In the last twenty years, a sharp increase in contemplative research has created the need for an academic home for interdisciplinary scholarship, community, dialogue, and collaboration. This special Think Tank grant goes to a multidisciplinary group of leading contemplative researchers to begin the development of a new professional society for the field. This is a …
A trauma & context-sensitive mindfulness program for peacebuilding and reconciliation (of TS-MBSR category) will gather 16 young peacebuilders, from India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, working with communities affected by diverse forms of violence such as victims of war or armed conflict, refugees, internally displaced persons, or migrants; with the aim to discuss, reflect, share, …
What is a Land and Peoples Acknowledgement, and Why is it Important A Land and Peoples Acknowledgement is a formal statement rooted in Indigenous protocol that recognizes the peoples who traditionally inhabited the land where you live or work and the relationship that continues to exist between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. It’s a …
At the heart of the Mind & Life Institute’s work is nurturing understanding and action toward a world that embraces our shared humanity. We recognize that barriers to realizing our fundamental interconnectedness exist not only in the human mind, but are deeply embedded within institutions and structures. Our commitment to dismantling institutional racism begins at …
Harnessing the power of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the U.S. in 1619, scholars have designed a mindfulness-based learning experience that supports communities with taking a contemplative walk through history to process our collective past. This presentation explores the use of a 4ft x 20ft timeline as a contemplative learning …
Indigenous scholars have called for theoretical and methodological research approaches that center on Indigenous knowledge, culture, and history. As such, I adopt a historical trauma theoretical lens in this presentation to explore health issues in Native and Indigenous communities in which the continued impacts of colonial violence is central. In addition, by highlighting the ongoing …
In this presentation, the concept of trust and fairness is discussed from a developmental perspective. Trust and fairness have deep roots in development with early implicit signs expressed from the first weeks of life. Their development is considered here in parallel with the development of a conceptual and explicit sense of self emerging by the …
This project will investigate the effect of nonattachment on social inclusion operationalized as (1) enhanced self-reported valuing of racial/ethnic diversity; (2) reduced linguistic intergroup bias – a tendency to describe outgroup behaviors more negatively and concretely than ingroup behaviors; and (3) reduced ingroup favoritism at the expense of the outgroup while allocating rewards to ingroup …
We sit with heavy hearts in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. This senseless loss has deepened wounds in the United States at a time when ongoing health and economic crises continue to disproportionately harm Black people. We are profoundly aware of the horrors of racism, reverberating with societal disconnection and continued fear and grief …
Research suggests that Mindfulness Training (MT) is helpful for dealing with depression, anxiety, and pain. Yet MT has become so popular that it seems like it is recommended for everything, ranging from parenting to dieting to corporate success. Yet without research that identifies the critical features of successful MT, we can’t effectively judge these emerging …