Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2015 in Mindful

Is school a good thing? What’s your ideal school type? 58% THINK PUBLIC SCHOOL IS THE BEST OPTION. Private and independent schools tie in second place at 17% apiece. Almost no one likes the school of hard knocks (2%). What was your favorite subject in school? Only 3% chose gym. Because no one likes gym. Just kidding! Exercise is important. Should meditation be taught in school? 95% SAY YES, IT SHOULD. WE AGREE (Read more on page 48). How do you keep in touch with old classmates? 42% USE FACEBOOK OR OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY IN CONTACT, and almost as many DON’T KEEP IN TOUCH AT ALL (41%). The rest opt for the occasional phone call (10%) or chat over coffee or lunch (7%). What’s one thing you wish…

mindful A biotech startup invented a synthetic product genetically identical to rhino horn, which is popular on the Asian black market where it’s more valuable than gold or cocaine. They plan to flood the market with their product, forcing out the real (and illegal) stuff. A school in Québec provides desks attached to exercise bikes for students with attention deficit disorders, so they can stay active while concentrating on schoolwork. California farmers may have a saving grace: A new app measures how much water different soils and crops need using a few small sensors, which trigger automatic sprinklers when needed. It can save up to 25% of water use. Smartphones don’t have to be fragile and made unethically. The Fairphone uses ethically mined minerals, is constructed to outlive your phone…

Lentils are an affordable source of many important nutrients. They are a great staple in vegetarian and vegan diets. • Very high in fiber • A good source of iron, protein, vitamins B1 and B6, potassium, and zinc • Extremely low in fat Source: whfoods.com Eating lentils is like taking a bite out of the earth. And I mean that in a good way. They’re dense, packed with nutrition, and make you feel grounded. Even their colors—deep green, rich orange-red, black, brown—evoke earthiness, as do their mellow flavors, which range from nutty to peppery. The key to cooking with lentils is creativity. Their simplicity demands that you get a little adventurous and, since they’re so small, you can bring together a bunch of flavors and textures in a single bite.…

A short moving meditation can be a gentle way to welcome a new day or rebalance yourself deskside between meetings on a busy afternoon. Try this sequence when you want to clean your internal slate of distractions and emotions. Like seated meditation, this practice powerfully focuses the mind. Asking it to concentrate at once on both breath and movement, you’ll find that your mind has less room to wander, and quickly clears itself of too much thinking. 1 Stand with feet spread about the same width as your hips, toes pointed straight ahead. Take a moment to stretch in any way that feels good—arms overhead, leaning to each side, folding at the waist, or swinging your arms side to side in a gentle twist. 2 Return to relaxed standing with…

Death is everywhere. The lifeless bugs on the windowsill. The dead mouse in the crawl space. My preschooler, Opal, started plying me with questions when she was four. “Were you the one who died that mouse?” Or, “Do you think that moth knows he’s dead?” Cute out-of-the-mouths-of-babes comments tossed off as she buzzed on to her next activity. I’d gotten used to her frank, unemotional curiosity about death, but when her questions shifted from light banter to a source of terror, I was caught completely off-guard. It happened just before her fifth birthday. She and her dad, Jesse, were settled on the couch with a copy of The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, a book we’d read to her a dozen times. She swallowed the spider to catch the…

Wow, this mindfulness stuff is pretty scary. Having spent the past week reading more than 30 critiques of the mindfulness movement from the last few years, I’m thinking the whole thing seems pretty dodgy. It’s hype, smoke, and mirrors. It’s the decline of a great tradition. It’s a secret takeover of our minds. It’s ineffective. It’s flaky. It’s a wet blanket. It’s narcissistic. And apparently a whole lot of people are making huge piles of money from it. Then, I remembered how cyclical things are. Once something reaches the point that it’s celebrated on the cover of Time, look out. The knives are being sharpened in the back room. The biting criticism, naysaying, and debunking will soon follow. One of the great things about the media is that we can…

HOW TO LIVE WELL WITH CHRONIC PAIN AND ILLNESS Toni Bernhard • Wisdom A highly successful law professor at UC Davis, Toni Bernhard fell ill in 2001 with an energy-depleting, painful condition that she never recovered from. It led to an early retirement and a life utterly rearranged. She turned to mindfulness practice not simply to “get through it,” but to alter her perspective altogether. Now, she brings wisdom and hands-on experience that’s of value not only for chronic pain sufferers, but for anyone who finds that life is so often not the bed of roses we’d dreamed of. NEUROTRIBES The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity Steve Silberman • Avery Steve Silberman first wrote about autism for the December 2001 issue of WIRED, where he is a…

One thing we want to keep in mind when playing is to let the experience linger, even if just for a few seconds. Whether you’re eating a treat, engaging in your favorite crossword puzzle, or out on a walk with a friend, take in the moment fully and sense how it feels in your body. Be curious about the experience knowing that engaging novelty is one of the best drivers of neuroplastic change. As you do this, you’re also stamping a memory of the experience that the brain can reference to bring an attitude of play into other areas of your life. As you linger in the experience and emotions that arise when you play, the firing continues for a longer period of time, giving the brain a better opportunity…

MYTH 1 Mindfulness fixes something that’s wrong with you What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do this? I’m so bad at it. I’m just bad altogether. My mind is a scattered mess! These other people seem fine. Everyone who has ever meditated, or tried anything new—playing the guitar, becoming a parent, snowboarding—has had thoughts like these running through their head. Often repeatedly, and in a downward spiral that ends with “I’m not cut out for this. I’m no good. I quit.” It’s an odd trait we humans have. We like to beat up on ourselves. We like to say, “the problem with you/me is…” And popular meditation literature can provide lots of adjectives to complete that sentence: Too distracted Too speedy Too negative Too spaced out Too etcetera All…

Karen is an English teacher in a private prep high school. The school has very high expectations for its students. As a new teacher, she was assigned to the teachers’ least favorite class: freshman English. At a mindfulness workshop, she expressed anxiety about teaching. Her demeanor was timid and insecure. However, Karen was very responsive to the mindful awareness practices and the instructions on how to apply them to teaching. On a subsequent training day, I noticed a dramatic change in her demeanor. She stood with more presence and looked more confident. We began the workshop by asking participants to share their experiences of applying mindful awareness to their teaching. Karen was the first to raise her hand, and she shared an amazing story. One day, she had come to…

Perhaps you’re familiar with this experience: After a long week of work, the weekend finally arrives. It’s time to wind down, relax, and do nothing. However, before 9 a.m. Saturday morning you’ve organized three social appointments, ordered a new IKEA closet, and set in motion four other plans that will keep you active for the rest of the weekend. Or something like this has happened to you: It’s 8 a.m. and you’re in the office. On your desk is a clear list of the four important priorities of the day. Your phone rings, you answer it, and, before you know it, it’s 5 p.m. and time to go home. Your list is still there, untouched and unfulfilled. Both cases are examples of action addiction, a deep-rooted human condition caused by…

When Nora Meiners, now 40, graduated from college with a degree in creative writing, she promptly embarked on an entrepreneurial path, starting a dog day care center and a dog grooming shop in Boston. Five years ago, she upended her life, separating from the father of her young son, renouncing her share of the business, accepting an entry-level job at a game and puzzle company where she quickly became their marketing coordinator, and reclaiming her passion for writing—this time as a slam poet. Tell us a bit about your path into the world of slam poetry. After I made those changes—all with a then two-year-old son—everything was new and scary. Most of it was give, give, give—putting out so much of myself. Poetry allowed me to recharge, to step on stage…

There are no flashy outfits or fancy postures on display at my Tuesday morning yoga class. No handstanding selfies being posted to Instagram. Just a handful of curious students, of all shapes and ability levels, gathered around a thoughtful teacher in a tiny, backyard studio. Our teacher guides us through a few minutes of chanting and reflection, a series of asanas (postures) and a lengthy Savasana (also called Corpse Pose or deep relaxation), before we sit for meditation. During the active part of class, we move with precision and quiet concentration. Occasionally, we discuss how the poses affect us—one woman notices that a gentle leg stretch has released tension in her hips. Another finds that a long stay in Downward-facing Dog Pose has soothed her anxiety. I discover that a…

Stressful situations are part of being a teacher—whether with challenging students, demanding parents, or colleagues who have differing views. Joan Halifax teaches nurses and other caregivers a simple practice to help them act with compassion under stressful conditions. Here is her five-step model adapted for teachers: G is for “Gathering your attention.” Pause and focus your attention on your body, whether the breath or the sensation of your feet on the ground. Bringing your attention to the present moment, you can be more helpful to yourself and your students. You will offer a fresh presence that is stable, grounded, discerning, and caring. R is for “Recall your intention,” that is, your reason for being a teacher. This will help you align your behavior with your values and reignite your motivation.…

Have you ever said yes to a request at work when you knew deep down you had no intention of doing it? Maybe you said you’d meet a colleague for coffee, take someone to lunch, or participate on a committee, but you really didn’t have the time or desire to follow through. That’s okay. We’ve all said yes to things we knew weren’t really going to happen. In fact, this happens a lot, all over the world, in both personal and professional life. Why do we do this, and how can we shift our responses so they reflect our true intention and capacity? The behavior of saying yes to things we know we either don’t want to or are unable to do is called “hedging.” It consists of using phrases…