What does it mean to be grateful? Thankfully, it doesn’t mean convincing yourself of some bogus notion that everything’s fine and dandy. Living your life with gratitude means choosing to focus your time and attention on what you appreciate. The goal is not to block out difficulties, but to approach those difficulties from a different perspective. Appreciation softens us. It soothes our turbulent minds by connecting us with the wonderfully ordinary things, great and small, that we might otherwise take for granted....

You can try allowing your daily routines to become your meditation practice. A 3-Step Mindfulness Practice to Carry You Through Your Day When you get out of bed, notice your surroundings, feel your feet on the floor or your hands on your thighs, and be present with yourself. Feel the sun, notice the experience of water on the skin as you shower and brush your teeth. Notice how many colors are in the first meal you eat....

But teacher stress is not only a problem for teachers; it can also be a problem for students. Stressed teachers impact students’ stress levels through a contagion effect, and since student stress impacts learning, this can hurt the quality of education in the classroom. Students learn better in a climate that is more emotionally positive and less stressful, and past studies have shown a clear link between positive emotional classroom climates and academic achievement....

These are especially hard days for people whose minds are burdened with the fatigue of depression, the grief of loss, even the relatively mild Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that seems directly related to the amount of daylight. Someone once said to me, “The view out the window looks like the inside of my mind. Hopeless.” Right after Thanksgiving, therapists I know begin saying, “I can’t wait until the holidays are over....

Rohr now teaches mindfulness at her alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, and with the Justice in Balance initiative, which is a monthly exploration of meditation and nonviolence. From 2013 to 2016, she served as a magistrate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Did your colleagues in California inspire you to meditate? Not at all. The concept of mindfulness seemed too foreign, too fantastic. I was an activist trying to change the world....

Peter Bregman, the article’s author and a strategic advisor to CEOs, compares his own multitasking pitfalls to the research around how multitasking impacts our ability to process information. And while we might think we’re being productive by accomplishing tasks simultaneously, the research seems to show that we’re actually just flitting from task to task. “Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we’re getting more done....

It sounds like an impossibly big task, but Wilson sets out to reconnect us with a series of short chapters, from “become a soul nerd” (unexpectedly, this is about evolutionary psychology) and “get full-fat spiritual” (an expansive vision of purpose and interconnectedness) to “start where you are #buylesslivemore.” She urges us to reconnect with ourselves, with our natural collectivity, with our higher selves, and with the earth. Interspersed with these topics are chapters about her many adventures hiking on nearly every continent, and how simply walking has shaped her understanding of life....

Meditation practice need not be tied to any belief system. The only necessary belief is not a dogmatic one, but one that says each of us has the capacity to understand ourselves more fully, and to care more deeply both for ourselves and for others. Its methods work to free us of habitual reactions that cause us great unhappiness, such as harsh self-judgment, and to develop wisdom and love. Meditation gives anybody who pursues it an opportunity to look within for a sense of abundance, depth, and connection to life....

We’re forever reaching for something that will bring us pleasure: coffee, a Facebook post, a kiss, or something more sinful. We rev up our craving engine in the morning and give it few breaks through the day. What’s up with that? Why so needy? As director of research at the Center for Mindfulness and developer of smoking cessation and mindful eating apps, doctor Judson Brewer has a few things to say about that....

In 2015, for instance, the first round of attempts by the “Reproducibility Project” to redo 100 prominent studies got the same results as the original for only one-third. That doesn’t mean what the original researchers reported (that, for example, students learn more effectively if they’re taught in the “learning style” that matches theirs) didn’t really happen. It could simply be that what was true for the participants isn’t true of many, or even most, other people....

When can we find opportunities to cultivate “being mode”? In principle, this mode of mind can be practiced in all situations. In being mode, the mind has nothing to do, nowhere to go and can focus fully on moment-by-moment experience, allowing us to be fully present and aware of whatever is here, right now. But the tendency to enter “doing mode” is pervasive, where the present moment is boiled down to a narrow, one-dimensional focus: “What does this have to say about my progress in reaching my goals?...

A few years ago, I was at a conference introducing Jon Kabat-Zinn. The beginning of the talk focused on my experience when I read page 14 of Kabat-Zinn’s book, Wherever You Go, There You Are. This was a particularly difficult time in my life when I was feeling uneasy, confused, and dissatisfied with things. Now, if you’ve read this book, you know he has all kinds of wonderful suggestions on how to sprinkle the philosophy and practice of mindfulness into everyday life....

Get comfortable, with your back straight. Close your eyes and relax. Gently move your attention away from what you’re thinking to the sensations in your forehead and around your eyes. Soften and let go of any tension. Smile a little and soften your jaw. Let your shoulders feel heavy and drop away from your neck. Relax your upper arms, your lower arms, your hands, your fingers. Relax into your breath....

In a seminal discovery about human intelligence, researchers began reporting dramatic increases in IQ scores soon after World War II. The gains among children and young adults—the populations who take the tests—continued and even accelerated in the 1980s: an average increase of 24 points in the United States since 1918; 27 points in Britain since 1942; 22 points in Argentina since 1964; with gains of a similar size throughout Western Europe, Canada, Japan, China, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand....

When he spoke these words in his first inaugural, Lincoln was stunningly optimistic. He assumed office with only 40% of the vote after an election that saw him ridiculed as much as admired. Only weeks before, he had to sneak into Washington to skirt an assassination plot. Within weeks, an immensely bloody four-year civil war would begin. In invoking our “better angels,” Lincoln referred not so much to supernatural beings but to the feelings within our own psyche that predispose us toward kindness and connection....

Typically, meditators start by directing the phrases to themselves, then aim the phrases of goodwill toward a mentor or benefactor, then someone they feel neutral about, then someone toward whom they have difficult feelings, and finally the idea is to expand the circle of loving-kindness to include all sentient beings. The good intentions cultivated by loving-kindness meditation lead to more supportive self-talk and better moods. Research shows that loving-kindness meditation is “dose-dependent”—the more you do, the more powerful the effects....

Some conference highlights: Dr. Daniel Siegel (author of the forthcoming book Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain), will offer a keynote talk on Saturday afternoon following the regular sessions. Dan is a noted neuropsychiatrist and author who has written and spoken extensively on the topic of mindfulness and the brain. The conference also includes a talk from Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who was featured in Mindful’s June 2013 issue....

As mindfulness teachers, we are collectively coming to realize that we hold a responsibility to engage with the realities and challenges of oppression. Systemic issues, including racism, oppression, and marginalization, have severely impacted the lives of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Western culture. Many teachers feel a sense of helplessness when thinking about addressing these issues. The Centre for Mindfulness Studies (CMS), where we all work, is beginning to turn toward what has previously been unspoken....

“How to meditate” featured seven tips on how to cultivate a daily meditation practice from Sharon Salzberg, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. Alexia Eljalde-Ruiz, author of the story, says the piece is part of a Tribune do-it-yourself series called “Life Skills.” Other pieces in the series included how to be a better swimmer and how to apologize. Eljalde-Ruiz says there is no grand plan at the Tribune to continue writing about meditation practice....

The logic behind this unplugging is that by turning off our digital devices, we can free ourselves of stressful “iDistractions” and turn our attention to the present moment. You might find the next piece of news counterintuitive, then. Tomorrow, it’s very likely—in fact, you can count on it—that you’ll see fresh stories on Mindful.org, tweets, and Facebook posts. Not that we don’t believe a break from our digital activities would be productive....