“For some reason, it’s never worked for me before, I’m able to separate who I actually am from the box of rats that’s going around in my head. Your thought process is not who you are. That’s separate monkey chatter mode.” Are you thinking about getting started with meditation? Are you weighing the pros and cons? You might want to take a peek at the Getting Started series in Mindful‘s June issue, where we look at meditative practice for working creatively with emotions—like fear and anxiety....

Brackett—founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence—came to this work with a mission born from his own experience of bullying and sexual assault, which he discusses poignantly in Permission to Feel. Before we learn his story, however, Brackett paints a vivid picture of why emotions matter so much for public health and education. Incidents of bullying and harassment in US K-12 schools doubled each year between 2015 and 2017; 46% of teachers report high daily stress; from 2016-2017, one in three students across 196 US colleges reported diagnosed mental health conditions; a quarter of US children between 13 and 18 suffer from anxiety disorders; and by 2030, mental health problems could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion....

up, jumped in the pool, and felt a wash of panic. My heart was racing, and I was breathing hard. Because I was breathing so fast, I found myself either floating to the surface of the pool or sinking to the bottom. I was totally frustrated. At one point I popped out of the water, ripped off my mask, and threw it across the pool, screaming, “I’m sick of this—I hate this!...

I interviewed over 20 top leading experts in the field of happiness to ask them what that word actually meant, and in their professional experience, what are some practical ways to begin making happiness a reality. This was called the Uncovering Happiness Symposium, and some of the people interviewed included Sharon Salzberg, Dan Siegel, Rick Hanson, Jack Kornfield, Dan Harris, Kelly McGonigal, Tara Brach, Byron Katie, and more. Byron Katie struggled throughout her life with depression and ultimately found a path that led her to a simple way to break free from the internal negativity and into greater states of freedom....

When I asked them about the show, they told me they liked the story but that frankly the reality of life on the streets there was far tougher than the TV portrayal. I embedded myself in their world for four days to write the story. I am so happy to have seen the great work they’re doing up close and tell the world about it. It was a life-changing experience....

Owning Your Experience She’s developed a signature meditation framework with the four pillars: clarity, creativity, compassion, and sass. This process, laid out in her book and in a recent TED talk, is rooted in mindfulness-based therapy. Clarity: To begin with clarity, Dr. Reicherzer invites people to connect with their breath and simply get in touch with their experience and the impact it’s had. “We start seeing ourselves, we start seeing that we gave parts of ourselves away,” she says....

Practicing gratitude!– @vivekvasantha Baking/cooking– @intendedwell Sitting outside watching the clouds and just being still– @dr.bethanyj Singing– @positivepowercoach Church– @gratefulkev1964 What activity helps you feel present and grounded? Meditation– @maslow40 Looking at the water rolling over rocks at the beach– @access_stress_support Decluttering, cleaning, journaling– @kadikoybornova How often do you meditate? What song helps you feel present and grounded? “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed– @mindfulskatergirl “What Do I Know” by Ed Sheeran– @mjwatson4 “Answer: Love Myself” by BTS– @ella_lama “Living in the Moment” by Jason Mraz– @esin_alptekin “Annie’s Song” by John Denver– @wickthechick “Kiss of Life” by Sade– @calmbuddybox “Hallelujah” by KD Lang– @1eyed2horned All responses from Instagram....

At Folsom Prison in California, I teach a variety of mindfulness practices that have evolved to enable enough flexibility for the men I work with to develop the practice and cultivate what mindful awareness they can. One of the most successful practices is what I call the Three-Breath Trip. It’s a practice the men can do any time, anywhere, without adopting a meditation posture or even closing the eyes. Here’s how it’s done:...

While in no way suggesting that illnesses are “all in the mind,” Marchant’s analysis suggests that our mental and physical health is affected by the way we perceive and relate to it. Meditation, says Marchant, is one of those indirect, influencing, methods that can help, which is perhaps not surprising given that how we perceive and relate to our lives is precisely what’s trained in mindfulness practice. The effect of mindfulness on inflammatory health was shown in a study by David Creswell that came out in February....

This exercise asks you to imagine your relationships going as well as they possibly could, then write about this best possible future. By doing so, research suggests that you’ll not only increase your happiness but pave the way for stronger and more fulfilling connections. TIME REQUIRED 15 minutes per day for two weeks. HOW TO DO IT Take a moment to imagine your life in the future, and focus specifically on your relationships....

Hadley—who has held various leadership roles in building and supporting the mindfulness community, and currently serves as CEO of the University of Oxford, Mindfulness Centre—had observed the disconnect between leaders in the mindfulness field and the difficulty many people encounter when they want to find, for example, mindfulness teacher training, a retreat, or a conference: There wasn’t an online platform where information about events relating to mindfulness could be compiled, showing basic information on the teacher qualifications, and allowing any interested student to find what they were looking for in their location and within their timeframe....

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction and author of multiple books, is a man that’s busier than most. In this video from Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday, he shares how he makes time for mindfulness in his morning routine. Three Ways to Make Your Morning Routine More Mindful “There’s waking up—dragging yourself around—and then there’s waking up,” Kabat-Zinn says. Here’s how he adds more mindfulness to his mornings:

Add to this that we have entered what many people are calling the “attention economy.” In the attention economy, the ability to maintain focus and concentration is every bit as important as technical or management skills. And because leaders need to absorb and synthesize a growing flood of information in order to make good decisions, they’re hit particularly hard by this emerging trend. The good news is you can train your brain to focus better by incorporating mindfulness exercises throughout your day....

Trauma is an emotional response to a negative event. The effects of trauma can be overwhelming and difficult to understand and move on from. Because trauma can be so hard to process, it’s often difficult to understand the full impact it has on our lives. In this video, author and philosopher Alain de Botton explains how we can recognize the signs of trauma and begin to recover from it....

How did you first come to meditation? In 2012, while at UCLA getting my master’s degree in social work, I did an internship at a school in the Watts neighborhood. On day one, the school shut down for race-related fighting and thieving of computers, and I had teachers tossing me students. As I got to know them, kids would disclose sexual abuse and other traumatic experiences, and then they would leave the room, and I would hold my head and cry....

Today, working out is a daily non-negotiable for many in order to maintain physical health. In fact, people often have a variety of workouts and cross-train by alternating their activities. This is a great way to build long-lasting strength and flexibility in the whole body. Did you know we can do the same for our mind? In a previous post, I defined mental fitness as the capacity of the body and mind to work together to increase our physical energy, emotional stability, and mental clarity and calm....

Labels come and go, and they are incredibly subjective. For instance, where one person might find me “a good listener,” or “kind,” another might label me “controlling,” “impatient,” or “obsessive.” Whether we recognize them or not, we all move through our lives wearing a hodgepodge of sticky labels. And these labels frame our experience in a powerful—though not always helpful—way. It’s not all bad. Labels can help us bring order to chaos in an instant....

Chronic stress and aging take their toll on the mind and body, including our genes. A number of studies show that for some, meditation decreases stress, and slows down the rate at which cells age. Now, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that practicing loving-kindness may be the key. Cellular aging is often determined by telomere length. Telomeres, which are located at the end of chromosomes, are like the plastic tips of shoelaces that protect genes from deteriorating too rapidly over time....