Newsletter Articles

Springtime!

For folks in most of North America, this is a time of stretching, opening, and awakening. In colder states, it might mean finally putting away those winter coats. In warmer states, it might mean the return of beach weather. Wherever you are, it’s an opportunity to notice how what we think of as “I, me, and mine” is actually… not us at all.

Contrary to how they sound, retreats are not about escaping life, but facing it more directly. It's in the silence that we hear the most.

Meditation teachers often talk about the value of compassion. But how do you actually develop it? Here, mindful leadership expert Rasmus Hougaard offers a four-step process for doing so.

It felt like stepping on the wrong end of a rake.

My relative had asked for my opinion, but when I gave it, he launched into what sounded like a well-rehearsed argument, taking issue with each thing I had said and critiquing my character. I felt like I’d walked into a trap.

When meditation is depicted visually, it’s almost always in a picture of someone sitting down, usually with eyes closed. And, it’s true, sitting and paying attention to your breath is probably the most common form of meditation today.

But sitting has a serious downside: it takes time and space to do it. Whether you’re devoting five minutes or forty-five minutes to meditation, that’s time you’ve got to carve out of your day.

In Vermont, where I live, there are six seasons—the usual four, plus stick season (that long stretch from mid-October to the first snows, when the trees are bare and the landscape grey) and mud season, which is now.

Author and meditation teacher Amanda Gilbert shares a simple phrase to help you meet every thought, every moment, and every person with kindness.

Studies in the field of neuroscience have shed light on the tangible effects meditation can exert on the brain and even help with reducing chronic pain. From the first studies in Western scientific literature in the 1950s and 60s to the present, scientists have investigated meditation’s effects on the body and mind.

Experiencing peace need not be an arduous journey of endless work, but rather a moment-by-moment effort of resting.

In a recent study of over 3,000 people, the American Psychological Association reported that we are now seeing a nation impacted by collective trauma, which can follow dramatic events or long-term circumstances—such as the millions of deaths from the pandemic, climate-related disasters, global conflicts, and racism. In one way or another, trauma touches us all. 

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When you’ve told yourself not to get your hopes up, were you totally fine when you didn’t get what you wanted because you had reminded yourself, ad nauseum, to not get your hopes up?

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At the end of the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, rising global temperatures and raging wildfires, in the midst of a hot mess of violence and protests on the streets of America, I set out on a solitary meditation retreat for a year. I brought with me my own hot mess: a body run down and twisted in knots from having had Lyme disease for eight years, and a mind that was angsty and foggy—like a feral-but-tranquilized cat.

If you’ve ever meditated, you may have noticed that your mind likes to wander. In fact, many people who subscribe to this very newsletter tell us that they can’t meditate because their mind is always wandering.

But this is a myth! And if it’s keeping you from meditation, please read on.

There’s an old Zen saying: “The world is topsy-turvy.” 

Who is not aware of this today? The state of the world is painful to everyone. The world careens onward in its topsy-turvy course, causing a pervasive sense of inward dread many of us can’t afford to entertain.

“Is my heart open or closed? Am I suffering or am I free? Am I feeling empowered or disempowered? And am I feeling connected or disconnected?

In our New Year’s Challenge, a member of the Ten Percent Happier community drops the hard truth of what it means to get into meditation. We’re sharing an excerpt about her experience below, along with follow up from meditation teachers Matthew Hepburn and Cara Lai. 

“I don’t have time,” I tell my friends, “to do anything anymore.” When I’m not taking care of the baby, I’m cleaning something. When I’m not working, I’m trying to catch up on sleep.  But I conveniently fail to remember the 45 minutes (or was it an hour and 45 minutes?) I spent on my phone today, reading reviews for electric toothbrush heads on Amazon, looking at old photos, and asking Google questions like “does Raffi have kids?” and “is it normal to pee every hour?” .

We are approaching the longest nights of the year, and, not coincidentally, the time when many cultures and religions celebrate light, love, and the sacred.

For many people, the good cheer and family time of the holiday season brings light to the darkness outside. Yet for many others, the holiday season can be profoundly challenging.  Some of us are alone, while others are with family members with whom we have difficult relationships. Some of us love Christmas music, decorations, and shopping, while others feel alienated or excluded by those things. Despite what commercials suggest, there’s no one right way to feel at this time of year!

Wherever you find yourself this holiday season, I want to encourage you to bring mindfulness and meditation with you – and Ten Percent has resources that can help.

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I’m mildly obsessed with joy. I like to say that suffering is what brought me through the door to meditation, but joy is what has kept me around.

Forgiveness isn’t about excusing someone else’s behavior. It’s about letting go of resentment.

It’s inevitable that by simply living a life, there will be times of adversity – like now. It’s not because of our attitude that times like these are uncomfortable or heartbreaking. Some things just hurt.

Perhaps surprisingly, I find this truth to be liberating.

Think of the best relationships in your life. What makes them so valuable, so enriching? What is happening for you when you are with one another?

Training as a Buddhist monastic, we rose at 4:00 a.m. I generally enjoy waking up early, but 4:00 is a stretch. I felt groggy, irritable, and found it difficult to meditate. My teacher suggested I reflect on gratitude for the first ten minutes of morning meditation.

Here’s a problem with stress. We know—and the research backs me up on this one—that mindfulness and meditation can really help reduce stress. But sometimes, you might think, as I sometimes do, that sitting down to meditate when the mind is spinning so fast is, itself, a non-starter. So what to do?

Fortunately, there are many ways to practice mindfulness, even when sitting down and following your breath might just feel like too much. You just need to think outside the box.

If the darker days are hard on you, you’re not alone. Our editor shares some insights on how to meet the changing season.