The Mindful Body argues against mindlessly accepting age-related decline in cognition and health as inevitable

In 1979, Har­vard researcher Ellen Langer invit­ed elder­ly men to spend a week at a retreat designed to remind them of their younger days, sur­round­ed by the art, music, food, games, décor, and more from the late 1950s. After­ward, the men were test­ed and found to have made sig­nif­i­cant gains in hear­ing, mem­o­ry, dex­ter­i­ty, posture,…

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Study on the “ABCs of Mental Health” finds that simply believing you can improve mental wellbeing helps actually improve it

The num­ber of peo­ple strug­gling with poor men­tal health and men­tal dis­or­ders has been ris­ing around the world over the past few decades. Those who are strug­gling are increas­ing­ly fac­ing dif­fi­cul­ties access­ing the kind of sup­port they need – leav­ing many wait­ing months for help, if they even qual­i­fy for treat­ment. While it’s clear that…

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On becoming a psychotherapy pioneer and bestselling writer: A fantastic memoir by, and window into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom

If you’re inter­est­ed in the life of the mind, here you have an awe­some win­dow into a unique mind — a pro­found mem­oir by best­selling writer and psy­chother­a­py pio­neer Irvin D. Yalom. It was pub­lished back in 2017 but, like good wine, it has aged well and is more rel­e­vant today than ever. Irvin D. Yalom,…

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Study: Meditation practice, both formal and informal, helps develop equanimity over time

We are liv­ing through a time of uncer­tain­ty, a sky-high pile of ques­tion marks. It has become increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to make plans because the state of our world today is so volatile due to the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic. Some peo­ple are adapt­ing to their homes becom­ing their offices indef­i­nite­ly, or in dan­ger of los­ing their jobs,…

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Seven evidence-based reasons to start meditating yesterday

Yes, start­ing today is OK too. I start­ed med­i­tat­ing soon after 9/11. I was liv­ing in Man­hat­tan, an already chaot­ic place, at an extreme­ly chaot­ic time. I real­ized I had no con­trol over my exter­nal envi­ron­ment. But the one place I did have a say over was my mind, through med­i­ta­tion. When I start­ed med­i­tat­ing, I…

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Fun optical illusion to tease your mind

????????RT pic.twitter.com/WBoG7rAD2f — ?????? (@jagarikin) July 24, 2020 The text above, in Japan­ese, says: “If it appears to rotate, RT” :-) You can quick­ly notice how the dots do not move at all … and how the effect takes place. More fun illu­sions and brain teasers: What do you see first, peo­ple or oth­er ani­mals? Tease your…

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