What we aimed to explore, then, in “A User’s Guide to Living Well in Screenworld,” are insights from people inside the tech industry who are navigating all of this connectivity, too. The good news: there’s a way to do it with attention, awareness, and care that helps you get the most out of your technology. We invited Rich Fernandez of Google to sit down with the director of engineering at Facebook, Arturo Bejar, and Irene Au, the vice president of product and design at Udacity, to talk about how to ensure digital communication is working for all of us—not the other way around....

Awake in the Wild: Nature is always available to deepen mindfulness, whether you’re hiking, kayaking, or simply out for a walk. Here Mark Coleman shares his wilderness tips. Focus on Cycling: Alburquerque Bicycle Transportation Examiner Karolyn Hudson has been following a sports psychology program, with Dr. Dana Blackmer, to improve her cycling. In this third lesson, mindfulness becomes a part of the assignment. Mindful Swimming: Jump into the pool with Tonya Nascimento....

Now a new study sheds some light on awe’s unique function. Through a series of experiments, an international team of researchers were able to show that experiences of awe diminish our sense of self-importance, creating a “small self” perspective that seems to aid us in forming social groups. But, while many of us know it when we feel it, science has not understood awe as an emotion very well. Though research suggests awe increases our well-being and leads us to be more altruistic and generous, it’s still not clear why that would be....

Frank: You know, I think it was a long and winding road it got me here, and, probably the truth is, we get called for this work. You know, it’s not something we choose on our high school skill set exam. My own mother died when I was quite young, about 16, and my dad a few years later. So that gave me an early relationship with death. Later I worked in refugee camps in southern Mexico, refugees fleeing from Central America....

She explains how, for example, getting more sleep and meditating are fantastic ways to reduce stress and train the brain to have more willpower. She also says people need to slow down and investigate why they think certain things: To read posts from her blog, “Heart & Mind,” here on Mindful.org, click here.

The number of “mobile workers” in the US will reach 105 million by 2020, estimates market intelligence firm IDC. That means almost three-quarters of our workforce will find themselves with flexible office situations. It’s no wonder, then, that many Fortune 500 companies are committed to attracting and retaining employees by offering flexible work environments and promoting diverse work styles. Depending on what you do for a living and how you like to work, you will have your own unique definition of “office....

Now that the avalanche of media hype on mindfulness research and practice is coming to an end, we’re beginning to get a more tempered view. Meditation is not all calm and peace. Mental material can come up that can be uncomfortable or need to be addressed. Britton spoke generally with Mindful about how mindfulness has been marketed in this country as a “warm bath,” when in actuality, you have to deal with whatever comes up in the mind....

“Social Rejection Shares Somatosensory Representations With Physical Pain,” was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study’s lead author, Ethan F. Kross, is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. For the study, 40 volunteers were recruited specifically because s/he felt intensely rejected as a result of a recent (unwanted) breakup. In the lab, participants were hooked up to MRI scanners to measure brain activity....

The Definition of Mindfulness: Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally,” says Kabat-Zinn. “And then I sometimes add, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.” “We all take ourselves too seriously because we believe that there’s someone to take seriously. That “me.” We become the star of our own movie. The story of “me”, starring, of course, me! And everyone else becomes a bit player in our movie....

The tax-payer funded program, designed to help public servants “learn to relate more consciously and compassionately to the challenges of work and personal life,” was scheduled to begin in mid-April. Yet on April 1st, participants were told that the program was being delayed indefinitely. The programs, one in English and one in French, would have run for nine weeks, at a cost of $11,000 per session. Approximately 40 people would have benefited from the program....

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who was the Sonnabend Visiting Professor at the university, delivered a lecture which not only concluded his fellowship, but coincided with the launch of the mindfulness study programs. See it here (runs an hour and a half): 01/18/12

Likewise, when as patients we are confronted with illness, with the unexpected, and on the receiving end of powerful suggestions from health practitioners about our future, it is easy to turn away from ourselves, losing all sense of direction, no longer trusting our innate wisdom and navigational sensitivities. But if, in these moments, we learn to stop and be present, we have a chance to learn a lot. In these moments, no matter what our role, so much seems to be at stake, so much of our identity ripe for loss, uncertainty, or displacement....

The study states that while these findings reflect the long-term effects of mindfulness meditation confirmed by previous studies, it is not meant to suggest that the extent of these effects equate with long-term mindfulness training. 01/18/11

Additionally, students were given a reading comprehension test—a section of the Graduate Record Examination (G.R.E.). Their performance improved. The study was published last month in the journal Psychological Science. Read the full New York Times article on the study.

Mindfulness is a powerful way to bring balance into every aspect of how we eat. It cultivates inner wisdom—awareness of how our body and mind are reacting—and outer wisdom—making wiser use of nutritional information to satisfy your needs and preferences. Here’s a mindful-eating technique to use when you want a snack. It could be late afternoon, when you’re tired, hungry, and perhaps have had a stressful day, or anytime you end up eating mindlessly....

Being mindful starts in part with accepting the fact that we cannot ever be fully mindful in the first place. Our brains aren’t wired that way. And life itself is unendingly uncertain and unpredictable. Imperfection is the norm. It’s how we live with these facts that influence our moment-to-moment well-being. So sure, one aspect of mindfulness is aiming to be more focused with our attention. That’s because otherwise, most of us spend a lot of our time doing one thing and thinking about another....

“Corporations have jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon because it conveniently shifts the burden onto the individual employee,” write Ron Purser and David Loy in the Huffington Post. “Stress is framed as a personal problem, and mindfulness is offered as just the right medicine to help employees work more efficiently and calmly within toxic environments.” Do such arguments have scientific merit? Or do they throw the mindful baby out with the corporate bath water?...