And then I was hit by one issue after another once I walked into my office. An upset parent who’d left a voicemail who urgently needed to talk to me. A clinician who needed help dealing with a student in crisis. An important meeting I needed to chair that I’d forgotten to put in my calendar. And worst of all, I must have used a ladle to scoop my sugar into my coffee travel mug that morning....
This connectivity often is an act of compassion—compassion defined as understanding, not sympathy or empathy, but open, accepting understanding. And in the swirl of complexity and pressure and ambiguity that is so often commonplace in our lives, making this spaciousness, I have found, requires deliberate intention and a commitment to prioritize its importance. But, if we take a few moments, perhaps right now, to consider those times when we felt understood, it might bring to our mind, body and heart a kind of warmth and ease, whether or not our view ultimately prevailed....
Mindfulness based techniques in this context have recently gained traction with the support of more empirical findings. Overall, there is a lot of evidence supporting mindfulness as a treatment approach for adults with PTSD, and a recent burgeoning literature corroborating positive neurological changes is following suit. First, I want to define trauma and PTSD. Trauma Defined: Trauma is a broad term, and according to the American Psychological Association (APA), it is an emotional response to a terrible event....
9 Secrets of Happiness One of our favorite discoveries on the new science of happiness? “Happiness is an equal opportunity emotion, as available to grouches and worriers as it is to the innately cheerful,” Barbara Graham writes in the June 2015 issue of Mindful magazine. Graham looks into how researchers are re-defining happiness beyond a simple connotation of pleasure: Read the full article, “What is Happiness, Anyway?”
This guy—a complete stranger—is holding me like I’ve never been held before. So firm and sure, I feel utterly supported. So light, I am perfectly free. Will you believe me when I tell you he looks like Johnny Depp? Latin American version. He’s from Argentina. And he’s explaining to me and my fellow classmates in a dance studio in downtown Buenos Aires how to achieve the best embrace, abrazo, before beginning a tango....
According to a study by Harvard psychologists, telling the truth is the more challenging of the two—but only for those who are also willing to cheat. Researchers invited participants to play a game in which they could, if they wanted to, lie for profit. Every round, the participants had to report whether they had correctly guessed the answer—but only after they saw what the answer was. If they guessed correctly, they earned money....
A consistent theme has emerged in many such critiques: an apparent discrepancy between the settings in which much mindfulness training takes place, and the professed attitudes and intentions of the practices themselves. So, the conference at Google Headquarters in Dublin seemed suspect to some, because Google’s sponsoring of mindfulness looks at odds with its place as an immensely wealthy corporate tech giant. Doesn’t it perpetuate a spewing of information which leads to frazzling brains rather than training them in steady, discerning attention?...
Mindful learning, on the other hand, cultivates insightful knowing rather than just a brain overloaded with information. Mindfulness creates space to let new information in and to allow us to see how it relates to what we already know. Recent neurological research at Harvard shows how this happens: mindfulness may actually increase the size of your brain. When I learned mindfulness practice in 1970, I felt for the first time in my life that I knew something to be absolutely true....
Sleep Better: More Shut-Eye at Night Means Brighter Days Sleep isn’t just relaxation for eight hours a day—it’s essential to our cognitive functioning. Meditation gives you all sorts of benefits, like enhanced REM sleep and increased levels of melatonin. Turns out it can even help serious sleep problems. Researchers conducted a study to see if mindfulness meditation would benefit those struggling with chronic insomnia. After eight weeks, those in the meditation training had less total wake time during the night, were more relaxed before going to bed, and reduced the severity of their sleep problems....
I’ve been returning to this practice in recent years with my own son, and reflecting on its power in a number of ways. For one thing, it connects us immediately with the natural world, and allows us to simply appreciate its beauty. The beauty of nature inspires awe, which we know from the research boosts happiness, generosity, even compassion and connection. It also connects us with the natural rhythms of the world, allowing us to step out of clock time and into what I think of as earth time....
Susan Bauer-Wu has indeed been with patients all her life. Her mother was a nurse at New York’s Central Islip State Hospital, a sprawling psychiatric facility on Long Island. Bauer-Wu sometimes even went to work with her mother and shadowed her. She went on to study nursing herself and during her sophomore year in college, when her mother was diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer, she went home to take care of her....
When I disputed one of the core tenets of physics, he didn’t respond with the kind of implied put-down I was used to: “How could a high school student know better than the great minds of the ages?” Instead, he started out from the assumption that I may be right, and engaged me in a debate. The second law of thermodynamics did not fall that day, but I did come to a better understanding by being allowed to question it....
In this short clip, Davidson explains the differences between “emotional style” and “emotional trait.” (1:29): For a longer segment (10:53 mins) on the Charlie Rose site, click here.
This practice is described as one that ” moves ‘reading’ beyond the search for knowledge to an attentive and interactive appreciation for what rests beneath the text and in our own souls. Though usually used in working with sacred texts, lectio easily adapts itself to a wide variety of meditative approaches to texts–from poems, novels, or cultural critiques to the soul-chilling daily headlines of the local newspaper. This is a method of ‘reading’ that also teaches us how to listen, with the whole self, to what a word or phrase speaks directly to or intimates about our lived experience....
Mass disillusionment followed. The president assassinated, the pope dead too early, the Vietnam War taking center stage. I remember the pervasive atmosphere of disappointment, of hopes dashed. It was my first taste of disillusionment. It would not be my last. I’ve been reading a lot about that period lately, and the up-close look at what was really going on has re-disillusioned me, if you can say that. The Camelot myth of the Kennedy era was, of course, just that....
Mindful’s on TV! This 30-second PSA on mindfulness airs weekend mornings on The CW. It includes footage from our MindfulDirect interviews at last year’s Center for Mindfulness Annual Scientific Conference. The Litton Entertainment group approached us to help them create a PSA to inform people about mindfulness, and we’re quite happy with the results. Hopefully this broadcast spot will help introduce even more people to mindfulness practice. And if you enjoyed the clips of the speakers in the PSA, you can look forward to more in-depth conversations coming to mindful....
READ MORE Yung Pueblo October 4, 2022 Yung Pueblo October 26, 2022 Stacee Reicherzer June 16, 2022 Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp October 11, 2021
Groggy, grouchy, or unproductive in the morning? We’ve all been there. But what’s actually going on in your head when you don’t get enough sleep? This video from Ted Ed, written by educator Claudia Aguirre, looks at how sleep deprivation affects the brain. When we get tired, our bodies generate the hormones adenosine and melatonin, which relax our muscles, slow the heart rate, and gently lull us into a deep non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep....
(Since the museum had to close its doors during the pandemic, we’ll report on the specifics of the on-site mindfulness program when the museum opens again. In the meantime, its events page lists online offerings, including mindfulness.) I‘ve seen many incredible museum spaces, but nothing prepared me for the magnificence of the NMAAHC. It immerses you in a way that makes knowledge visceral. As founding director Lonnie Bunch conveys in an introductory video, the experience is about what you need to know, not what you think you know....
