Alas, as research subsequently showed, such artificially inflated self-esteem does not boost academic performance, occupational success, or leader ship ability, let alone improve personal relationships. The best account of these findings is a May 2003 paper in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. I was prompted to take this trip down memory lane when I began noticing a profusion of studies on “self-affirmation.” This is a little different from self-esteem....

Fast-forward a decade or two, and we’re beginning to see the opposite: the brain is designed to adapt constantly. World-renowned neuroscientist Richie Davidson at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with this colleagues, want us to know three things: 1) you can train your brain to change, 2) that the change is measurable, and 3) new ways of thinking can change it for the better....

Their daily routine included a dizzying array of activities and responsibilities that kept them constantly stressed. Getting their kids out the door to school was an ordeal, involving much haranguing and eating on the run. After working long hours, they arrived home to a laundry list of other duties. Constant interruptions from electronic devices made them feel on call to their workplaces and disengaged from each other. Though unhappy, they didn’t know what to do or how to make a change....

At such times, we’re not really meditating. If mindfulness meditation is the allowing or accepting of all that is arising in our awareness and holding it with kindness and patience and willingness, then using Strategic Meditation to calm down or stop a wave of sadness represents resistance to our feelings, not acceptance. We are adopting a stance of judging the feeling as bad or undesirable or problematic and trying earnestly to make it stop or go away....

Many aspects of technology hijack our attention so that we become disconnected from the present moment. We can easily lose track of time and our surroundings. We might be caught up in habitual reactions rather than making time for thoughtful responses. We might communicate in ways that do not actually serve our basic human needs or those of others. We can start to have a sense of not being fully connected to our lives and the people in them....

Mindfulness meditation asks us to suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness, to ourselves and others. Meditation does not take any single form and most practices fall within three broad categories: Focused-attention meditation: The aim here is to train the mind’s capacity for concentration and awareness of the present moment by focusing on a single point of attention (such as the breath)....

I remember one Saturday night when I was out dancing with my husband, Phil. It was a social dance at our instructor’s studio. The floor wasn’t very crowded, so we had plenty of room to move. We took our positions and started to glide along the floor as the waltz played. I moved lightly, curving in and out of Phil’s arm as he led me into turns. As he did, I had space to pull through the move and go past him—dancing in unison and in the same direction as the other pairs, as the whole group charted a big circular course around the room....

A new study by the University of Leeds claims that a hearty chuckle promotes healing. The researchers, who carried out a five-year study of patients with leg ulcers, found that a hearty laughter stimulates the diaphragm which, in turn, plays a vital part in increasing blood circulation. It actually speeds recovery from leg ulcers, while expensive ultrasound therapy does little to help, they said. More A good laugh can be especially beneficial to people suffering from high blood pressure, says a report from the US Society for Vascular Surgery....

If you’re familiar with the five stages of grief as famously characterised by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, you’ll know that among the well-known DABDA (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) framework, there is no F for fear. It’s an omission that grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith has thought a lot about. The author of the recent Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief, Bidwell Smith had lost both of her parents to cancer by her 25th birthday....

So why not use the occasion to really celebrate love? Here are a few ways to say “I love you” during this heart-stamped month that don’t require a credit card. Listen—really listen—to your partner. That means giving them your openminded, genuinely interested attention, according to mindful communication experts Hope Martin and David Rome. Take the time to fully absorb what they’re saying. Body language, word choice, tone of voice—you’ll be amazed at what you may have been missing....

Emory researchers describe CBCT as a form of “mind training” or “thought transformation.” For the practitioner of CBCT, the objective is to shift thoughts from “me” to “others” in the following eight steps: (1) developing attention and stability of mind through focused attention training; (2) cultivating insight into the nature of mental experience; (3) cultivating self-compassion; (4) developing equanimity; (5) developing appreciation and gratitude; (6) developing affection and empathy; (7) realizing aspirational compassion; and (8) realizing active compassion....

The participants in each group underwent weekly 1.5-hour sessions in their designated intervention method and daily home practice for twelve weeks; this was followed by another 12 weeks of home practice. Researchers then conducted follow-up assessments at the end of the 24-week study. The results indicated that all of the three methods of stress intervention contributed to the decrease in negative emotions and the increase in general well-being. Yet the group that practiced mindfulness exhibited a slightly higher level of improvement compared to the other two groups....

Per Project It’s often said that a dog is a man’s best friend, but anyone with a pet would argue that their furry, feathery, or scaly companion feels more like family than anything else, which is why being separated can be heartbreaking. So Mascotas Para Migrantes (Pets for Migrants), a program organized by immigration attorney Taylor Levy and communications worker Jordyn Rozensky, is currently working to reunite immigrants and asylum-seekers with their pets....

We’ll be launching MindfulDirect soon, but we wanted to share our work to date, and we think that this short clip from our interview with Google’s Bill Duane is inspiring and informative. He shares a poignant story about how meditation helped him with life challenges we all face. Bill’s interview is one of over 50 we’ve recently conducted with champions in the mindfulness field, and they are currently being edited in preparation for the MindfulDirect launch....

A recent exception is The Suicide Prevention Through Mindfulness Training program, an eight-week pilot program held in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Conducted in May and June 2021, the program was offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association Newfoundland and Labrador (CMHA-NL) in partnership with Safer Mindfulness Inc. A follow-up support program for participants was also offered from late August to early October 2021. Mindfulness instructor and trainer Andrew Safer, author of Anxiety, Stress and Mindfulness, designed and led both programs, with input and support from a diverse team....

Here’s a one-minute tip that comes from a new release called Mindfulness Meditations for the Anxious Traveler: Quick Exercises to Calm Your Mind. You can use this anywhere and anytime while traveling to begin neutralizing the stress and stepping into what really matters. Be an Ambassador of Compassion “When sitting on a plane (or substitute your mode of transportation), see the ‘choice point’ by considering all the other people on the plane who are also struggling with being an anxious traveler....

With no way to fix her spine or stop her pain, the physicians sent a hospital chaplain who led Burch in a meditation. He asked her to recall a time and place where she felt happy, and she thought of a time before her injuries when she climbed the Southern Alps of New Zealand. “I went from feeling lost and desperate to feeling connected to these very happy, beautiful times,” she says....

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The amygdala is a region in the brain that is particularly susceptible to stress. Heightened activity in the amygdala has previously been linked to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and emotion regulation, but has yet to be considered as a risk factor for heart disease. In addition to stress, studies show that arterial inflammation is a known risk factor for cardiovascular illness. Prior animal studies also point to a link between chronic stress and alterations of bone marrow and spleen activity, however these linkages have not been tested in humans....