart rate, inflammation levels, blood pressure, and digestion....

Not to get you worked up about the risks, but there are ways we can reduce stress in our daily lives. Even taking a few mindful breaths can help us get on the path of clearer thinking and being more present in our lives, despite the inevitable chaos. Here are a few selections from our website that discuss stress and ways to cope with it. Gina Biegel’s stunning blog post, “Teens, stress, and suicide” proves that life’s pressures are only starting earlier....

Here are 3 different breathing techniques you can try during a mindful run: 1. Nasal Breathing If you’ve done yoga, you’ve likely done diaphragmatic nasal breathing, where the diaphragm is engaged while breathing deeply and slowly only through your nose. The technique is used to focus the mind and trigger the relaxation response. The same thing happens when you breathe through your nose while running slowly, as in mindful running....

2. Let It Go How can you encourage caregivers to pace themselves to remain emotionally and physically strong? What helped me “let go” was a family member who took that short list from step 1 and divvied up daily tasks and errands by creating a schedule. Loved ones consistently delivered meals, purchased groceries, helped with house and yard work, attended doctor’s appointments, and much more. I found it helpful to ask friends and to use some of the many resources available online to help navigate the complexities of insurance, social services, medication, and financial management....

A 10-Minute Meditation for Deep Relaxation and Ease READ MORE Rashid Hughes February 19, 2021 Mindful Staff December 12, 2022

Take your seat. Take a moment to close your eyes or keep a soft gaze toward the floor. Take a few deep breaths. Picture a person. Visualize a person in your life who has hurt you—maybe not the most extreme example, but this could be a family member, a coworker, or a stranger. Get a sense of the actual event or events that occurred that hurt you. Observe the feeling....

Let’s now take our attention to the sensations of breathing, following the in-breath as it travels through the nostrils, expands the chest, and settles in the belly. Follow the out-breath as it travels back from the belly to the chest and out through the nostrils. Then asking, “What is my experience right now? What thoughts are going through the mind? What feelings are here?” And saying to yourself, “Let me be with you....

Loving-kindness helps us focus our attention on a place within ourselves where we can foster love and compassion, and let it flourish. By taking care of yourself first, you open up space to then include others into your sphere of kindness. Explore This Loving-Kindness Practice This loving-kindness practice is from Sharon Salzberg and involves silently repeating phrases that offer good qualities to oneself and to others.

A I’ve witnessed in myself and others how contact with the natural world brings a sense of peace, greater perspective, profound joy and wonder, and a deeper connection with life in all its forms. Still, being in nature is not necessarily a bed of roses. Being outdoors in less than comfortable conditions asks us to dig a little deeper into our resources and our equanimity, and to cut through the delusions of the mind with compassion and humor....

Mindful’s parent organization, The Foundation for a Mindful Society, is an independent not-for-profit registered in the U.S., with central business and editorial operations located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Key Responsibilities Detailed reporting and strategic analysis of all audience data, including online, email, and print readership, promotion performance, subscription renewal analysis, and other reports as required. Manage and optimize SEO/SEM, reporting weekly on content trends and opportunities Optimize website to email conversions, including landing page, floater, pop-up, and incentive testing Plan and execute subscription acquisition campaigns and promotions across print, email, and web channels to meet circulation goals Work collaboratively to develop new marketing strategies for digital, bundled, and premium subscriptions Oversee email list usage across departments...

How to Mindfully Approach Difficult Conversations “The reality is we’re living in a world with sharp edges and grit and difficulty and pain and passion, confusion, and all of that stuff. And the real trick is to be able to have a sense of equanimity and respect,” Alexander says.Communicating mindfully requires us to tap into empathy regardless of who we are or what we believe in. This can prove to be a challenge for anyone....

Research suggests that if we attempt to repress how our work affects us — how our work affects our emotional health — it can lead to increased stress, less productivity, heightened depression and anxiety, and may even lead to a greater risk of heart disease. There’s even some recent research to suggest that emotion suppression is connected to an increased risk of breast cancer. To say the least, not metabolizing our emotions is making us sick....

title: “December 2014 Mindful Store " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Matthew Leutwiler”

Belonging is complicated. There are many places we can find belonging, that feeling of identifying with and being part of a group that’s bigger than we are: families, clubs, ethnicities, secret societies, political parties, and football teams, to name a few. Feeling that we are part of a wider group can give purpose and meaning to our lives, and research suggests that belonging to a community correlates to better mental and physical health....

Past studies have suggested that mind-wandering has negative effects on our mood and even our physical health. In a recently published study in the Journal of Positive Psychology, my colleagues and I sought to understand whether mind-wandering also makes us less caring—and what we can do about it. We recruited 51 adults and pinged them twice a day for nine weeks while they were enrolled in a compassion cultivation training course....

In fact, many studies have found that, while suffering mental illness can sometimes coincide with creating enduring art, creativity in general is more associated with positive emotion and well-being. For example, researchers have found that people report being happy and energized when they are engaged in everyday creative endeavors, and that being in a positive mood goes hand in hand with creative thinking. But while these studies and others suggest a link between positive emotion and everyday creativity, it’s still unclear which one causes the other (or if they exist in a kind of virtuous circle)....

On work-life tension, she notes: I had deadlines. I was running around doing exciting things, or on the phone, or reading reports. And somehow stopping all that to play with dolls was confusing to me. I felt like I didn’t know how to do it. The hardest thing was being present for my kids. Some of my son’s first words were “crinkle rayon.” It’s kind of funny, but also sad....