Research suggests that Mindfulness Training (MT) is helpful for dealing with depression, anxiety, and pain. Yet MT has become so popular that it seems like it is recommended for everything, ranging from parenting to dieting to corporate success. Yet without research that identifies the critical features of successful MT, we can’t effectively judge these emerging …
Continue reading “Does ongoing practice of mindfulness meditation promote healthy relationships?”
Between 1986 and 2006, northern Uganda was locked in a civil conflict where the local people experienced and/or witnessed poverty, rapes, beatings, and murders. Recently, yoga has been used in therapy to treat those who have suffered trauma (Emerson, 2015). Called trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY), TSY is a form of body-based therapy where yoga movement is …
Continue reading “Mind/body awareness workshop for teachers living in post-conflict Northern Uganda”
Recently, the literature on the positive impact of social integration on health and well-being, as well as academic success, has been growing. Students entering their first semester of college are at a crucial time for cementing social relationships among their peers. As such, early-college interventions that help students to feel more integrated and connected to …
The topic of this Dialogue is the role of emotional states in physical health. Over the past 2,500 years, Buddhists have explored this topic through contemplative practices and logical analysis. Their research has been conducted within the context of spiritual disciplines aimed at the release from physical and mental suffering. The principal means for pursuing …
In contemporary behavioral science, the general term “depression” covers a wide range of some of the most striking and prevalent forms of mental suffering in the world today. Within the broad spectrum of depression, some forms are relatively well understood. This Dialogue builds on that understanding to further examine the nature of depression and explore …
Though still in the early stages, there have been efforts to scientifically study the clinical application of meditative practices as well as the physiological effects of meditation in both novice and advanced practitioners. This Dialogue is a further opportunity for some of the scientists who have contributed most to this field to present their approaches …
Desire is a natural part of life that provides the motivating force for our achievements. Our highest aspirations are animated by desire. Yet, when desire becomes obsession or craving, we cross over into the territory of suffering. What before was an aid to accomplishment can devolve into a source of personal anguish and social violence. …
While attending Mind & Life’s 33rd Dialogue with the Dalai Lama in 2018, Kirk and Gael Benson were inspired. The Dialogue, now available online as the “Education of the Heart,” explored new frontiers in youth education rooted in science and contemplative wisdom, expanding beyond Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). During the Dialogue, Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, a renowned expert in …
Continue reading “Mind & Life Impact Story: Bringing Mindfulness to Utah Public Schools”
Combat deployments by military personnel such as to Iraq (OIF) and Afghanistan (OEF) involve long separation from spouses, financial / social strain for the partner at home, and often combat trauma to the deployed partner. These can cause negative effects on relationship quality in some couples. Our clinical research group and others across the country …
Though a breadth of existing theory and some early empirical evidence point to the need and potential benefits of compassion treatment for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there has yet to be a rigorous test of the efficacy of structured compassion training for this population. The proposed study aims to fill numerous gaps in …
Continue reading “A test of the efficacy of compassion cultivation training for veterans with PTSD”
