Mindful December 2018

Editor-in-Chief barry@mindful.org In Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, young Max’s bedroom transforms into a jungle filled with wild things who roar and bare their teeth and menace with their claws. He tames them into stillness and they become his friends. Having journeyed to where the wild things are, Max returns to his room to enjoy a nice hot meal. A delightful round trip. Generations of children and the adults reading it to them (it’s 55 years old now!) have reveled in this miniature version of the hero’s journey—at least partially because it is a great metaphor for the mind. The mind is indeed where the wild things are. It contains our fears for the future and the future of those we love; our regrets and shame stored up…

Do you enjoy cooking? THE MAJORITY—54% OF respondents—say they enjoy cooking when time and energy allow them to. A more enthusiastic 20% always savor their kitchen adventures, while 13% said they like to cook for someone else, but not only for themselves. For 10% it’s a chore to avoid whenever possible, and the last 3% said they don’t know how to cook. Do you enjoy sharing a meal with other people? Where’s your favorite place in your home to eat? What food do you think is underrated by most people? • “Vinegar: so many types, so many uses!”• “Simple foods like soup and bread.”• “Eggs.”• “Natto: Japanese fermented soybeans.”• “Lentils and beans.”• “Fresh produce. I love grazing from my garden.” What’s your favorite meal of the day? BREAKFAST AND SUPPER WERE the…

Meditation meets baby goats Every meditator knows what it’s like when your mind simply won’t slow down. Now a mindfulness teacher in Brisbane has taken that inner challenge and put it out there…by having new students meditate with baby goats. “It’s a metaphor. Your meditation is not going to be perfect, and it certainly won’t be still,” Berenice Tan told Yahoo 7 Australia. The rescued kids are brought in halfway through Tan’s popular “Breathe In & Bleat Out” introduction to mindfulness meditation events. And they offer a powerful teaching in self-compassion, she said. “Beginner meditators have tremendous expectations the first time they attempt to sit, and it very rarely goes the way they hope,” she continued. “You’ll have thoughts, feelings, memories, fantasies, dreams jumping over you, gnawing at you, and…

When a betrothed couple’s wedding officiant broke a leg during the rehearsal dinner, the event’s catering manager happened to be a licensed officiant, so he stepped in and married them. A Tennessee truck driver bought a school bus to rescue animals during natural disasters. When Hurricane Florence hit, he rescued 64 dogs and cats from South Carolina shelters that were in the storm’s path. Over the last 10 years, a 93-year-old man in Iowa has bought about 6,000 chocolate bars and handed them out to friends and strangers.…

Vroom vroom Harley-Davidson offers a two-minute meditation, grounded by the sound of a revving motorcycle engine throughout, to help Harley riders de-stress. Compared to the “complete freedom” of the open road, Harley’s marketing director says, it’s “the next best thing.” Glug glug Stella Artois has created an audio guide to mindfully enjoying a beer. The 20-minute track is narrated by actor Luke Evans, who invites listeners to discover the “complexities” of the brew “through attentive, mindful sipping.”…

Are the days of mindless scrolling coming to an end? With concern growing around “phone addiction,” Facebook and Instagram have rolled out new time-control features, allowing users to monitor how long they use the apps and set custom reminders to stop for the day. Instagram Product Director Ameet Ranadive says users should feel like “they can be mindful and intentional about how they’re spending their time” on social media. Psychologists say these tools will help some users, but others may need a bigger intervention to curb their unhealthy Insta-habits.…