Good News Day 18: How Meditation Changes the Mind and Body

Illustration by Anna Parini

The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters of the practice have relied on very small samples of unrepresentative subjects, like isolated Buddhist monks who spend hours meditating every day, or on studies that generally were not randomized and did not include placebo­ control groups.

This month, however, a study published in Biological Psychiatry brings scientific thoroughness to mindfulness meditation and for the first time shows that, unlike a placebo, it can change the brains of ordinary people and potentially improve their health.

Read the rest here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/contemplation-therapy/

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Six Right Livelihood Guidelines

I stumbled upon this on the internet today (quite literally, I was using StumbleUpon) and I appreciated its message, so I thought I’d share it with you. With a bit of digging around, the primary source for this content seems to come from this University of Pennsylvania link. I am not sure what the original source is beyond that.

Consume mindfully.

• Eat with awareness and gratitude.
• Pause before buying and see if breathing is enough.
• Pay attention to the effects of media you consume.

Pause. Breathe. Listen.

• When you feel compelled to speak in a meeting or conversation, pause.
• Breathe before entering your home, place of work, or school.
• Listen to the people you encounter. They are Buddhas.

Practice gratitude.

• Notice what you have
• Be equally grateful for opportunities and challenges.
• Share joy, not negativity.

Cultivate compassion and loving kindness.

• Notice where help is needed and be quick to help
• Consider others’ perspectives deeply.
• Work for peace at many levels.

Discover wisdom

• Cultivate your "don’t know" mind (= curiosity).
• Find connections between Buddhist teachings and your life.
• Be open to what arises in every moment.

Accept constant change.