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By Shana Lebowitz                  Scott Barbour/ Getty Images Whether it’s biting your nails or spending hours on Facebook when you should be working, you probably have a bad habit you just can’t seem to break. No matter that you’re embarrassed to shake people’s hands or that you can’t concentrate […]

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS                        ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA PARINI The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters

By TINA ROSENBERG                    JOHN MINCHILLO / ASSOCIATED PRESS First of two parts Getting sober is hard. Making sobriety last is much harder. Most people who go into a residential rehab treatment manage to detox and stay that way during their weeks- or months-long stay. But problems begin when

By Cindy Ricardo, LMHC, CIRT, Mindfulness-Based Approaches Topic Expert Contributor How do you react when you’re in pain? Do you resist it, ignore it, or push it away? Do you get consumed by it? Would you like to learn a more healing and compassionate way to respond? To be alive means we feel happiness, joy, sorrow, and

By Lisa Nosal, MFT “I’ve been fine for years. Now I have nightmares every night and can barely function at work. What’s going on?” “I thought I was over it. I even went to therapy as a kid! Why is it all coming back again?” “I feel like I’m falling apart, but the abuse was

By Cheryl Jones, Aetna Mindfulness Strategy Lead, MBSR trained While mindfulness has been a hot topic, we’ve struggled with both offering an understandable definition and demonstrating its practical application for modern life. There are numerous scientific publications on mindfulness. We’ve known for a long time that mindfulness reduces stress. We now know it can change our brains.

By Cindy Ricardo, LMHC, CIRT, Mindfulness-Based-Approached/Contemplative Approaches Topic Expert Contributor You yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” —Buddha As I write this, I can feel anxiety in my entire body; my legs are restless, my toes are tapping, and there are butterflies in my stomach twirling and diving, with some

By Leo Babauto What would it take to get your life decluttered and organized? That might be a tall order for many of us, but the truth is, we could do it in bursts and spurts, using a handful of easy-to-follow rules. This post originally appeared on Zen Habits. The other day I wrote about the idea

By Susan Shain “For it is in giving that we receive.” ~St. Francis of Assisi  If there were a magic pill that led to a 22 percent lower mortality rate and higher levels of self-esteem and happiness, would you try it? I’m betting you would. Well I’m here to share some good news: there’s no need

By Angela Avery, MA, LLPC, NCC, Obsessions and Compulsions Topic Expert Contributor Would you work a highly demanding, fast-paced job Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., take a small break, then work another job that requires intense focus both mentally and physically from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.? Let’s say the pay sucked.