Health Journal Online

Tag: TIMES

  • Raising Happy Children In Challenging Times: Practices that Build  Essential Skills For Well-Being

    Raising Happy Children In Challenging Times: Practices that Build  Essential Skills For Well-Being

    Sometimes happiness might seem like a stretch—for us and even for our children. The stresses of daily life, getting out the door in the morning, managing a household, coordinating schedules, as well as the bigger issues, including concern about the struggles in the world, can all take a toll on us as adults. Given the increasing issues with children’s mental health, we know it’s taking a toll on our children as well.

    And yet, amid difficulties, happiness is still attainable and essential to well-being and resilience. Research on adult well-being shows that there are specific steps we can take to develop and nurture happiness. 

    As James Baraz writes, joy is “a general feeling of aliveness and well-being that is characterized by meeting ups and downs in life with authenticity and perspective.” 

    Based on our work with children, we know this is true for them, as well. It can be as simple as enjoying a hug, being mesmerized by a ladybug, or giggling at the shape of a cloud. These simple pleasures can be little moments of joy for our children and for us—and they can be a part of raising happy children who are resilient, even in the middle of normal ups and downs.

    Not Denying Difficulty, But Opening to Possibility

    When we talk about raising happy children, we are not talking about “happiness” as the fleeting emotion that is a response to good or fun things. We are not suggesting pushing difficulties aside, but instead developing the capacity to hold them alongside our well-being. As James Baraz writes in Awakening Joy, joy is “a general feeling of aliveness and well-being that is characterized by meeting ups and downs in life with authenticity and perspective.” 

    We envision a happy child as one with a developing sense of ease with themselves, one who often sees and enjoys the good around them and within themselves. 

    Happiness is not a destination or something to be achieved, but rather what Chang Meng Tan, author of Search Inside Yourself, defines as “a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind.”

    We envision a happy child as one with a developing sense of ease with themselves, one who often sees and enjoys the good around them and within themselves. 

    Research by the Center for Healthy Minds shows that well-being is a learnable skill. There are multiple evidence-based perspectives offering practical ideas for cultivating happiness. 

    In particular, The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg focuses on gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness to support resilience and happiness. The Action for Happiness Project has a similar focus and lists mindfulness, gratitude, and kindness as core skills. In Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hanson adds to this list and stresses the importance of inclining the mind, or being on the lookout, for happiness and then taking it in. 

    Raising Happy Children Starts by Building Well-Being Skills Together

    Here are three fun activities based on these frameworks to try with your child.

    Inclining The Mind And Taking It In Practice: Glimmer Wand

    Glimmers, coined by Deb Dana, are little moments of peace, safety, and happiness. 

    Cut out, decorate, and glue a star on top of a popsicle or other stick. You can write “catching glimmers” on the star. Share about glimmers and use the wand to “cast a spell” to notice and enjoy glimmers that day. You can also wave it overhead as people share their glimmers and how they make them feel. 

    The brain has a negativity bias. By pausing to seek out glimmers, we can train our brains to notice and savor delight more often.

    Gratitude Practice: Gratitude Sandwich

    Children can draw and cut out pictures of five things or people they are grateful for as their sandwich fillings. 

    • Cut two pieces of paper for the sandwich bread.
    • Glue one piece of the “bread“ to the top and one to the bottom of a poster. 
    • Paste the fillings between the bread (or Velcro so it’s interchangeable).
    • Write Gratitude Sandwich and “I am grateful for…” on the “bread.”
    • Leave the sandwich somewhere visible and use it as a conversation starter about gratitude. 

    Dr. Robert Emmons at UC Davis found that feeling gratitude can move our nervous system out of the stress response. Giving children a visual link to things that foster feelings of gratitude can help strengthen the body-brain connection and develop positive neural pathways.

    Cultivating happiness can be quite simple if we focus on it, even when things are hard. Pausing to notice and take in the good, feeling gratitude, and connecting with others with empathy and kindness in the tiny moments of our day can make a genuine difference. 

    Have the child think about five people who make them feel loved or happy.

    • String a bead for each person onto a pipe cleaner. 
    • Twist the ends together so the beads don’t fall off. These are links of love.
    • Have them touch one bead at a time and remember the special person. 
    • Take a breath in, taking in their love, and out, offering love back to them.
    • Encourage them to notice how they feel. The links of love can be attached to a backpack, worn around a wrist, or left in a visible location. 

    Especially when a child feels lonely or insecure, having a physical anchor can remind them that they are worthy and loved.

    Tuning Attention Towards Happiness

    Cultivating happiness can be quite simple if we focus on it, even when things are hard. Pausing to notice and take in the good, feeling gratitude, and connecting with others with empathy and kindness in the tiny moments of our day can make a genuine difference. 

    Fun, hands-on activities, like those above, can help both adults and children lean into happiness and create space for more joy in our lives.

    Would you like more support building habits of well-being and resilience in your child? Try our new card deck, available April 21. Let’s Grow Happiness includes 50 activity cards to help kids build gratitude, self-compassion, and emotional regulation skills.



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  • A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    Accessing real happiness when we are struggling can feel impossible—but it’s also a key to our recovery, healing, and well-being.

    When we are going through a difficult season personally, or we are bearing witness to the pain of others, our relationship to genuine joy or happiness can get complicated and confusing. Happiness can feel out of reach, or it can feel like a betrayal, like it’s something we don’t “deserve” in hard times.

    But strengthening our ability to notice and soak in moments of beauty, tenderness, connection, and gratitude can actually have a fortifying effect on us. It can help us build resilience and fill our empty emotional tanks—which can foster our own healing and make it possible for us to show up in healing ways for others.

    Teacher Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice to tune our attention to the reality that shimmers right alongside our genuine seasons of struggle.

    A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

    Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

    Maybe, like so many, you have wondered, How can I even think about being happy when I’m having such a hard time right now? 

    Or, How can I be happy when there is so much suffering in the world? 

    And yet, happiness is not just accessible once basic needs are met, but also essential for our well-being and resilience. We need that resilience both for ourselves when we are struggling and to support others when they are. Both can be true. 

    Things can be hard and we might also be able to touch some happiness in life. It can’t be forced, so this practice is not an encouragement to push down the hard stuff. Instead, it is a very gentle invitation to also make a little space for the good as you’re able to enhance capacity and wellbeing. 

    This practice is adapted from Rick Hansen’s practice of taking in the good. 

    1. Let’s begin by settling into a comfortable position. If it works for you, I invite you to close your eyes. 
    2. Gently direct your attention to the felt experience of your body. You might feel your feet on the floor, the backs of your legs on a chair or cushion, or where your hands are touching. Direct your attention to wherever you can most easily connect with the experience of the body sitting. 
    3. Now, gently widen your attention to feel the sensations of the whole body sitting, including the sensations of the body breathing. The invitation here is for a wide, soft and receptive awareness of the body sitting and the body breathing. 
    4. If difficult emotions or thoughts arise, it’s not a problem. There’s no need to push them aside. Gently acknowledge their presence, maybe even saying to yourself, Oh, unpleasant thoughts or emotions. Then let them drift to the background as you focus on the foreground of the experience of the whole body as we settle in here for a minute. 
    5. Now, call to mind a time when you felt really happy. It could be a time you felt peaceful or calm, or maybe you felt a sense of contentment, or it could even be a joyful time. If there are a few experiences that are vying for your attention, just pick one for our practice together. There’s no right or wrong choice here. 
    6. Notice where you are during that experience and who you’re with. Look around and notice what else you see as you remember this experience. You might notice what sounds you hear. Were there any tastes or smells? Just be curious. And what about physical sensations, like the sun on the skin or the feet in sand or even movement, like the body rocking or dancing? Just notice any physical sensations connected to this experience. Take it in with all your senses. 
    7. Now, let go of the specific experience and just check out for yourself. How does my body feel when you’re happy, peaceful, content or joyful? What’s that like in the body? What’s that like in the mind? What’s like in your heart? You could even say to yourself, Oh, happy is like this. 
    8. Imagine letting that feeling expand throughout your body. Basking in the experience of happy, letting that grow and expand. You might even say to yourself, This feeling is worth keeping to help your brain remember and access this feeling more easily. Oh, happy is like this and this is worth keeping. Bask in the experience, growing the experience and reminding yourself that it’s worth keeping. Happy feels like this. 
    9. Remember that happiness isn’t in that specific experience you remembered. It’s in you, and it is accessible. You just have to take a moment to call it up and lean into the felt sense of happiness. Happiness is like this. 
    10. Before we close, let’s offer some well wishes. May we and all beings be safe. May we and all beings be healthy in body, mind, and heart. May we and all beings be happy, truly happy, peaceful, content, and free. May our practice be of benefit to all beings. 
    11. As you go through your day, you could set an intention to notice the little moments of happiness, peace, and connection. Stop for at least three breaths to take them in, noticing them with all your senses. Notice how the body feels when experiencing happiness and invite that felt sense of happiness to stick around and even expand in the body, mind and heart. 

    Thank you for practicing with me.



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  • Finding Peace in Challenging Times with Sharon Salzberg

    Finding Peace in Challenging Times with Sharon Salzberg

    Get the latest on everything mindfulness

    Our free newsletter delivers updates on the science of mindfulness, guided mindfulness meditation practices from leading teachers, special offers, and rich content to support your mindful growth.


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  • Busy Times, or Anytime: Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    Busy Times, or Anytime: Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    You’ve probably heard that mindfulness reduces stress levels. But how does it help? Shamash Alidina shares the research—plus, a meditation you can turn to anytime.

    You’ve probably heard that mindfulness reduces stress. But how does it actually help you do that?

    Mounting scientific evidence from hundreds of universities—including dedicated centers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the United States and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom—strongly suggests that mindfulness gently builds an inner strength, so that future stressors have less impact on our happiness and physical well-being.

    Here are nine ways mindfulness can help you manage stress, plus a guided meditation to start experiencing the natural calm that mindfulness can bring:

    Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    1. You become more aware of your thoughts. You can then step back from them and not take them so literally. That way, your stress response is not initiated in the first place.
    2. You don’t immediately react to a situation. Instead, you have a moment to pause and then use your “wise mind” to come up with the best solution. Mindfulness helps you do this through the mindful exercises.
    3. Mindfulness switches on your “being” mode of mind, which is associated with relaxation. Your “doing” mode of mind is associated with action and the stress response.
    4. You are more aware and sensitive to the needs of your body. You may notice pains earlier and can then take appropriate action.
    5. You are more aware of the emotions of others. As your emotional intelligence rises, you are less likely to get into conflict.
    6. Your level of care and compassion for yourself and others rises. This compassionate mind soothes you and inhibits your stress response.
    7. Mindfulness practice reduces activity in the part of your brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is central to switching on your stress response, so effectively, your background level of stress is reduced.
    8. You are better able to focus. So you complete your work more efficiently, you have a greater sense of well-being, and this reduces the stress response. You are more likely to get into “the zone” or “flow,” as it’s termed in psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
    9. You can switch your attitude to the stress. Rather than just seeing the negative consequences of feeling stressed, mindfulness offers you the space to think differently about the stress itself. Observing how the increased pressure helps energize you has a positive effect on your body and mind.

    Try It Yourself—Stress SOS: A Quick Practice When You Need It Most

    1. Bring to mind a current challenge in your life that is the cause of some stress. A situation that you’re willing to work with at the moment. Not your biggest challenge but not so small that it causes no stress at all. A 3 on a scale of 1–10 is a good guide.
    2. Bring the situation vividly to mind. Imagine being in the situation and all the difficulties associated with it.
    3. Notice whether you can feel the stress in your body. Physical tension, faster heart rate, a little bit of sweating, butterflies in your stomach, tightness in the back or shoulders or jaw, perhaps. Look out for your stress signals.
    4. Tune in to your emotions. Notice how you feel. Label that emotion if you can, and be aware of where you feel the emotion, exactly, in your body. Just try to spot it as best you can. The more precisely you can locate the emotion and the more you notice about the sensation, the better. With time and experience, you’ll keep getting better at this.
    5. Bring mindful attitudes to the emotion. These include curiosity, friendliness, and acceptance.
    6. Try placing your hand on the location of the sensation—a friendly hand representing kindness. Do it the way you would place your hand on the injured knee of a child, with care and affection.
    7. Feel the sensation together with your breathing. This can promote a present-moment awareness and mindful attitudes to your experience.
    8. When you’re ready, bring this meditation to a close.
    This article was adapted from Shamash Alidina’s book The Mindful Way Through Stress



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  • The Science and Practice of Staying Present Through Difficult Times

    The Science and Practice of Staying Present Through Difficult Times

    Research suggests that when we turn towards pain and discomfort, we can experience less of it. Plus, Ed Halliwell offers a guided meditation for being mindful when things get tough.

    Research into mindfulness has shown the benefits of staying present, and of gently turning towards difficulty. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) trains people with addictive habits to manage their cravings mindfully by staying present to the sensations of craving, rather than trying to distract from them, avoid them or defeat them.

    The Science of Staying Present

    In a large trial of MBRP, mindfulness-trained patients drank and used drugs significantly less than those who were treated with cognitive-behavioural approaches, and a control group who attended twelve-step and psycho-education groups. The authors of the study conclude that mindfulness was the most successful approach, especially over the longer term, because it enabled patients to “monitor and skilfully cope with discomfort associated with craving or negative affect.” A similar study with smokers found that mindfulness training was more than five times as effective as a standard smoking cessation programme, as measured by abstinence from cigarettes after four months (31 per cent compared to 6 per cent). Another study has suggested that mindful people are more able to tolerate their own distress, rather than react in harmful ways.

    There are benefits to staying present with physical, as well as emotional, discomfort. Fadel Zeidan and colleagues suggest that meditation practice is associated with brain changes that indicate and reflect shifts in people’s experience of, and relationship with, pain. Meditators show decreased activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (an area of the brain involved in registering pain) and increased activity in three areas involved in the regulation of pain—the anterior insula, the anterior cingulate cortex and the pre-frontal cortex. When gently turning towards pain, people report that they experience less of it, and their resistance usually decreases. They may not get so caught up in the negative stories and evasive reactions that tend to accompany pain but do nothing to stop it (and, indeed, may increase the mind’s perception of it). This may be why people with chronic conditions have reported reductions in pain after training in mindfulness, even though they still suffer from the illness.

    When gently turning towards pain, people report that they experience less of it, and their resistance usually decreases.

    As far back as 1971, Robert Wallace and Herbert Benson found that meditation reduced activity in the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the “fight or flight” reaction. More recently, attending a mindfulness course has been shown to reduce activity and grey matter volume in the amygdala—a key indicator of how strongly this reaction is triggered. With mindfulness training also comes a thickening in parts of the pre-frontal cortex—the region directly behind the forehead—which may be connected to a strengthening of the body’s capacity to regulate stress. Connections between the amygdala and other parts of the brain weaken after mindfulness training.

    One part of the pre-frontal cortex associated with stress regulation is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Poor ACC function tends to correlate with impulsive behaviour and mental inflexibility—which are both common among people who are under stress. Experienced meditators display more activity in the ACC, and better stress regulation. The capacity to self- manage during difficult situations may be trainable at a very young age. One study that tracked a group of pre-school children who attended a mindfulness programme over six months found that they were less impulsive (more able to regulate) than a group of children who did not receive the training.

    The Benefits of Leaning Into Discomfort

    Just the act of describing unpleasant experiences mindfully can have a positive effect on stress levels. In one study, people with a fear of spiders were asked to walk towards and try to touch a live tarantula. Some were invited to reassure themselves as they approached the spider, while others were advised to distract themselves from what they were trying to do. A third group was encouraged to acknowledge and turn towards their fear, saying something like: “I am frightened by the big ugly spider.” The members of this third group—those who openly stayed present to their fear— got closest to the tarantula, felt least upset by the experience, and had the least sweaty palms.

    Staying present to difficulties seems to have a significant impact on well-being. In Matt Killingsworth’s studies of wandering minds, he has found that people are less happy when their minds are distracted, even when they are engaged in an activity that we would usually describe as unpleasant. So, for instance, even though most people are not keen on commuting, they tend to be happier if their minds turn towards the experience of the journey rather than wander away from it. Other studies have suggested that setting oneself the goal of avoiding stress increases the long-term risk of depression. By contrast, if we view stress as a normal, helpful indicator—something we can handle and from which we can learn—rather than as something to eliminate, we are more likely to experience good health and emotional well-being.

    Try This 15-Minute Guided Mindfulness Meditation

    When you’ve established a stable foundation with mindfulness of breath and body you can experiment with turning towards difficulty.

    Sometimes our experience is painful and difficult. And there may be little or nothing we can do about the arising of the pain or difficulty. In these cases, we may be able to work with what’s happening skillfully by exploring our relationship to it. Most of us have a habitual pattern of turning away from problems or trying to get rid of unpleasant events. Unfortunately this often seems to increase our sense of stress, because if pain is already present, you can’t get rid of it by trying to run away from it. In mindfulness practice we gently experiment with reversing this habit by turning gently towards difficult experiences that come up in our meditation.

    This practice is usually best done in small doses at first. Preferably working with difficulties that aren’t likely to be overwhelming. It’s important to remember that you’re in charge of how you undertake this experiment. You can return to mindfulness of breathing as an anchor at any time or let go of this practice for a while if you need to, being kind to yourself.

    Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.

    1. Begin by settling into a dignified sitting posture. Upright, steady, grounded. Feeling the feet on the floor, bottom on the chair, spine erect shoulders dropped. Feel a sense of openness at the chest, muscles un-tensed, centered, feeling the breath in the belly. Attuning attention to sensations of the breath as it moves in and out. Being with the breath. Being in the body.
    2. And now expanding awareness to experience throughout the body. Being in the present moment with the body. Noticing what you find and allowing what’s here to be here. Especially noticing sensations in the body that are more unpleasant and difficult to be with. Maybe there’s an aching, throbbing, churning, or a tightening somewhere. There may be a physical or a more emotional tone to the sensations. If it feels helpful to label this for yourself, you could mentally say some words describing the experience: anger, pain, or restlessness, for example. Perhaps also noticing where in the body you’re feeling these tones of sensation and emotion.
    3. Now inviting you to experiment with gently taking your attention towards a region of more intense sensation. Turning towards the intensity. Being interested in the qualities of and changes in sensation from moment to moment. What increases or decreases in intensity are there? What shifts in location or texture? As best you can, staying with the direct experience of sensation and letting any thoughts about what’s happening or urges and impulses to react be held in kindly awareness in the background of the mind. Letting go of any need to try and get any kind of result here or for anything to have to change. Just gently turning towards what’s going on. And noticing what happens without an agenda. Riding the waves of experience, moment by moment.
    4. If you like you could offer a sense of breathing with the sensations, feeling them together with the rising and falling of the breath. Breathing in with sensations, breathing out with sensations.
    5. Noticing: are there any impulses to resist or pull away? Perhaps you find your attention drawn into thoughts. Rumination maybe or distraction. Maybe you find your thoughts trying to make sense of the difficulty or problem solving it or judge the success or failure of the practice by whether the intensity decreases or changes. As best you can, seeing if you can include these reactions in your noticing, allowing space for them to be experienced along with the sensations themselves—without having to buy into them or reject them.
    6. If it feels too much to be doing this it’s always okay to continue with or return to mindfulness of breathing or body or to stop practicing for a time. Gentleness is paramount here and there are no right or wrong things to happen when you try this. Just being interested in what does happen when you take your attention into a region of difficulty, moving towards it, letting the experience be observed and awareness without needing to do anything else.
    7. And experimenting now if this feels okay for you with breathing into the region of intensity. Opening further to the sensations on the in-breath and having a sense of softening on the out-breath, of letting go. This isn’t to try and change what’s happening but rather to offer a skillful relationship to it. Flowing with it. Offering space to it, allowing it. Breathing into the sensations on the in-breath, breathing out from them on the out-breath, softening, letting be, allowing.
    8. Staying present with the intensity only for as long as feels manageable for you right now. If you like you can gently move your attention away from and then back towards the intensity noticing what happens each time you work with redirecting your attention in and out. Inviting you to be like a scientist undertaking a laboratory experiment. Being interested in what happens rather than seeking a particular outcome. Coming back to mindfulness of breath or body as and when that feels right for you.
    This post was adapted from Into The Heart of Mindfulness, by Ed Halliwell, published by Piatkus). Download a set of 14 guided audio meditation practices from Ed’s books here.



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  • 10 Guided Meditations for Tough Times

    10 Guided Meditations for Tough Times

    These guided meditations can help us ease stress, get rest, and stay present when current events feel like too much to bear.

    When the world feels unpredictable and out of our control, our natural response can be to try to shut it out. For example, it’s not uncommon to hear caring, thoughtful people admit that they no longer read or watch the news. It’s just too overwhelming, too dark, and they need to protect their mental health in order to be able to show up for day-to-day life with their families, their friends, and at work. That’s valid. No one can withstand a constant barrage of bad news. It’s essential to take breaks when you need them and to make sure that your life has pockets of joy, calm, and ease.

    At the same time, tuning out completely isn’t the only answer. Practicing mindfulness and meditation can be a helpful framework to explore and work with our thoughts and emotions when hard things are happening to us and around us. It can also offer opportunities for deep rest and relaxation that give us the bandwidth to stay engaged. As mindfulness teacher Georgina Miranda says, just because there’s chaos around us doesn’t mean that there must be chaos within us. From a place of calm and groundedness, we’re better prepared to meet whatever comes next.

    Here are 10 guided meditations from some of today’s leading mindfulness teachers to support you when current events feel like too much to bear. 

    While these meditations are divided into steps to offer a pathway, your path may look different and that’s OK. Take what you need when you need it.

    Take-What-You-Need Meditations for Hard Times

    Step 1: Breathe and Get Space

    Step 2: Feel and Explore

    Step 3: Engage



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  • 10 Mindfulness Lessons for Hard Times

    10 Mindfulness Lessons for Hard Times

    10 things you learn from having a mindfulness practice that help foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    Here’s what I know from my practice. I know that:

    1. Things change. Emotions change, thoughts change, the breath changes. Nothing is static. And ideologies change; political movements come and go. And if I try to hold on to the way I think things are supposed to be, I will surely suffer.

    2. That doesn’t mean I can’t have opinions. It is not UN-mindful to deeply want the world to be a certain way.

    3. It’s normal to feel any emotion right now: despair, betrayal, outrage, loss… Someone else is feeling elation, joy, and righteousness. Or maybe you’re feeling nothing—shock or numbness. Mindfulness tells us to be open to any emotion as it is part of the human condition. But the more important question is, how can I practice with it?

    4. Practicing with my emotions means—feeling them in my body in vivo. Can I feel my stomach clenched? Can I feel my heart racing? What is happening right in this moment, in my body? When I can feel it, without trying to change it, I can allow the emotion to be. I can make space for it, without getting overwhelmed.

    5. The same with thoughts: When I’m entangled in my worries for my child, or my worst-case scenarios, I can remember to return to the present moment. What do I feel right here, right now? My toes on the floor. My breath in my belly. That’s all there is right now. I can prevent thoughts from snowballing out of control just by returning to the present moment.

    6. Equanimity—balance and even-mindedness are the fruit of mindfulness practice. The more I sit with my inner experience without reactivity, the more I foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    The more I sit with my inner experience without reactivity, the more I foster resilience in the face of whatever life brings.

    7. This does not mean I don’t act. That is a misunderstanding. It means that I do act, but act with awareness. When I act out of anger or fear, I’m not usually happy with the results. I know this. Acting from equanimity leads to wiser and more skillful actions. But I need to take my time with this. Appropriate action may not be evident immediately.

    8. Peace begins with me. The peace activist A. J. Muste said, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” The only way to promote peace is to be it. Now. Through my practice.

    9. Having my meditation practice is the single healthiest thing I can do right now. Having a place to cultivate more capacity to accept change, work with my emotions and thoughts, and cultivate equanimity is what is going to get me through.

    10. Kindness is what matters. In our deeply divisive world, so many of us are at odds with each other. It’s time for us to practice regular acts of kindness—to listen deeply to ourselves and to others. Our meditation practice teaches us not to turn people into enemies, that we are all connected. Can we dig deep within us to find a way to kindness, even in polarized times? I know we can.

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    Let Your Practice Guide You Beyond Crisis Mode

    While many of us lean on mindfulness to help us through times of inner and outer chaos, we can cultivate the greatest resilience through consistency in our practice, even when it doesn’t feel urgent.

    A Guided Meditation for Turning Awareness Into Action
    An illustration of being compassionate to other.



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  • Diabetes Onset Before 40 Raises Risk Of Death To Four Times: Study

    Diabetes Onset Before 40 Raises Risk Of Death To Four Times: Study

    Diabetes is not just about having high blood sugar levels; it is a chronic condition that could potentially lead to several health issues, such as heart attack and stroke. But does the timing of diabetes onset affect the risk of complications and mortality? A recent study revealed that developing diabetes before age 40 is linked to a significantly higher risk of early death.

    While diagnosing diabetes before 40 quadrupled the risk of early death, later onset was linked to a one-and-a-half times higher risk of death compared with the general population without the condition, according to the study published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. The findings underscore the importance of delaying the onset of diabetes to reduce complications and risk of premature death.

    To understand the impact of diabetes on overall health, researchers followed up 4,550 individuals newly diagnosed with diabetes for over 30 years. The participants were between the ages of 25 and 65.

    The analysis revealed that diabetic diagnosis at an earlier stage was linked to a higher rate of related complications, particularly microvascular diseases such as eye damage and kidney failure, and a higher risk of death. Diabetes onset at a younger age also was linked to poorer blood sugar control.

    “Over the past 30 years, the number of young adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has increased markedly worldwide. Evidence to date suggests that younger-onset type 2 diabetes, characterized by earlier and longer exposure to high levels of blood glucose, maybe more aggressive than later onset disease. This might include a faster deterioration in β-cell function—the cells in the pancreas that produce and release insulin- and a greater risk of complications such as cardiovascular and kidney disease,” said Amanda Adler, co-author of the study in a news release.

    According to the lead author of the study, Dr. Beryl Lin, more clinical trials should focus on tailored treatments for delaying diabetic complications in young people.

    “We particularly need to understand why young adults with type 2 diabetes suffer greater risks of complications, and how we can identify and help this vulnerable group of people who have to live with diabetes for the rest of their lives,” Dr. Lin said.

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