That razor focus led Bertish to achieve seemingly superhuman feats. He won the Mavericks Big Wave International surfing event on the biggest waves ever recorded in the history of the sport. He holds the South African 24-Hour Open Ocean Stand Up Paddle Board record, and the 12-Hour Open Ocean Guinness World Record. He travels the world as a professional speaker/waterman/adventurer. Bertish believes that everyone has the power to achieve, well, anything....

Management experts like Stephen Covey and President Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke of the need to distinguish between the urgent but unimportant task and the important but not urgent task. A familiar example of our mental “urgency trap” is the momentary impulse to check email, interrupting more significant work. Such mental interruptions typically waste 20 minutes of productive work time. Physical interruptions, such as a coworker stopping by to ask a question, have a similar effect, and this constant start-and-stop feeds a sense of scarcity....

We experienced this last year during our family trip to Mexico (ah, vacations…remember those?). On our drive from the airport to the hotel, we were pulled over by the Mexican police for 45 minutes. Then, our hotel room ended up sharing a wall with an all-night New Year’s Eve dance party, which meant that we (and our eight-year-old) slept, not at all. And then after moving to a new resort to escape the noise, we experienced two nights of raccoon invasions....

In the report, Adam Galinsky, professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, says “detaching from a familiar environment can help get new perspectives on everyday life.” Why is it so important to get a new perspective? Well, the psychological distance from your daily life that a vacation affords is said to increase instances of personal epiphany, and allows you to gain a better self-knowledge. According to Galinsky, travelling abroad increases this effect as people are forced into a hyper-awareness of their surroundings, and their actions....

To celebrate the launch of her new book You Are Not Your Pain: Using Mindfulness to Relieve Pain, Reduce Stress, and Restore Well-Being, Vidyamala Burch is speaking about pain management across the US. Catch her at these upcoming events: • Vidyamala will be launching You Are Not Your Pain at The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care Thursday, May 28th • She will also be holding a Half Day Practice Workshop on Saturday, May 30th at The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care • For the West Coast: Breathworks will hold a 4 day introductory retreat in Santa Cruz, California from 19th – 23rd June Learn more from the Breathworks press release....

1) JUDSON BREWER, MD, PHD Psychiatrist and Chief, Division of Mindfulness; associate professor, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry; research director, Center for Mindfulness, UMASS Medical School Known For: Discovering how mindfulness can undercut addiction; using neuroimaging techniques to reveal how mindfulness affects the brain; developing mindfulness tools to help people quit smoking and handle food cravings. Future Directions: Examining the effects of mindfulness programs delivered via digital means. “This is the next generation of mindfulness delivery,” he says....

That’s what Alfred James says about mindfulness for kids. The author of Pocket Mindfulness and its accompanying blog suggests that parents come up with mindfulness exercises they and their children can do together. It’s about finding ways to be truly present with your children, rather than mutually distracted. Here are a few of his ideas: Roar into the wind together: Out on a windy day, maybe at the beach? Bust your kids out of quiet time and roar into the wind....

To answer that question, I recently spoke with one of my all-time favorite happiness experts, meditation teacher James Baraz, author of Awakening Joy. (He teaches a great online happiness class by the same title, which I highly recommend.) Here is a condensed version of our conversation. I hope it spurs some ideas for happiness habits you can pursue in 2015. Christine Carter: What are some common “happiness mistakes” we often make at this time of year, and how can we avoid them?...

The answers to those questions will depend a lot on where you live, what your experience has been like, and what you make of it all. Living in a city that imposed shelter-in-place orders 10 weeks ago, as of this writing, my own life has been a mixed bag. I shifted to working at home pretty easily, but it’s been hard finding a routine and avoiding distractions. I’m connected with friends online, but I miss their physical presence....

In mindfulness practice, we train in letting go of our stories about stress and pain, learn that thoughts are not facts, and watch sensations change from moment to moment. We notice that experience is fluid, and can be perceived without taking it so personally. We learn that pain, stress, thoughts and everything else that occurs in the mind and body are not “me.” Why “Me” Always Changes So what kind of “me” is there?...

Fear is primal. And essential for survival. It’s highly energetic, and even exhilarating. Lots of people love horror movies, and kids (young and old) get a huge kick out of scaring each other. But fear is no joke. It can be a highly aroused state that overtakes us in response to a perceived threat, causing us to either fight, flee, freeze, or faint. It can be a deeply unpleasant feeling....

The more we practice sitting with our whole selves nonjudgmentally (the good, bad, beautiful, and painful), the better we get at opening ourselves up to every kind of moment with discernment and acceptance, rather than judgment, reactivity and remorse. Meditation gives us the opportunity to sit with discomfort—bored, achy, restless, and distracted, we choose to stay with it, anyway. We can find ourselves caught up in fear, disappointment, and self-criticism in any part of our day....

Tom: Hi, Assaf! Describe THINQon for us in a very logical way. Assaf: Hi Tom. THINQon is a community built for sharing and achieving understanding, about anything that matters to us, from our daily life’s experiences and questions to historical, philosophical, professional and political ones. Informally, people describe it as a place for interesting people to talk about interesting things in a meaningful way. Tom: I can imagine someone saying: Why should people go online to talk meaningfully with interesting people?...

Ammi’s Adventures: Roads Hi! I’m Ammi. My name means “the whole world is inside of me,” and I think it’s true: I carry the whole world in my mind and heart and body. I know you do, too! I like to play games, explore, and discover what makes me, me. I’m so glad we’re together on this journey! Roads are things we travel on. We may travel by foot, or bicycle, wheel, roller skate, scooter, or by car....

What is your favorite exercise to do mindfully? WalkingWeight liftingHikingKayakingMindful aikidoKarateDancingCleaning the houseBarre classesReikiBiking Body and mind: How do they get along? When do you feel most centered? Do you practice mindful eating? 23% say they cultivate the habit of eating mindfully. 36% have tried it once or twice. 16% eat mindfully only when they’re not too hungry (we’ve all been there!). 20% have never tried a mindful eating practice. Finally, 5% make the case that mindfulness shouldn’t relate to pressures about so-called right and wrong ways to eat....

While each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the practice, a key theme throughout is that self-compassion ultimately means asking ourselves one question: “What do I need?” Easier said than done. Hickman—a longtime teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion, and Founding Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness—leads us in his witty and reassuring way, starting with defining self-compassion and its three components of mindfulness, common humanity, and kindness....

In this interview Dr. Brantley answers some important questions about seeing a rise in anxiety in our culture, practical skills to help us out, and his favorite ways to take 5 Good Minutes in his daily life. Elisha: In my own practice I seem to be seeing more people coming in with heightened anxiety than ever before. Have you seen a rise in anxiety, and if so, why are people so anxious right now?...

The official tender posted this week calls for a series of sessions this spring for up to 40 people, with the Justice Department supplying refreshments and venues. The posting warns suppliers that “time is of the essence with this contract.” The Justice Department has authored 46 crime bills since the Conservatives came to power in 2006. Total cost for the mindfulness-based stress reduction contract is set at more than $23,000—plus other costs —with the possibility of additional sessions for more money....

Vivienne will be featured in an upcoming documentary about ending child slavery. The documentary-makers note that her lemonade stand idea was just the kind of big thinking that creates change in the world. “It was the type of idea that only the spirit of a 9-year-old could pull off,” reads one entry on the Stillmotion production blog. “We adults would have shot it down as absurd, but for Vivienne it wasn’t a matter of if… but rather when she would raise the money....

For years, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter have been tirelessly promoting mind training as the secret sauce for those who want to lead people in the pursuit of big aims. All great aims, be they commercial or societal, require great leadership, and The Potential Project, a global leadership and corporate training group, tries to foster better leadership through mindfulness. Hougaard is its founder and managing director, and Carter its North American director....