Siblings Juan and Juliana Santoyo received funding from Mind & Life in 2017 to hold a Think Tank to design and plan the implementation of a contemplative practice-based program for ex-combatants in Colombia’s peacebuilding process (members of the program’s pilot pictured above). They believe that nourishing the ability to heal and transform individually and with …
Continue reading “Seeding Peace in the Heart of Conflict: A Think Tank Project in Colombia”
Claims abound about the benefits of mindfulness in promoting human health and well-being, making it hard for people to distinguish between hype and hard science. Over the last two decades, hundreds of trials have explored the impact of meditation and mindfulness on mental health in individual studies, but researchers rarely undertake the challenge of investigating …
Continue reading “Meditation for Mental Health: How Does Mindfulness Compare to Other Treatments?”
The latest statistics about America’s opioid epidemic are staggering. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate an average of 125 deaths from opioid overdoses per day in the United States—that means each month, we’re seeing a tragedy more deadly than September 11th. Between July 2016 and September 2017, hospitalizations from opioid overdoses jumped 30 percent …
An Interview with Carol Worthman, Ph.D. Can you please give us a brief description of what you study? What I study with my lab is the interaction of culture and biology as they shape differential mental and physical health. Currently, we have a few studies around the world examining these interactions. For instance, we have …
Continue reading “The ever-evolving connection between culture and human biology”
Part 6 in a weeklong series of blog posts written by undergraduate students from the 2017 spring-semester class, “Mindfulness & Compassion: Living Fully Personally and Professionally” at the University of Virginia. Freshman year is a unique experience because everything about college and your life as a student is so new: new friends who may be …
Continue reading “Utilizing Mindfulness Practice to Facilitate the Transition to College”
Part 4 in a weeklong series of blog posts written by undergraduate students from the 2017 spring-semester class, “Mindfulness & Compassion: Living Fully Personally and Professionally” at the University of Virginia. Introduction Sitting on the beach, hearing the waves lap gently against the sand as the stars make their appearance into the sky, it is …
Part 3 in a weeklong series of blog posts written by undergraduate students from the 2017 spring-semester class, “Mindfulness & Compassion: Living Fully Personally and Professionally” at the University of Virginia. Depression and anxiety are two of the most prevalent mental disorders in the United States (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2016). Depression is …
Continue reading “Mindfulness as a Treatment for Depression and Anxiety”
Part 2 in a weeklong series of blog posts written by undergraduate students from the 2017 spring-semester class, “Mindfulness & Compassion: Living Fully Personally and Professionally” at the University of Virginia. Introduction As a second year student at the University of Virginia, I started to notice myself living in a state of frenzy. I was …
Continue reading “An Exploration of Nature, Mindfulness and Well-Being”
As a Mind & Life Fellow who received the Francisco J. Varela Research Grant in 2007 and the Mind & Life 1440 grant in 2013, Dr. Eric Garland has gone on to become the developer of an innovative, multimodal mindfulness-based intervention founded on insights derived from cognitive, affective and neurobiological science, called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement …
Understanding the Psychology Behind Compassion Meditation
