You don’t have to look too hard to see mindfulness popping up in hospitals, schools, around kitchen tables, and in corporations. Burnout is taking us all down. It makes sense that we are looking for help. People like me who feel fidgety, sad, depressed, angry, shell-shocked, or heartbroken have heard the word that something about watching your breath might make you feel better. Who knows why, but it seems to be helping other people, so why not give it a go?...

ADHD Care from the Ground Up ADHD is a common disorder of child development that influences self-regulation and self-management, not just attention and activity level. Seen from this perspective, it’s understandable why ADHD potentially affects all of life. It has been linked to everything from behavioral and academic concerns, to difficulty with sleep, eating, and as children grow older, substance abuse and even auto accidents. Yet while those perils are real, when ADHD is addressed fully, everything changes....

—Martin Luther King, Jr. When most of us think about that American apostle of nonviolence and peace, Martin Luther King, Jr., even some who marched beside him in demonstrations nearly fifty years ago, we do so with an almost deliberate forgetfulness and precious little understanding of the specific “content of character” (to borrow one of King’s most famous phrases) displayed by a man who insisted in his sermon “Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” that, “Somewhere along the way, we must learn that there is nothing greater than to do something for others....

“Having a mindfulness practice of your own can help diffuse potential confrontations with your kids,” says Susan Verde, kids yoga instructor and the author of I Am Yoga. When anxiety wells up inside, or you’re clenching your fists, “Acknowledge what is happening physically and emotionally in your own body and mind,” says Verde. “Once you take notice, you can choose your response, instead of just reacting.” Before responding, pay attention to what you’re experiencing, and why you’re upset....

By stopping and intentionally falling awake to how things are in this moment, purposefully, without succumbing to our own reactions and judgments, and by working wisely with such occurrences with a healthy dose of self-compassion when we do succumb, and by our willingness to take up residency for a time in the present moment in spite of all our plans and activities aimed at getting somewhere else, completing a project or pursuing desired objects or goals, we discover that such an act is both immensely, discouragingly difficult and yet utterly simple, profound, hugely possible after all, and restorative of mind and body, soul and spirit right in that moment....

We’re not talking about the kind of “flow state” experienced by high-performance athletes or how absorbed you get during a good scribble session in your adult coloring book. We’re talking about the down-to-earth, gotta go, kind of flow. In this five-minute video, mindfulness teachers weigh in on whether it’s better to interrupt your meditation session to use the bathroom or remained seated in an upright position. Hint: The bladder is not an elastic organ....

Self-proclaimed “Iceman” Wim Hof, claims that he can do all of these things by influencing his autonomic nervous system (ANS) through concentration and meditation. The “Wim Hof Method,” is an intensive meditative practice that includes focused concentration, cold water therapy, and breathing techniques. Until recently, the idea that anyone could influence their autonomic nervous system was thought impossible given its assumed “involuntary” nature. The ANS is the system that controls all of our internal organs and regulates body functions like digestion, blood flow, and pupil dilation....

In contrast, consider Selene. She felt her head starting to droop over the spreadsheet she was reading. Shaking her head to clear the drowsiness overwhelming her, she glanced at the time display on her computer monitor. It was after midnight, the third night in a row she’d worked late into the night. She was determined to do her best on this project, one she hoped would get the attention of her company’s founder....

This week, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)—author of A Mindful Nation and The Real Food Revolution—and colleagues introduced the Academic, Social and Emotional Learning Act. Ryan’s comments from yesterday’s press release: “These programs are scientifically proven to help students increase skills in problem-solving, conflict resolution, responsible decision-making and relationship building—these are the skills that will build the foundation for students to better perform academically and throughout their lives.” The legislation supports teacher training in SEL to help young people deal with social issues (stress, bullying, drug use), and studies are beginning to show that SEL programming can boost academic potential....

The event was sponsored by Newton Community Education and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and NewTV recorded and posted the video. You can also listen to the podcast of Congressman Tim Ryan and Saki Santorelli at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan last October.

A team at the University of Southern California has shed light on the neural nuts and bolts of gratitude in a new study, offering insights into the complexity of this social emotion and how it relates to other cognitive processes. “There seems to be a thread that runs through subtle acts of gratitude, such as holding a door for someone, all the way up to the big powerful stuff like when someone gives you a kidney,” says Glenn Fox, a postdoctoral researcher at USC and lead author of the study....

There’s wisdom in the body that we can benefit greatly from if we cultivate our awareness to notice it and access it. That’s why mindfulness is a critical practice that allows us to skillfully navigate the world by becoming more aware of the information our brains use to predict our social and affective realities when we tune in to our bodies. A Practice for Creating a Body Map of Emotions READ MORE Elaine Smookler April 11, 2019...

Faith knows that the simple act of breathing can help her focus to complete the task at hand. She attends the Momentous School, a program of the Momentous Institute, a 97-year-old organization devoted to the social emotional health of kids and families. The school has been tracking kids’ progress for almost 20 years and have accumulated significant data showing the positive effects of incorporating mindfulness into education. Faith and her classmates are learning essential skills that research shows may give children lifelong protection against one of the most serious and quickly growing threats to child well-being in America today: toxic stress....

There’s no question that gossip can be damaging. But these exceptional uses of gossip—typically by those who are abusing their power—do not prove the rule. In fact, gossip is an ancient and universal means by which group members give power to select individuals and keep the powerful in check. Gossip is how we articulate a person’s capacity for advancing the greater good and spread that information to others. We gossip about what might be true of a person’s character....

We hope you enjoy this roundup of podcasts we’ve loved in 2020. The Best Mindfulness Podcast Episodes of 2020 1. The Cut Episode: “Optimism” Optimism? In 2020, the word has seemed fluffy and unreal. To investigate the true nature of optimism, host Avery Trufelman turns to the docuseries Cheer. For competitive cheerleaders, she says, it’s “the cognitive equivalent of spinning 360 degrees in the air and landing on one hand....

We live on this beautiful planet, this beautiful earth, and you could say we’re here because of love—because of the love that comes from nature and the abundance of this earth. And I think for many of us, one of the easiest places that our heart is touched and is opened, where we feel a sense of connection and kinship and love is in nature. Whether it’s just looking up at the night sky, seeing a bird fly by our window, or when we’re more deeply in the woods or walking in a park—wherever we may find ourselves in a natural setting....

A 12-Minute Meditation to Reconnect with Yourself READ MORE Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp January 3, 2022 Frank Ostaseski January 11, 2022 Cheryl Jones December 29, 2021

Soften, Soothe, and Allow: A Practice for Difficult Emotions read more Kimberly Brown August 28, 2022 Caren Osten Gerszberg October 13, 2022 Caren Osten Gerszberg August 16, 2022