“...the time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror… You will love again the stranger who was yourself.” ~Love After Love~ by Derek Walcott As I read these words, I am struck at the lovingkindness message of this poem. It is a poem that we use often in our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction classes as we begin together in the journey of self-care. In Saki Santorelli’s book, Heal Thyself, he writes, “within every healthcare practitioner lives the Wounded One; in every patient, every sick and suffering human being, abides a powerful Inner Healer. These are the gifts of being born into this world”. We all carry wounds, scars, misperceptions, and frequently we end up directing harsh judgments at ourselves and others. Yet we also carry within ourselves a powerful inner healer where lovingkindness dwells.
The first UVA Advanced Mindful Leadership Course finished on April 5. The course was a collaboration between Hoos Well and the Mindfulness Center. A total of 23 leaders from across…
Can Athletes Be Tough Yet Compassionate to Themselves? Self-compassion and mental toughness are two psychological constructs that have been shown to be helpful in dealing with stress associated with sports.…
Often people just want to be heard, to have someone really listen to them. We can do this by listening mindfully, listening and paying attention in the same way we pay attention when we are meditating. When we meditate, we choose an object of attention, like the sensations of breathing, and place our attention there. Then when the mind wanders and we begin thinking, as soon as we notice the thinking, we direct the attention back to the sensations of breathing. As we do this, we can check in with our emotional state, noticing how we are feeling. When we listen to someone else, we can listen in the same way. We can make what they are saying the object of our attention, and notice when we get caught up in the dialogue that often is going on in our heads while we listen, or appear to be listening.
All of us have core beliefs through which we judge the world. Often they are so ingrained we are not even aware that we have them, they are just the way we see things and think they should be. The most powerful core beliefs often come from recurrent stress or trauma that occurred when we were young. Why is this? Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of our brains to rewire and change. Our brains are very plastic when we are young, and they rewire all the time. When we have recurrent experiences, the connections become more well established, to the point that we aren’t even aware of their influence. As psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach has observed, “Although rooted in the past, our core beliefs feel current and true” (True Refuge p. 119).
Mindfulness Training Improves Visual Processing and Attention in Older Adults Mindfulness has been shown to improve attention, which often declines with aging. These investigators used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to examine neural…