There’s growing concern that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating another ongoing epidemic: the opioid crisis. Recent reports point to an increase in fatal overdoses in the United States since the pandemic began. Could mindfulness-based approaches offer long-term relief for those grappling with chronic pain and addiction? Dr. Eric Garland, Director of the Center on Mindfulness …
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International Society for Contemplative Research
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 …
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Silent Illumination: Compassionate End-of-Life Care for Transgender Elders
The World Health Organization estimates that 20 million adults across the globe need palliative care, including a growing cohort of transgender-identified older adults. While best practices for palliative care exist, information to guide community-based care at the end of life for this cohort is not consistently available. Guided by the wisdom from contemplative practice, art, …
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Youth4Peace Mindfulness
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, …
Student Flourishing Initiative: Building Resiliency Among College Students
One in five college students reports declining mental health as a result of the COVID pandemic. This is on top of a recent generational rise in rates of anxiety and depression among college-aged youth. Could a unique course that blends academic and experiential learning help prepare first-year students for the stressors that lie ahead during …
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Cultivating Compassion in Healthcare: One Researcher’s Journey
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, health care is in the news daily. But there’s an often-overlooked element in many hospital systems: the role of chaplains. For patients experiencing loneliness, isolation, fear, and physical pain, chaplains offer much needed emotional support, spiritual guidance, and hope. But could chaplains and the patients they support also …
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2014 International Symposium for Contemplative Studies
The 2014 International Symposium for Contemplative Studies (ISCS) drew a diverse, talented and enthusiastic group of attendees, and brought together distinct, though overlapping, fields of research and scholarship across the sciences, humanities, arts and other domains. ISCS 2014 focused on advancing our understanding of the human mind, and how training through contemplative practices can lead …
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Can We Change Racial Bias?
Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. Sandra Bland. Ferguson. Baltimore. Charleston. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. In the wake of so many recent tragedies involving racial discrimination, Americans are taking a hard look at this systemic and divisive issue in our culture, and asking what can be done to change it.
School-Based Promotion of Children’s Empathy, Kindness, and Altruism: Emerging Research, Lingering Questions, and Future Directions
There is a growing consensus among psychologists, educators, and the public at large that a more comprehensive vision of education is needed—one that includes an explicit focus on “educating the heart” and intentionally cultivates children’s social and emotional competencies and positive human qualities, including self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, compassion, and altruism. This explicit and intentional focus …
Introspective reliability: Synergizing Buddhist and contemporary viewpoints
First-person reports of phenomenological states are the starting point for phenomenology (including Buddhist phenomenology) and the scientific study of consciousness. The vipassana meditation technique, including the Open Monitoring meditation and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), both of which are secularized versions of vipassana, are reliant on the reliability of First-person reports of phenomenological states. Nonetheless, the …
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