Tabla de contenidos para December 2017 en Mindful

barry@mindful.org Our must-read story this issue: “Meditators under the Microscope” explores Richie Davidson and Daniel Goleman’s assessment of the science of mindfulness, as presented in their new book, Altered Traits. How do you know? Since forever, this has been one of the hardest questions to answer. And until the scientific revolution, unless you had firsthand knowledge (“I tried meditation and it did this for me, but I can’t say what it will do for you”), you had to rely on others you trusted (“The One-Who-Knows-All says that this plant will cure your anxiety”). With the advent of scientific experimentation, the standard for knowledge began to shift, and nowadays with other kinds of authority in decline, the gold standard for knowledge is whether it has been tested in an experimental setting.…

An Uber driver in Florida was concerned when he saw his depressed passenger’s destination was a bridge. Discreetly alerting patrollers, he stayed and talked with the man until help arrived. A retrofitted minivan delivers books to refugees living in Athens, Greece. With reading materials in English, Greek, French, Arabic, Kurdish, and Farsi, this traveling library makes culture more widely accessible. How far would you go to save a beloved pet? A man in Gloucester, England, revived his drowning tortoise, Freda, by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for an hour.…

NUTRITION INFO • Excellent source of manganese and vitamin B6 • Very good source of vitamin C and copper • Good source of selenium, phosphorus, vitamin B1, and calcium source: whfoods.com Garlic is what’s called an “aromatic.” And it’s easy to see (or, rather, smell) why: A minced clove sizzling in a skillet can diffuse its way through an entire house within minutes. The zing of fresh garlic can linger on the breath for hours—to the displeasure of noses everywhere. Because of its intense aroma, we usually think of garlic as a seasoning, not so much a food in its own right. But roasted to creamy, caramelized perfection, its pungency breaks down into something deliciously dynamic that excites the tongue and warms the body. TRY THIS Grab a head or…

Matthew Zeller, 51, has worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 23 years as an officer, lieutenant, and now sergeant at the Santiam minimumsecurity facility in Salem. In 2013, after 19 years of accumulating job-induced stress, Zeller felt “broken” and desperate to quit. When he learned of a DOCsponsored class on mindfulness, he overcame his initial skepticism and enrolled. Now, Zeller, who describes himself as being “on a road to recovery,” periodically teaches and cofacilitates mindfulness classes for his coworkers. 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…

Think of the people you most admire. What qualities do they have? It’s likely that character traits like being empathic, trustworthy, and a good listener, or having patience, a positive attitude, and being adaptable come to mind. Surprisingly these traits that help people truly succeed in their careers are not necessarily the ones that make you the best programmer, number cruncher, or designer. And these “soft skills” are not the ones traditionally taught in school or in corporate training programs. And yet, according to business forecasters, they’re exactly the qualities employers are seeking more and more. Someone who embodies these interpersonal being skills—in addition to the specialized doing skills needed to perform their work—is highly desirable in today’s job market. It signals that not only can you get the job…

The best-known study from Richie Davidson’s lab, as of this writing, has 2,813 citations and has also gone viral outside academia, reverberating through the echo chamber of big and social media alike. Those bringing mindfulness to companies invariably mention it as “proof” that the method will help folks there. Yet, the study in question—based on the time Richie had Jon Kabat-Zinn teach MBSR to volunteers at a highstress biotech startup—raises large questions in the eyes of scientists, including Richie himself. At the time, Richie had been pursuing data on the ratio of activity in the right versus left prefrontal cortex while people were at rest. More right-side activity than left correlated with negative moods like depression and anxiety; relatively more left-side activity was associated with buoyant moods like energy and…

1 SCENARIO THINGS GET HOT IN A MEETING AND EMOTIONS TAKE OVER RESPONSE If you ask yourself, “What outcome do I truly want here?”, you may be able to see your true aim more clearly and defuse the excess emotion that may be getting in the way. It’s not about doing away with passion and emotion; it’s about assessing how to spend the precious resource of your—and everyone else’s— mental energy. 2 SCENARIO DISTRACTION KEEPS YOU FROM ACCOMPLISHING IMPORTANT THINGS RESPONSE When you have that feeling of being lost, you can inquire, “Where is the most important place for my focus and energy to be right now?” To help promote deep focus, try creating a 90- minute block on your calendar (say in the form of a faux doctor’s appointment)—…

THE ELEMENTS OF MINDFULNESS Scott L. Rogers • Mindful Living Having taught and written extensively on the use of mindfulness in university law programs, Scott Rogers is an expert in bringing meditation to busy people. If seated meditation feels like yet another thing you can’t fit into your day, the method in this book offers an alternative, or complementary, practice. Rogers guides you to pay attention to the present moment by simply reflecting on familiar elements of the natural world over the course of a day. You can take their presence, he suggests, as an invitation to check in with the “elements of mindfulness”: body, breath, thoughts, feelings, and awareness. Catching sight of a tree, for example, reminds you to straighten your posture. Hearing a bird singing encourages you to listen…

Spend a little time in front of a fire and you’ll notice all kinds of things: snaps and crackles, rich smoke rising, the spontaneous dance of flames, a blanket of warmth that verges on too much. None of these things are the fire itself. We don’t hear fire crackle; we hear the wood. We don’t touch the fire; we enjoy the warm air that radiates from the coals. We don’t even see the fire. We see the light it shoots out as it swallows up wood and air. It’s like an orchestra: The fire conducts the show, and the elements play together so well it’s as if they are one.…

What’s the hardest thing about having a pet? • “That they don’t live as long as we do.” • “When you cannot understand what they want or need.” • “Them pooping in the house.” • “Not knowing what they are thinking.” • “They miss you.” • “Leaving them to go to work.” • “HOLIDAYS ABROAD.” • “That they have a great life and billions of other beings don ’ t.” • “The barking when someone is at the door !” • “Not tripping over them.” • “Guilt is the hardest thing . When you do have a jam-packed day you feel so guilty that they are home waiting for you.” • “Cleaning the litter box.” • “The vet bills.” How many pets do you have? Do you ever talk to…

mindful Researchers at Johns Hopkins found a simple way to improve kids’ school attendance, test scores, and self-esteem: Make sure they can see the front of the room. With Vision For Baltimore, they’re providing free eye exams and eyeglasses to low-income students across 150 schools. Disposable plastics are convenient. Their environmental impact? Not so much. Eco-company Avani has created a cassava-based bioplastic bag with a much smaller footprint. It dissolves in hot water and is biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable. Media outlets have been shifting their use of language in order to change our cultural perspectives. Allure magazine, for example, has banned the term “anti-aging” from its pages. While visiting London’s Natural History Museum, a 10-year-old boy with a penchant for the prehistoric observed that one of its dinosaur skeletons was…

JANUARY 12 – 15, 2018 DANIEL SIEGEL & MARC BRACKETT The Art and Science of Connecting Mind, Body, and Emotion for Student Success Conference JANUARY 21 – FEBRUARY 16, 2018 DON STAPLETON & AMBA STAPLETON 200-hour Self-Awakening Yoga® Teacher Training JANUARY 28 – FEBRUARY 2, 2018 ANGEL KYODO WILLIAMS Embodying Our Values in Times of Change FEBRUARY 2 – 4, 2018 MARTHA BECK Navigating the Storm: Finding Peace and Purpose in Uncertain Times FEBRUARY 2 – 4, 2018 ELISSA EPEL & EVE EKMAN Using the Telomere Effect for a Vibrant Healthspan FEBRUARY 16 – 19, 2018 KRISTA TIPPETT On Being Gathering: Becoming Wise: A Calling for This Age MARCH 2 – 4, 2018 ALANIS MORISSETTE & ANN RANDOLPH Exploring self and Self…

Is it really natural to meditate? I doubt our cave-dwelling ancestors stopped to sit in silence with their eyes closed. Why do we think this is a normal thing to do? You’re absolutely right: Our ancestors were way too busy hunting and gathering to bliss out in meditation. But then again, isn’t that the point? They lived literally hand to mouth, always looking over the horizon for the next predator or inspecting the flora for the plant that could make them deathly ill. We are the descendants of anxious, hyper-alert survivalists. This means, of course, that we come by our tendency to be worried, ruminative, and cautious naturally, through no fault of our own. But just because we have inherited high-alert brains that see threat and danger in every email,…

Mindfulness now carries a broad, popular—and therefore inevitably loose—definition. It’s used to refer to generally paying attention in life, but it also carries more precise definitions, including a human capability of being aware of one’s own mind, body, and surroundings, as well as practices to cultivate that capability. Scientific research cannot rely on the broad definitions in common parlance. Researchers require an empirical definition, one that is not philosophical or spiritual and points to something as concrete and measurable as possible. One of the first elements of a definition of mindfulness is to distinguish mindfulness practice (the instruction given as a means to foster inherent mindfulness) from mindfulness as a basic human quality or ability. A further distinction exists in the literature between “state mindfulness” (the immediate experience of being…

Mindfulness in preschool A new initiative in Miami, Florida, is assessing how mindfulness in families might cultivate resilience and reduce domestic violence. The pilot program is headed by Scott Rogers, a mindfulness teacher and director of Miami Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program. Rogers has developed mindfulness exercises to be integrated into an Early Head Start educational setting, where preschool teachers, parents, and young children can learn about and practice mindfulness together—in the classroom as well as at home. Each session includes creative games and draws upon elements of nature to help children learn the basics, such as paying attention to their bodies and breath. Rogers is launching the pilot in collaboration with Maria Riestra, Director of Head Start; Lucia Davis-Raiford, Director of Miami-Dade County’s Community Action and Human Services Department;…

In my teens and 20s I lived in a spiritual community where days and nights of ordered living, rules, and obedience made it seem like change was something that happened somewhere else, to other people. For us, life felt unchanging, certain, solid. And then a scandal flamed through the group like a fire through a tinder-dry forest. In a flash, one identity ended, and my new life began. I had no choice but to open up to the kaleidoscope of possibilities inherent in every moment. And it was one heck of a ride. I started working in the arts as a producer, creator, and performer. And I finally knew who I was. Or at least, I thought I knew who I was, and then that changed, too, as everything does.…

JUDSON BREWER, MD, PHD Psychiatrist and Chief, Division of Mindfulness; associate professor, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry; research director, Center for Mindfulness, UMASS Medical School KNOWN FOR Discovering how mindfulness can undercut addiction; using neuroimaging techniques to reveal how mindfulness affects the brain; developing mindfulness tools to help people quit smoking and handle food cravings. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Examining the effects of mindfulness programs delivered via digital means. “This is the next generation of mindfulness delivery,” he says. “We want to carefully study how it works.” His team has created an app, “Unwinding Anxiety,” which he plans to study in future clinical trials. DAVID CRESWELL, PHD Associate professor of psychology, Carnegie Mellon University KNOWN FOR Examining what makes people resilient under stress and cofounding health neuroscience, which combines health psychology and…

The Nature Conservancy is working to create a future in which people and nature thrive together. That’s not easy these days, with booming worldwide populations, growing pressure on natural resources and habitats, and partisan political wrangling. But as president and CEO, Tercek remains optimistic about the future. He points to four areas in which the nonprofit group is helping to solve some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead. ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE TNC is demonstrating nature’s potential as a cost-effective climate solution, helping people and nature adapt to the effects of a changing climate, and driving clean energy development that sustains communities while minimizing impacts on nature. According to Tercek, nature-based solutions for sequestering carbon, such as forest conservation and reforestation, investing in soil health, and restoring coastal ecosystems, could…

The idea that acceptance reduces suffering can be hard to get your head around, especially when it comes to accepting some of life’s most painful and lifealtering events. It’s one thing to accept not finding parking and missing a dinner reservation. It’s another thing altogether to accept the death of a deeply loved person or the foreclosure and eviction from your family’s home. There is no choice but to go through grief when tragedy strikes. But we make it worse when we fight or struggle against it by getting pulled down the rabbit holes of regret (If only I had not done this or had said that) and fear (I’ll never love again. I’ll never be free of this pain.). These regretful and fearful thoughts are normal responses to grief,…