Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2021 i Mindful

We’re bringing our content to life with Mindful Live—a series of in-depth, online conversations, and events featuring mindfulness experts on how we can enjoy better health, cultivate more caring relationships, and create a more compassionate society. Sign up to learn more at mindful.org/mindful-live Heather Hurlock is the editor-in-chief of Mindful magazine and mindful.org. She’s a longtime editor, musician, and meditator with deep roots in service journalism. Connect with Heather at heather.hurlock@mindful.org.…

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CONCUSSION CARE Each year more than 2 million Americans suffer from chronic difficulties like headaches, anxiety, and trouble focusing following a concussion. Researchers at the University of Connecticut reviewed 22 studies where mindfulness-based interventions were used to treat symptoms related to these mild traumatic brain injuries. They found that meditation and yoga helped to lessen fatigue and depression, and improved mental and physical health, cognitive performance, and quality of life. More studies are needed to better understand these effects. NO SILVER BULLET Mindfulness programs are widely used to reduce stress in nonclinical settings, and practices like meditation and yoga are known to lessen symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression and increase well-being. These effects are far from universal, say Cambridge University researchers after examining 136 randomized controlled trials…

Endangered Thai elephants are safe in rescue worker Mana Srivate’s care: He revived a wild baby elephant using CPR after it was struck by a motorcycle (the rider wasn’t badly hurt). After a medical check, the baby was reunited with its mother. In Salt Lake City, Utah, Darin Mann invited unhoused people to camp on his front lawn. While he told ABC News he thinks the city should step up to help, in the meantime he allowed 10 tents on his lawn, and opened his bathroom to the folks sleeping in them. Monesk, a new startup, aims to support artists while helping more people access and savor (tiny) works of art. A monthly subscription (under $10) gets you a 4x6” print, a description, the artist’s bio, and a set of…

The pattern goes some-thing like this: You feel exhausted and unwell, so you open a search engine and type. Your symptoms are common enough that every condition seems possible, and you go down one rabbit hole after another in search of what’s wrong. You easily dismiss certain possibilities, but your symptoms persist. With repeated searching, you might read “feeling tired” (yes), which “doesn’t get better with sleep” (yes again) and where you’re “craving salty snacks” (oh man, that’s me). And then you happen upon a term that covers all of the above: “adrenal fatigue.” You feel a little hope, until you discover that “adrenal fatigue” isn’t a medical term yet. It is becoming more recognized by physicians, according to Rael Cahn, an assistant professor of psychiatry at University of Southern…

1 Imagine someone you are having some difficulty with. Take a breath and allow yourself to look into the eyes of this person. Picture them as a little child, maybe four years old. Can you delight in the sparkle and beauty and uniqueness of this wondrous being? Imagine, if they were your own child, how you would wish them well, keep them safe. Picture them aging. See them take a blow, a shame, a hurt, an indignity. Allow yourself to know they have experienced hurts you cannot imagine, burdens, terrors, sorrows, failures, losses, loneliness, addiction, disappointment, rage, and no end to sadness or despair. 2 Let yourself be open to knowing you don’t have to fix them or heal them, but perhaps you can just be with them. Feel the…

Death is a natural part of life. From the beginning to the end, life is constant change and nothing stays fixed. And that gives life its vitality. But it also causes a certain heartbreak when we face the difficult truth of impermanence. Grief is a recognition of endings, but it’s also a birth and a beginning. We enter into a difficult and solitary journey and we come out transformed. There’s nothing really to be said about grieving that doesn’t sound trite. There’s no simple way through it. It is extremely difficult to put the gravity or the force of grief into words. And there’s no one way to grieve. Neither is there a cure for our fragility and vulnerability. We have only one option, which is somehow to figure out…

AN ANATOMY OF PAIN How the Body and the Mind Experience and Endure Physical Suffering Abdul-Ghaaliq Lalkhen, MD • Scribner Anyone whose doctor ever asked them to describe pain on a scale from 1 to 10 knows just how hazy our understanding of pain is. There is perhaps nothing more private, or more lonesome, than your own pain. Even though pain is the main event that causes us to seek medical attention, if a doctor can’t find the source of the pain, and treat it, they’re very unlikely to have much sophisticated help to offer you for managing the pain. Dr. Lalkhen, who has been helping patients with pain for over two decades, and who is on the Faculty of Pain Medicine at UK Royal College of Anesthetists, hopes to…

3 PRACTICES TO DEEPEN INTO LOVING-KINDNESS 1 Directing Compassion Toward Ourselves from Vinny Ferraro We’re typically our own harshest critics. We tend to hide our flaws and mistakes, projecting a perfect outward image. In this practice, we can bring compassion to our imperfections and mistakes. This shift helps us approach the very difficulties that we’ve been desperately trying to avoid, so that they can become the sources of our awakening, of our wisdom, of equanimity. (For another practice with Vinny Ferraro, see page 40.) 2 A Loving-Kindness Meditation for Your Loved Ones from Atman Smith Relationships are complicated. Conflicts can arise in ways that make it difficult to express love to those we care about the most, or perhaps to those we care about who are no longer with us.…

This past year has been hard. Currently, I have a torrent of gnarly emotions stashed behind a mental dam that I’m not fully dealing with—the dam cracks a little each time I acknowledge it so I’m choosing not to look at it for very long. I’m saving it for…later. For now, I’m channeling my discomfort into my own form of aggressive yoga (there are pushups), and practicing body scan meditations to check in with my body along the way. In my mind I believe I’m letting my emotional dam release in a scheduled fashion: acknowledging it’s there, providing some safe spillways for processing, some tunnels for inspecting any damage, a few postcards in the gift shop for tourists. But I know this is not the way emotions like to be…

Dr. Sará King has an idea she wants you to hear: Wellbeing and social justice are the same thing. King is a neuroscientist, medical anthropologist, and meditation teacher. She founded MindHeart Consulting and is a postdoctoral fellow funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at Oregon Health Science University, where she brings together her work in neuroscience, mindfulness, and social justice in a framework she calls The Science of Social Justice. She wants people to understand that the effects of oppression and injustice manifest in our bodies and minds. Since trauma affects our physiology, psychology, mental health, and relationships, King says understanding that the pain permeates so many parts of ourselves helps us heal. “When you integrate science and mindfulness and social justice, suddenly people understand that…

1 BREATHE One method is the ocean breath: “You partially close the back of the throat on your exhale, which gently lengthens its duration,” says Mantz. He offers two guides: Pretend you’re fogging up a mirror, or breathing like Darth Vader. Increasing the length of your exhale strengthens the parasympathetic nervous system and eases an overactive fight-or-flight response. 2 BE PRESENT Learning to see thoughts as just thoughts, and not threats, means you can step out of panic mode and your adrenals will be activated less frequently. Carlson says to envision a river with two options: You can be in the water, swept away with the thoughts, or you can be on the bank, simply watching the river flow by. 3 SCAN YOUR BODY Start at your head and progressively move toward your…

STEPHANIE DOMET: How can mindfulness help us work with failure and shame? VINNY FERRARO: Mindfulness can help interrupt the shame response that can overwhelm us with its historic baggage. Mindfulness brings me back to the present moment and helps me discern what I am in the presence of, so then I can learn from my mistakes, actually face them, instead of getting lost in outdated programming. That outdated programming is really beguiling, isn’t it? It’s amazing how effective it is. I had a teacher that would stay in it with me. He was very patient. He’d say, “OK, don’t go all the way there. But can you just see how this could have been done differently? Let’s just parse out the behavior from your essential nature.” Because we’re not our…

From the moment you’re born to the moment you draw your last breath, your brain is stuck in a dark, silent box called your skull. Day in and day out, it continually receives sense data from the outside world via your eyes, ears, nose, and other sensory organs. This data does not arrive in the form of the meaningful sights, smells, sounds, and other sensations that most of us experience. It’s just a barrage of light waves, chemicals, and changes in air pressure with no inherent significance. Faced with these ambiguous scraps of sense data, your brain must somehow figure out what to do next. Your brain’s most important job is to control your body so you stay alive and well. Your brain must somehow make meaning from the onslaught…

My mother lived to 97, the last survivor of her generation within her family, her extended family, and her circles of friends. In her last years, her body was wracked with pain. As her pain and loss mounted, I saw how small my pains were by comparison and yet I complained as much or more. I better toughen up if I live that long, I thought. Caring for her fell mostly to my brother and his wife, who lived nearby. I may have done as much harm as good trying to relieve their burden during my visits. Taking my mom out to lunch, I absentmindedly put her purse on the car roof before pulling off. Its contents, strewn along a highway, were fortunately recovered by a good Samaritan, but it…

What does it mean to be authentic? “To accept myself with love and compassion, and follow my path with joy and gratitude.“ Candace Z. “It means to be honest about what’s in my head and heart, but in a way that’s mutually respectful and productive.” willingham2271 “My definition of authenticity is to be who you are, no matter where you are or who you are with. Truly yourself at all times.” Marlene F. “I think it’s when you’re unfiltered. You’re truly yourself. And you are living into your core values. You’re not trying to fit in or impress anyone. You willingly show your imperfections and vulnerabilities without shame or guilt.” Claire L. “Staying true to yourself <3” m0rethan.fitness “Authenticity is when our words, our thoughts, our actions, and our emotions…

GOLDEN OLDIE Calgary’s Donny Marchuk says that in tough times, his elderly golden retriever, Sully, was there for him. Now, he’s repaying the favor. Sully can’t get around like he used to, so Marchuk pulls him on hikes in a wagon he calls an “adventure chariot.” He says an added benefit is that it makes other people smile to see them. PROOF OF LOVE Seattle home bakers donated over 1,300 loaves of bread to a local food bank that’s seen increased demand due to the pandemic. Community Loaves is a volunteer network of about 500 bakers. The home bakers are urged to keep one of every four loaves for themselves as thanks for their work. ALL CLASS British Columbia MLA Ravi Kahlon tweeted about a proud dad moment when his…

Sober Mom Squad was born when Emily Lynn Paulson, a recovery coach and mother of five, realized in the early days of the pandemic that “there wasn’t a specific support for moms who also happened to be navigating an alcohol-free life.” Welcoming all moms at any stage in their sobriety, the Squad dispels the idea that “mommy juice” is required to unwind: “Daily gratitude journaling, meditation, exercise, listening to music or shutting down technology are solid ways to regroup without alcohol,” says Paulson. The Squad hosts daily virtual meetings, a members’ forum, and a book and podcast resource library. myKinCloud, styled as a “family mindfulness app,” offers a variety of mindfulness and yoga practices that members can access, and then post about what they did on their family’s private feed. The…

Corporate giants have been making the switch from cubicles to open concept offices over the past decade. A recent case study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that an increase in distractions from being in an open work environment can impair collaboration and increase stress. While mindful moments can be woven into any milieu, some companies are going out of their way to create stylish meditation spaces that take “alone time” at work to a new level. (No word yet on a meditation pod that works for Zoom meetings, though.) OpenSeed has designed an egg-shaped meditation pod made of a sound-isolating wood and wool-felt shell. LED lights programmed to synchronize with guided audio meditations and calming sounds, an essential oil diffuser, noise-canceling headphones, and a touch screen to operate…

When I was 23 and just starting out in journalism, I made an awful mis-take. While covering a high-profile trial in San Jose, California, I wrote that a woman who hadn’t been charged with any crime had plotted a murder. The woman I’d wrongly incriminated sued me and my newspaper for libel, demanding $11 million. Had she won, it would have killed my career and financially damaged my employer. Alas, this wasn’t my first reporting error. In the preceding weeks I’d made a series of smaller mistakes, mostly getting names and dates wrong, although once I’d quoted a rancher as telling me he had to leave to “shoot a horse” when he’d really said “shoe” a horse. He called the news desk the morning that story appeared to demand a…

Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett’s work on how the brain predicts everything we do—how it’s creating our perceptions of reality—helps us see how we cocreate the conditions that we are all trying so desperately to transform. When the brain predicts what’s going to happen next, it’s pulling from a narrow data set called our life experience. Or, more specifically, the conscious and subconscious imprint of our life experiences—that’s what colors our perception of the world, other people, ourselves, and our relationships. And we carry the information from all of our life experiences in our bodies, at the cellular level. There’s wisdom in the body that we can benefit greatly from if we cultivate our awareness to notice it and access it. That’s why mindfulness is a critical practice that allows us…

HIGH IMPACT PHYSICIAN Episode: “The Science of Resilience (Dr. Jonathan Fisher)” Cardiologist and meditation teacher Dr. Jonathan Fisher wants us to consider how we’re taking care of our hearts. He isn’t strictly referring to the physical organ, but also to our minds and our hearts—emotionally. In this insightful conversation with host Sandy Scott, Fisher talks about stress and resilience through the lens of cardiology and how promoting emotional wellbeing in health care can help patients and providers alike. “[Self-care] coincides with the evolution of healthcare,” Fisher says. Where healthcare advice was once prescriptive, we’re now moving toward “shared responsibility for caring for ourselves.” – KR LIFE KIT Episode: “Poet Maggie Smith On ‘Trying On’ Hope” Maggie Smith wrote Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change at a time in…