For many of us, accessing that settled, contented state is difficult to do in meditation. It’s not easy to watch the mind reveal its worries, its self-criticism, or its old memories. Meditation requires patience and—even more challenging for most Westerners—time. So, why would you put yourself through the struggle? Quite simply, meditation can profoundly alter your experience of life. The current findings are exciting enough to encourage even the most resistant of us to sit down on the cushion: They suggest that meditation—even in small doses—can profoundly influence your experience of the world by remodeling the physical structure of your brain....

Bringing mindfulness to this experience can help us savor and appreciate the final hours of the day. You made it through the week, and you deserve a happy hour (or three!). 3 Mindful Things to Do When You Get Home from Work Bring these three mindful tips home with you and see what you notice. When you get home from work… Set your intention: Before you even step foot in the door, take a deep breath, soften your body as a way of becoming present, and take some time to think about how you want this evening to unfold....

Here are 5 reasons to bring mindfulness to the body: The human body is a staggeringly wonderful thing, and yet we so often take what it does for granted—we move around, carry things, make things, see, hear, speak, feel and taste, often without appreciating how this all happens. When things feel right with the body, we take it for granted. When things feel wrong, we get frustrated. And yet, just by breathing, the body is performing magic every moment....

When we think about personal growth, we often envision a solo quest, like Don Quixote on a journey of self-improvement. We are advised to increase our self-control, get grittier, and develop a sense of purpose. So we hunker down, turn inward, and start the solitary task of reshaping our habits and behaviors. And yet people who are thriving are usually doing so with the help of others. Peak athletes have coaches....

Meditation itself directly urges the development of this type of patience. It’s not that we’re relaxed every time we sit to meditate, it’s often quite challenging. Our bodies or our minds can feel a sense of discomfort or unrest. And then for a few minutes, we actively practice noting that experience and letting it be. Instead of relying on our typical actions or thoughts or habits, we pay attention to whatever might trigger us and choose to let go of the hook instead....

Sometimes emotions can feel threatening and there may be a fear that they might swallow us up or overwhelm us. As real as this threat might feel, it’s usually irrational. For both strong and subtle emotions it can also be helpful to give yourself permission to peek behind the curtain for a moment to see what you are feeling. You don’t have to stay long or dig anything up. Just take a quick peek, perhaps feeling right into the center of your chest, and give yourself permission to return to the breath whenever you need to....

Mary Jessup had great difficulty remembering plans, who’d called earlier, even whether she’d eaten lunch. For five years, Mary—who was living with vascular dementia—stayed in her daughter Penny’s home. Every weekday, while Penny worked, Mary sat on a worn, green couch and watched TV. In the morning she turned to The Price Is Right and Family Feud. At noon Mary pushed her walker to the kitchen and got herself lunch—peeled a banana, perhaps, opened a cup of pudding, microwaved soup....

In this system, the breath we focus on is the normal flow of the in-and-out breath. We don’t try to make the breath deeper or different; we simply encounter it however it’s appearing, and however it’s changing. To begin with, you can sit comfortably and relax. You don’t have to feel self-conscious, as though you are about to do something special or weird. Just be at ease. It helps if your back can be straight, without being strained or overarched....

Try this mindfulness of breath practice. Settle into a comfortable sitting position, either on a straight-backed chair or a soft surface on the floor, with your buttocks supported by cushions or a low stool. If you use a chair, it is very helpful to sit away from the back of the chair, so that your spine is self-supporting. If you sit on the floor, it is helpful if your knees actually touch the floor; experiment with the height of the cushions or stool until you feel comfortably and firmly supported....

Move. Breathe. Sit. 1. Side Sways Moving your spine side-to-side invigorates your entire body. On an inhalation, reach your arms forward and up. As you exhale, lower your arms down by your sides. Inhale and come back to center with both arms overhead. Repeat for 3-5 breaths. With your arms back at center and overhead, exhale and tilt to the left. Reach both arms to the left until you feel a light stretch....

There are times when fear can prevent us from following our dreams and goals. Fear or other such feelings are like monsters under our beds or in our closets and might lead to so many opportunities if we pay attention to and believe them. What would have happened without the Einsteins or Martin Luther Kings of the world if they were too scared to persevere and follow their passion and their hearts?...

Anyway, my daughter was in the back of the car rattling off all the things she wanted for Christmas, excitedly, as though it were a done deal and she would soon be receiving everything she ever hoped for. And I was anxiously trying to do damage control: Santa only brings one toy (“Nah-ah, Mom, he brought Ella THREE last year!!”); Santa can’t bring live animals (she passionately wanted a live llama); if your grandparents get you Uggs instead of Payless knock-offs, you won’t get any other presents from them (economic logic lost on a seven-year-old)....

To watch the video, click here. 01/02/12

A client of mine spent some time talking with me about the fact that she and her son and husband didn’t have a ritual for dinner together. It made sense for her family and their schedule that her son ate before her husband got home, yet nearly every day she would have thoughts of doubt about whether that was really okay. Turns out it was just fine, as now he is a wonderful young adult and they are very close....

The interview goes over the main tenets of the book, including Davidson’s work with neuroplasticity. “We now, I think, have a much clearer and firmer sense that emotions and thought are not separate and distinct as they once were formulated […] the brain does not respect the distinction between thought and emotion,” says Davidson. You can listen to the WUWM interview with Richard Davidson here.

Also added to the lineup is Thupten Jinpa, the longtime translator for the Dalai Lama, who will speak with Omidyar on the subject of Wisdom and Compassion in Modern Life. Wisdom 2.0 is sold out but you may join a wait-list for tickets by clicking here.

While so much has been made of mindfulness recently, this program made explicit the crucial connection between mindfulness and compassion. This connects perfectly to the way you’ve heard us talk about being mindful, here and in print in Mindful magazine, as including mindfulness, awareness, kindness, and compassion. The program included wonderful presentations of experiential practices that bring out this connection, and we learned from field reports highlighting the benefits of these practices in areas such as childbirth, education, the law, and healthcare....

More: Wall Street Journal Health