Mindful August 2017

Of the following, which personal tech devices do you use on a daily basis: MP3 Player 4% Desktop Computer 37% Tablet 38% Laptop Computer 50% TV 51% Smartphone 91% What role does technology play in your life? 30% SAY IT’S CRUCIAL, while 26% say technology is a “necessary evil.” Another 21% admit it’s an impressive feat of human intelligence, 11% could take or leave it, 8% think it’s responsible for making us all more stupid, and 4% consider it a huge burden. Have you ever experienced tech withdrawal? Do you consider yourself to be: A tech native 10% Pretty competent with technology 72% Befuddled by all these gadgets! 15% Rather averse to technology 3% Of the following, what do you most often use a smartphone for: Gaming 1% Other 7%…

Barry Boyce Editor-in-Chiefbarry@mindful.org Our must-read story this issue: In “The 8-Week Journey to Now,” Alan Green takes us through a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, week by week. See page 44. Each day as I come home from work, I walk on a tree-lined street that’s like a small forest. Some days I’m utterly lost in thought, but when possible I try to drink it all in. It’s so much more nourishing than looking at a screen. If I had to choose between a tree and a newsfeed—including a newsfeed about beautiful trees—I would choose the tree. Every time A friend of mine is an arborist who has long exposed me, on excursion after excursion in parks and wilderness, to the wonders of trees and forests, first in Pennsylvania and now…

The Japanese belief that their practice of “forest bathing” is good for body and mind now has some scientific backing. For eight years, researchers in Japan studied the physiological and psychological effects of spending time among trees, and found it significantly improves immune function, lowers stress, and reduces hostility and depression. “Forest environments can be viewed as therapeutic landscapes,” they concluded. More Resilience, Less Reactivity Many of us worry about our health, finances, employment, or relationships, but for those of us with generalized anxiety disorder, worrying like this can be both physically and emotionally exhausting. Might mindfulness help? According to a new study, the answer may be “yes.” Seventy adults with a history of generalized anxiety disorder attended either an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction class or an attention control class.…

The need for CPR tends to arise unexpectedly, so it pays to be prepared. The New York–Presbyterian hospital made a Spotify playlist, “Songs to do CPR to,” so the ideal tempo for chest compressions—100 to 120 beats per minute—is fresh in people’s minds. “Learning is the only way to turn failure into success” is the slogan for Sweden’s new Museum of Failure, which features a collection of failed innovations—like Harley Davidson’s “Hot Rod” cologne and the TwitterPeek mobile device, designed solely for tweeting. A new phone app, ByCycling, allows employers to start bike-to-work incentive programs. The app tracks speed to determine if a person is cycling, then logs the distance each employee travels and converts that data into money or vacation time, as determined by employers. For all the small-talk…

Sharon Begley is senior science writer with STAT, a new national health and medicine publication. She is also author of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain and Can’t Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsions (2017, Simon & Schuster). You probably know the Google Effect: the first rigorous finding in the booming research into how digital technology affects cognition. It’s also known as digital amnesia, and it works like this: When we know where to find a piece of information, and when it takes little effort to do so, we are less likely to remember that information. First discovered by psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University and her colleagues, the Google Effect causes our brains to take a pass on retaining or recalling facts such as “an ostrich’s eye is bigger…

Pasta is pure alchemy. You take two ingredients—eggs and flour—and mix and knead and roll them together, only to wind up with something incomparable to any other food on earth: chewy and tender, hearty and delicate, delightfully springy and just the right amount of silky. It is the quintessence of a humble family meal and of a world-class culinary display, yet in both settings its quality rests in its simplicity. For example, take a classic Southern Italian dish: aglio e olio, which translates as “garlic and oil.” This simple pasta calls for only a few ingredients, yet the result can be almost otherworldly. TRY THIS Cook some spaghetti in heavily salted water until a bit firmer than al dente, then reserve about half a cup of the cooking water. In…