Stefan works as a family practice nurse practitioner/manager in a busy urban clinic in the American Midwest.Angelique turned her talent for design into a thriving business using recycled textiles to create clothing she markets throughout southeast Asia.Avery directs a large non-profit organization focused on improving access to nutritious food in poor communities in northern England. Beneath the surface, they’re closer than you’d think: Stefan’s grief about his marriage ending distracts him, making him less available to his patients and coworkers....

The author describes mindfulness practice as “policing” or “manhandling” or “struggling” with our thoughts in order to mount a “defense against the pressures of modern life.” It’s completely understandable that someone would think of mindfulness practice in this way. When you begin, in fact you usually do treat it as a struggle—as yet another opportunity to beat yourself up—until you figure out that you don’t have to. Sometimes, you need to figure that out repeatedly....

New York’s Rubin Museum of Art originally posted a video of a conversation they hosted between Philip Seymour Hoffman and philosopher Simon Critchley. The conversation is part of an RMA series called “Happy Talk.” PBS turned part of that interview into an animated, five-minute video. Hoffman’s thoughts on real happiness, and how we suffer when we try to hold on to pleasure, helps shine a light on his personal struggle and also the nature of happiness generally....

This plurality gives rise to confusion when definitions are treated as interchangeable. Likewise, when it comes to critique, conflating different notions of mindfulness leads to a lot of potential benefit going out with the bathwater. Buzz or no, this is no common craze. Handled with care, mindfulness training holds immeasurable potential for human flourishing. It’s therefore up to all of us speaking or writing about it to understand and communicate the nuance we intend....

Every parent knows that having children is a field ripe with emotions. Frustration, anger, boredom, joy, love, or fear—name an emotion, and it’s probably there on the wild ride of parenting. But this can also feel like the tipping point into insanity. When parenting becomes difficult, it is important to see that these challenges can be turned into opportunities for working with your inner reactivity. As your child (or you) begin to slip into the fifth meltdown of the day, or as you watch your mind check-out from reading the same book for the millionth time, mindfulness can help bring you back to a more spacious and vital sense of the present....

Four years ago, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed March 20 to be the International Day of Happiness. It’s easy to understand why they see happiness as something to celebrate: Happy people are healthier; they get sick less often and live longer. Happy people are more likely to get married and have fulfilling marriages, and they have more friends. They make more money and are more productive at work....

When we lose awareness of the present moment, our minds get stuck in maladaptive ways of thinking. For example, you might be trying to go to sleep but your mind gets lost thinking about all the groceries you need to buy. Deep, relaxed breathing is forgotten. And once you realize sleep isn’t happening, your muscles tense and your thought process quickly shifts to “I’m not falling asleep! I have XYZ to do this week and I won’t be able to function tomorrow....

A 15-Minute Meditation to Be As You Are READ MORE Sharon Salzberg July 10, 2019 Mark Bertin July 19, 2018 Sharon Salzberg June 6, 2018

Mindful: It’s amazing that LinkedIn’s mindfulness program has touched thousands of employees so far. Can you tell us a bit about how the mindfulness program started and how it grew? Scott: A couple years ago I was meeting with the guy who leads our global health and wellness program, and towards the end of the meeting, when we were done our regular agenda, I said, “Do do we do anything with meditation here?...

After all, you know you’ve made it, and are no mere flash in the pan, when kids start dressing up like you. Sure, the adults will go out as whoever’s “hot” at the moment; we can expect, some say, to see lots of glasses and black turtlenecks worn in homage to Steve Jobs this Hallowe’en. But kids often go for classics. There are ghosts, zombies, and vampires, of course, but you’ll also see virtues and values embodied....

This practice is a breathing meditation. We focus on breathing not because there’s anything special about it but because that physical sensation of breathing is always there. Throughout the practice, you may find yourself caught up in thoughts, emotions, sounds—wherever your mind goes, simply come back again to the next breath. If you’re distracted the entire time and come back just once, that’s perfect. 1) Sit comfortably, finding a stable position you can maintain for a while, either on the floor or in a chair....

A 20-Minute Guided Meditation for Compassion Find a comfortable place to position your body. Whether that’s in a chair, seated on the floor, or even standing, allow your body to be elongated while being both relaxed and attentive. Allow for three gentle and full breaths in and out. Perhaps noticing the sensation of the breath as it travels through the nostrils. Down the throat. Into the lungs and belly. Back out again....

But is stress really that bad? If you watch the talk by Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal on TED, you may be pleasantly surprised. She highlighted a huge piece of research at University of Wisconsin-Madison that shocked many people. The research on 29,000 people over 8 years discovered that your view of stress impacts your health far more than the stress itself. The research found that if you think of stress is always bad for you, then your prediction will come true....

More: Between Four Eyes (B4E)

Or is it? When we began our mindfulness practice, this quickly turned into one of our core beliefs. We were both stressed out and overwhelmed in our lives—searching desperately for some way to find a greater sense of ease and flow. So, like many in the mindfulness community, we turned to meditation as a way to cultivate calm and eradicate stress. And, in many ways, it worked. But we also noticed that we still got stressed… a lot!...

1. Really see each other Making eye contact with someone activates what psychologist Stephen Porges calls our Social Nervous System, which can relieve stress and create a deeper sense of connection. It is hard not to feel intimate and vulnerable when looking into the eyes of another person—even a stranger. Try it! It may feel funny at first, but you will find a softening in your heart and a sensation of love flowing before you know it....

Here’s the clip: The debate about whether to give kids smartphones or not and what impact that has on them will be a debate for quite a while. But when Louis C.K. talked about noticing that pit of sadness and aloneness inside and the knee-jerk reaction to “get the phone and write ‘hi’ to like 50 people” he touched upon a universal experience—the innate fear of being alone. It makes sense, from an evolutionary perspective; the people that survived were those that had a clan or a tribe so they could defend themselves in times of attack....

This is the state that psychologist Linda Stone calls “email apnea” or, more broadly construed, “screen apnea.” It’s characterized by “shallow breathing or breath holding while doing email, or while working or playing in front of a screen.” Email apnea occurs for a variety of reasons. First, our posture slumps the moment we pick up our phone or computer, which compromises our ability to inhale and exhale fully. Second, after hours spent staring at our screens, our eyes get fatigued and strained, which further interrupts relaxed breathing....

While some turn their anguish and anger into action, many others are unable to even acknowledge that there’s a problem. Call it what you like: Habituation. Outrage exhaustion. Desensitization. Compassion fatigue (a now-popular term; some experts prefer empathy fatigue). All describe how the emotions that the brain generated the first time we witnessed, even at a remove, something that incited anger or heartache or shock become exhausted in the face of repeated tragedy or horror, with the result that the tenth, or hundredth, repetition provokes a mere shadow of the initial reaction....