In order to carry a positive action we must develop a positive vision. —The Dalai Lama Last month the Carter Center held a conference on Climate and Health. This follows the remarkable report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health, released in 2015, which concluded that while there have been overall improvements in human health, they have come at…
We do not live in an enlightened world—have you noticed? Sometimes just when we seem to be progressing forward, and we find ourselves falling further behind than ever. Our current world and larger culture seem to becoming more, rather than less, oppressive—despite the gains in equity and rights that our communities have so arduously achieved. With racism, homophobia, misogyny, and…
Given the current state of the world, many of us feel an inner tug to do something to help others in our own individual way. Maybe we want to be social workers. Maybe we have toyed with running for office. Maybe we just know we have some gift to give but are not sure what it is yet. Perhaps we…
In a recent conversation I had with Rohan Gunatillake at the Rubin Museum’s Brainwave series, we spoke about the tension between our digital lives and our pursuit of mindfulness and wellness—he from the perspective of a technologist and social entrepreneur and I from the perspective of an emotion scientist and digital health researcher. This is a dilemma with few easy…
While the digital detox has become our primary strategy for dealing with the challenges of digital life, app creator and writer Rohan Gunatillake thinks that our urge to unplug is unfortunate and unnecessary. Like it or not, he says, technology is here to stay and pathologizing our relationship with it is not a sustainable path forward. Instead we can use…
A humorous take on a familiar challenge to all meditators: finding the perfect meditation cushion.
A student of mindfulness and Buddhist practices for three decades, Mark Coleman, M.A., is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California. He has always been keen to share the fruits of meditation to wider audiences and founded The Mindfulness Institute, where he brings mindfulness trainings to Fortune 500 companies and the non-profit sector. Coleman also…
Late one night, my friend Brett called me on his way to the airport. He works for the U.S. State Department and, as a result, is often assigned to diplomatic posts around the world for a few years at a time. I have known Brett for over a decade and we are quite close. I had just gotten attached to…