The discussion will be followed by a Q&A, and questions will be fielded from Twitter and the #workingwithmindfulness feed. The web seminar begins today at 10 a.m. EST. A webcast will be available an hour after the broadcast. For more information, and to register, visit the Working with Mindfulness seminar page.

“The more I started to connect, discover, and accept my inner self, I discovered I wanted more company. Then I forgave any misalignments with my family and friends. At some point I realized true connection meant connection to the entire world, just as it was.”– Tiffany P. “1. Being present when connecting with family and friends. Taking a genuine interest in what makes others happy and showing that you care about what matters most to them....

Many of us find ourselves caring for loved ones braving old age, decline, and dying. Caregiving is demanding—at times overwhelming. Yet it can also cultivate intimacy, wisdom, and insight. For my book, The Caregivers: A Support Group’s Stories of Slow Loss, Courage, and Love, I chronicled the experiences of the members of a caregivers support group for more than a year. Here are some things I learned about mindful caregiving:...

Although some forms of yoga are taught as an energetic exercise, Ed was first taught yoga as a meditative flow of movement. The system of asanas or postures was developed so that each position flowed into the next, as if you were doing an exquisite slow moving dance. But the true value of this ancient system may be elusive. Yoga is not just about standing on our head or bending in all sorts of contorted positions....

By normalizing discord in this way, we’re also setting the bar for how our children and teens interact. They might go to school thinking they can bully their peers—in person and online—because they’ve seen adults do it. Bullying of any kind has far-reaching negative implications. Cyberbullying puts both bully and victim at increased risk for depression, anxiety, suicide, and problematic behaviors directed outward (cheating, stealing, arson, etc), according to a 2014 report in Paediatrics & Child Health....

Feast your eyes. As soon as you get your food, see if you can take in the sight of the food: the colors, the shapes, the richness that may be there. If there’s not richness there, maybe you want to add a couple more colors to make it rich in some way. Breath in the smell. Take in the aroma. Take a few deep inhales of the smell of the food that’s there....

Here are three simple remedies for a stressed-out mind that will give you the ability to come down from a busy mind and into your life. When you’re stressed: Slow down. Literally. Whatever you’re doing—walking, talking, typing, even driving—start doing it at slightly slower pace. The brain activity starts to mimic what the body is doing, so if we move slightly slower, our mind starts to move slightly slower and those flurry of stressed-out thoughts start to cool down....

3 Ways to Build a Sustainable Meditation Practice There is no magic number for how long you should sit. What matters most setting an amount of time that you can sustain over time. Here are three key elements to building a sustainable meditation practice: For a deeper dive with Joseph Goldstein and Dan Harris, check out some free guided meditations from 10% Happier read more Carly Hunt July 27, 2022...

5 Mindful Lessons from MPs in the UK Parliament 1) Pay Attention to Task Switching A politician’s day is filled with an extreme overload of information and changing tasks, requiring them to shift and navigate what takes priority. Mindfulness has proven deeply beneficial with demands on attention and prioritization, offering a greater ability to regulate attention and focus. “I found the course extremely helpful in focusing my mind, reducing stress and improving concentration,” said a parliamentarian....

The good health news on mindfulness doesn’t end there. A recent article from UMass Medical School reported that mindfulnessnot only leads to healthier patients, but also happier doctors. The article reports that the research of Ronald Epstein, MD has found that “as the benefits of mindfulness are increasingly recognized by patients coping with a variety of medical conditions, so too is the realization that being completely in touch with, and aware of, the present moment, as well as taking a non-evaluative and non-judgmental approach to one’s inner experience, can also help the doctors on whose care patients depend....

The past 20 years has given birth to a booming “anti-aging” industry, replete with creams, pills, diets, and even anti-aging clinics. So, a few bucks and a little extra work can keep me young forever? Sounds like a beautiful fantasy! Oh right, that’s because it is one. As Muriel R. Gillick, professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School, writes in her book, The Denial of Aging, “When we believe we will stay young forever, and when we purchase special vitamins, herbs, and other youth-enhancing chemicals to promote longevity, we are engaging in massive denial....

It’s midnight and I’m convinced I’ll be dead of a brain tumor by first light. How I even know about brain tumors is a mystery. I’m six years old and no one in my small world has ever had one. Still, I’m panicking, gulping at the air, trembling beneath the covers. My mother tries to hold me and talk me down, but I’m too far gone to be comforted. Finally, near tears herself, she phones an old family friend who happens to be a world-famous neurosurgeon....

StarTribune looks at meditation at General Mills and talks to Janice Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, about bringing meditation to the office back in 2006. The article also looks at how the practice is becoming increasingly popular across corporate America and mentions Target and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester as having some sort of meditation offering for employees. To watch the video and read the article, click here....

Conference organizers have announced one keynote speaker thus far: Paul Grossman, Director of Research, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, University of Basel Hospital, Switzerland. Abstracts for submission are due October 19th. For more information on the conference, click here. 10/2/12 [photo ©flickr.com/storebukkebruse]

As you scramble to complete the task, you might find yourself asking, “Why do I do this?” Well, you’re not alone. The term procrastinate was adapted in the 16th century from the Latin word, procrastinatus which means, to put off until tomorrow. So as a word that pre-dates the invention of smartphones and Netflix, it seems a more accurate question would be, “Why have we always procrastinated?” “At the core of it, we are an impulsive species, and we value the now so much more than the latter,” explains Dr....

Mindfulness-Based Initiatives Ever since Jon Kabat-Zinn formed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 1979, it has steadily grown, to the point where you can find MBSR in any major city—and beyond. There’s also been an explosion in related programs for people facing all sorts of challenges. For example, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, with its strong emphasis on inquiry, is a powerful way for people with depression to explore their mental habits. Mindfulness-Based Childbirth Programs and Parenting helps parents-to-be cultivate lifelong practices for mindful living and parenting....

Traditional Waodani culture bordered on the paranoid. All outsiders were presumed to be a threat—as most were, in one way or another, including culture-altering missionaries. The Waodani acted on this belief by making the concept of first strike a cornerstone of their survival plan; hence the killing of the missionaries. Their neighbors called them the Auca, a Quechua Indian word generally translated as “savage.” To get to Waodani territory I traveled as a journalist with the same organization to which the five murdered missionaries belonged, the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)....

David Sloan Wilson describes himself as an evolutionist who studies all aspects of humanity in addition to the biological world. He manages a number of programs designed to expand the influence of evolutionary theory in higher education, public policy, community-based research and religion. Click here to read his full biography. For more details about Sloan Wilson’s upcoming lecture, click here. The Meng-Wu Lecture Series is named after Tan Chade-Meng and Wayne Wu, two of the founding benefactors of Project Compassion....

First it’s important to break down how we pay attention to technology. At times we are focused and need to get things done so we power through a number of emails. Other times we need to do research and so we surf the web looking for content and resources. This is an effective use of attention. However, other times we get overwhelmed by mounting projects and we use technology as a distraction or a way to “kill time....

Many among us are suffering now—gravely ill, steeped in grief, or worried sick about how we’ll pay the rent. We’re hunkering down with social distancing, at-home sheltering, and lockdowns as new normals. Tedium is setting in. Yet, as the boundaries of our physical world contract, the limits of our mental, emotional, and spiritual worlds have the potential to expand. Meditation teacher Shinzen Young compassionately suggested to students on an online retreat recently that they could reframe the pandemic predicament of social isolation as a time of seclusion during which their mindfulness practices could deepen....