Sleep is clearly important for our health, helping our bodies function at their best. It’s also key to our productivity, helping us stay fresh and focused the following day. But does getting a good night’s sleep affect our relationships, too? In line with my own experiences, some relatively new research suggests that sleep does have positive social consequences. What we’re learning about the connection between sleep, our brains, and our social selves offers yet another reason to safeguard your zzz’s....

Here are five suggestions for quick doses of refreshing mini-breaks spread across your day: 1. Start your day with a pause When you go to wash up in the morning, as you look in the mirror, use it as a chance to take three conscious breaths before you start your mental engines. Then, as you brush your teeth, go slow and pay attention, using the sensation to bring your attention back to the moment, despite the pull to start revving up your thoughts about the day ahead....

As you spend more time practicing, and perhaps experiment with different types of mindfulness, your experience can be as varied as the landscape of your mind, the contours of your life events, the intentions you bring to your practice, and the environment of your present moment. Walt Whitman famously said, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” Indeed, we all contain multitudes—an ever-changing kaleidoscope of thoughts, feelings, and perspectives—and we are surrounded by worlds of opportunities for growth....

There’s still a lot of deep grief, PTSD, and burnout caused by COVID that has yet to be fully addressed in health care. Levels of burnout have reached an all time high with 51% of nurses reporting exhaustion and 61% of physicians reporting burnout. This decrease in mental well-being fed into the great resignation with health care having the 2nd highest turnover of any industry. We need to reimagine what a healthy healthcare system looks like....

If you’ve got a Netflix account, you can watch an acclaimed documentary about brain research at UW-Madison for free. Free The Mind, a film by Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo, looks at the groundbreaking research that world-renowned neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson is doing on the beneficial effects of long-term meditation at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. The film, which played at Sundance Cinemas in Madison in 2013, is now streaming on Netflix Instant....

The boys have been living in tents ever since the earthquake in Port-au-Prince destroyed their homes last year. But even though they have nothing of their own, they’ve started collecting plastic scraps and weaving them into bracelets to raise funds to help Japanese survivors. The bracelets bear the words Haiti and Japan. The bracelets have been selling for $10 each, and so far, the boys have earned more than $200 for a relief fund to help survivors of the Japanese quake and tsunami....

Jenée Johnson, mindfulness, health, and racial healing innovator, and the founder of the Right Within Experience, guides us in this seven-minute meditation. We will explore a HeartMath practice called Quick Coherence that helps to synchronize the heart, mind, emotions, and body. This practice can help us work on being present with ourselves in an aware, kind, and loving way to take respite from the storms and renew strength and resilience....

“I remind myself every day that This Too Shall Pass.”– Deanna B. “This moment does not have to ruin the rest of the day. A new day can start right now.”– Tracey N. “Whenever doubt creeps in, I remind myself, ‘You’ve got this. You were MADE to handle this. You’re strong enough. Stronger than you think. Keep going.’”– Kelly S. “I remind myself to be grateful.”– Beverly J. “With positive self-talk....

A staggering 65% of the human population have trouble digesting lactose (a sugar present in cow’s milk), according to the National Institutes of Health. The highest rates of lactose intolerance occur among those of East Asian descent, but it’s also common in those of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent. Only about 5% of people of Northern European descent are lactose intolerant—some genetic experts believe this is due to a long history of dependence on milk as an important food source....

The first thing that we can acknowledge is that this hidden secret of “not being or doing enough” is extremely energy consuming. Becoming aware of the ways that shame plays out in our own experience is the first step toward learning to treat ourselves more gently. What types of awareness are helpful? How can we work with shame and build more shame resilience? The first step is to keep shame from growing....

Empathy is exalted by thinkers from Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nha’t Hanh to British writer Roman Krznaric, who just launched an online Empathy Museum where you can virtually step into someone else’s shoes. Established scientists like primatologist Frans de Waal and developmental psychiatrist Daniel Siegel explore the deep roots of empathy in animals and its essential nature in humans. Even the business world exalts empathy as a way to ensure the success of companies and their products, with design firm IDEO leading the charge....

Here are five simple approaches for applying mindfulness at work: 1. Stabilize your attention Too often on the job we find ourselves distracted, unfocused, even frenzied—which can prove distressing for ourselves and others. In mindfulness training, we learn to bring our attention to our immediate experience— showing up fully engaged and available. By permitting our attention to rest in the present moment, we can learn to attend to our work rather than speed past it....

Like training a puppy, gently bring yourself back a thousand times. Over weeks and months of this practice you will gradually learn to calm and center yourself using the breath. There will be many cycles in this process, stormy days alternating with clear days. Just stay with it. As you do, listening deeply, you will find that mindfulness developed on the breath helps to connect with and quiet your whole body and mind....

But safety can also be found in the center of our being. In the spaciousness of our inner knowing. That spaciousness is available to all of us—it’s part of our birthright as human beings. It’s also easily obscured by clouds of doubt, fear, self-judgment, and cultural conditioning. We can fool ourselves into thinking that peace and safety aren’t meant for us. Especially if, like me, you have a hard time with self-compassion....

At Mindful and the Foundation for a Mindful Society, we’ve presented mindfulness as a practice that goes far beyond de-stressing and self-care. As a foundational tool, it can enable us to be more aware of how we hate, of our biases, of what we ignore. Being mindful also means being accountable for our actions and inactions. And taking steps to counteract bias and to change—to reduce suffering in every way possible....

Dacher Keltner: It is a real honor and a privilege to have Tanzina Vega with us today as our Science of Happiness guinea pig. Tanzina has contributed to CNN, written for The New York Times. She’s an Emmy Award winner and most recently has taken over the host position at The Takeaway. Tanzina, it’s really a delight to have you in the role of guinea pig today. Tanzina Vega: Thank you....

While McConaughey’s comment created a bit of a stir, with media outlets handing him the best and worst speech of the night, it’s difficult to deny the power of gratitude when an extensive body of research supports its benefits. Taking a moment to be thankful for the good things in life can help you cultivate a healthy work life, manage stress and develop a deeper connection to people, especially in tough situations....

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at just how popular complementary health care—the use of holistic or unconventional health and wellness practices—has become for Americans. A team of researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health examined the rise of the most popular complementary practices (yoga, meditation, and chiropractic care) in the US over a five-year period....