Discovery

By The Mindful Leader Team

This month, we investigate the effectiveness of MBSR in treating anxiety as well as in helping parents of children with autism manage stress. Then, we see what the American Heart Association has to say about the link between psychological and cardiovascular health before looking at the findings of two major surveys on mental health in the workplace: SHRM’s research and Headspace’s Fifth Annual Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health report. We have summarized the mai…

By Kristin Neff, guest contributor

What keeps us from being kinder to ourselves?

Most people don’t have any problem with seeing compassion as a thoroughly commendable quality. It seems to refer to an amalgam of unquestionably good qualities: kindness, mercy, tenderness, benevolence, understanding, empathy, sympathy, and fellow-feeling, along with an impulse to help other living creatures, human or animal, in distress. But we seem less sure about self-compassion. For many, it carries the whiff…

By The Mindful Leader Team

What is Awe?

Awe is a complex and elusive emotion that can be challenging to define. Unlike most emotions, it can evoke both positive and negative feelings and can arise from various sources. For example, it can inspire feelings of wonder and fascination, but also overwhelm and disorientation. Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt proposed a conceptual approach to understanding awe in a seminal 2003 paper. They identified two key components of awe experienc…

By Mo Edjlali

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most groundbreaking and simultaneously alarming technologies in recent times. With the potential to fundamentally transform humanity and produce widespread, far-reaching effects, AI has sparked both fears and hope in our community. Some see the potential for an apocalyptic outcome and while others are eager to advance.   As a cautious optimist, my goal in this article is to share insights that can help you become more informed…

By The Mindful Leader Team

This month, we consider the potential therapeutic value of human sweat in treating anxiety, examine how teenagers can use mindfulness to combat mental health issues, compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy, explore the healing power of art, and look at a new spatial computing theory of working memory. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

Practitioner-sup…

By Rob Osborn, guest contributor 

Would you like to have fewer regrets? When you do the autopsy on the action, the critical word you’ve said, or the less-than-polite email you fired off, are you ever uncertain how you behaved differently from your values or intention? How did you get away from the plan to love others to not seeming to love others?

How do we end up doing what we don’t want to do? Even saints struggle with this. A towering figure in the Christian faith, the apostle Paul, rambled…

By Mo Edjlali

A couple of months ago, we began a series of articles on ChatGPT, discussing its potential uses in our work and addressing common concerns about AI. I've been a tech junkie all my life. I'd spend hours as a kid flipping through popular science magazines at the library and built my first computer at 15 (it was a 486 IBM clone if that rings a bell!). Eventually, I got a degree in computer engineering and spent two decades working as a technology architect and manager constantly on t…

By The Mindful Leader Team

This month, we consider how exercise can boost traditional therapy, look at how migraine patients benefit from mindfulness, examine the neurological toll of racism, explore the science of white, brown, and other “colored” noise, and finally, investigate the role mindfulness plays in the effectiveness of sensory advertising. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

Adding Exercise to Therapy May Make It More Effective …

By Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader Founder and CEO

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article titled "4 Ways ChatGPT Might Help With Mindfulness Facilitation" to share my excitement and showcase some of the cool things we can do with ChatGPT. While there were a number of positive comments, my friend and colleague Jamie Bristow raised some valid concerns about the limitations of using artificial intelligence (AI) for mindfulness facilitation. 

In this article, we will explore some of these concerns and p…

By The Mindful Leader Team

This month, we look at political polarization from a neurological perspective, examine the benefits of breathing exercises for stress reduction, consider the surprising benefits of forgetting (but also tips for how to remember things!), look at how climate crisis trauma negatively impacts cognitive functioning, and lastly, explore how smells are linked to memory and behavior in mice. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full arti…