Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Mindful

On a scale from 1 to 10, how important is creativity to you? 56% OPT FOR THE HEALTHIEST OPTION— a walk in nature, while 22% prefer group conversation, and 17% choose meditation. Less than 1% choose a pack of cigarettes and some Tom Waits (though many readers choose Tom Waits without the cigarettes).STANDOUT ANSWERS: STANDOUT ANSWERS: • Housecleaning • Sex • COFFEE • A little of the finest Herb and good old rock ‘n’ roll • A hot shower Clean desk or cluttered desk? 47% CHOOSE A CLEAN DESK. “I can’t do creative work when I know something needs to be tidied.” That’s a lot of organized people. A few of us at Mindful HQ could use your help! What’s your #1 creative outlet? 43% OF OUR READERS LIKE TO…

KIDS IN NEED Flying Kites is a nonprofit in rural Kenya that runs a school and home for vulnerable youth. At their daily “family meeting,” they often start with meditation, which they use as a tool to support and rehabilitate kids. A MINDFUL PROSPECT Prospect Hill Academy, a charter school in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts, partnered with Ivy Child International to bring mindfulness training to students from fourth to sixth grade as well as teachers and administrators. Right now the program is offered only at their Somerville campus, but they hope to soon bring the program to their Cambridge campus and offer classes to students in all grades. INNER CITY MINDS In Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, the Human Plant Project and Inspire-Corps are partnering to bring a…

mindful Volvo UK created Life-Paint—a spray that’s invisible unless shone on with headlights, to protect bikers at night, and the vehicles they sometimes collide with. Georgetown, a small town in Texas, has decided to shift to 100% renewable electricity because, well, it’s the cheapest option. Forget dorms and sororities. In a town in the Netherlands, university students are rooming with the elderly—for free. Instead of rent, students commit 30 hours a month to hang out with their senior roomies. This year the Vatican renovated a set of public bathrooms to include three showers and a free barbershop for the homeless. Scrunchies are making a comeback: In a study, collars resembling the gaudy hair accessories were put on cats’ necks to see if they’d scare off potential prey. It worked. Bird,…

Tomatoes are full of nutrients that are known to lower cholesterol. They are also a good source of antioxidants. • An excellent source of vitamin C. • Contain high amounts of lycopene, a carotenoid known for supporting healthy heart function. Source: whfoods.com I love long, leisurely mornings. And every morning, after my simple breakfast of granola and yogurt, I make myself a piece of toast with soft goat cheese, avocado, and some sliced cherry tomatoes. I drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle some salt and savor every bite. There is no better way to start the day. It’s no coincidence tomatoes have become a staple in so many cuisines. Both luxurious and simple, a ruby red tomato picked fresh off a backyard vine is nothing short of perfect. In…

The path of mindfulness, awareness, kindness, and compassion will take us as deep as we’re willing to go. Not only can it help us to relieve our stress, but it can arouse in us the courage to pull back the curtain and honestly face our patterns and conditioning, tracing them back to unconscious stories that shape how we see the world, and the other people in it. It can be helpful to notice our preconceptions and stories in the quiet of a meditation session, but it can also be powerful to notice our biases on the spot, in the heat of the moment, and switch things up. Here are some steps to consider. 1 WHEN YOU NOTICE HABITS OVERTAKING YOU, BRING OUT THE COMPASS Based on some old information, you…

The first day I came to work with Claire Danes on the set of season four of Homeland, it was immediately clear to me that all of Danes’ accolades and awards were well deserved. Her persona is lucid, grounded, and empowered at the highest level. And for the first time in a long time I had the feeling that I needed to raise my usual game plan to another level. Frankly, she kind of scared me. So strong was the power of her focus that I had a real moment of gut check that felt something like, “Hey, are we ready? Because she sure as hell is.” After the initial shock I saw this for what it really was: an excellent opportunity to approach my work mindfully. Our characters were…

Our must-read story this issue: Fear Less, Love More:Uncovering and Counteracting Unconscious Bias on page 44 This week I lost a tooth, my glasses broke, a piece of furniture succumbed to age, and the undercarriage of our car rusted out. And these are only hassles within a relatively secure life. In Nepal, earthquakes took thousands of lives. In Baltimore, riots tore the city apart. In Philadelphia, a train derailment transported passengers from luxury to tragedy in seconds. Life can be so daunting—with both its hassles and its larger challenges and injustices— it can be tempting to try to find an escape, and many people imagine meditation to be just such a way out. The word “retreat” (i.e., a meditation intensive) can conjure the notion of running from “the real world”…

Mindfulness could be as effective as antidepressants for preventing depression from recurring. In a recent study, adults who did MBCT had virtually the same rate of relapse into depression as a group who continued taking medication. 3 Extraordinary Acts of Kindness 30 years after a California doctor saved a premature baby at birth, he found himself trapped inside a burning car. The baby, now a paramedic, saved the doctor’s life. Noah Aldrich, 8, completes mini-triathlons with his disabled brother Lucas, 6, so he can feel what it’s like to cross a finish line. When no one from Mackenzie Moretter’s class attended her 10th birthday party, her mom took to social media and 300 people showed up, bearing food and presents.…

MOVING TOWARD GLOBAL COMPASSION Paul Ekman • Paul Ekman Group One of the world’s leading researchers of human emotion, Ekman has turned his broad, analytical mind toward understanding compassion. Is it tied only to the positive feelings we experience when doing good for others or is there a deeper, more truly altruistic fellow-feeling? He makes clear that our world needs global compassion and puzzles over why it is so rare. By examining different types of compassion, he hopes to help us stumble upon what we need to tip us in the direction of deeper caring. EMOTIONAL BALANCE WORKBOOK Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons • New Harbinger Is it possible to be emotionally balanced all the time? That sounds robotic. The authors make clear that balance is a dynamic thing…

1 When you feel the energy of fear arising in your body, DON’T AVOID the feeling. Sit with it. Let it be there. Breathe deeply and naturally. 2 As fearful thoughts of dread and worry continue to emerge, approach them with FRIENDLINESS. Don’t treat them as a threat. 3 Be kind toward yourself for being afraid. See what happens when you hold your ground and let the fear arise in your mind. You may surprise yourself and FIND CONFIDENCE within. Repeat as necessary.…

Renowned illustrator and writer Maira Kalman has created many New Yorker covers and almost 30 books, including an illustrated version of The Elements of Style. She’s designed clocks, coats, coasters, and hats. Her latest book, My Favorite Things, is a catalog of what delights her. After a conversation about art in everyday life, she shares with us glimpses of ordinary things she finds extraordinary. Mindful: What is it about your love of objects? Don’t objects clog up our lives? Maira Kalman: Yes, there are too many things. I say that to myself 50 times a day: too many things, too many things to do, I have too many things. And yet, we can’t live without things, so why not look at them and see what you can see. I like…

the mindful dialogue with barry boyce Go to page 58 to see 7 Tips for Talking about Meditation… Without Being Annoying Barry Boyce: For many people who started meditating in the ‘70s, meditation was countercultural and hard to bring up in mainstream contexts, with colleagues at work, for example, or even with family members. When I did, I was earnest about the whole thing, spilling all over people with meaning and depth. I was all about the woo-woo: gooey, super-serious bafflegab. Now, with the new surge of interest in meditation, I see a lot of overselling, a peddler’s or carnival barker’s mentality. Finding a way to talk about this thing is not very easy. Dan Harris: In my experience, a lot of people who first brought meditation to the West…

1 Start by meditating for 15 minutes (or more). 2 Check in with yourself. Contemplate “who you are”: your birthplace, your family, education, etc. Contemplate “how you feel” about your current life, its ups and downs, and your feelings about what’s going on in your life. 3 Meditate again for 5 minutes. 4 Survey the information. Ask yourself, “Am I these contemplated items, or is there more?” Consider that all of the above is a story, and it accrues meaning through the attention you give it. 5 Can you see through that story and experience yourself as something less solid, more transparent, and, in the end, abiding nowhere special, always right here, not caught between the past or future? 6 Rest in that understanding for a little while. That’s what some would call your “true self” or “who you really are.” It doesn’t need constant maintenance and it’s no…

It’s one thing to practice mindfulness on the cushion, but bringing the practice alive on the job— handling conflict, managing tasks, expressing our creativity and much more—that’s where the fun begins. Here are five simple approaches for applying mindfulness at work. Stabilize your attention Too often on the job we find ourselves distracted, unfocused, even frenzied— which can prove distressing for ourselves and others. In mindfulness training, we learn to bring our attention to our immediate experience— showing up fully engaged and available. By permitting our attention to rest in the present moment, we can learn to attend to our work rather than speed past it. Exploring the discomfort we feel just sitting still allows us to cultivate confidence in everything we do. On-the-job exercise: In your next meeting, observe…

“MEDITATION WOMBS,” or sensory deprivation tanks—in which people sit immersed in salt water deprived of light and sound— are making a comeback as popular fixtures in startup offices for increasing creativity and productivity. ORGASMIC MEDITATION, or OM, involves slow and steady stimulation of a woman’s clitoris, and has been around for almost a decade. There are even OM conferences. HUMAN NESTS, like a bird’s nest, complete with large egg-shaped pillows inside a wooden frame, are a “fusion of furniture and playground” designed for “breeding new ideas.” They do look comfy… LOVE THY COWORKER A recent study published in Administrative Science Quarterly suggests that a positive emotional culture at work—what might be dismissed as “touchy-feely”—is associated with both happier employees and healthier patients at long-term care facilities. HOW TO LOVE EVERYONE…

Sue Poloway is a licensed clinical social worker who has been using meditation to help her work with the dying and their families for more than 20 years. Stressful work, yes. But Poloway insists that working with the dying allows you to recognize how precious life is—it allows you to commit yourself to a life that is kind, compassionate, and authentic. Tell us about what you do. Essentially, I take care of people who’ve been told they have a terminal illness, with less than six months to live. Most of them are at a stage in their lives where they no longer want more hospitalization or extra care treatment—where they’ve told themselves, “I just want to live the rest of my life the best way I can.” That sounds hard.…

1 DON’T FOIST IT ON ANYONE Nobody loves a noodge who is intent on telling you what’s wrong with you and what you have to do to fix it. While you may feel that someone who is telling you how stressed out they are would benefit from meditation, it’s better to bide your time and let them ask you about it. Resist the urge to gush about your new favorite thing. An exception: There’s nothing wrong with suggesting it to your Boyceemployer. It’s not as awkward to bring it up in an organizational context. You’re not really imposing on anyone. You can talk about the science, about how lots of successful organizations are using it (See David Gelles’ Mindful Work), and suggest someone to contact. If possible, it’s good to…