Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i Mindful

mindful The 3,000 euros a day that wish-making tourists toss into Rome’s historic Trevi Fountain helps to subsidize a supermarket for the city’s poor. Tyler Hively noticed fitness apps were ignoring his tribe. So he came up with Free Wheel, a wheelchair fitness app to track caloric burn and plan routes based on slope, altitude, and incline. To protest the US gender wage gap, a pop-up shop, LessThan100, moves around the country selling products made by women— and charges female customers a price that accounts for the pay gap in the locale they’ve set up shop in. Michihiko Iwamoto never forgot the trash-fueled DeLorean in Back to the Future. Now, the 51-year-old CEO of a recycling technology firm is partnering with NBC Universal Entertainment Japan to create a real-life model…

STEP OUT OF THE WAY By Judson Brewer Why is the state of flow— moments where everything comes together in some almost magical way—so hard to achieve? In this TED Talk, a neuroscientist and mindfulness expert shows how we ourselves are the only barrier keeping us from flow. RADICAL ACCEPTANCE By Tara Brach “If we’re at war with ourselves, we can’t feel love and connection with our world,” Brach says. The DC-based instructor looks at how mindfulness and heartfulness can dissolve what she calls “the trance of unworthiness” and reveal the loving awareness that is our essence. FIND THE SPACE TO LEAD By Janice Marturano What is mindful leadership? Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, shows what it is, why it’s critically important, and how it can be…

FLOW The Psychology of Optimal Experience By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi This groundbreaking book provides insight into what’s needed to get into flow, when time alters and you become so absorbed in whatever you’re doing that nothing else matters. The key, in Mumford’s view, is learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. “The best moments of our lives,” writes Csikszentmihalyi, are “when a person’s body or mind is stretched to the limits in a voluntary moment to achieve something difficult and worthwhile.” ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY By Eugen Herrigel An enlightening, no-nonsense account by a German philosophy professor of his quest to learn zen archery in Japan after World War II. What he discovered is that the secret was letting go of his willful self. As Herrigel puts it, “The…

An important part of working with anger mindfully involves becoming familiar with the way anger manifests in your life. Although anger is a basic and universal emotion, Paul Ekman likes to say that we all have different “anger profiles” based on three factors: ONSET How long does it take for you to get angry? INTENSITY How high does your anger go? COOL DOWN How long does it take for you to get over it? Some people can get angry in a blink of an eye, while for others it builds up over many hours. While some people typically experience mild forms of anger, such as irritation or annoyance, others can get enraged or furious at the slightest provocation. For some, it’s easy to cool down and move on, while others…

Editor-in-Chief barry@mindful.org Our must-read stories this issue: “Let the Game Come To You” offers insight and practical instruction for how to find flow in our lives. On page 46. “How to Stick with Meditation …and Enjoy It” provides examples and lots of advice from teachers on how to keep going when inspiration lags. On page 38. Before he got all serious and entered politics, Senator Al Franken, as you likely know, was a Saturday Night Live comedian. His most unforgettable character was self-help guru Stuart Smalley, whose catch phrase — breathlessly sputtered out—was “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” The skit was funny and wildly popular because, in its desperate plea to be convincing, it captured perfectly the trick and the trap of most…

TEACHING MINDFULNESS SKILLS TO KIDS AND TEENS Edited by Christopher Willard and Amy Saltzman • Guilford Two leaders in the movement to educate the whole child offer a comprehensive resource for teachers, parents, administrators, and social workers. And none too soon, since programs bringing mindfulness into schools grow daily, as does interest in the young brain. Here you’ll find lots of practical applications (in settings ranging from art class to the gym to the classroom) and also scientific inquiry into how mindfulness training might work in the adolescent brain. THE HAPPINESS TRACK How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success Emma Seppälä • Harper One Seppälä’s take on our busyness addiction is refreshingly non-punitive—we don’t slave because we’re suckers for stress, it’s because we want to do…

Chris Tralie, 26, is a Ph.D. candidate in electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, where he also serves as president of the campus meditation community. He discovered meditation during his sophomore year at Princeton University, after a period of depression and anxiety. In graduate school, he’s continued to sit daily for 20 minutes after breakfast. The practice, he says, gives him a chance to probe his emotions and relationships with more self-awareness. What were you like in high school? Quite a nerd—super into coding and math. I was raised Catholic and grew up not questioning things much on an existential level. I love my parents, but each was the first and only person the other ever dated. I assumed I would marry the first girl I ever dated. I…

1 Sit in a comfortable yet alert position with your hands resting comfortably and your eyes gently closed. Check in with your body, and feel the places where it makes contact with the chair or cushion. 2 Take some deep breaths, completely filling the torso with air, then completely release the breath. 3 Think back to a time when you experienced anger, relatively recently. You don’t need to choose your worst episode. In fact, it’s wise to start with something smaller. Envision and experience what happened, allowing yourself to feel the anger again, right now. Allow the feeling to get as strong as possible within a zone of safety (e.g., not getting to the point where you want to get up and scream and jump around!). 4 Other emotions, such…

Have you ever seen compassion listed as a required skill in a job description? Likely not, because most workplaces don’t consider compassion a skill—let alone a desired attribute of employees. What does it mean to be compassionate at work? It can be as simple as assuming others have good intentions even when a situation (for whatever reason) doesn’t go as planned, rather than defaulting to blame or confrontation. Despite the many tensions and errors that often arise at work, most people don’t wake up actively planning to act like a jerk or make others uncomfortable. “For too many people, their workplace is an interruption from their time off, a form of paid suffering,” says Jon Ramer, founder of Compassion Games, a global organization dedicated to creating compassionate thinking and compassionate…

While on a flight home 10 years ago, I found myself sitting next to a woman who seemed like she wanted to bring something up with me. Finally, she got up the courage to ask me her question: “Did you ever attend Fairfield High School?” “Yes I did,” I said. “I attended Fairfield for the first semester of 10th grade.” Before I could say another word she had an even more astonishing question: “Is your name Flowers? Are you Steve Flowers?” I was blown away! “Yes, I am, but that was 46 years ago! How could you possibly see that skinny boy in me now?” “You were in my class,” she said, “and I had a terrible crush on you. I wanted so much to say hello and introduce myself,…

Nuts contain lots of vitamins and minerals, and they’re filling with a relatively low calorie count. Also a great source of: • Omega 3 fatty acids • Protein • Fiber Source: Health.com Resident foodie and mindful eating advocate Béatrice Peltre goes crazy over nuts. No food is more multifaceted than a nut. For one thing, there are so many of them, and each carries a distinctive taste and aroma to go along with its telltale shape. Nuts are crunchy and gritty, yet also very buttery, and dense with protein. They’re one of the favorite snacks the world over. (Pecans are my go-to choice for casual munching.) But they are also great for baking. The smell of cakes and pastries filled with toasty nuts can stop people in the street and…

DIANA WINSTON “If you come to mindfulness to relieve suffering, that’s fantastic. But more advanced work with a teacher will allow you to move into the nuances of your practice, will keep it alive and interesting and applicable to your life.” DONALD MCCOWN “You’re not getting the full deal unless you are involved in a community. One thing meditation offers is a real connection to other humans. We crave that. It’s tough being a human alone.” FLORENCE MELEO-MEYER “At the start we have big expectations, but there is something about the everydayness of meditation that is not quite so sexy. It’s important to know that a lull will happen, that it is not a sign to give up.” STEVE HICKMAN “Most of us need a bit of scaffolding, at the…

Nearly every athlete or successful individual I’ve worked with has had intention and a clear sense of purpose. Some of us say we don’t know what our intention or purpose is, but often we simply haven’t spent enough time listening to ourselves carefully and in silence. To help with that, it can be useful to try some Deep Listening: the practice of stopping and listening without judgment or advice. Sit down, rest your mind, and ask yourself in silence: What do I really want? What is my life for? If you go deep enough, intention will emerge. With Deep Listening, you have an opportunity to honestly evaluate yourself. When you’re reflecting on a habit or an action—such as an obstacle you perceive or something you think you’ve accomplished— take the…

What triggers your anger? Make a list of your hottest triggers. Common Triggers Feeling misunderstood or contradicted in conversation Being excluded Lack of control in a situation Feeling like someone is angry or upset with you Physical discomfort Not getting what you want Disrespect and injustice How do you usually react when you’re angry? List your top five anger reactions. Common Reactions Coming up with insults Interrupting others Lack of energy and sadness Avoiding eye contact Blame/resentment Constructing narratives about unpleasant experiences Making sarcastic or passive aggressive remarks Checking out of tense situations…