“In order to stand with us, and people that look like me, you have to be educated on issues that pertain to me,” he says. The whole video is well worth a watch—here are just three of the understandings Acho shares to help us increase our empathy so that we can act from deeper understanding and solidarity toward racial justice. 3 Ways to Better Understand Racial Struggle 1. Riots are a last resort To many, rioting is simply an act of senseless and destructive aggression, and the recent riots in many US cities appear to have come out of nowhere....

A recent post from the ABA law blog tells the story of one lawyer who used mindfulness meditation to help him cope with his melonoma diagnosis. The blog then touched on some of the recent developments in bringing mindfulness into legal practice, including mentions of law schools with mindfulness components to their programs, and the various bar associations that include some sort of mindfulness component in their operations. To read the blog post, “Mindfulness in legal practice is going mainstream,” click here....

I’ve put together some guidelines I developed over my 20 years of practice to make it a little easier for you this year: Accept what is. Uncle Louie will probably drink too much, as he always does, and may even dance on the table. As much as you wish it weren’t so, not all family members would be your top choice for friends. So don’t argue with reality. You can feel frustrated, angry, sad, and resentful....

Tell me about the challenges of your job. As soon as you show up to work and go through the gate, you have to be on. You’ve got to watch everything around you, because you never know what’s going to happen. You’re dealing with inmates who are fighting or injured in an accident. You’ve got verbal aggression and contraband. I never relax inside the facility. Even when I’m off work, it’s hard: My wife knows that I can’t sit in a restaurant without being able to see the door and everybody in the room....

Stress Rx To see if mindfulness might buffer against work stress faced by emergency care professionals, researchers in New York and Switzerland asked 190 emergency room medical personnel to complete surveys regarding their dispositional mindfulness, anxiety, depression, social support, and life events. Questionnaires were completed just after they began working in an emergency room, then again three and six months later. Higher levels of mindfulness at baseline were linked to less anxiety, depression, and social impairment over time even after accounting for work stress, negative life events, and low perceived support from colleagues....

Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility by Ellen Langer Health and Healing: The Philosophy of Integrative Medicine and Optimum Health by Andrew Weil The Healing Power of the Breath: Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions by Richard P. Brown and Patricia L. Gerbarg Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine by Saki Santorelli How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers by Toni Bernhard How to Use Herbs, Nutrients and Yoga in Mental Health by Richard P....

We Have a Choice to Remain in Control Two weekends ago, as the state where I live was finally waking up to the realization that preparation was in order and that we wouldn’t be spared, my husband and I made a trip to the supermarket to stock up on supplies and essentials. Now you have to understand that I live in a state that is under a threat of hurricanes almost annually at this point, and that what I saw was beyond the frenzy we experience when we are in the “cone of uncertainty” and being told to brace for impact....

For Bell, observing things and taking photos is a meditative experience. “It’s just a wonderful way to stay focused,” he says. “To take good pictures, you have to train yourself to see, you have to look. And you have to be somewhere else other than yourself. It pulls me outside of me.” The photo gallery below contains more of Bell’s photos, all taken on an iPhone 4. To learn more about how to take good photos with your iPhone, click here....

Lately I feel like I’m running on high and pumping adrenaline in fight-or-flight mode, even when my body isn’t moving. I was off work last week, and went careening into my staycation with a to-do list of household chores and long put off paperwork to accomplish. Instead, I found myself taking comfort in my usual coping mechanisms—snacks and reality TV, and experiencing a weird cycle of sleeping either too much or not enough, never quite able to hit the sweet spot....

Rep. Tim Ryan: Oh, it’s been more essential than ever because Washington has been more chaotic than ever, with more frequent bouts of insanity than normal. So, mindfulness practice has really kept me engaged and prevented me from getting burned out and allowed me to still enjoy the work. Not every single part of it, of course, but overall. BB: We all sense an increase in fear and aggression emanating out of Washington....

What gets your creative juices flowing: 56% OPT FOR THE HEALTHIEST OPTION—a walk in nature, while 22% prefer group conversation, and 17% choose meditation. Less than 1% choose a pack of cigarettes and some Tom Waits (though many readers choose Tom Waits without the cigarettes). STANDOUT ANSWERS: Housecleaning Sex COFFEE A little of the finest Herb and good old rock ‘n’ roll A hot shower Clean desk or cluttered desk? 47% CHOOSE A CLEAN DESK....

Sixty-five percent of participants overcame their reluctance and administered the maximum voltage. Commenting on the results, Milgram concluded that when “asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.” The experiments (which incidentally would not meet today’s standards for ethical psychological testing) looked at moral fiber and conscience in the way that most of Western psychology and neuroscience has tended to: from the point of view of dysfunction, pathology, and neurosis, with an eye perhaps to fixing what’s wrong....

Although my brother is ten years older, I’ve always regarded him as young. We’re close and he’s the one who set me on the path that led to my practicing mindfulness, so I’m ever grateful for that. I think of us in those early days, when meditation was a new discovery, and how freeing that was, once you got the hang of it. I think of us in even earlier days, when I would sleep out in a tent in a friend’s backyard down the block and he and one of my other brothers would come up the alley tapping a cane and eventually sneak up on the tent and scare the bejesus out of us....

Appreciate the moment. When your thoughts become focused on what could be, you lose contact with what actually is. This guided meditation helps you notice your experience as it happens, so you can notice what’s going right, instead of worrying about what might go wrong. Rather than falling into harmful thought patterns, you can embrace challenges that come your way. Doing this strengthens your sense of gratitude for the present moment....

1. Release the critic Not only is anxiety painful enough, but we often get hit with a second round of self-critical thoughts. Ask yourself a simple question: Do the judgments make you more or less anxious? The answer is almost always, more. When you notice the self-critic, see if you can interrupt it by dropping into your heart and saying, “May I learn to be kinder to myself.” 2. Practice tuning into the senses In moments of moderate to intense anxiety the 3×3 practice can come in handy....

There are lots of other things about me: I knit, I write, I live with an anxiety disorder, I’m still not sure what the offside rule in hockey is all about, and I have an alarmingly large collection of stuffed Snoopys for someone who is about to turn 51. But in so many ways, “bereaved mom” defines me because it’s the lens through which I view my world. I’m living and Thomas is not....

Watch the video (2 minutes, 24 seconds): For more on this subject, read Mindfulness and the Military here on Mindful.org.

There’s simply so much truth to this. However, most of the time we live without intentionality, and that’s when we look back many years later and say, “Where did it all go?” It’s time to live as if it mattered. We can think of mindfulness, the act of paying attention on purpose and without judgment, as a kind of mental training to be more intentional with our lives. Think about how the act of priming works: If the morning starts out with worries about all the work to do that day and the mind keeps practicing worrying, then when you get to work, everything you see will be regarded through an anxious lens....

Those are the first words Eleanor Shellstrop (played by Kristen Bell) sees on the wall in front of her when she opens her eyes in the first minutes of the NBC television series The Good Place. Eleanor has died and gone to Heaven, explains an angel named Michael (Ted Danson). There’s just one problem… At this point, anyone who hasn’t watched The Good Place at least to the end of its first season needs to stop reading, because I am about to spoil everything....