“MY MARATHON TRAINING GROUP. We cheered each other on—the competition was only with our- selves. We brought our own meaning to running and races. Anyone could be a mentor, bringing in their experiences to help others. Also, we had fun!” “AT MY JOB, because we all work hard at a difficult job—we form bonds.” “MY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY, not due to the religion as much as the acceptance.” “I am new to where I live, so not yet as connected as I’d like to be, but my town is full of vibrant, engaged, intelligent, compassionate people!...

On the face of it, having enjoyable, loving sex seems like the last thing we might be inclined to tune out. But we all know the kind of mind-wandering that can strike even in the midst of great pleasures. From a mental replay of the staff meeting earlier in the day to obsessing about the final luscious peak of the sex you’re having in that very moment, in lovemaking, as in life, tuning out is a part of being human that’s very difficult to turn off....

So what do the brains of meditators look like? The exact opposite: more capacity for decision-making, less trigger-happy when faced with a perceived threat. “That’s probably not anything specific to meditation, but it’s just that reducing stress and changing patterns of thinking over a period of time is reflected in the structure of the brain,” author Jo Marchant told host Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air last week. Marchant, who holds a doctorate in genetics and medical microbiology and has written for New Scientist, Nature, and Smithsonian, recently wrote a book titled Cure that investigates the healing power of the mind, looking at the placebo effect, meditation, prayer, conditioning, and hypnosis....

And that’s why Elizabeth Stanley, of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, developed Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT, pronounced M-Fit). A former army captain, Stanley (whose family has served in the U.S. Army for nine generations) had firsthand experience of stress in war zones, including in Bosnia. She was hoping to show that mindfulness training could build resilience and optimize individual and team performance. For her first program assessing the effectiveness of mindfulness training for military personnel prior to deployment, she collaborated with Amishi Jha, one of the leading research psychologists investigating how attention and working memory can be enhanced....

In her research, University of Houston professor and author Brené Brown has explored some of the reasons why we shy away from vulnerability. While we often celebrate it as a strength in other people, she discovered, we tend to see it as a weakness in ourselves. “We love seeing raw truth and openness in other people, but we are afraid to let them see it in us,” she writes. “Vulnerability is courage in you and inadequacy in me....

—from Cheryl Fraser’s relationship column in the February 2015 issue of Mindful magazine. This article also appeared in the February 2015 issue of Mindful magazine.

But, new data suggests long-term meditators are bucking this trend. Their brains are showing stronger connections and less atrophy; they are, essentially, looking younger. Now, Eileen Luders, assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neurological Imaging is asking: Could meditation be the key to fighting senile dementia? “If practiced regularly and over years, meditation may slow down aging-related brain atrophy,” she writes. “Perhaps by positively affecting the immune system." Luders and her colleagues studied brains on meditation using a new technique called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)....

Biologically speaking, grief is a homeostatic process, a journey that our mind, brain, and body need to engage in to best recover from the trauma of a loss. This is an evolutionary need, since attachment and connection is embedded within our limbic circuitry. Yes, whether we are conscious of it or not, or like it or not, relationships deeply imprint upon our neuronal selves. Second, I want to note what grief is not....

Philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said: “Life is routine and routine is resistance to wonder.” The most popular practice I know to take back control of our lives and step into the choices and wonders that are all around us is the S.T.O.P. practice. A few years ago when A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook came out I did a YouTube video of this practice and it has almost 70,000 views. A year ago when The Now Effect came out I put a more professional video out again and it already has almost 10,000 views....

Some of the most insightful lessons, however, come from books that are not actually trying to teach mindfulness! Just as mindfulness has been around for a long time, so too have picture books that convey mindful messages. In many cases, we just never noticed these lessons before. As parents, and children’s book authors ourselves, we have discovered that many of the best books about mindfulness are often just the best kids’ books....

Mindful CEO Bryan Welch stopped by the Men Talking Mindfulness podcast to share some insight into his mindfulness practice, a few words of wisdom, and a mindfulness practice to help us feel grounded. Tapping Into a Feeling of Abundance It can be easy for us to feel as though we don’t have enough. Enough time, money, friends…the list goes on. With the limited number of resources available on earth, it can feel like we should all switch to a scarcity mindset....

Who is Mindful? Mindful is a public benefit corporation that is dedicated to sharing secular mindfulness to support good health, positive relationships, and a compassionate society. With a monthly audience of over two million in 87 countries, this is a chance to make a real impact! You’ll enjoy our positive, flexible, and collaborative work culture. We like what we do, but more importantly, we like each other. Job Description Reporting to Mindful’s Director of Advertising, the Sales Associate is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing advertising strategies for our endemic clients....

The entry of a secularized mindfulness into Western culture and even into the highest levels of business, medicine, mental health, education, sports and even politics has been a major source of transformation for thousands of people. With strong ties to its ancient roots, it was Jon Kabat-Zinn who skillfully managed to find a way to secularize it and gain acceptance in the world of science, medicine and mental health. By definition Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a product that people purchase that is very clearly packaged as a stress reduction program, but it maintains the important elements of the mindfulness tradition and almost subversively intends to create much greater transformation toward wise action, social harmony and compassion....

Peanuts are a miracle. Most people understand that peanuts are seeds, and most people understand that peanuts grow under the ground, but not many people stop to ask themselves how a seed gets under the ground. The answer is that the plant plants the seed there. The plant has a flower above the ground that looks like a little orange pea blossom; it’s in the pea family. The flower is pollinated by an insect, and then the stem of the flower goes crazy....

Anger is such a prevalent feeling these days, and so many people are struggling with trying to understand where strength is, and where power lies. And what about the things we’ve been taught to think of as weak or even foolish, like generosity or compassion? We’re hearing more about compassion fatigue. And while many associate anger with power and strength, when we really look at it, compassion requires a whole lot more fortitude....

Digital Mindfulness Podcast: Creating a Mindful Business. Lawrence Ampofo, a thought leader on the impact of digital technologies on humans and society, interviews Joe Burton, CEO of Whil.com, Jim Gimian, co-Founder of Mindful Magazine and Mindful.org, and Erick Randolph, producer of the Mindful Business Conference in New York. Here’s an excerpt of their conversation on the importance of cultivating mindfulness at work: Lawrence Ampofo: Lay people are kind of afraid of mindfulness and the whole culture behind mindfulness....

Well Death will go in every family in this land Well he’ll come to your house and he won’t stay long Well you’ll look in the bed and one of your family will be gone Death will go in any family in this land From “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” by Rev. Gary Davis Not many of us have seen another person receive a death sentence. Fewer still have been present to watch their own mother be given the final verdict....

More: The New York Times

Setting the scene for this investigation of what needs fixing is this fact: the U.S. spends 17% of its GDP on health care, in the ballpark of $2.7 trillion, yet, the U.S. ranked in 50th place in terms of life expectancy when compared with others countries. “We have a system that profits and is oriented towards sickness, not towards health. And there’s a really powerful status quo that’s keeping this disease-care system in place,” Heineman told Mindful....