Our April conversation features Amishi Jha and Jon Kabat-Zinn, and cellist Barbara Bogatin. Learn more about the inner workings of the mind, and how to cultivate greater attention and wise action in how we conduct ourselves individually and collectively.
Topic Archives:
Coping with Loneliness & Stress: The Role of Mindful Acceptance
Even before the coronavirus hit, the United States was considered one of the most stressed out countries in the world. Fear and anxiety brought on by the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, with 8 out of 10 adults citing the pandemic as a significant source of stress in their lives. Researchers have been studying …
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The role of the contemplative ecological education system in the development of social-emotional competencies during early childhood
In today’s world problems of low attention span, impulsivity and hyperactivity are affecting 2-7 % of children, with India reporting a higher than global estimates at 11%. Disturbances in regulating attention is believed to have a detrimental effect SEL competencies. Traditionally, the educational setups of ancient India were located in natural surroundings. Contemplative practices, and …
Examining Individual Differences in Contemplative Practice Response
As an intellectual tradition that codeveloped with Tibetan Buddhism for over a thousand years, Tibetan medicine has cultivated clinically-focused knowledge around tracking individual differences related to cognitive-affective patterns and their contingent contexts that impact health and illness in body and mind across the life course. In particular, Tibetan medicine places specific attention on the role …
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Developing a Semantic Clustering Approach to Study the Effects of Mindfulness Training on Ruminative Thoughts
In our daily life, we encounter various people, objects, or environmental context that can evoke memories of unpleasant events. Some of us might be able to quickly move on from these memories, whereas others might get stuck repeatedly thinking about them. The tendency to repeatedly think about stressors is called rumination, which is closely linked …
Bridging Psychology and Contemplative Practice to Benefit Hearts and Minds Today
Science has served as a double-edged sword for meditation. On the plus side, scientific research has helped adapt meditation into secular settings, which has provided broad access to Western audiences. It has also led to innovations in healthcare, education, social activism, workplace culture, and other areas. At the same time, there are valid critiques to …
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Sleep’s role in realizing the prosocial benefits of contemplative practice
Robust learning requires substantial effort. Our recent studies, conducted in a sleep laboratory as well as in typical home environments, have showed that sleep contributes to learning. Indeed, sleep is important for solidifying memories of various types. By extension, in a contemplative practice when people strive to develop enduring prosocial qualities, such as compassion, kindness, …
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How do the benefits of meditation spread? Investigating interpersonal mechanisms following practice
Research has begun to show that the benefits of meditation practice can extend beyond the individual to influence the well-being of others. An important next step in the field is to look at how this happens. We will therefore examine how participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course impacts the amount of negative emotions, specifically, …
Does the contemplative practice of loving-kindness propel prosocial acts via increased neural integration? A dynamic functional connectivity approach
“If people can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” With tendrils of hate, disrespect, and arrogant dismissiveness implicated in the senseless loss of too many lives to COVID-19 and police brutality, these touchstone words of Nelson Mandela become ever more pressing. Yet it remains unknown how best to teach love. As we …
Calling on Our Shared Humanity
As we all navigate the current moment of uncertainty surrounding the U.S. Presidential election, we recognize that many of the challenges in today’s world have roots in the mind—and that there, too, lie solutions. Through bringing science and contemplative wisdom together, we seek to foster insights that can contribute to individual, collective, and planetary flourishing. With this in mind, I would like to share five kernels of wisdom, gleaned from members of Mind & Life’s expanding community, to help guide the way forward.
