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So, in many ways, the negativity bias makes sense for survival. But to be resilient, to respond to distressing events in a positive, flexible, effective way, to discern the options we have and take wise action, we also need to be able to shift the brain out of negativity, reactivity, and contraction, toward receptivity and openness to the big picture. Learn to Shift the Brain Out of Negativity Mindfulness teaches us to focus our awareness on our feelings, on the tone of our experience....

Our spontaneous wedding was blessed by the generosity of strangers—after all, who doesn’t adore a good love story? And those Greeks know how to party. The Zorba-like resort owner invited the whole village for a roast lamb feast, the cook’s flute sang alongside the blacksmith’s bouzouki, and a visiting BBC camera crew offered to video our vows. The wedding of a lifetime, held at sunset on a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea, cost us young lovers three barrels of Retsina....

Rarely do we just let ourselves stare into space these days. Like many people, I feel uncomfortable when I’m not doing something—uncomfortable “wasting time.” We humans have become multi-tasking productivity machines. We can work from anywhere, to great effect. We can do more, and do it far more quickly, than we ever dreamed possible. Our fabulous new technologies buy us tons more time to crank out our work, get through our emails, and keep up with Modern Family....

One of the most effective tactics for staying on task is to bring purpose to each moment of your work. That might sound daunting — and it does take work — but mindlessly performing tasks (think about slogging through emails or conducting meetings on autopilot) is a recipe for inefficiency, disengagement, and even poor health. On the other hand, the benefits to our productivity, well-being, and health of having a clear sense of purpose — even in our most trivial tasks — are well established....

Mindfulness practices were initially developed in Eastern cultures, where people tended to think of themselves primarily in relationship to their communities, often referred to as interdependence. In Western societies, individuals often think of themselves as being independent, or separate from others. Prior research has shown that when we see ourselves as interdependent, we tend to behave in ways that are consistent with valuing interpersonal harmony and relationships, while those who see themselves as independent tend to act in line with the values of autonomy and self-benefit....

Research shows that the more anxious you are, the more likely you are to prefer texting someone instead of calling them. But if you’re anxious—or angry, or have just consumed a few pints—the state of mind that you’re in when you send a text also effects your communication. “Texting is one of the many things people do to get rid of anxious energy or other negative feelings,” psychologist Leora Trub told Mindful when we first caught wind of the app back in August....

“Be” Home for the Holidays: Instead of being overwhelmed or exhausted by the many demands of the holidays, you can take a different approach—one involving more “being” and less “doing,” says Jeff Brantley. He offers a mindfulness practice for this busy time of year. Have a Happy, Gift-Light Holiday: Diana Winston talks about dealing with gifts and consumption in a more mindful, saner way than some of us, at least, might be used to....

At a personal and professional level, he discusses the emergence of studies surrounding the effects of meditation on the brain and how studies and findings have proceeded since those early days. Davidson is a professor of pyschology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s also founder and director of Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. He also recently co-authored The Emotional Life of Your Brain with Reuters health and science correspondent, Sharon Begley....

So many wrecks occurred in this area that the New Zealand government regularly visited these islands and set up depots, stocked with food, clothing, and tools for the use of castaways waiting to be rescued. It turns out that the disappointment of being shipwrecked, which I imagine would be considerable, was survivable if one had provisions. And therein, of course, lies the moral: If we have the provisions to deal with disappointment, it is workable....

In these moments, rather than answer this question directly, I find it helpful to remind myself of three simple points: Allowing negative emotions to exist in our lives—for the moment—does not mean that we’ve chosen not to take action. The concept of acceptance, as introduced in MBCT, is intended to describe the possibility of developing a different relationship to experience, one that is characterized by allowing an experience and letting it be....

To read her post, click here. You may also want to check out the mindful.org archives for articles on mindfulness and the workplace. For instance, in “How to Get From Distraction to Satisfaction,” Emotional Intelligence author Daniel Goleman looks at three ways we can reduce multitasking at work.

A dear mindfulness colleague called me an hour before that moment in the grocery store, with urgency in her tone. “Have you gone shopping? You have to go shopping, right now, I’m not kidding. We are all about to go on lockdown, go get food right now!” My colleague is a doctor, her husband is a doctor, I thought they would be the first ones to laugh this whole thing off as some kind of social media mind-madness....

This is great, because you can only practice mindfulness if you’re aware of it. Nevertheless, the wildfire spread of recognition also brings challenges. With fast-growing breadth tends to come less depth, and there’s been a tendency for some mindfulness approaches to focus more on its supposedly easy wins (calming, appreciating the pleasant, simple stress relief in a very short time), and not so much on the potential for deeper, but perhaps more difficult shifts (facing and managing the unpleasant parts of life, letting go of fixed and false ideas about ourselves and the world, addressing social as well as individual stressors and stresses)....

Focusing attention on breathing through the eyelids doesn’t change anything directly. (It isn’t even, as far as I know, actually possible.) It does break Nuke out of his mental cycle long enough to just throw. It’s a reminder most of us would benefit from in our lives, with or without continual guidance from a wise, sardonic baseball catcher and equally sanguine girlfriend. Baseball for Care Providers This astute advice doesn’t only apply on the baseball diamond....

“It was nonstop for two years,” says Modabber, who has dark curly black hair and a warm smile. “That period in my life was so hard that I blocked it out. I don’t even remember my teachers’ names. The entire class turned on me.” Modabber is now the principal and founder of Golestan Education, a Persian-language preschool and after-school program in Berkeley, California that collaborates with other local schools on cultural education, where my son will be going to preschool next year....

Turns out Shaun was not my soulmate. I look back at the confused girl I was with a mixture of amusement and compassion. I was suffering. I thought my perfect mate existed. You did, too. Back then we all believed if we could only find that one special person he or she would make us happy, ever after. The problem is that now I’m 51, not 13, and yet traces of that longing still invade my mind and bedevil my relationship....

What you seem to be saying is that, as a direct result of practice, you happen to notice that you are able to “think outside the box” and be creative and innovative. I’d say your completely subversive “dirty little secret” might just change the culture of your business, and if you’re not careful, could infect your employees, too! All kidding aside, it’s not the ideas you get that pose a potential problem, but practicing in anticipation of getting ideas....

Keep a Gratitude Journal. Establish a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts, grace, benefits, and good things you enjoy. Recalling moments of gratitude associated with ordinary events, your personal attributes, or valued people in your life gives you the potential to interweave a sustainable theme of gratefulness into your life. Remember the Bad. To be grateful in your current state, it is helpful to remember the hard times that you once experienced....

The six finalists were chosen from a list of 20 semi-finalists. Each semi-finalist will receive a ticket to the Wisdom 2.0 Conference in February. On August 30, the finalists will present their ideas in front of a panel of judges at 1440 headquarters. Judges will evaluate projects based on their alignment with the foundation’s objectives. Three winners will then be announced September 1—and each will receive $25,000. For more information, visit the 1440 Foundation website and read James Gimian’s latest blog post about this program and what such projects can do for our society....