Category: meditation

Can Mindfulness Really Change Your Brain?

Meditation and other mindfulness practices may improve your attention, but they won’t lead to structural changes in your brain in the short-term, according to a new study. Previous studies have shown that learning new skills, aerobic exercise and balance training could trigger changes in the brain, and some research has suggested that mindfulness regimens could…


Forest Bathing Relieves Stress, Fights Cancer, Strengthens Immunity

“Forest bathing” has become a popular leisure activity, and is also a field of study for medical doctors. In Japan, there is the “Japanese Society of Forest Medicine” and “Forest Therapy Society” dedicated to promoting the medical applications of forests and advocating the various health benefits of forest bathing. Scientists have discovered that when people…


A Primer on Understanding & Compassion

A reader wrote to me that he is frustrated with himself — he hasn’t been as compassionate to people as he’d like recently. Lots of us experience this: we’re judgmental, quick to snap at people, getting frustrated with how other people act, judging people who have different beliefs than us. The reader who wrote to…


A Guide to Letting Go of Stress

We all deal with stress on a daily basis — whether it’s the stress of being busy and overwhelmed at work, having to deal with personal crises, traffic, relationships, health, finances … stress can be a big part of our lives. And stress has some strong effects: it makes us less happy, less effective, less…


New Friends: How a 67-year-old Struck Up Lasting New Friendships During her First Triathlon

Jeanne Mitchell, mother and grandmother, had just moved away from the friends she knew. She retired and moved upstate with her husband to a quiet area on the New Jersey coast in 2013. “It’s a beautiful neck of the woods,” she admits, but “it’s not an area where you get to know your neighbors super…


The Universal Narrative: When You Feel Unworthy

A little boy was told by his father, from a young age, that he wasn’t good enough. Not in so many words, but through his actions — by criticizing him, yelling at him, hitting him, leaving him. The boy grew up into a man, knowing that he was unworthy of praise, of success, of love….


30 Years of Falun Gong: Adherents Find Inner Peace, Moral Uplift Through Spiritual Practice

It was November 2020, nine months after 24-year-old Carolina Avendano began living by herself, and eight months after her city Calgary, Canada, entered into a lockdown that shut schools and most businesses. She was utterly alone. The pandemic restrictions meant she couldn’t visit her sister despite living in the same city. The prolonged isolation had…


A 30 Year Revival of Traditional Culture: Falun Gong Adherents See Moral Uplift Through Spiritual Practice

It was November 2020, nine months after 24-year-old Carolina Avendano began living by herself, and eight months after her city Calgary, Canada, entered into a lockdown that shut schools and most businesses. She was utterly alone. The pandemic restrictions meant she couldn’t visit her sister despite living in the same city. The prolonged isolation had…


Falun Gong Adherents See Moral Uplift Through Spiritual Practice

It was November 2020, nine months after 24-year-old Carolina Avendano began living by herself, and eight months after her city Calgary, Canada, entered into a lockdown that shut schools and most businesses. She was utterly alone. The pandemic restrictions meant she couldn’t visit her sister despite living in the same city. The prolonged isolation had…


Is Manifesting a Physical Skill, a Mental Skill, or a Spiritual Skill?

People often frame their manifesting skills as something spiritual, mental, or a combination of the two. Manifesting is often treated as something akin to prayer. Ask the universe for what you desire, and hopefully you’ll receive it. But what if manifesting is actually a physical skill in disguise? Other mental skills, including reading, writing, speaking,…