Susan David, Ph.D.: “In South Africa, where I come from, “sawubona” is the Zulu word for “hello.” There’s a beautiful and powerful intention behind the word because “sawubona” literally translated means, “I see you, and by seeing you, I bring you into being.” So beautiful, imagine being greeted like that. But what does it take in the way we see ourselves? Our thoughts, our emotions and our stories that help us to thrive in an increasingly complex and fraught world?...

There aren’t many personality traits that reference Greek mythology, in this case Narcissus, the beautiful young hunter who disdained human relationships and instead fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. While over 2,000 years would seem to be enough time to figure out where narcissists’ extreme self-love comes from, and what they think and feel and believe deep down, the study of narcissism is still shot through with controversies and unknowns....

Blame releases discomfort and pain: We often try to fault others for our mistakes because it makes us feel like we’re still in control. “I’d rather it be my fault than no one’s fault,” says Brown. But leaning into the discomfort of mistakes is how we can learn from them. “Here’s what we know from the research,” says Brown, “blame is simply the discharging of discomfort and pain. It has an inverse relationship with accountability....

Speakers included Jon Kabat-Zinn; Jack Kornfield; Mindful.org blogger Kelly McGonigal; eBay founder Pierre Omidyar; Dan Siegel; Congressman and A Mindful Nation author Tim Ryan; Eckhart Tolle; Google’s Meng Tan as well as key players from Google, Facebook, Zynga, and Twitter; and more. To also read about the successful 2011 Wisdom 2.0 conference, read the following articles on Mindful.org: The Digital World Connects, Boost employee satisfaction and Mindfulness and Innovation. 02/21/12

You would think conducting a study like this would be fairly unremarkable, except for one thing. More than 30 years after Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson popularized the term biophilia in a 1984 book, it remains ill-defined, controversial, and short of rigorous empirical support—yet practical applications of it have spread like kudzu. Researchers such as Kellert, a leading exponent of biophilia, are left to run after the schools, corporate headquarters, health-care facilities, architects, and designers who claim biophilia as an established fact, calling, wait, wait for research to catch up with what you’re doing!...

There’s an irony in phubbing. When we’re staring at our phones, we’re often connecting with someone on social media or through texting. Sometimes, we’re flipping through our pictures the way we once turned the pages of photo albums, remembering moments with people we love. Unfortunately, however, this can severely disrupt our actual, present-moment, in-person relationships, which also tend to be our most important ones. The research shows that phubbing isn’t harmless—but the studies to date also point the way to a healthier relationship with our phones and with each other....

Let’s say you want to be more mindful—that is, cultivate intentional, non-judgmental attention to each moment. Meditation is the core of mindfulness, but there are many different forms of meditation. Which one is best for you? That’s the question tackled in a new study published in the journal Mindfulness. Over the span of three weeks, the researchers broke 141 undergraduates into three groups that each engaged in one of these forms of mindfulness meditation: • The sitting meditation, which involves sitting in a relaxed but erect posture and cultivating awareness of each breath you take....

As a psychologist and author specializing in mindfulness approaches, I believe I’ve lost touch with that experience of high anxiety from my youth. However, I’ve benefitted from the reminder that, as powerful and helpful as mindfulness can be in managing anxiety, it can legitimately feel (and be) inaccessible to those struggling with bouts of acute anxiety reactions. Mindfulness instructions often suggest for practitioners to place attention on their bodily sensations, to “let go of judgment” and to “rest” or “simply notice” their experiences “just as they are....

The 2011 Wisdom 2.0 conference will be held February 25-27 in Mountain View and feature mindfulness teachers Jon Kabat-Zinn and Jack Kornfield, as well as Wisdom 2.0 creator Soren Gordhammer. Participant Natalie Villalobos says these conferences are about creating a working atmosphere where “technology and wisdom go hand in hand.” title: “Wisdom 2 0” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-19” author: “Linda Claypool” The conference is bigger than ever this year—and so is mindfulness....

I was in a window seat near the front an hour into my flight from San Francisco to New York when a woman standing in the aisle caught my eye and asked, “Would it be all right with you if I came and sat in this empty middle seat for the last half hour of the flight? I’m way at the back.” “Yes, it’s fine,” I replied, looking over at the man in the aisle seat who acknowledged that he was also agreeable....

My husband and I often joke that if everyone had a dog like Casey, there simply wouldn’t be any wars—the assumption being that everyone would just get along if he were around. Now, a new study suggests that we might be onto something. Researchers at Central Michigan University gave small groups tasks to do with or without a companion dog in the room. In the first experiment, groups generated a 15-second ad and slogan for a fictional project—a task requiring cooperation....

Mindfulness and compassion are two important qualities that increase our resilience. At this pivotal time in our world, we need to cultivate both. Mindfulness allows us to see things as they are and turn toward challenges. We can turn toward the uncertainty and difficult feelings around the US presidential election, we can turn toward the devastating truth of climate change, we can turn toward the pleasant and unpleasant with greater wisdom and thus freedom....

Fortunately, there’s a few key habits that can help you turn over a new leaf—or in this instance, a new pillowcase. As Jason Ong, a sleep psychologist at Rush University Medical Center reminds us: “Each night is a new night. Be open and try something different! What you have been doing to this point is probably not working well.” Try these three mindful tips for a better night’s sleep and see what you notice:...

First, we have to understand the basic assumptions that underlie “canceling”: X person has shown that they will not change their harmful behavior (often harming people with less power and influence than themselves). Therefore, the only recourse is to publicly shame them—a reaction that’s not unique to this age of internet. As we look to the dream of creating a more just, equitable world than we’ve ever lived in, grappling with this trend is surprisingly helpful....

During the pandemic, I’ve delighted in the California poppies blooming in my front yard and laughed while giving my daughter an extraordinarily uneven haircut with a pair of dull scissors. It can feel wildly inappropriate to feel delight or to giggle amid such worldwide suffering. Sometimes we feel guilty for feeling good. Certainly, more than a few of us have felt the spiky tendrils of guilt arise after a wave of pleasure that’s risen and fallen within us during the COVID-19 crisis....

Julie Mosow’s Harvard Business Review article, “Help Your Overwhelmed, Stressed-Out Team,” offered some useful, practical approaches to help a leader keep her team calm and focused. But one key element was missing from the mix: the leader’s mindset. If a leader is filled with stress, conflict, anxiety, and negative emotions, it spreads like a virus. A steady dose of toxic energy from higher-ups will encourage valuable team members to update their résumés rather than their to-do lists....

This year, how can we give ourselves as educators permission to lean toward self-compassion rather than self-improvement? How can we work toward creating a culture that supports accepting ourselves as we are and being gentle with ourselves as teachers, rather than getting caught up in the constant battle of judgment, criticism, and resolution? Can we practice listening to our kind and compassionate voice while being fully present, rather than getting caught up in the expectation to do more?...

1) Practice Being Curious One of the essential attitudes of mindfulness is beginner’s mind. This is engaging something as if for the very first time. People who practice mindfulness bring this attitude with them throughout the day. When they take a shower, they might imagine it was the first time feeling the water, smelling the soap, or watching the steam as it shifts and changes before their eyes. Novelty is one of the fastest routes to creating new neural connections....

Any mindfulness practice includes compassion. We see our own challenges (like our utter inability to focus our mind where we want for long) with care and patience, instead of self-recrimination and frustration. And then, aiming to see with unbiased clarity how the world around us works, we can recognize that even the people we find difficult face many of the same, human challenges, and crave happiness and health in their own ways....