The study was published in the British Journal of Dermatology, and includes findings from 900 participants across 22 studies. Bevis Man, a spokesperson for the British Skin Foundation charity, told The Telgraph that the results will contribute to the ongoing debate about the substantiveness of psychological interventions in skin treatment. “It is already widely acknowledged that distress, trauma and stressful periods of a person’s life are often triggers for the initial development of psoriasis and eczema, as well as subsequent flare-ups....

The study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, found that people who meditate regularly use different parts of their brains in the decision-making process. A total of 66 people participated in the study. Those who regularly practiced meditation (26 people) were assigned to the test group. The remaining 40 participants were allocated to the control group. All participants played the same “ultimatum game.” This is a game that has been used in a number of other studies....

Cheese comes in so many different, exciting varieties, and each has its own unique texture and flavor. It can be a wonderful accent to a dish—shaved pieces of Parmesan or manchego on a simple tartine or salad adds a little intensity; a nice Gruyère sprinkled on a gratin of layered vegetables cooked very lightly under the broiler creates a lovely, golden crust. When spring arrives I get so excited by all the gorgeous vegetables that start to sprout up in the markets, like crisp asparagus and perfectly sweet green peas....

The recent protests about police brutality against Black bodies have erupted in an already tumultuous social moment as we reckon with the public health and emotional effects of COVID-19. Taking the time to care for yourself in the midst of advocating for justice is not simply a form of self-indulgence but a vehicle to improve efforts in supporting social justice. The practice of mindfulness has a lot to contribute to help you prepare for, be present for, and understand the significance your efforts have in creating change through protesting....

This video, which includes selections from the upcoming documentary entitled “Mindful Kids,” shows the Mindful Schools in-class instruction program in action. To find out about hosting one of these sessions in your school, click here. But wait, this is not the end of the story. Mindfulness and meditation in schools has been a hot topic lately in the news. Click here to read a story about an inner-city school in Ireland that has taken to using mindfulness....

I was humbled and somewhat distraught by how much my mind wandered. I would attend to one breath, two breaths, maybe three—and then my mind was gone, lost in thoughts, leaving my body sitting there, an empty shell. Frustrated and impatient, I began to wonder, “Why can’t I do this? Everyone else looks like they’re sitting so peacefully. What’s wrong with me?” On the fourth day, I met with a monk from London, who asked how I was doing....

The aim is to find language that evokes the attitude of loving-kindness and compassion. Here are some guidelines: Phrases should be simple, clear, authentic, and kind. There should be no argument in the mind when we offer ourselves a loving-kindness phrase, only gratitude. You don’t need to use “may I.” Loving-kindness phrases are wishes. “May I” is simply an invitation to incline the heart in a positive direction, meaning “If all the conditions would allow it to be so, then…” The phrases are like blessings....

Here are three types of sounds to appreciate as you sit in “silence.” 1. Background sounds One of the first things you will notice once the sound of the opening bell fades away is background sounds: traffic noise, the whirring of a ceiling fan, murmuring voices in the hallway. As you notice each one, let go of the habit of naming and judging it and dive into the pure sensation of hearing....

Psychologists define self-control as the ability to pay attention to appropriate stimuli and initiate the appropriate behaviour, while inhibiting inappropriate behaviour. Quite simply, we know self-control to be “that thing” that keeps us from cracking open some brewskies at our office desk instead of cracking open a Word document, or what gets us out of bed for a morning jog instead of pressing the snooze button. Researchers found that between ‘awareness of the present moment’ and ‘acceptance of emotional states’—the two primary practices emphasized in most meditation traditions—the latter was more successful in their tests....

“Because search engines are continually available to us, we may often be in a state of not feeling we need to encode the information internally,” Sparrow explained in her 2011 paper. “When we need it, we will look it up.” Storing information requires mental effort—that’s why we study before exams and cram for presentations—so unless we feel the need to encode something into a memory, we don’t try. Result: Our recollection of ostrich anatomy, and much else, dissipates like foam on a cappuccino....

“But nobody can run fast enough to escape their own worries,” says Williams. Williams is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, and he co-founded Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) with his colleagues Zindel Segal and John Teasdale. The MBCT program is based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBCT is designed for people who suffer from recurring bouts of depression. In the clip below, Williams gives a brief history of stress and how mindfulness counteracts the common tendency we have to bluster through the day....

This finding is supported by four separate studies that tested different exposure scenarios. In each study the researchers the primary focus was on whether or not people with high “moral identity” (“the degree to which a person’s moral character is experienced as a central part of his or her overall self-concept”) are more susceptible to experiencing “moral elevation.” The study defines moral elevation as an experience that consists of “distinctive feeling of warmth and expansion that is accompanied by admiration, affection, and even love for the person (or people) whose exemplary behavior is being observed....

Any picture-perfect image of the holidays we build up in our minds, filled with expectations of how life should be, rarely gets met for long. It’s easy to get caught in the mental trap of the “the comparing mind.” We might think to ourselves: This is how things are—and this is what I picture they should be. We strive to recreate images of holiday bliss, and it exhausts us. Illusions portrayed in shows, movies, in our friend’s social feeds, or holiday advertisements set our more complex reality into disturbing relief....

65% of Americans are not able to make time for themselves in a day and many feel unbalanced. A recent news report looks at how business leaders, politicians, and educators are using mindfulness to cope with stress. The news report includes interviews with Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), author of A Mindful Nation, and Tara Brach, a long-time meditation practitioner. To watch the report, click here.

The reasons we gather are as varied as we are, says Parker. “We gather to solve problems we can’t solve on our own. We gather to celebrate, to mourn, and to mark transitions. We gather to make decisions. We gather because we need one another. We gather to show strength.” But often, we skip a few necessary steps when organizing gatherings, with lackluster results. Events flourish when they’re built on thoughtfulness, structure, curiosity, and generosity of spirit, says Parker....

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion....

The Mindful Kitchen: Enjoy Avocado Mindfully With a fork, mash an avocado until you get it to a fairly smooth consistency. Take a taste on its own, then throw in a pinch of salt and notice how it affects the flavor. Next, add a squeeze of lemon juice and take another taste. What does the acidity add or alter? Does it affect how the avocado feels on your tongue? Savor this marriage of buttery and tangy on its own or follow the popular trend and spread it on a piece of toast....

When we lose awareness of the present moment, our minds get stuck in maladaptive ways of thinking. For example, you might be trying to go to sleep but your mind gets lost thinking about all the groceries you need to buy. Deep, relaxed breathing is forgotten. And once you realize sleep isn’t happening, your muscles tense and your thought process quickly shifts to “I’m not falling asleep! I have XYZ to do this week and I won’t be able to function tomorrow....

The behavior of saying yes to things we know we either don’t want to or are unable to do is called “hedging.” It consists of using phrases like “I don’t know,” “maybe,” and “we’ll see,” when really your answer is, unequivocally, no. When we hedge, our intentions (most times) are good. At work, we hedge to avoid disappointing others—like our customers, our managers, and our coworkers. It’s easy to feel that if you say no to a request at work you’ll be perceived as selfish or rude, or that it might impact your performance review....

The brain is a highly efficient energy demanding organ that gets fully utilized and, even though it is at full capacity being used, it suffers from a problem of information overload. There’s far too much in the environment than it can fully process. So to solve this problem of overload evolution devised a solution, which is the brain’s attention system. Attention allows us to notice, select, and direct the brain’s computational resources to a subset of all that’s available....