Anne Alexander: You have been in extreme situations, including combat. How do you deal with fear? General Piatt: You have to embrace every environment you’re in and fear is a real thing; it serves a real purpose to heighten your senses to the threats around you. However, if it reaches high intensity and you’re not regulating, then you could act irrationally, which we’d never want. Anne Alexander: So how do you stay calm and see things clearly when things are at their absolute worst?...

David Gaz, the filmmaker, talked to Mindful about how his own experience of passing good along in the world made him think that there was more at play than just getting a hit from giving: I ended up helping this person who seemed hungry. A big smile came across his face and we went inside to eat some food. He ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, so I upgraded him to something with roast beef, extra cheese, extra everything....

read more Heather Grimes October 19, 2016 Carolyn Gimian October 31, 2018

Hargobind sees the program working. “Week one they’re all hunched over, maybe a hoodie on, arms crossed, and then by week five, they’re open and willing to share about their vulnerabilities, willing to share whole heartedly and honestly about what is challenging them in a moment of anger or happiness and how they’re relating to that emotion and what their narrative around that emotion is.” But it’s not just seeing that is believing....

A. If you can, set aside a few minutes to meditate before you go to bed, or to journal if that’s your preference—but give your mind some time to unwind. Our minds hum, even when we’re tired, so give yours an outlet so that you’re not stuck in rumination. And then, when you do get in bed, try a body-scan meditation. That can help you ease into quality deep sleep....

We easily get caught up in three R’s of holiday preparation: rehashing past events, ruminating about present-day difficulties, and rehearsing stories of upcoming events. And yet, as with any part of our lives, we can perhaps cook up a new “three R’s” this time around: Recognize our habitual patterns of thought, recalibrate, and remind ourselves what we’d like for our families during this stressful and busy time of year....

We are all natural storytellers—It’s how we organize our internal worlds. We spend a great proportion of our time encoding information into matrices of meaning that we use to interpret and predict social events, relationship experiences, and outcomes. Even now you are probably mentally describing your reaction to the last sentence. Stories have been used for millennia by indigenous peoples to convey everything from hunting wisdom to navigation, to passing on values and traditions....

The study suggets that over time, Facebook negatively effects young adults’ sense of well-being in terms of moment-to-moment happiness and how satisfied they are with their lives overall. From The New Yorker blog: Over two weeks, Kross and his colleagues sent text messages to eighty-two Ann Arbor residents five times per day. The researchers wanted to know a few things: how their subjects felt overall, how worried and lonely they were, how much they had used Facebook, and how often they had had direct interaction with others since the previous text message....

We meet here twice a month to introduce you to some of the teachers, thinkers, writers, researchers who are engaged in the mindfulness movement. You’ll hear all kinds of conversations here about the science of mindfulness, the practice of mindfulness, and the heart of mindfulness. I’m Stephanie Domet. I’m the managing editor at Mindful Magazine and Mindful.org. And this is Real Mindful. On this edition of Real Mindful, we pick up the thread of conversation between our founding editor, Barry Boyce, and his longtime friend and colleague Frank Ostaseski....

05/01/12

We all develop patterns of thinking over our lifetime, many of which are unconscious and can undermine our mental health by trapping us in painful moods. There are ways to break the pattern: a 2016 study again validated Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for treating depression. One premise of MBCT is that greater awareness of the content of our thoughts—cultivated through mindfulness practice—allows us to recognize destructive mental habits and, over time, create new approaches around even the most challenging experiences....

Mind Ground began publishing translated Mindful articles this month in a weekly email called the M Letter. The newsletter offers mindfulness practitioners an in-depth look at how mindfulness can be applied to areas of everyday life including education, work, and parenting. The first volume features practices from Shelly Tygielski, Rich Fernandez, Sharon Salzberg, Dr. Mark Bertin, Dr. Christopher Willard, Hugh Delehanty, and more. Through the exchange of research-backed mindfulness resources between the East and West, Mind Ground hopes to offer their audience a new perspective on well-being, health, and mindfulness meditation....

The Mindfulness Day website notes that the technique has, in recent time, reached mainstream society: “Mindfulness has already gone beyond the Buddhist and ‘spiritual culture’ and is being appreciated by practitioners of psychotherapy, general medicine, education, and even the military is finding benefit in its application. Mindfulness Day aims to raise awareness in the general population about the value and benefit mindfulness brings.” We have to agree—if you take a look at our website, we touch on almost every topic mentioned above, from mindfulness in the military and fighting fire to education, medicine, politics, and others....

Just like always, I was struck with the contrast between the idyllic gardening experiences of my fantasies with the real life gardening of my backyard. Somehow, the cold wind, muddy knees, hot sun, and chronically runny nose never figure into those mid-winter daydreams. I don’t remember ever fantasizing about the wet puddles that always gather this time of year, the sloshy mud that squashes into my clogs, or the tomato poles that just won’t stand up straight....

Dear Friends, I’m writing to you today because we share the mission of bringing mindfulness into the world, because we know it helps a great many people. Here at Mindful we get to hear from those folks everyday: teachers, nurses, police, gardeners, bankers, parents, you name it. We learn how they are using these tools to be more present and have better relationships at work, at home, and in their daily lives....

PauseAble founder Peng Cheng explained the tai chi element of the app to Fast Company: Earlier this summer, ustwo launched Moodnotes, a journalling app based in cognitive therapy in partnership with a company called Thriveport.

The gathering promises to bring together leaders in the field, including education researchers, along with meditation teachers and Congressman Tim Ryan. The three-day conference will involve breakout workshops: Mindful Education Research Developing Mindfulness Programs in Schools Mindfulness-based Therapy with Youth Mindfuless With At-Risk Youth For more information and to register, click here. 07/17/12 [photo © flickr.com/ ]

Sadly, most of us are sleep deprived and any extra minutes of shut-eye seem far too precious to readily give up. Our brains and bodies have been asleep for hours, and the shift from sleep to wake isn’t easy. Oftentimes a busy day lies ahead, so we must struggle to get a grip on our immediately racing thoughts upon awakening. Keeping a routine morning mindfulness practice can help awaken the brain and bring stability and focus to your morning....