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The retreat will take place April 9-13 at the Menla Center in Phoenicia, New York. Register for Cultivating Leadership Presence Through Mindfulness. You’ll also want to check out the Institute for Mindful Leadership website for videos, articles, and posts on leadership excellence.

On the physiological level, regular sitting practice has been shown to increase endorphins, improve blood flow, and to mitigate the damaging effects of cortisol and adrenaline. Heck, stress alone is a major sex drive killer, so simply learning to calm down after a demanding day—perhaps with 20 minutes of mindfulness practice—can make connection and love more likely. Ultimately, great sex is all in your head. And mindfulness helps you minimize distractions by staying focused on what’s actually happening (I’m here in bed with you, kissing… not sending that email that’s been on my mind), pay attention (I’m experiencing the touch of your fingertips on my thigh…mmm), and become more self-aware (I’m really enjoying connecting with you sexually and emotionally)....

As the bear lumbered towards him, Churchill crouched down and wagged his tail. In spite of his ravenous hunger, the bear responded to the signal and switched from predator to playmate. One of the photos shows Churchill and the bear embraced in an affectionate hug as they tumbled and rolled around the ice. Then the huge polar bear turned and ambled away. Over the next few days, the bear returned to the site several times to play with his new friend....

Instead, what’s there now is an incessant feeling of being off-balance and leaving things half-baked. We’re more edgy and reactive, scattered and less in-tune. It’s starting to feel like a new normal and that can’t be good. We need to talk to get things back on track. What I’m talking about is how we’re using our attention. Managing Attention: The Next Challenge We’ve been neglecting attention and now it’s become one of our most essential challenges....

That includes happiness skills. That’s right: the Scouts are recognizing their own for achievements in “The Science of Happiness.” The badge for this skill is pictured here. As Girl Scouts rep Alisha Niehaus tells NPR, to earn the badge, which is considered a “skill building award,” a Girl Scout must “work for one month on a strategy generally believed to increase personal happiness.” And this isn’t just your run of the mill, childhood happiness....

In those days—before mindfulness was mainstream—I was always worried about something: my teaching, an essay I was writing, my granddaughters, my garden, a recent conversation with a friend. It didn’t take much to turn the anxiety faucet on, and once flowing, it could pull most areas of my life into its current. About halfway around the block that afternoon, I happened to glance down and notice a dried sycamore leaf curled gracefully on the pavement....

“What interests us—academics, journalists, mindfulness teachers—is the potential for public policy,” notes Bunting, as well as “the role mindfulness could play” in schools, health care, and the justice system. Bunting is working with three universities supporting the group. Read the full essay, “Why we will come to see mindfulness as mandatory.” The launch of the all-party parliamentary mindfulness group comes on the heels of the UK Education Minister giving a nod to introducing and promoting mindfulness in schools....

What Does HALT Stand For? In a nutshell, H beacons for asking ourselves: Am I hungry right now? A means checking in to see: Am I angry or anxious, or otherwise dysregulated and activated? L stands for lonely: Am I feeling lonely in this moment? And T stands for: Am I tired? Tune In to What Your Body Needs with the HALT Practice When you find yourself a bit dysregulated or overwhelmed, a few of these simple interventions can help....

Editor-in-Chief Barry Boyce: When you said feelings I’d heard that old song in my head. Feelings feelings were in, remember that? Stephanie Domet: Whoa whoa whoa feeling, that one? Editor-in-Chief Barry Boyce: Exactly. It’s the cliché cheesy song, it’s the ultimate cheesy song right. Feelings is a go-to for mindful. When we did our Getting Started series in 2014, it was very important to us that. Very early on we addressed working with emotions....

This practice doesn’t come naturally to me. By nature, I’m a doer. For me, the pull to act is a whole-body sensation: tension in my chest, flush cheeks, hot hands, as well as a rush to judgment and immediate problem-solving. My whole being doesn’t just scream “do something”; it insists “here’s how!” I try to pause, relax my (probably) tensed-up shoulders, and breathe until the feeling passes, noticing the swirling eddies of ideas, emotions, and physical sensations my halting leaves in its wake....

Generations of children and the adults reading it to them (it’s 55 years old now!) have reveled in this miniature version of the hero’s journey—at least partially because it is a great metaphor for the mind. The mind is indeed where the wild things are. It contains our fears for the future and the future of those we love, our regrets and shame stored up from the past, our confusion about who we are and who we ought to be, our anger with the ogres of the world, our annoyance with people who just aren’t fitting into our version of how they ought to be, and our annoyance at being so petty in trying to fit people into boxes....

It’s true: The coercive, bullying, Machiavellian style can lead to gains in power. Although studies show that bullies are not respected by their peers, are often isolated, and don’t have much sustained influence, the sixth-grade bully can get a lot of attention and influence others, just as the Machiavellian who rises to corporate or political power can make lives difficult and do much harm while they retain power. There are certain contexts, historical periods, and political moments where Machiavellianism and fear-mongering seems to work particularly well....

Recently, though, my research has led me to believe that one simple prescription can have transformative effects: look for more daily experiences of awe. This doesn’t require a trek to the mountains. What the science of awe is suggesting is that opportunities for awe surround us, and their benefits are profound. Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world....

Cultivating resilience during times of adversity is exhausting. Many people feel weak when faced with a crisis and it is dissonant to suggest they be physically or mentally tough. As an end of life doula, I regularly see this response. A hospice patient, a woman of deep spiritual grounding, with years of contemplative practice, recently said to me, “I’m not tough. I am scared. I am tired. I am so ordinary....

I’ve spent hours in Zoom meetings of various sorts the past couple weeks, connected with dear friends in China, Australia, England, Israel, Spain, Singapore, Canada, Switzerland and Croatia (to name just a few). I have felt joy arising to see the faces and hear the voices of people whose faces and voices I first encountered when we were breathing the same air, standing in the same physical space, each (in Dan Siegel’s term) “feeling felt” by the other....