As we look to the work and relationships we experience each day, expectations can often be blinders, blocking our capacity to see clearly. When we expect a behavior or a result, we will often just look for that one aspect of the situation, missing what is actually or truly there. One illustration of this was well articulated by a participant at a mindful leadership retreat I led, attended by a group of consumer research experts....

“Bibliometrics is where you use various statistical and computational methods to understand the structure and trends in…the body of literature,” says Anuradha. Unlike systematic reviews, in which researchers would read each included study and synthesize the findings, bibliometrics maps the broader structure and scope of research and can identify themes and connections between studies. For example, the Java application CiteSpace was used to develop colorful visuals that resemble spider webs, which show collaborative research networks between countries or clusters of keywords that relate to mindfulness....

Consider our story. Following the 2016 Presidential Election, Nate noticed that tracking the news became a near addiction: “I woke up each morning with an irresistible urge to view the latest headlines. During short two-minute breaks in my day, I would reach for my phone to scan through breaking news updates. Even though the news left me feeling anxious, I couldn’t get enough of it.” Eric’s relationship to the news took on a similarly habitual form: “I generally don’t watch a lot of TV and yet for the few months leading up to President Trump’s inauguration and immediately following it, I became a news junkie....

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Bill Duane from Mindful Direct. Here’s a few of my own impressions of SIY as a contributor and a teacher: One day in an SIY class at Google in Mountain View, Meng is asking everyone to say two words about how they are feeling after doing a mindfulness practice. Rich, from People Ops, says “nonjudgmental experience.” Ahmed, a scientist, says, “Very related.” Will, a recruiter for attorneys, says “Defragged hard-drive....

Our desire to be seen and reflected is basic and innate. As children, we learn to understand ourselves through the reflections of those around us. In fact, psychologists have found that face-to-face contact is essential for our social and emotional development. As we spend more time alone and on our devices, we miss out on this social reflection. Through the mirror, we can come face-to-face with ourselves at any time....

But it’s not so difficult to shift toward a more mindful way of gifting, such as gifting experiences, instead of more items they may not want or need. This could mean anything from an offer to cook and eat a meal with them, to a ticket for a special event, workshop, or class, to an online course. By gifting experiences instead of things, we can focus on the real goals of exchanging gifts: to express love and generosity to the people we care about, create opportunities to connect with them, and contribute to their greater well-being and happiness....

Pithy advice. Good advice. Advice that spans centuries and civilizations. But…how exactly do we do that? University of Nevada psychology professor Russell Hurlburt thought a good start was paying attention to the thoughts in our head. Not the eureka! thoughts, necessarily, but the mundane. The “What should I make for dinner tonight?” thoughts. The “That’s a pretty shade of blue” thoughts. The self-reproaching “That was a dumb thing to say” thoughts or the self-encouraging “You can do this” thoughts....

She writes: The cult of productivity continues to grow. We’re encouraged to have more productive mornings and commutes, and even Sundays are becoming a day to squeeze in just a little more structure. But zoning out isn’t the issue here. Equating mindfulness with paying attention sells the practice short. It also suggests that mindfulness requires a Jedi mind—that all the folks Dhal imagines commuting and practicing mindfulness are doing so with the intention of levitating their crashed spacecraft out of a bog....

The marriage of science and mindfulness has been a good thing. It has helped to ground the conversation about what mindfulness is good for in very practical terms. But, as in most marriages, there are areas that could use some attention. For one thing, in our rush to have everything explained for us in the simplest possible terms (how does it all work?), we can grasp after overly simplistic explanations and take them as Truth (insert trumpet blast)....

Pete Docter: For a good three years we went on a different track of Inside Out. We had Joy paired with Fear. (audio clip) I’m Joy. That’s Fear. And we had found a lot of fun stuff. We had you know the Dream Production, we had the Subconscious, we had all these cool set pieces. And then we developed the film and you’re writing it up to the point where Joy now goes back and does something she could have never done at the beginning of the film thanks to fear....

Four Lessons on Anti-Racism from Brené Brown and Ibram X. Kendi 1. Our identity is changing from moment to moment Nobody, regardless of race, says Kendi, is simply racist or anti-racist in a static way. “What we say and do about race in each moment determines what, not who, we are.” It isn’t helpful to fall into essentialist categories around race, says Kendi, because we all have the ability to change our behavior as we gain awareness—and we have the ability to admit when we’ve made mistakes: “Essentially, to be anti-racist is to admit when we’re being racist....

If your answer to these questions is no, if you’re one of those people who spends all day breathing the lifeless output of a building-ventilation system, then you may be encountering a nature deficit. And it’s making your life less enjoyable, less healthy, and more stressed. We know intuitively that we need green. Here are three ways to reconnect with nature in the midst of a busy modern life....

2) Notice Creativity Notice the good ideas you have today, in any area of your life—a new way of doing something, a response to a question somebody asks you, your perception of another person’s behavior, your understanding of something you read, a new recipe you invent. How do those good ideas feel in your body when they arise? Write or draw about that. 3) Notice Tenderness Notice acts of tenderness between others—a couple, a parent and a child, a guardian and a pet—or bring to mind a favorite scene of tenderness from a movie, television show, or book....

1. The Breathing Book by Christopher Willard and Olivia Weisser, illustrated by Alison Oliver Sounds True Chris Willard and Olivia Weisser have published a growing number of educational, yet playful children’s books on mindfulness, of which The Breathing Book is a recent one. Like all the best children’s books, it doesn’t preach at kids, but allows them the direct opportunity to explore mindful awareness through noticing their breath. Each page offers different activities, such as tracing shapes on the page in rhythm with their inhale and exhale, or trying out some mindful body movement....

2) Who’s the Teacher? Because of the huge range of teachers and retreats, you need to be sure you align with the teacher’s philosophy. If you’re skeptical of religion and wary of spiritual talk, say, look for a teacher who emphasizes secular values. Do a bit of research to make sure the teacher is respected in the meditation community. Talk to him or her. Do you feel an affinity for the way she speaks about meditation and mindfulness?...

The moral of that story is that perhaps the best mindfulness lessons are, well, subtle. With that, we offer our list of breathing-free contemporary kids books that manage to include lessons about mindfulness without being explicitly about mindfulness. 1) The Silver Button by Bob Graham Bob Graham’s simple story recounts events happening simultaneously during a single minute in a child’s life. At 9:59 a.m., a silver button is placed on a doll’s boot, a baby is born, a jogger puffs by, and more....

Susan Cain • Crown Susan Cain wants to know if we can transform the way we love, lead, parent, talk about death, and understand each other by embracing the “hidden riches of sorrow and longing.” In looking for the answer, Cain turns to philosophers (past and present), researchers, songs, poems, and anecdotes and weaves them together in nine chapters. We’re never given a single answer to what is possible when we embrace the bitter in bittersweet emotions, partly because each of us gets to choose how and when to let sorrow in....