Tabla de contenidos para February 2020 en Mindful

As an old year ends and a new one begins, I like to find a few quiet moments for a simple practice that helps recognize this transition and honor all that has happened and all that awaits. I’d love to invite you to join me. You might want to have a tissue or a journal handy. I find this practice brings so many emotions to the surface, making me teary and grateful and excited to be alive all at once. Sit comfortably, relax your body, and close your eyes. Slowly, gently, breathe in through your nose, imagining that you are breathing in all of 2019 and what transpired for you, holding the whole year in your lungs for a couple of seconds. Survey your memories as they come in on…

EASING PAIN AND CRAVINGS A new study from the University of Utah and Rutgers University finds that people who crave opioids and are in chronic pain may benefit from adding mindfulness to a traditional methadone treatment (MMT) program. Thirty adults with opioid use disorder and acute or chronic pain undergoing MMT were assigned to either a Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) group, or a treatment-as-usual control group. The MORE participants learned mindfulness, thought-reappraisal, and savoring skills, in two-hour weekly group sessions, in addition to receiving four hours of individual/group therapy per week. The control group received six hours weekly of individual/group therapy, and no mindfulness education. All participants used a smartphone app to rate their stress, pain intensity, mood, and opioid cravings. At the end of eight weeks, MORE group members…

KEEP A JOURNAL Those who struggle to keep a journal can now use the Jour app to start writing daily. Users choose a check-in time to set a reminder for each day, and are then led through a number of prompts asking how they feel in the moment, what their goals are for tomorrow, and what they’ve done to take care of themselves. The app also offers a number of custom journals, including one for travel and one for dreams. SAVE THE DAY The GoodSAM app is the new way of asking, “Is there a doctor in the room?” Medical professionals and those trained in CPR and First-Aid can register as emergency responders on the app. By partnering with local ambulance services, GoodSAM is able to send an alert to…

MINDFUL “Mindfulness for Dogs”? It’s a thing—a canine behaviorist in Cambridge, New Zealand, “trains” owners and rescue dogs to help humans notice how moods and reactions affect dogs, and to help dogs grow past behavior issues. Taking effect in July 2022, a California law will bar middle and high schools from starting before 8:00 a.m., giving teens time for needed Zzzs. At many US schools, instituting a later start time has improved students’ mental health, attendance rates, and wakefulness in class. From Alaska’s Katmai National Park comes “Fat Bear Week”: An annual public education campaign about how bears prepare for hibernation. It includes a “fattest bear champion” vote and a reminder: “Fat bears only exist because of clean water and healthy ecosystems.” An avid runner (maybe TOO avid), Kade Lovell…

We all get lost in the dense forest of our lives, entangled in incessant worry and planning, in judgments of others, and in our busy striving to meet demands and solve problems. When we’re caught in that thicket, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters most. We forget how much we long to be kind and openhearted. We forget our ties to this sacred earth and to all living beings. And in a deep way, we forget who we are. My dense forest hums with a background mantra: There’s not enough time. I know I’m not alone; many of us speed through the day, anxiously crossing tasks off the list. This often comes hand in hand with feeling beleaguered, annoyed at interruptions, and worried about what’s around the corner.…

The reason the breath has to be audible is because the vibrations from the sound signal the vagus nerve—that connection between the mind and the body—triggering a shift in your autonomic nervous system from the sympathetic (stress response) to parasympathetic (restorative response). So, if you just walk around breathing audibly, you’re basically doing the stress breath. How to make the practice trauma-informed: Something to remember if you’re deciding to practice this with others is to not have a silent space during the hold. That’s why we count. This is the trauma-informed way of doing the practice. You always count down (you never count up—because you don’t know when that’s going to end). And you don’t want to keep that empty space during the hold, because that’s where the trauma can pop…

PERMISSION TO FEEL Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive Marc Brackett • Celadon Books Brackett—founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence—came to this work with a mission born from his own experience of bullying and sexual assault, which he discusses poignantly in Permission to Feel. Before we learn his story, however, Brackett paints a vivid picture of why emotions matter so much for public health and education. Incidents of bullying and harassment in US K-12 schools doubled each year between 2015 and 2017; 46% of teachers report high daily stress; from 2016-2017, one in three students across 196 US colleges reported diagnosed mental health conditions; a quarter of US children between 13 and 18 suffer from anxiety disorders; and by 2030,…

Visit mindful.org/tunein for featured meditations from Diana Winston, Tara Healey, and Zindel Segal THREE PLACES TO BEGIN WITH MINDFULNESS 1 A Five-Minute Breathing Meditation from Diana Winston Connect with the breath. One of the most basic methods of meditation is to anchor your attention to the breath. Since the breath is always with you, you can practice following its movement anywhere you may find yourself, making it an ideal introduction to meditation. Explore this practice to focus on your breathing in the moment and, over time, reduce the effects of stress and anxiety 2 A 10-Minute Body Scan Practice from Tara Healey Tune in to the body. Our body often takes on the brunt of our stress, whether that be from clenching our jaw in frustration or pushing ourselves too hard at…

How do you tend to respond to your inner critic? “I RECOGNIZE what is going on and WHY—am I tired, hungry, sad, angry?” “I WAIT for it to pass.” “I have a SHORT RANT, then look at what’s happening more holistically.” “I STOP COMPARING myself with others, and allow myself to forgive me.” “I WRITE DOWN what the inner critic says and respond to myself with the truth as I see it. It usually works well when I do it in the moment.” “I FOCUS on the good things I have done, and the things I did right.” “With a meditation practice, I am LISTENING more.” “I go to my art room and START PAINTING, drawing, or doing mixed media.” “With compassion. I pretend the inner critic is a dear…

Q I’ve been going through a hard time after my divorce, and I thought that meditation would help. But when I try, the quiet and stillness just makes me feel so alone and sad that I have to stop. What am I doing wrong? A You’re not doing anything wrong. When we turn inward as we do when meditating, it is not uncommon for many states to arise, both challenging and joyful. This is in part dependent upon what is going on for us in any given moment. When we experience any loss, such as divorce, we grieve. Grief has its own trajectory and often comes in waves. It also comes with attendant emotions, such as sadness and loneliness. Meditation can help us turn toward this and can assist us…

AUTHOR AND MUSICIAN Justin Michael Williams had been teaching meditation for years, but often felt as though his practices weren’t reaching the people who needed them the most. After the 2016 presidential election, he was determined to change that. “That’s when I really said hold on, how do I bring this practice that has helped me to a community that is not getting it?” he recalls. Hoping to reach a more diverse group than those who usually attended the retreats and tours he’d taught at, Williams began to host free meditation sessions in LA, which drew LGBTQ+ people and people of color. “All the questions were different, and the reasons for meditating were different,” he says. “That’s when I knew I had a book.” His book, Stay Woke: A Meditation…

Going dairy-free—for health or other reasons—used to require drastically altering your diet. Now, thanks to the explosion of the plant-based “milk” market, it’s never been easier. Coffee, frozen desserts, creamed soups, you name it: If a food or beverage calls for dairy, there’s now a reasonable substitute. While the FDA’s currently weighing whether these products should be allowed to call themselves “milk” (the EU doesn’t allow it), the plant-based beverage boom follows growing interest in alternatives to dairy A staggering 65% of the human population have trouble digesting lactose (a sugar present in cow’s milk), according to the National Institutes of Health. The highest rates of lactose intolerance occur among those of East Asian descent, but it’s also common in those of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent.…

Atman Smith, at far left; his brother, Ali Smith, in the middle; and Andrés González, to Ali’s right, spent many nights in college talking about how to change the world and bring about peace. Their classroom studies—ecology, biology, history, anthropology, you name it—led them to deep questions about how to lead a life of value. They consulted stacks of books that presented alternative ways of seeing the world. They questioned, debated, and probed. They shared insights and inspiration drawn from their studies inside and outside the classroom. At graduation, the pull of Ali’s old neighborhood brought him to his boyhood home, where Andrés decided to join him. By now, they had concluded that the road to peace—inner and outer—would not be found by intellect alone. They began to practice yoga…

MINDFUL MEN TALK Episode: Steve—Anxiety & Beyond Taking an interest in your own emotional wellness is, for many men, greatly discouraged by societal expectations to be tough, invulnerable, self-sufficient. “We don’t let people know we may be searching,” explains Steve, who’s a mindfulness coach in Surrey, UK. Topics like stress, grief, sexuality, and overcoming stigma are the lens through which he and James approach Mindful Men Talk. “The fact you are taking notice” and addressing a mental health struggle, says Steve, isn’t a weakness: “It shows great strength.” Their podcast aims to expand the space for men to be open about their mental health. TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE Episode: How to Be an Ethical Traveler This episode, a collab with AFAR magazine, offers a variety of thoughtful suggestions…

As interest in mindfulness grows, and programs and research projects follow apace, critiques grow too. A common critique we hear is that mindfulness is just a quick fix for reducing stress. It doesn’t ask us to look for root causes of stress For example, this criticism posits that if your employer is asking you to work overly long hours and meet impossible deadlines, the mindfulness teacher hired by the company will simply tell you, “Oh, it’s your fault you’re stressed out. Take a few deep breaths, notice what’s going on in your mind, let go, and you’ll be fine.” But this critique—most strongly heard in Ron Purser’s recent book McMindfulness—is a classic straw man: It paints a vivid picture of people doing wrong in order to hurl brickbats at them,…

When firefighters in Slave Lake, Alberta, ordered 18 pizzas, they inadvertently cooked up kindness that spread. A quick search for their local pizzeria, Alimo’s, connected them to a similarly named San Antonio shop. “It likely took them some time to figure out where Slave Lake was,” fire chief Alex Pavcec told CBC News. He paid the bill anyway, and the pizzas were delivered to firefighters in San Antonio instead. Meanwhile the Slave Lake Alimo’s was inspired to start Random Acts of Pizza, making surprise deliveries to schools, care homes, and more. Donations poured in, and Alimo’s matched them all. “My day has just been going out and making people happy, and it all started with this one honest mistake,” owner Moe Mouallem said. Janelle Boston had always wanted to climb…

To find Tara Brach on a summer Saturday morning is to follow a path that seems to naturally ease one into a state of mindfulness. From the multi-lane Capital Beltway that girds Washington, DC, one exits with relief onto a two-lane, tree-lined byway where streetlights are few and commercial strips nil. Eventually, the road narrows to a single lane, announced by a row of mailboxes and shrouded heavily with trees. Stillness and quiet prevail. Soon, a steep driveway delivers the visitor into a sunny glade with a modest, window-rich house. With the ringing of a doorbell and the barking of a dog, Tara Brach, meditation teacher and author, appears. Brach, who worked as a clinical psychologist for 16 years, is the author of three books: Radical Acceptance, True Refuge, and…

Insight meditation teacher Michele McDonald introduced the RAIN practice about 20 years ago, as a way to expand the common view that mindfulness is simply a synonym for paying attention. In identifying the qualities of attention that make up a complete moment of mindfulness, McDonald, who is cofounder of Vipassana Hawaii, coined the acronym RAIN for Recognition of what is going on; Acceptance of the experience, just as it is; Interest in what is happening; and Non-Identification to depersonalize the experience. Over the years, Tara Brach modified and popularized RAIN, shifting the “N” step to Nurture and suggesting non-identification as a product of her revised four steps.…

The kids who go through the Holistic Life Foundation Program tell me this breathing exercise stays with them throughout their lives The stress breath is great for any kind of stress or anxiety: test anxiety, performance anxiety, any type of anxiety at all. It’s also a good exercise for heating up your body. Here in Baltimore, some kids may not have heaters at home or proper jackets, so this is good for warming them up. With this breath, you can pull in a lot of energy and store it in your body. Use an everyday object as a signal to do the stress breath. I use my keys. When I drive to work in the morning and take my car keys out of my ignition, that’s my cue to do…