Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2021 i Mindful

Full disclosure: I feel like a total hypocrite writing about self-care. I just spent the last six weeks traveling the country in an RV with my family and I can tell you, all of my healthy routines fell away after day three. In the beginning, I got out my yoga mat, did flashcards with my kids, and sat under beautiful trees meditating to the sounds of birds. But very quickly, the trip steamrolled into a mess of blown tires, leaky pipes, bored kids, and Twizzlers for breakfast. Yep. All the while, I was editing this beautiful issue you now hold in your hands. I’m coming clean with my lack of self-care because I want you to know that I understand how easy it is to deprioritize your own care. Even…

“Queer youth matter and mindfulness may be a very important component of improving mental health and health for queer youth. We can’t leave these youth behind.” Dr. Gio Iacono remembers what it was like, as a queer teenager in Toronto in the mid-’90s, to have questions he didn’t know how to find answers for. “I didn’t know that you could be queer and be OK, or you could be trans and be OK and a fully deserving human being,” he says. He didn’t have support to help him understand LGBTQ+ experience and struggled with social anxiety that stayed with him into adulthood. He doesn’t want young people today to feel like he did. He pursued a career in social work and psychotherapy, hoping to both help individuals and to inform…

UPLIFTING LEADERS A nonprofit in Jackson Hole, WY, is strengthening resilience, one leader at a time. With the guidance of neuroscientist Ami-shi Jha, Becoming Jackson Whole delivers Mindfulness-Based Attention Training (MBAT) to local leaders in health care, education, law enforcement, and more. Many leaders are also learning how to deliver the training themselves. Starting in late 2021, MBAT will be open to anyone in the city. BJW founder Sara Flitner says, “It will always be affordable or free.” Results of a study led by Jha showed the participants improved on measures like mind-wandering, attentional performance, mood, anxiety, and work enjoyment. FIND YOUR PATH Since May 2021, pedestrians in Dayton, OH, can enjoy four “Mindfulness Walks” throughout municipal nature areas. Signage along the pathways encourages people to pause and engage in…

1 Savor the Ordinary As you go about your day, be on the lookout for small moments of beauty, outdoors or in your home. You might notice, for example, a tiny leaf on the pavement, a sinuous crack in a stucco wall or on the sidewalk, one petal of a blossom, or the graceful sweep of a window curtain, the invitingly round shape of your favorite bowl, a moment in a photograph hanging on the wall. Once you discover your small moment of beauty, gaze at it for several minutes, noticing the feelings and sensations it awakens within you—joy, calm, excitement, fluttering, a gentle vibration—and allow that response to spread throughout your body and spirit. 2 Acknowledge Moments of Kindness During the course of your day, notice any pleasant interaction…

1 COMMIT TO YOUR OWN VISION It’s easy to imagine that our voices don’t count. That we don’t matter, that nothing will change. Who knows what might be possible if we began to matter to ourselves? It’s so easy to feel that reaching up, reaching out, or reaching in is not worth the effort. Recognize that these ideas are mind traps. Rise up! David and Goliath is a story of how one young man, with pluck, good aim, and timing discovered a DIY, low-cost method to use an Etsy-worthy slingshot to slay a giant. Mindfulness practice is how we develop pluck, good aim, and timing to aid in our springing up and overcoming the giants with gusto! One of my personal life mottos is that if anything can stop you,…

This practice is steeped in the connection we need when we are practicing self-care. As you take the time for self-observation, connect with your creativity, your self-expression, your compassion, and see what arises for you. 1 Find a space where you can give this time to yourself without distractions. As you close your eyes or soften your gaze, whichever feels more natural, get into a comfortable position. 2 Take a cleansing breath. A long, slow, deep inhale through the nose. Exhale through the mouth and repeat that one more time. 3 Recall a situation in your life that is challenging or difficult and causing you to feel hurt or stressed. See if you can bring this situation to mind. Feel the struggle, the distress, the emotional discomfort as it arises…

For many of us, meditation is done with our eyes closed. Yet when we’re outside in nature, and just in our life, our eyes are open. Meditation teacher Mark Coleman, author of Awake In the Wild, shares this practice to help you cultivate a sense of presence and awareness that you can take with you anywhere, whether sitting at your desk, sitting in a room, or gazing over a vast landscape of sky, ocean, mountains. 1 Sit comfortably and tune in to the sounds around you. Lowering your gaze or closing your eyes, begin by finding a comfortable posture. Sit with a sense of ease, relaxation, feeling that connection of your body with the ground. Take a few mindful breaths, and be aware of the soundscape that’s all around you.…

1 To begin, find a quiet place to reflect on these questions in silence. If you prefer, there’s also the option to write down your answers. 2 What has been your relationship with vulnerability? 3 Reflect on a time that turned out favorably when you made a decision to be vulnerable with someone you trust. It can be anything, even something small. Reflecting on that now, how did it feel to allow this person to witness you in your need? What did it perhaps do for your relationship? 4 Keeping that positive experience of vulnerability in mind, is there a part of you that’s been hidden, and that you’re now needing to acknowledge? Consider a difficult emotion, like loneliness, that’s been hard to name, and the impact of just letting…

SELF-COMPASSION FOR DUMMIES Steven Hickman, PsyD • Wiley Is there an oxymoron in the title? To be sure. But, as Steve Hickman observes, “Being willing to purchase a book called Self-Compassion For Dummies means that you are humble and receptive to change, which is actually exactly where you need to be to get the most out of this book.” All humble and receptive readers will discover “a veritable self-compassion buffet” in this new title, which leaves no stone unturned in the service of informing and guiding us to be kinder to ourselves. While each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the practice, a key theme throughout is that self-compassion ultimately means asking ourselves one question: “What do I need?” Easier said than done. Hickman—a longtime teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion,…

60 all-new writing prompts to inspire your daily writing practice from bestselling author of Writing Down the Bones and acclaimed writing instructor Natalie Goldberg. Reinvigorate your yoga practice, connect with The Yoga Sutras, and take the wisdom of yoga off the mat and into your daily life with this 54-card practice deck. A step-by-step guide to reconnecting to your true sense of joy and pleasure and releasing any barriers to finding happiness and connection in life through embodiment practices. SHAMBHALA.COM…

TEACHER BURNOUT TURNAROUND Strategies for Empowered Educators Patricia A. Jennings • Norton It took a global pandemic to highlight the burden essential workers carry for us, and when children had to be taught remotely, the plight of teachers literally came home to us. Tish Jennings—a true education pioneer who is cofounder of CARE, a well-researched mindfulness-based professional development program, and codeveloper of The Compassionate Schools Project—traces the sources of teacher burnout to a “factory farm model… designed to produce uniform students, assessed by a standard that stigmatizes, rather than celebrates, differences,” where teachers are asked to “teach twenty-first century skills in a nineteenth century system.” Part 1 expands on this diagnosis. Part 2 explores thinking differently about schools, using systems and design thinking, less linear approaches to achieving big aims.…

By reading Mindful and sharing it with others, you’re helping to bring mindfulness practices into the world where the benefits can be enjoyed by all. Thank you! Print magazine & special topic publications 30 Day Mindfulness Challenge FREE! Guided meditations & podcasts Mindfulness video courses Visit online at mindful.org Get More Mindful…

HAUL PASS COVID-19 restrictions had Canadian Aaron Wylie wondering how he could visit his terminally ill mother one province over—until he found a loophole. Truck drivers, considered essential, could travel, and Wylie had the right driver’s license. He posted online asking for a weekend job that would take him near his mother’s home, and received hundreds of responses overnight. One person even offered to donate their liver. SHIRT STORY When Andi Musser, 10, shared hand-me-downs with a friend who couldn’t afford new clothes, the friend cried tears of happiness. Right away, Andi began dreaming up the Kindness Closet that is now a reality at her US elementary school. With the help of her principal and some local shops, she’s set up a place where fellow students can get new or…

Can googly eyes save lives? A modified buoy—with a large pair of “eyes” attached—is being tested to scare seabirds away from fishing areas, where birds often get tangled in nets and drown. Researchers say these simple glaring eyes mounted on a pole may reduce local bird traffic by up to 30%. The Pride flag is flying higher than ever in Cleveland, OH, where a gay couple was alarmed when their flag vanished from their porch. The couple, their neighbors, and dog eventually tracked down the rainbow banner, high in a tree—along with the raccoon that took it. Noor Shaik, a medical student in Philadelphia, started Breath for Humanity to fundraise for medical supplies for COVID-19 relief efforts in India. At press time she had sent three shipments of PPE, oxygen…

We humans are a social species. We live in groups. We take care of one another. Part of being a social species, it turns out, is that we regulate one another’s body budgets. Your body budget is your brain’s accounting of the bodily resources (like water, salt, glucose, and so on) it has to spend and save. Each action that spends resources, such as swimming or running, is like a withdrawal from your account. Actions that replenish your resources, such as eating and sleeping, are like deposits. Your brain tries to predict and meet your biological needs before they arise, to balance your body budget proactively. The people around you influence your body budget and even rewire your brain. Your brain changes its own wiring after new experiences, a process…

WALKING EACH OTHER HOME Episode: “The Importance of Narrative in Social Justice, with Rhonda v. Magee” Old friends and mindfulness experts Mirabai Bush and Rhonda Magee engage in a rich conversation about how narrative—listening to others’ stories and experiences—helps extend our empathy and understanding. Magee draws a direct line between mindfulness and antiracism work as “a way in which to fully engage our practice… to move from the cushion into the world, supported and informed by our practice. Mindfulness is a perfect technology for working with racism and other isms.” Magee notes that being inclusive with our language, and imbuing it with love and kindness, is vital if we are going to hear each other’s stories and learn from them. – SD LAUGH4APURPOSE Episode: “Mindfulness” In this open conversation with…

Awe—it’s one of our most profound emotions. According to evolutionary psychologist Dacher Keltner, founder of the Greater Good Science Center, it happens when something vast stretches the limits of our frame of reference. Big vistas induce awe. So do big ideas: ones that reveal interconnections and reorient what we think we know, reframing our way of looking at the world. Keltner helped develop the Awe Walk, where we intentionally expose ourselves to awe-inspiring environments. I took a big awe walk in December 2019, to the National Mall to visit the two newest buildings in the Smithsonian Institution’s 19 museums: the anachronistically named National Museum of the American Indian (opened 2004) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016). I recounted my visit to the latter museum in…

How do you tap into creativity? "I doodle in my journals, along with writing. I also write letters to people—old school!" staceylanius “I tap into creativity by looking through the window of my studio at the blooming flowers, and fluttering butterflies! I marvel at their freedom in flight and the predictability of the seasonal cycles, and I delve into an art journal with the same uninhibited ways nature models for me.” Val V. “I like to find inspiration in nature. Then I paint, either watercolor florals or even design mandalas on flat river rocks…I also love to take photographs of trees in the fall at sunrise, capturing the bold bright colors. And in the spring I love to go to our botanical gardens and photograph the dozens of varieties of…

SEEKING ATTENTION Researchers at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, analyzed data from 87 published studies with healthy adults to better understand which attentional behaviors are impacted by meditation. They focused on general attention, as well as specific aspects of executive function such as orienting toward an object, shifting focus, or inhibiting a response. Meditation practices were categorized as either open monitoring or focused attention practices. Open monitoring emphasizes the ability to stay in the present moment while paying attention to one’s experience without getting lost in thought. Focused attention meditation involves being able to sustain attention on a particular object. Overall, results showed that both types of practices were associated with improvements in attention and executive function. Meditators were better able to maintain their focus, pay attention to many objects,…

A feeling of anxiety, stress, or dread about the impending work or school week that tends to rise late in the day as the weekend dwindles. Try This Instead: Take three full breaths. On the first breath, bring your full attention to breathing. On the second, relax the body, drop your shoulders. On the third, ask yourself: What’s important right now? The answer might be “go for a walk,” “call a friend,” or “make sure I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow.” Stay in the moment.…

It was an ordinary day. Midafternoon, I took my dog for her usual walk around the block, mind on remedies for the writing class I was to teach that evening. While I was known for the community that usually formed in my classes, this semester was an exception. I had already tried several strategies for bringing the students together, but so far nothing had worked. In those days—before mindfulness was mainstream—I was always worried about something: my teaching, an essay I was writing, my granddaughters, my garden, a recent conversation with a friend. It didn’t take much to turn the anxiety faucet on, and once flowing, it could pull most areas of my life into its current. About halfway around the block that afternoon, I happened to glance down and…

I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.AUDRE LORDE Have you ever pruned or cut back a tree or a plant, then been shocked at how barren it looks? Only to then watch with amazement as each branch explodes with new life? I used to be reluctant to cut back any plant until someone told me that it is actually good for plants. It goes against everything that we think is “healthy.” How could inflicting such trauma and stress help plants grow and, yes, even thrive? This is just a simple example of nature’s fight for survival. When we prune the plant or tree, it then puts even greater energy into growing more. Having been hacked to pieces,…