I start with loving kindness and compassion—directing them towards Japan and whatever else moves me. Sometimes it’s towards the fish in the ocean near the reactor or the families of the victims of the tsunami. I trust my creativity and follow where my heart is drawn. I use the dreadful images I saw on the news to cultivate compassion. I bring to mind an image and sense its impact on me and then offer compassion as I breathe out—May you be free from suffering, may you be safe and protected....

At a recent board meeting, Dr. Alfred Kaszniak was appointed as interim CEO, while a search is conducted for a permanent CEO. In a letter published on the MLI website announcing this transition, Engle stated, “I have been contemplating how best to transition my leadership positions in a way that is proactive, thoughtful and most effectively supports our mission and vision.” Engle also said that he will remain Chair of the Board, “responsible for refining strategy, developing collaborative partnerships, cultivating and deepening relationships with our financial partners, and working with our search committee to recruit a new CEO....

“In order to get the most out of this moment, we need to keep ourselves quiet enough, in the midst of all the activity, so that we can hear and feel and respond to what arises within us,” says mindfulness teacher and long-time activist Mirabai Bush, senior fellow at the Center for Contemplative Mind and Society, and co-author of the book Compassion in Action. We asked Mirabai to help us compile a toolkit of go-to mindfulness tactics to help people stay grounded in the moment as they navigate this historic expression of peaceful resistance....

How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the CycleMark Wolynn • Viking Many people who meditate begin to discover how vulnerable they are as they notice old wounds that have festered, unattended. If you prick us, we bleed. If you prick us with words and attitudes, we bleed inside. The wounds scab over, but the scars remain, and can be passed on generation to generation, creating new wounds....

My mother was a teacher so she had summers off—and being able to spend that time with her was very special to me. We would bring the fruit home, our arms laden with flats of bright, sunny-yellow apricots, with reddish tinges—like rouge. We would make jams and preserves together, and I would be her assistant chef. I would watch as she put them in a large pot on the stove in our kitchen and add sugar and spices—I can still smell their delicious sweet aroma as they cooked....

In Westminster today, the Mindful Nation UK report from the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAAPG) will be launched. The report is the culmination of several years’ work, initiated by the former member of Parliament Chris Ruane, to bring mindfulness training into British politics: first by introducing politicians to the practice, and then by exploring its relevance to public life, in the form of a Parliamentary inquiry. Along the way, more than a hundred MPs and members of the House of Lords have taken a mindfulness course in Parliament, and hundreds more witnesses—researchers, teachers, public policy makers and course participants—have contributed to the MAPPG’s inquiry....

PTSD and war veterans—can mindfulness help? Anthony King on the neuroscience behind using mindfulness to help war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veterans relearn compassion through meditation: Leah Weiss, a meditation expert at Stanford University, leads vets through compassion cultivation training. The aim is to shift their thinking from others being a potential threat to others being “just like me.” VIDEO: Military Stress Relief: Longtime meditation practitioner Major Victor Won talks about the benefits of teaching mindfulness meditation to military members (both active and retired) and their families....

Effective Lawyering: The Meditative Perspective, is designed to bring the awareness, clarity and balance of mindfulness to the legal profession. Teachers with a wealth of experience in both meditation and law including Wes Nisker, Norman Fischer and Charles Halpern, will offer lessons on building and maintaining a meditative practice. They’ll also lead discussions on how mediation can be harnessed to overcome the challenges of the legal profession. Open to all legal professionals, it’s being held September 8 – 11, 2011 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California....

We’re not destined to respond to anger the same way every time we feel it. By tapping into the experience of anger, and bringing compassion to it, we can learn how to approach this dangerous, often explosive emotion in a healthier way. Take about three minutes with each response. You may also lengthen that time if you want to try more intensity. Find your seat and check in with your body....

“Kids just love it,” says White, “since it’s something they already like to do anyway, so now we can call it ‘meditation.’ I love that. It teaches them that meditation is just really natural.” He does go on to say that things can get a little wild out behind the school. “We’re located next to a field with a few trees. When a class of twenty-five starts chasing birds, looking at the ground, looking in the air, they start tripping on stumps, bumping into trees, bumping into each other, screeching and screaming....

Hugo was the mezzo in Book of Longing, a collaboration between Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen. She and Gureckis are currently collaborating on an album of Philip Glass songs sung by Hugo and arranged and co-produced by Gureckis, which will be released later this year. Ticket prices range from $25 to $150. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the concert beginning at 7:00 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here....

At the end of my first week teaching at a university, about a month after moving to a new part of the country, my husband told me that he had been having an affair for six months. As his words entered my awareness—he loved her and didn’t know if he wanted to stay with me—I felt as if all the trees on my Earth were being dug up by their roots....

1. First, slow down When we are anxious EVERYTHING speeds up—our thoughts race, our heart pounds, our breathing accelerates. This makes it difficult to think clearly and make healthy decisions. At the first sign of things speeding up, move a little slower and see what else you can do to intentionally s l o w t h i n g s d o w n. 2. Come to your senses Anxiety lives in our minds and often manifests in the body....

Last fall, filmmaker Julie Bayer Salzman created the short film “Just Breathe” featuring her son and his classmates. In four minutes, kids talk about meditation and dealing with difficult emotions. The short went unexpectedly viral after Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), retweeted it. Oprah showcased “Just Breath” after an interview with Kabat-Zinn on Super Soul Sunday in April. “It’s powerful to see little kids explaining meditation—something so simple on one hand but so complex on the other,” says Bayer Salzman....

You might feel better if you hold the gory details. Christine Carter, sociologist and author of The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and at Work, spoke at Wisdom 2.0 last spring about how busyness has become a badge of honor in our culture. “When we are busy, it’s what researchers call cognitive overload. Cognitive overload is one of those things that hinders our productivity and hinders the power of our mind....

In Mindfulness for Dummies, Shamash Alidina describes the body scan as a way to get in touch with the body, let go of feelings of needing to get stuff done, and release pent-up emotions. Just like other forms of meditation, the body scan also trains attention. Alidina says: The body scan alternates between a wide and narrow focus of attention; from focusing on your little toe all the way through the entire body....