#meditation

#meditation

Today I saw images of students leaving their school with their hands raised in the air, hours after cowering in fear and terror in barricaded classrooms. Nine dead and twenty-seven wounded in the tiny Rocky Mountain town of Tumbler Ridge. The mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said, "I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims." And this in Canada, which often seems to us Americans like a bastion of sanity and normalcy in comparison with our madness.

If you've ever considered practicing meditation, you might believe you should relax, breathe, and empty your mind of distracting thoughts. Novices tend to think of meditation as the brain at rest, but a new international study concludes this ancient practice is quite the opposite: meditation is a state of heightened cerebral activity that profoundly alters brain dynamics. Researchers from the University of Montreal and Italy's National Research Council recruited twelve monks of the Thai Forest Tradition at Santacittārāma, a Buddhist monastery outside Rome.

In an exclusive interview released by the Olympics, Italian alpine skier and two-time medalist Sofia Goggia shared that quieting the mind is an essential part of her approach to training as well as life. "Meditation is a moment of centering, being here and now, and observing thoughts as they pass through my mind without any judgement," she explains in her native Italian."I think meditation gives you...an inner sense of balance."

When Michael Pollan traveled to a cave in New Mexico to try to understand consciousness, he learned what good meditation is really made of. "The recipe was simpler (and much less appetizing) than I would have imagined," he writes: " To transcend the self, force yourself to be alone with it long enough to get so bored and exhausted that you are happy to let it go. "

If you are exhausted and yearn to rest, like nearly everyone I know, you may be interested in what's arguably the most radical wellness trend of 2026 - an ancient practice called "dark retreat." This powerful experience, touted by celebrities as the latest way to achieve self-realisation and peace, involves no drugs (unlike, say, ayahuasca), no intense physical work, and no strict diet - just staying in absolute darkness in a comfortable room for 24 hours a day, for several days.

Healthcare spending in the United States continues its upward climb, approaching $5 trillion annually in 2023. Employer-sponsored family plans now average $27,000 per year, placing mounting pressure on households and businesses. Yet despite this spending, the country's health outcomes remain far from world-leading. The latest OECD data show U.S. per-person spending is roughly twice the OECD average, with Switzerland and Germany trailing behind as the next highest spenders.

I've had a script running through my subconscious mind that says, "I am unworthy." I've written in this space about self-esteem, but now I'd like to dig a little deeper and get more specific about how low self-esteem is formed, and what you can do about it. I love baseball; when I was a kid, I asked my parents to let me play Little League baseball several times.

He wrote Waking Up back in 2014, and the app is based on the insights from that book. What's interesting about Sam is that people mostly knew him as one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism, but what they didn't know is that he spent much of his twenties going back and forth between Nepal and India studying primarily with Tibetan Buddhist teachers, also Advaita traditions.

When you think about the goings-on inside an average church, you might envision a sermon, a reading from the Bible or a song or two. Something that's less expected would be, for instance, a guided group meditation - and yet meditation has been showing up in a growing number of religious contexts where you might not expect it. That, at least, is one of the big takeaways from a recent Associated Press investigation by Luis Andres Henao and Deepa Bharath.

Close out 2025 with active compassion at Kadampa Meditation Center San Francisco before ringing in 2026. Our Resident Teacher Gen Kelsang Choma will give a talk on cultivating peace in our world by developing our own inner peace, and the power of making dedications for our loved ones and world. We will then chant short Prayers for World Peace before gathering in our community space for light bites and a non-alcoholic New Year's Eve toast.

Death also always makes me contemplate three things: 1. The privilege of community; 2. Whether I've sufficiently upskilled my children at life so they'll be OK if I died tomorrow; and 3. Hinduism. All three of these things community, debilitating anxiety and religion are gifts from my family. I know it's not cool to talk about religion. Throughout human history, we've used it to justify mass murder, colonisation and its related crimes.

Thailand is now one of the top places in the world for yoga retreats. It offers ancient wellness traditions along with tropical beauty, warm hospitality, and modern comforts. A yoga retreat in Thailand offers the perfect balance of relaxation, self-care, cultural exploration, and mindful living. Whether you are new or experienced, Thailand is a great place to refresh your body, relax your mind, and reconnect with yourself.

Your Practical Takeaways: Build Your Inner Compass: Learn the foundational steps to create a reliable intuition for deep, authentic knowing. Intuition in Action: Discover how to apply your intuition to navigate uncertainties and make better daily decisions. Creative Experiments: Practice fun, simple ways to bypass overthinking and access deeper wisdom. Elevate Your Vibe: Acquire tools to consistently maintain a high-frequency energy state for greater resilience and attraction.

In the sacred land of Rishikesh, where the Himalayas meet the Ganga, seekers have long journeyed to uncover the deeper truth of existence. Among the many paths to self-realization, Self-Enquiry Meditation, taught by the enlightened sage Sri Ramana Maharshi, stands out as the most direct and powerful method. This practice, known in Sanskrit as Ātma Vichāra, invites us to ask a single transformative question:

Recently someone offered me a couple of books on the spiritual healing arts from a respected author—for free. It was the kind of offer I once would have responded positively to, taken them gratefully, and brought them home to sit on my "to be read" shelf. Maybe I would have tried to read them, maybe I would have even completed them. Instead, what I heard myself saying, with unusual frankness, was, "No thanks. I'm sick of self-improvement."

Many stressed-out people are attracted to eastern meditation, believing that it will give them relief from their "monkey mind" and lower their anxiety about life. Unfortunately, the monkey usually wins because people find the mental focus required for meditation devilishly hard. On a trip last year to India, I asked a Buddhist teacher why Westerners struggle so much with the practice. "You won't get the benefit from meditation," he said, "as long as you are meditating to get the benefit."

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta vividly remembers the day he impaled himself on a wrought iron fence. He had just turned 12, and he was running through the neighborhood when he spontaneously decided to vault over a fence that he usually ran around. Except he didn't quite make it. "One of the spikes caught me on my side and went in the back area of my side and out the front," Gupta says.

The moon is void-of-course until noon ET today, making this morning perfect for a late snooze, a lazy breakfast, or a chill sunrise meditation.

Sitting by the river in the morning light transformed the meditation experience, merging the inner world with nature and creating a profound sense of inner peace.

Adames sat out for the first time all year, took a mental respite, and retreated to the mountains with a close friend who guided him in meditation. This experience helped clean his mind of the pressure he was feeling and reminded him of his roots in the Dominican Republic.

The sense that we are a solid entity, an unchanging entity that exists someplace in our body and takes ownership of our body, and even ownership of our brain rather than being identical to our brain, that is where the illusion lies.

Ghost of Tsushima tells a complicated and deeply troubling narrative about revenge, possible avunculicide, and a warrior pushed to commit atrocities in order to protect the people he loves.

Meditation has become a vital tool for balancing my professional pressures and personal life. It nurtures my mental health, enabling clearer thinking and creativity.

The meditation practices of sustainable compassion training help us access our innate capacities of love, care, and compassion by recalling moments of being held in such qualities.

Being part of a bachelorette party is akin to participating in the Olympics, requiring preparation, coordination, and stamina for a fun yet exhausting experience.