Of 91 kindergarten- to second-graders who participated in a classroom-based program, two-thirds were offered mindfulness instruction during the first part of the study. The remaining third, serving as a control group, received lessons when the study was done. At set times each day, teachers (who had minimal prior experience in teaching mindfulness) had children listen to the sound of a gong. They could also add mindfulness-based activities like reading, making crafts, or taking mindful moments....

Humans lack the strength, size, and speed of other large animals. Our evolutionary advantage instead derives from two things: our complex and well-developed brains and our communal nature. And being part of a community means being able to relate, empathize, and to share. In other words: It requires compassion. In fact, Keltner says that compassion is hardwired into our biology. Mammals alone possess a vagus nerve, which is activated when we notice others’ suffering....

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, who authored the book A Mindful Nation, responded in a written statement: “It is a shame that a program that successfully taught children how to discipline their minds and control their emotions is being taken out of the school. This approach is being used by the United States Marine Corps and corporations like Google, Target and General Mills. It is also recommended for wellness by respected institutions like the Cleveland Clinic....

Dr. Jennings is an Associate Professor of Education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of social and emotional learning and mindfulness in education with a specific emphasis on teacher stress and how it impacts the social and emotional context of the classroom and student well-being and learning. Dr. Jennings led the team that developed CARE for Teachers, a mindfulness-based professional development program shown to significantly improve teacher well-being, classroom climate, and student productivity....

The RAIN Practice RAIN is an acronym for a practice specifically geared to ease emotional confusion and suffering. When a negative or thorny feeling comes up, we pause, remember the four steps cued by the letters, and begin to pay attention in a new way. R — Recognize: It is impossible to deal with an emotion—to be resilient in the face of difficulty—unless we acknowledge that we’re experiencing it. So the first step is simply to notice what is coming up....

A Mindful Garden Walk In a natural setting, we can be refreshed by the qualities in nature, so one of the ways to begin is to try to find a garden or a forest. Today we’re situated in one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and it provides an excellent place for awareness meditation in nature. Try This Awareness in Nature Practice In focused attention practice, we talk about if the mind is wandering, rest your attention back on the breath or find the way back to the breath....

From Gretchen Reynolds, writing for The New York Times‘ Well blog: When the volunteers made their way through the urbanized, busy areas, particularly the heavily trafficked commercial district at the end of their walk, their brain wave patterns consistently showed that they were more aroused and frustrated than when they walked through the parkland, where brain-wave readings became more meditative. While traveling through the park, the walkers were mentally quieter....

So how do you facilitate meaning, connectedness, and true happiness for the people you lead? Or, more specifically, what qualities of mind does a leader need to develop to be better at leading this changing workforce? Based on extensive research—including surveys and assessments of tens of thousands of leaders—the three mental qualities stand out as being critical for increasing engagement, happiness, and productivity: Mindfulness (M) Selflessness (S) Compassion (C) These are foundational qualities of great leadership that we call MSC leadership....

Wikipedia Entry from 2050 The Insight Age is a period in human history characterized by the shift from “continuous fractured attention” brought on by The Information Age through technology, to an age based on an expanded awareness and an increased ability to harness control of our attention to what matters. The onset of The Insight Age is associated with The Mindfulness Revolution, just as The Digital Revolution marked the onset of The Information Age....

“These days there are apps for learning mindfulness. There are mindfulness programs that are just a couple of hours long. I see and hear of teachers who are doing things that are a very long way from what I would recognize as a mindfulness-based stress reduction program,” says Susan Woods, who helped develop and set up the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy certification training curriculum for the Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute at the University of California, San Diego....

For a moment, stop thinking and drop into your senses instead. By helping us shift our state of mind from thinking to sensing, these practices invite us to rediscover interest, beyond our expectations. Three Practices to Shift out of Autopilot Linger on each step for at least three minutes. Once you’ve got the hang of dropping into each sense in turn, try opening to all of the senses together at moments of so-called boredom in life, such as when washing up, standing in a queue, or stuck in a long meeting....

We’re not asking for more of your time, we want to give you more time. We take our relationship with our readers very seriously. We are constantly giving ourselves what we call “The Friend Test”, as in “would I send this to a friend?”, or, most importantly, “would a friend find this intrusive?” Treating everyone who visits mindful.org, or signs up for our newsletter, with the same respect that we show our personal friends has worked for us this far....

Creswell, an assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon Universityin Pittsburgh, is also director of the university’s Health & Human Performance Laboratory. He has become one of the leading researchers in a eld of study that has grown exponentially over the past decade, with more than 400 scienti c papers published every year. Creswell’s strategy has been to identify signi cant popula- tions where stress may be a key element in deteriorating health and see if a mindful- ness intervention can help....

When first diagnosed and in planning treatment one can usually rely upon support from partners, friends and family, as well as the numbness of shell shock, to get through the initial period. Most of us are pretty good for the short-term. Then the routine of hospital visits, coping with side effects and managing daily life sets in and friends and family, and even partners, are often less available, as what was acute usually moves into the chronic....

This hurts women, businesses, and society. According to a 2012 study of 1,500 companies, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” Female leaders seem to be particularly important for companies thriving on innovation. Notably, the more women occupy a company’s C-suite and corporate boards, the better its sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives. One pathway toward creating a culture of diversity and belonging is to empower allies at work....

I also speak about happiness science to audiences in business, health care, academia, government, and other sectors around the world. Everyone wants to know how to use scientific research to guide their inalienably endowed right to pursue happiness: their own, and that of the communities they live and work in. While neither the field as a whole nor our course can provide all the answers, I’ve drawn upon feedback from students, GG101x discussion boards, Q&As during my talks, and more to distill the three realizations about happiness that tend to be the most moving, motivating, and surprising to people....

For instance, a study I published with colleagues in 2020 found that new meditators often question whether meditation will in fact be beneficial, doubt whether they’re meditating correctly, struggle to find space and time for practice, and sense that meditation conflicts with their cultural or familial norms. After people complete a formal meditation course, their meditation frequency drops; even experienced meditators describe how hard it is to face difficult feelings that can arise in meditation, like anxiety....

That’s not easy. Though for some the pandemic provided a much-needed interruption, the “rise and grind” mentality and routine has continued to permeate our lives. “Hustle culture” pushes the narrative that being busy is a measurement of achievement and success, and anything that conflicts with our ability to work must be pushed to the side. The kinds of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that conflict with work are increasingly prevalent due to the coronavirus....

When an urge is satisfied—whether for soothing, attention, or any other response—we experience a rush of dopamine, the neurochemical associated with feeling good. After a few blasts of dopamine, we start to crave more, which then drives us to indulge in the triggering behavior, be it eating fast food, checking your phone, or lighting up a cigarette. Voila! You have a habit. When we understand how a habit forms, we have a greater chance of catching it in the act, and take steps to make a more considered choice, says addiction psychiatrist Judson Brewer....