Mindful December 2021 issue: The Science of Mindfulness 


Within the pages of the December 2021 issue, we learn how to create more space for compassion in our lives so we can be our best selves, how to be more present while eating and enjoying nourishing food, increase our awareness around racial bias, and discover the power of gratitude and how it can improve all areas of your life. Read on for a look at everything you'll find in this issue!

In this issue:

• Creating Space for Compassion

The work is to be your biggest and best self, because that’s what the world needs. So take care of yourself and cultivate that inner fire, and encourage that inner compassion.

• Make a meal of Presence

Racing through a meal might assuage cravings or help us dodge emotions. But, by taking it slow, we invite savoring and satisfaction to the table.

• Whatever you prefer 

When we release our tight hold on our preferences, the world can open up for us in surprising—and even delightful—ways.

• How we flourish

mall steps can lead to greater happiness, self-acceptance, and well-being. Misty Pratt debriefs on how a free, science-based app is helping her get started.

• Can we change racial bias?

By engaging in repeated practices meant to help us increase awareness, focus
on our similarities, and develop care and kindness, we might also be combating
the implicit associations that cloud our judgments of other human beings.

• All our relations

Meet some of the inspiring teachers who work at the intersections of mindfulness
and Indigenous and tribal people.

• Find your focus

Neuroscientist Amishi Jha discovered mindfulness training can create a “mental armor” that protects our attentional resources, even in the most high-stress scenarios imaginable. In her new book, Peak Mind, she breaks down precisely how anyone can gain these benefits.

• The heart of gratitude

Whether you think of it as the “greatest virtue,” as Cicero did, or “social glue,” as researchers do, gratitude has the power to change your life, if you let it. In this sneak peek of our upcoming Gratitude Journal, Kelly Barron shares how she learned to let gratitude change her.