9/29/2022
Fall Mindfulness Classes Underway The Mindfulness Center Fall courses have begun. One class is already underway: Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees, taught by Matt Goodman. Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees is being…
9/29/2022
The Impact of Brief Mindfulness Training on Interception Interception refers to the brain's representation of sensations originating within the body, including many sensations associated with emotions. How these signals are…
9/29/2022
Have you noticed how much the word “mind” is part and parcel of our lives, how we tell stories and sing songs about the mind, as though it were a phenomenon that operates on its own, separately from “me”? Song titles with the word “mind” abound: the difficult conditions of your mind…Pain of Mind, Mind War, Crazy Out of My Mind, Dead-end Mind, Unsound Mind, Mind Games, All in the Mind, Quiet Mind, Thorn in My Mind, Half a Mind, A Mind With a Heart of Its Own. Then there’s your mind and what to do with it - Say What’s On Your Mind, Send Your Mind, Make Up Your Mind, Mind Control, Relax Your Mind, Free Your Mind, Open Your Mind, Mind Eraser, When the Heart Rules the Mind, Quiet Your Mind, Change Your Mind, Travel With Your Mind, (but while you’re traveling, Don’t Lose Your Mind!) And questions about your mind… If You Change Your Mind, Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? Where Is My Mind? Can I Change My Mind? And traveling around inside the mind… In the Back of My Mind, First Thing on My Mind, Mind over Matter,
8/30/2022
Virtual Meditation on the Lawn to start September 12 The University of Virginia Contemplative Sciences Center will begin the Virtual Meditation on the Lawn sessions on September 12, 2022. They…
8/30/2022
The Dress and Individual Differences in Perception The image of the dress that some see as blue/black and others see as gold/white elicited worldwide attention in 2015, including among many…
8/30/2022
When we see things, we tend to believe what we see is an accurate reflection of the way things are. How many times have we seen or heard the phrase “seeing is believing”? When we see something, usually our automatic reaction is to believe it. Yet there is much evidence that this is an oversimplification, that what we see is not just a simple and accurate representation of the world around us. To begin with, far more information enters our eyes than we could ever process in conscious awareness. This information has to be filtered first, and this filtering occurs automatically without our even knowing that it is occurring. An estimated one gigabyte of information enters our eyes each second, and is filtered down to just a few bytes of relevant data. What is considered relevant depends on context and to what we are paying attention. You may have seen the video of people passing a basketball during which a gorilla walks through.
7/26/2022
Two Mindfulness Courses Will Be Offered In Person The Fall If conditions allow, the next Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees and Mindful Eating courses beginning in September will be taught in…
7/26/2022
Does Gratitude Promote Resilience During a Pandemic? Gratitude can help foster wellbeing during adversity. These researchers assessed whether gratitude might promote resilience among college students during the Covid pandemic. As…
7/26/2022
Summer is here and with it an opportunity to appreciate all the bounties of nature. Trees are green, flowers are in bloom, birds and animals abound. The heat and humidity can be a barrier to spending time outside, and we may find we seek the comfort of air-conditioned space to escape them. My wife and I have been noticing this, and intentionally choosing to sit on our deck, in the shade. The place where we sit is right next to a hummingbird feeder, and we’ve been watching the hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are amazing creatures. They can beat their wings over 50 times a second, and are the only birds that can hover. They have very active metabolisms, and may consume up to half their body weight in a day, visiting as many as 1000-2000 flowers. They are travelers and can migrate up to 2000 miles, wintering in Mexico and Central America. They also have relatively large brains, about twice as large compared to their body weight as humans.
6/28/2022
Changes in Emotional Reactivity after Different Types of Mental Training Meditation-based mental training interventions show physical and mental health benefits. However, how different types of mental practice affect emotion processing…