Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: There’s something healing about simply watching “Free the Mind,” Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo’s gentle, compassionate documentary spotlighting the use of such drug-free options as meditation and mindfulness to treat anxiety and trauma.

Writer-director Ambo focuses on three main subjects: Will, an endearing 5-year-old with ADHD and a fear of elevators; Steve, an Afghanistan war veteran haunted by his stint as a military intelligence soldier and interrogator; and Rich, a former battalion leader in Iraq wracked by guilt and horrific memories of combat. Fueled by the subtle parallels between young Will and the adult Steve and Rich, the movie…

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thejournal.ie: ‘MINDFULNESS’ MEANS BEING present in the moment, aware of what is going on inside and around us instead of engrossed in the merry-go-round of our thoughts and emotions. Meditation quiets the mind and fosters new ways of relating to whatever external stressors emerge in the workday.

Everyone knows that training makes our body stronger, fitter and more flexible. Now, neuroscience research shows that mindfulness training cultivates the innate capacities of the mind to be present; to step out of automatic pilot and to create space so we can be clearer, calmer, more focused, more creative, even more compassionate…

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Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., PsychCentral: Mindfulness, or paying full attention to the present moment, can be very helpful in improving the cognitive symptoms of depression. These debilitating symptoms include distorted thinking, difficulty concentrating and forgetfulness. Cognitive symptoms can impair all areas of a person’s life. For instance, poor concentration can interfere with your job or schoolwork. Negative thoughts can lead to negative emotions, deepening depression.

Focusing on the here and now helps individuals become aware of their negative thoughts, acknowledge them without judgment and realize they’re not accurate reflections of reality, writes author William Marchand, M.D., in his comprehensive book Depression and Bipolar Disorder:…

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“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot. Instead there is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging.”

- Bob Sharples, from Meditation: Calming the Mind

If you’re participating in the 100 Days of …

Carole Carson, AARP blog: Is Mindfulness the Latest Fad? Are the Benefits Too Good to Be True?

Would you be skeptical if I told you that without taking a pill or seeing a therapist, you could lower your blood pressure, raise your self-esteem, experience equanimity in the face of stress, improve the quality of your sleep, reduce chronic pain, get greater enjoyment from eating even while eating less, increase your energy and make better decisions? That you could be happier and see the world around you more positively?

The practitioners of mindfulness make these and other remarkable claims—and their claims are not…

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Rachel Weaver, TribLive: Nancy Dolan-Brady felt dreadful.

Weeks into a regime of intense chemotherapy to fight stage 3 colon cancer, she lay in bed, nauseous, aching, sweating, miserable. But then, a light breeze floated through her window carrying a much-needed moment of relief.

Normally, she wouldn’t have even noticed the breeze, which cooled and dried her skin, leaving her calm. But Dolan-Brady had been practicing mindful meditation, allowing her to pay closer attention to her body and environment.

“In the midst of misery, this simple thing became a bright spot when everything was tinged with ugliness and darkness,” says Dolan-Brady, 57, of Mt. Washington. “Something …

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Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., PsychCentral: It’s not often that I interview someone on the mindfulness and psychotherapy blog who has put out a novel. However, Diana Gould has had a long career in film and television and in her practice with mindfulness. She currently teaches at InsightLA in Santa Monica, California and has recently released her first novel Coldwater. She has also put out a special Coldwater Challenge contest: Find the Mindfulness! Nestled within the pages of this noir thriller are little nuggets of mindfulness teachings. How many can you find? Make a list, give your reasons, and submit to contest@insightla.org…

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When the rubber hits the road is a great time to practice lovingkindness, and I mean literal rubber and a literal road.

There’s a lot of irritation involved in driving, right up to the extreme of road rage. It can be irritating to be in slow traffic, or busy traffic, or to be cut off, or to be held up by roadworks, or stuck at traffic lights.

We’re emotionally cut off from other drivers because we’re all in our own semi-private metal boxes, and so we don’t have access (usually) to their body language and facial expressions. So we often take things personally that aren’t necessarily personal. As comedian …

Avis Favaro and Elizabeth St. Philip, CTV News: Doctors in Ontario are taking a new approach in the battle against chronic pain, ditching the prescription pad and teaching sufferers how to harness the healing power of the mind.

St. Michael’s Hospital pain specialist Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix developed the program targeting pain with mindfulness and meditative techniques. The classes are facilitated at St. Michael’s Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

“I do nothing but teach chronic pain patients meditation and mindfulness,” she said. “I am so impressed with it.”

The classes, which typically run for nearly three hours, teach participants practical meditation skills…

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The other day I found myself having one of those odd, but common, daydreams where I was complaining to one friend about another friend. I was telling him about a situation where this third party was emotionally cutting me off. The conversation went on for a minute or so, and then I slipped from my daydream back into a more mindful state and realized that what I was saying wasn’t even close to being true. It was almost totally a fabrication. There was a tiny grain of truth, but the reality was completely different from how I was presenting it. I think what was happening was that I was …