Mind & Life Fellow Sharon Salzberg leads a meditation on building a foundation of grounding and rest to find courage from our October 2020 Inspiring Minds episode. We shared this video in 2022 as part of our 35th anniversary celebration.
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Jon Kabat-Zinn – Sharing MBSR with the Dalai Lama
In a video clip from 2022, Mind & Life Founding Steward Jon Kabat-Zinn remembers sharing the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program with the Dalai Lama at the Mind & Life Dialogue in Dharamsala, India in 1990. We shared this video in 2022 as part of our 35th anniversary celebration.
Developing and testing an internet-based mindfulness intervention for women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a rising epidemic worldwide and poses a significant public health challenge. GDM adversely affects women’s emotional well-being, health outcomes including future development of Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and infant health such as preeclampsia, mortality, and heightened risks for diabetes and other metabolic issues. A mindfulness-based intervention approach, coupled …
Biological and psychological mechanisms of mindfulness meditation-based interventions for depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly burdensome and psychological and biological features are mechanistically implicated in its etiology. Fewer than one-in-three depressed patients achieve remission after treatment. Understanding treatment mechanisms of MDD is clearly an important objective. Mindfulness training emphasizes the development of attention and experiential acceptance, improves depressive symptoms, reduces the likelihood of relapse, …
Mindfulness and the reduction of racial disparities and disproportionality in school discipline
Teachers are the most important factor in determining student achievement compared to any other aspect of schooling. They operate on the front lines of society’s efforts to promote equity and play a pivotal role as gatekeepers of academic opportunities. Despite good intentions, teachers like the rest of society are racially biased. Studies indicate that teachers …
Merging mindfulness and climate change education
In light of the climate crisis, one of the biggest impediments to social action is changing individual mindsets towards greater human-earth connection, and sustainability practices. The “Bending the Curve” (BtC) Climate Change solutions curriculum has now been adopted at-scale across nine University of California campuses and also at the University of Stockholm, with over 1000 …
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Building compassion and interconnectedness during a pandemic: Disentangling the immediate, daily, and long-term benefits of brief online loving kindness and concentration meditations
Mindfulness and loving kindness meditations (LKMs) have been linked to greater individual wellbeing, compassion, and lower stress and physiological stress reactions, even demonstrating abilities to buffer the impact of stress. However, the mechanisms underlying those benefits and the critical components of meditation interventions are not well understood. This study examines a brief, online program designed …
Effects and mechanisms of smartphone-based mindfulness training on emotional well-being in at-risk college students
Emotional well-being (EWB) is an important component of mental and physical health that includes both positive emotions and an absence of emotional symptoms (e.g., depressive- and anxiety-related). EWB has declined dramatically among college students, a trend only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to develop solutions that can improve college students’ EWB and can …
Stepping Back to Reflect: Mind & Life Leadership Explores Racial Histories
In her book “Mindful of Race,” author, educator, and meditation teacher Ruth King writes, “When we begin to notice the constellations instead of just the stars, we can see the patterns of harm toward aboriginal and native people, dark bodies, and immigrants.” “These struggles interconnect,” she adds. To create more compassionate communities, ”we all must …
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Cognitive mechanisms underlying increased compassion from Mindfulness and Compassion meditation
Both Mindfulness and Compassion meditation have been shown to lead to increased prosocial thoughts and behaviors. The historical traditions from which these meditation types stem suggest that these effects should be caused by changes in habitual modes of thinking as well as increases in certain types of wisdom or insight, in particular the recognition that …
