Discovery

By The Mindful Leader Team

For this month’s Round-Up, we look at the science behind mental exhaustion, what we can learn from the brains of seniors, the value of listening to silence, the relationship between a lost sense of time and mental distress, and finally, the phenomenon of lucid dreaming. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

Study Explains the Likely Cause of Mental Exhaustion  

Why does mental labor make you feel as tired as physi…

By Chris Altizer and Gloria Johnson-Cusack, Guest Contributors

In a time of increasing polarization and even legislation targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work, programs designed to increase diversity, inclusion, and equity are being castigated as divisive, exclusive, and unequal. 

How did we get here? How do we move ahead?

In the standard curricula, few things are as hot as the concept of privilege. Those with it are at best uncomfortable if not in denial while those without i…

By Chris Johnson, Guest Contributor

Saturated with Loss  

We’ve been saturated with loss... for a long time. While loss is as much a part of our human condition as the deep connections we feel with loved ones, the expanse of loss over the past few years, well, has tried our patience and even our character. 

We just hit a stunning one million lives lost to covid: sick patients, nurses and docs, front line health care workers, actors and musicians, public servants too. The loss made all the mor…

By Jamie Bristow, guest contributor

We know that climate change affects mental health – but we’re just beginning to grasp the role of the mind in the crisis itself. A new report outlines the crucial relationship between climate breakdown and the human inner world, and explores capacities of mind and heart as a foundation for more effective action.

Feeling the Effects of Climate Change

Climate change is no longer an abstract, future problem – its effects are felt by all of us. Almost every cou…

by The Mindful Leader Team

For this month’s Round-Up, we dive into the science behind TikTok’s #vagusnerve obsession and explore how VR can help us achieve a psychedelic-like trip. We also look at transformative experiences at secular mass gatherings, the newly proposed psychological diagnosis of  “maladaptive daydreaming”, and why restoration skills training (ReST) might be a better option than conventional mindfulness training (CMT). We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below w…

By John J. Murphy

As an author and business consultant specializing in leadership development, mindfulness, and transformational culture change for the past 34 years, I have done a considerable amount of research. Countless experts, teachers, scientists, and influential leaders have given me facts, data, insights, and information that have forever changed my life and the lives of my clients. One of the most intriguing examples of this was David Hawkins, MD, PhD.  Dr. Hawkins introduced me to Th…

By Due Quach, guest contributor

1. Accept that anxiety is biological

The first step in managing anxiety in a healthier manner is to make peace with the fact that having anxiety is natural and normal. According to evolutionary psychology, human psychological traits like anxiety exist because they serve a function. Anxiety signals that we believe the outcome of a situation in which there are factors beyond our control, is very important to our survival, social status, happiness, or well-being. A…

By Kathlyn T. Hendricks, guest contributor

“The enemy is fear. We think that it’s hate, but it’s fear.”

- Gandhi

How did we get so scared?

I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with fear over the last few years. I grew up with bomb shelters and “duck and cover” (no one back then thought this was traumatic or would create any long-lasting impact). The vision of the mushroom cloud seeped into dreams and decisions and led to everyone on our block—except us—having a bomb shelter for the annihilation we ex…

For this month’s Round-Up, we explore mindfulness in schools, how mindfulness regulates pain, finding meaning in life by appreciating the little things, the cognitive benefit of self-reflection, and why the serotonin theory of depression might not be as compelling as we think. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

School Mindfulness Programs: Why Some Work and Others Don’t    

In an updated meta-analysis, researchers of the My Resilience in …

By Michelle Maldonado, guest contributor

I love historic novels; especially ones that explore the plights, triumphs, and transformation of humanity. Today, as we are both participants and witnesses to what is happening in our local and global communities, I can’t help but be reminded of the Charles Dickens quote from A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness... it was the season of light, it was the season…