Going through the motions of teaching meditation to the group of 8 male prisoners, and getting to know a few of the inmates sticking with the voluntary class, Abrams reflects on how her teaching experience and the feedback she’s received from inmates speaks to how meditation can help. To answer that question, Abrams speaks with Fleet Maull, founder of the Prison Mindfulness Institute, who started his work in 1989 while he was serving a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking....

Imagine this: In the middle of a lesson, one of your students deliberately makes an offensive remark that causes the other students to laugh and threatens to derail your lesson. Your fists start to clench and there’s a tightening in your chest. Before you know it, you snap angrily in a way that 1) doesn’t calm the students down, and 2) makes you spend the rest of the day, or several days, wondering if you’re a terrible teacher....

In April of 2000, on the spur of the moment, Casey Fenton bought a cheap airplane ticket to Reykjavik, Iceland, for a long weekend. At the time, Fenton was 22 years old and had no place to stay in Reykjavik. Undeterred, Fenton searched the online student database at the University of Iceland, extracted names and email addresses of 1,500 students, and sent messages like “Hey Bjorn, I am coming to Iceland....

Then the researchers started taking notes: who would help the stranger by answering her survey, and who would call out to the woman that she’d dropped something? Of those who had just withdrawn money 34% were willing to stop to answer the survey, but 62% of those who had not handled money gave their time to the survey taker. Similarly, while 60% of those who’d withdrawn cash told the woman she’d dropped her bus pass, 96% of those who had not just handled money did....

While at Harvard, Emotional Intelligence author Daniel Goleman’s research focused on methods that counter the impact of stress. Now he’s developed Relax: 6 Techniques to Lower Your Stress, a 45-minute audio program to help listeners effectively master methods to help naturally reduce stress. Since there’s no single universal antidote to stress relief, Dr. Goleman’s guided session offers several exercises to suit a variety of personal preferences. Though the guided relaxation program is especially beneficial to those with stressful jobs or lives, the techniques are also useful for everyday stressful situations or life transitions....

Medication Prescription medications are by far the most popular treatment for ADHD in children and adults, and research shows that the medications—usually stimulants such as amphetamines or methylphenidate (brand name Ritalin)—can help about 80% of those diagnosed with ADHD. But the downsides include possible side effects, such as insomnia and loss of appetite, on top of risks of dependence and abuse. Exercise I occasionally take prescription stimulants, and tend to mainline coffee, but my drug of choice is exercise: usually a swift hike, swim, or yoga class....

Four types of happiness we can tap into when we eat The happiness of sense contact (looking, tasting, smelling, feeling, touch and sound) The easiest and most obvious way to nourish happiness is to give yourself permission to indulge in the sensory pleasure that abounds when eating. Every time you notice the beauty of food, breathe deeply and smell the aromas of your meal. Notice the sensation of food in your mouth, the touch of the fork in your mouth, or the sound of a bite as you chew....

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression,” says study author Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. From the Center for Investigating Health Minds press release: The study investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities....

Self-compassion involves being open to and aware of one’s own suffering and offering kindness and understanding towards oneself. A study conducted by the University of Texas at Austin explores the link between self-compassion, academic achievement goals, and coping with academic failure. They analyzed how students dealt with disappointment after they failed their midterm exams. “The students who scored higher in self-compassion weren’t so derailed by the experience,” said Dr. Kristin Neff, who headed up the study....

Early February offered its best material. Cloudless skies deepened from the horizon’s powder blue to the stratosphere’s azure. Bare trees etched brown black gray lines in the air. The fooled ones, tenuously tipped, flecked the view with green. In an occasional shady patch, a red bud tree brightened the dim with a foliage fire. Such gusty days are rare so soon in the year, but that one pushed into evening with gale force....

From the news post on the University of Montreal website: Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes implied in living with cancer, as well as the fear of recurrence after remission. The study consisted of two groups of teenage cancer patients: an experimental group who took part in eight 90-minute mindfulness-based meditation sessions, and a control group who were placed on a waiting list....

Whether you are posting a profile on eHarmony, joining a local ping-pong club, or asking for a raise, moving into new territory takes bravery. This is especially true since there’s no certainty that your courageous act will bring you the approval of others or anything at all that you think you might want. So what’s the appeal? Putting yourself out there can be the depth charge that breaks you out of harmful habits....

Because of the everydayness of her experiences with racism, Gesmine felt ready to have hard conversations about it. But when she confronted her white friend about a microaggression directed at Asian Americans, she found her friend backing away, feeling hurt and attacked. Knowing what to say did not prepare Gesmine for the challenging emotional work of remaining connected with her friend with compassion while also challenging her to see why her behavior might be harmful....

How do people thrive in a climate where 65% of us are stressed at work and two-thirds of the workforce feels disengaged? At the recent Well-Being at Work conference, Rich Fernandez, co-founder and president of Wisdom Labs, a company bringing mindfulness to businesses like Starbucks and Google, discussed how mindfulness programs at work can counter some of the current burnout trends. Fernandez gave a nod to current research on how mindfulness helps regulate emotions and boost focus....

Later I came to work with him, in a coaching format. I discovered his life was tormented by his own vicious attacks on himself. Growing up in a critical family, he felt that he never lived up to their expectations. His father—ironically, a judge in a local court—had hoped his son would follow him into law. To his disappointment, his son did not, and he did not hide his disdain for his son’s career choice....

We all need to become more active and muscular in setting boundaries and priorities about how we work and live. This is becoming increasingly more important as old boundaries dissolve (think 9-5 workday, leisure-time on the weekend, vacations that allow undisturbed away time), and work permeates every nook and cranny of life. It’s easy to default to allowing the external conditions dictate our daily schedules. But a few simple strategies can help us craft our time and exercise previously unknown aspects of personal power....

We know we’re in the presence of a good listener when we get that sweet, affirming feeling of really being heard. But sadly it occurs all too rarely. We can’t force others to listen, but we can improve our own listening, and perhaps inspire others by doing so. Good listening means mindful listening. Like mindfulness itself, listening takes a combination of intention and attention. The intention part is having a genuine interest in the other person—their experiences, views, feelings, and needs....

When it comes to chronic pain, the key is learning to live with it rather than vainly trying to avoid or eradicate it. And mindfulness practice is a wonderful opportunity to do just that. It helps to shift the locus of control from the outside (“this is happening to me and there is nothing I can do about it”) to the inside (“this is happening to me but I can choose how I relate to it”)....