It’s that simple. When our mind wanders (that’s when, not if), as soon as we’ve noticed, we gently return our awareness to our breath. And smile. Mind-wandering isn’t failure. Observing it is an important part of getting to know our mind. That too is part of contemplation. We dwell in a culture saturated by electronic media. This can bring us wonderful things. Yet it can come at the price of the hacking of our attention....

Mindfulness is key to working with anxiety, and stress, and worry, because we can bring awareness to the energy of anxiety, stress, or worry. We can allow ourselves to experience the feelings and make a choice of whether we act on them. Without awareness, anxious feelings or stressful feelings will often lead us into acting in habitual ways. For example, if you feel anxious you may go to the fridge for something sweet, something that will help you to feel good....

The video demonstrates why cute and/or inspiring videos and “flame wars” (anger-filled exchanges) attract so much attention online—and take up so much space in our brains. A great takeaway from the video: Thought germs of all kinds come and go, but it’s useful to be aware of how thoughts can use our emotions to spread and how the more rapidly a thought is able to spread, the more chances it has to become even better at spreading through random changes that are made to it....

But, if you’re a busy working parent, how do you build mindfulness into an already-packed day? Those of us with kids and jobs often feel tired and rushed. We’re constantly multi-tasking, juggling personal and professional responsibilities, and feeling stressed about all we can’t get done. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, 56 percent of working parents say they find it difficult to balance their time between work and family....

Some of the most sought after skills in our global workplace have to do with social intelligence—our ability to regulate our emotions, listen openly to others, inspire colleagues, express ourselves confidently, and much more. And one of the delightful ironies to practicing mindfulness meditation is how this simple act of sitting still cultivates these very talents. But how does this work? How does simply sitting still boost our social intelligence?...

Dr. Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy, recruited 75 pain-free participants and scanned their brains in an MRI while exposing them to a 120-degree thermal probe. Afterwards, researchers sorted them into four groups for four days: a group that received mindfulness meditation training, another group that received a cream they were told would help with the pain from the heat, a group that received a “fake” mindfulness training where they were told to breathe for 20 minutes but were given no instruction, and a control group....

Here’s what one estranged child wrote in response to one of my posts: It is awful when you choose to end a relationship…especially when your parent doesn’t (maybe even can’t) understand what they did wrong. To turn away from them in order to move forward as a healthier person feels absolutely selfish and goes against my instincts to maintain that connection with my mother. I’ve heard similar expressions of dismay from my clients, friends, and colleagues who reluctantly avoid their parents....

We often use the words “I’m stressed” casually in our everyday conversations, with little acknowledgment of the adverse effects of stress in our lives. But evidence suggests that we should be much more concerned about our stress levels than we are. The Center for Disease Control found that 66 percent of American workers say they lie awake at night troubled by the physical or emotional effects of stress, and stress has been linked to many health problems, including obesity and heart disease—especially among low-income Americans....

For decades, psychologists have studied how long-term, meaningful goals develop over the span of our lives. The goals that foster a sense of purpose are ones that can potentially change the lives of other people, like launching an organization, researching disease, or teaching kids to read. Indeed, a sense of purpose appears to have evolved in humans so that we can accomplish big things together—which may be why it’s linked to better physical and mental health....

When we don’t see the connection with others inherent in self-interest, our world gets polarized by competing political, social, racial, and economic perspectives. We live in an interconnected world, but we make decisions primarily motivated by what benefits us. Even though we’re wired for empathy, research shows that it’s largely reserved for people we consider to be in our ingroup. This leaves vast groups of people not considered at all, or even harmed by our decisions....

Langer took elderly men and asked them to act like they acted in 1959, 20 years prior. They were placed in an environment that was modeled in the style of 1959 and even included newspapers and magazines from that year. The men were asked to recall memories from that year in present-tense. What Langer found was that “The men’s physical behavior followed their psychological convictions. Over the course of a week, signs of aging appeared to reverse and the men looked visibly younger....

So maybe it’s no so surprising that researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that in the brains of experienced meditators practicing loving-kindness meditation, those reward areas were de-activated. “When we truly, selflessly wish for the well-being of others, we’re not getting that same rush of excitement that comes with, say, a tweet from our romantic love interest, because it’s not about us at all,” said Judson Brewer, adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale now at the University of Massachusetts....

Barber is showcased on an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, where his food is beautifully presented along with his message. In this excerpt, he talks about how a plate of food can be a powerful source of change. Every day, Barber creates a new menu based on what is harvested that same day. He recognizes the importance of changing with the seasons in order to sustain the environment that produces our food, which means his menu depends on what is most fresh at the moment....

Growing up, it was that moment when my Assistant Scoutmaster gave up a Saturday afternoon to sit and watch blue-jays and finches flit about the branches in the woods behind my house, and with enthusiasm and presence helped me earn my coveted “bird study” merit badge. His setting aside of his own concerns to prize what looked to be valuable in me rippled forward in such a way that I wrote to him many years later to tell him about the impact his simple act of giving had on me....

“We play hide-and seek as a family each night. It gives us a time to laugh and connect.”- @VTCONDON “They’re important to measure time.”- @JARVEVA “They help me stay on track with self-care, so I can better support myself and others.”- @JOANNAZAKANY “They provide a sense of calm in the storm.”- @MASLOW40 “My rituals—I have a coffee, go for a run, read my kids stories—give me a sense of flow in the day....

When it comes to disordered eating patterns, we usually aim the angry-finger at society, the media, our history, or ourselves. “There’s always so much food at every office meeting,” or “It’s the endless food commercials on TV,” or “I deserve this after a day like today,” or “If I had an ounce of willpower, I wouldn’t eat like this.” After we’ve aimed and fired, we often experience the backlash: an empty helplessness that leaves us feeling defeated, hopeless, ashamed and, once again, angry....