Mindfulness

Mindfulness Time Magazine Cover Story February 2014

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Time Magazine
The Mindful Revolution
Finding peace in a stressed-out, digitally dependent
culture may just be a matter of thinking differently
By Kate Pickert Monday, Feb. 03, 2014
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The raisins sitting in my sweaty palm are getting stickier by the minute. They don’t look

particularly appealing, but when instructed by my teacher, I take one in my fingers and examine

it. I notice that the raisin’s skin glistens. Looking closer, I see a small indentation where it once

hung from the vine. Eventually, I place the raisin in my mouth and roll the wrinkly little shape

over and over with my tongue, feeling its texture. After a while, I push it up against my teeth and

slice it open. Then, finally, I chew–very slowly.

 

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2014- The Year of Mindfulness

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 by Carolyn Gregoire from the Huffington Post

Mindfulness, it seems, is having a moment. 2013 saw a significant spike of interest in holistic health and mindfulness practices like yoga and meditation (not to mention a number of celebrities and CEOs hopping on the mindfulness bandwagon) and it’s a trend that will likely continue to gain momentum in 2014.

“What the culture is craving is a sense of ease and reflection, of not needing to be stimulated or entertained or going after something constantly,” Soren Gordhamer, founder of the Wisdom 2.0 conference, told the New York Times. “Nobody’s kicking out technology, but we have to regain our connection to others and to nature or else everybody loses.”

Here are five reasons that mindfulness will change the world this upcoming year.

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Here and Now- The Many Benefits of Mindfulness Charlottesville Virginia

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Susan Stone believes that the quality of your life depends on where you focus your attention. You might not need to get a new job or move to a different city to live a better, more fulfilling life. Instead, you could pay closer attention to the here and now. “We think the more we do the better. We multitask. We plan the future and reminisce about the past, and rarely is our mind in the same place as our body,” says Stone. “So, tragically, we miss a lot of our own lives.”

Susan Stone teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes at the University of Virginia’s Mindfulness Center, where students learn practical strategies “to be present to the present moment.” She also teaches at the Fluvanna County Correctional Facility for Women; more than 100 inmates have attended classes and Stone hopes to expand the program to include correctional officers as well.

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