A Simple Breathing Practice With each movement of the breath, there is a physical sensation and that sensation is always here. It’s a way to adjust and come back to what we are meant to be doing in the next moment. Or, what would be the most valuable thing we can do for ourselves or for someone else. Take the next seven breaths with that perspective. This is something you can come back to after a crisis, or before going into a challenging moment—it’s a way to ground yourself and find a way to settle down....

According to the center, mental-health problems, including depression and anxiety, disproportionately impact these groups, which also face the greatest economic and social barriers to getting proper treatment. The research is strong for mindfulness’ positive impact in certain areas of mental health, including stress reduction, emotion and attention regulation, reduced rumination, for reducing mild to moderate depression and anxiety, and preventing depressive relapse. There’s also some early evidence that it can be advantageous for people struggling with addictions, and appears to be particularly promising for smoking cessation....

When my children were small, I had a slogan on my refrigerator that read: “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Perhaps that was my children’s first lesson in systems thinking. We adults learn this, too. If others are struggling, we experience the consequences of their struggle. If others don’t feel safe, we aren’t safe. Great teachers have been trying to teach us this for thousands of years. Buddhism teaches that any one thing is here because of everything else....

I barricaded the door, but they slipped in through the cracks. They seem to be everywhere, and there aren’t enough blankets or beds to hide under. So I’m trying something novel—I’m inviting them in for tea, exploring what happens if I stop trying to avoid the little beasties that seemingly just won’t go away.Demons can manifest in many dastardly ways. As the voices that whisper persuasively that you are destined to fail....

The people around you influence your body budget and even rewire your brain. Your brain changes its own wiring after new experiences, a process called plasticity. For example, microscopic parts of your neurons, called dendrites, become bushier, and their associated neural connections become more efficient. This remodeling job requires energy from your body budget, so your brain needs a good reason to splurge. And a great reason is that the neural connections are used frequently to deal with the people around you....

Could my parents have done anything to encourage me to be more generous? New research says yes. When are children more likely to share? They found, first of all, that environment matters—in other words, children’s behavior is shaped by what other people are saying or doing. If kids in the study heard suggestions to be generous, they’d give more of their fruit chews to other kids. If they heard suggestions to be selfish, they tended to keep more fruit chews for themselves....

In other words, I took the very enlightened approach of pretend it didn’t happen—one that’s about as effective as other common responses such as get angry, push people away, blame yourself, or wallow in the pain. Even for the relatively self-aware and emotionally adept, struggles can take us by surprise. But learning healthy ways to move through adversity—a collection of skills that researchers call resilience—can help us cope better and recover more quickly, or at least start heading in that direction....

We can overcome boredom by freshening up our routine, seeking out new situations and experiences, inviting a different perspective. Try one of these each day for a week and notice what happens:

Without pause, the older monk lifts her across. She says nothing, not even a thank you. The two monks walk all day. The whole time, the younger one stews in his mind—How could he pick her up? We’re not supposed to touch women, or even talk to them. And she was so rude, someone should say something to her, she didn’t deserve our help. Finally, arriving at the inn for dinner, he can’t hold himself back....

Life feels a little more intense these days: at home, work, out in the world. When life begins to feel more intense than normal, it’s important to remember to slow down, turn toward these bigger feelings, and see the bigger picture. Take each day at a time. Life is always in flux. Every thought, feeling, and moment is quickly changing into the next. In the moment, when something feels difficult, it seems like it will never pass....

But there’s another kind of mindfulness practice that also brings these great benefits: bringing mindfulness to our relationship with money. Money?! Yes, money. We think about money and make money decisions frequently. Every time we shop or spend, we engage with money. If we have signed up for alerts on our phone, we are pinged regularly when we pay for products and services, when our balance changes, when our stocks reach a certain price....

In this guided loving-kindness meditation, Dr. Mark Bertin invites us to work with our thoughts. This practice strengthens our intention to notice and label whatever may arise, as a tool to anchor ourselves. While you follow along, simply recognize where your mind gets caught up in thinking about the future or the past. Quite often we get lost in thought—even while meditating. When this happens, we can use an immediate sensation or a phrase to ground ourselves again....

The good news is that storms pass, and so do emotions. With mindfulness, we can practice taking the role of observer to our strong feelings. When we put that space between ourselves and the whirlwinds, we can find stability and cultivate resilience. Scott Rogers leads us in this guided practice with the metaphor of a hurricane to help us recognize the qualities and the impermanence of even our stormiest emotions....

For more on Mind and Life: www.mindandlife.org.

So how does my lapse in compassionate eating relate to mindfulness? Well, for both mind and body, you are what you eat. What we consume mentally influences how the mind feels—pleasant and happy or roiling with indigestion. Imagine you are facing a difficult work problem. If you focus on unpleasant “what-if” scenarios, anxiety arises. If you dwell instead on possible solves for the difficult issue, you feel calm and empowered....

Duane uses the example that telling people how to exercise then saying, “Go do it,” without a gym or support, is not going to be effective in getting people to start exercising, and the same is true for practicing mindfulness and meditation.

I know what it’s like to be totally wrapped up in stories. In my teens and early twenties, I was immersed in them, and to me, they were absolute, unshakeable truth. I debated aggressively with anyone who disagreed with the stories I believed in. I talked at people. I barely listened to anything they had to say, because I was certain they were wrong and I was right. I had no idea how much I was just parroting whatever I’d heard elsewhere....

What makes this moment notable, even though this yucky feeling had happened a bajillion times while looking at Insta, was a recognition of how that image impacted me. If I think about my technology consumption like a diet, what I just ate left me feeling bloated and heavy—perhaps the equivalent of eating an entire bag of Cheetos. In the past, I might have scrolled on for thirty minutes, continuing with my day and feeling some unnamed uneasiness, but not really noticing or connecting my feelings to anything in particular....

Our perspective toward whatever we encounter in life fundamentally changes how we experience it. Redefining Stressful Setbacks Stress itself can be defined as the perception that something is more than we can handle. When we frame challenges as surmountable, we more easily surmount them (or at least begin to work our way forward). When we frame them as opportunities for failure, we more easily fail. That may sound like the most hackneyed, clichéd advice ever—but it is a foundation of resilience research....