The DRC in general and the city of Goma in particular, with a majority population that is poor and unemployed, is caught in endless cycles of wars, and the calamity of armed conflicts. This constant exposure to trauma predisposes many to severe psychological distress. Given this level of trauma exposure we expect higher rates of …
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Grant Jones: Showing Up Fully Through Music and Mindfulness
“Music is my first spiritual practice,” says Grant Jones, a musician, activist, contemplative researcher, and the newest member of Mind & Life’s Steering Council. And while the overlap between his music and meditation started as a slow crescendo, now the connection is more explicit. His new collection of songs, “Constellations,” recently released on Spotify, touches …
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Mindfulness, Co-benefits, and Behavioral Eco-Wellness
The field of behavioral eco-wellness investigates the choices, behaviors, and habits that contribute to both personal health and environmental sustainability. Eco-wellness can be defined as “living life to maximize health, happiness, and environmental sustainability.” Fortunately, many of the same behaviors that bring mental and physical health also support ecological health (co-benefits). For example, walking or …
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Panel Discussion: Science Forum: The Science of Social Change for Sustainability
This session features three scientists who are at the forefront of creating social change in climate attitudes and mitigation behavior. Ed Maibach (“How We Talk About Climate Matters”) will address the importance of climate attitudes, effective vs. detrimental messaging to raise awareness and change behavior, and the science of effective advocacy. Christine Wamsler (“Inner Transformation …
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Meditation: “Cultivating Equanimity” and Contemplative Arts
Equanimity is often mistaken for indifference. In fact, equanimity is the very quality that is needed when the stakes are high and you are deeply concerned about the outcome. It allows us to recover perspective and balance in order to see clearly and act with wisdom. Like all contemplative virtues, it can be trained. In …
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Plenary Panel: “Starting from Experience: Neurophenomenology and the Vision of Mind and Life Europe”
Research on contemplative practices and their larger context can take various pathways, but as a methodology, one key method is neurophenomenology, an approach that fully acknowledges the mutual importance of an account of experience from within experience, along with measures, such as behavioral data and brain imaging, that purport to stand outside experience. Developed especially …
Plenary Symposium: Clinical Panel “Effects of Contemplative Training in Vulnerable Populations”
This session will feature talks on how contemplative and mindfulness-based training can help to enhance social connectivity and aid in the development of individual and societal flourishing in vulnerable and marginalized populations, including older adults, African Americans and people living with chronic medical conditions. David Creswell Mindfulness training to decrease loneliness and enhance social connectivity …
Keynote and Q&A: “Understanding Human Thought Through Dynamic Brain Systems”
Mind-wandering has recently come to occupy a central position in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Most theories and research so far have examined it in terms of task-unrelated or stimulus-independent mental contents that occur at particular moments of time. A defining feature of mind-wandering, however, are its dynamics: how thought moves over time. In this talk, …
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6 Days, 28 Speakers, 1 Powerful Message: The Climate Crisis, It’s a Relationship Problem
Even the best-intentioned efforts to stem the climate crisis often fail to address root causes; namely, our disconnection from one another and the earth. Could solutions to this and other climate-related challenges lie within the human mind? More than 900 scholars, scientists, contemplatives, students, and activists from 30+ countries convened online for Mind & Life’s …
Mind & Life Summit Explores Role of Emotions in Personal and Collective Flourishing
Could transforming our mental states create a better world? This audacious proposition lay at the heart of the Science & Wisdom of Emotions Summit presented by Mind & Life and The Awake Network Foundation on May 2-5. Reflecting growing interest in the cultivation of emotional well-being, more than 100,000 people in 140 countries gathered for …
