At such times, we’re not really meditating. If mindfulness meditation is the allowing or accepting of all that is arising in our awareness and holding it with kindness and patience and willingness, then using Strategic Meditation to calm down or stop a wave of sadness represents resistance to our feelings, not acceptance. We are adopting a stance of judging the feeling as bad or undesirable or problematic and trying earnestly to make it stop or go away....

We know we’re in the presence of a good listener when we get that sweet, affirming feeling of really being heard. But sadly it occurs all too rarely. We can’t force others to listen, but we can improve our own listening, and perhaps inspire others by doing so. Good listening means mindful listening. Like mindfulness itself, listening takes a combination of intention and attention. The intention part is having a genuine interest in the other person—their experiences, views, feelings, and needs....

Curls can be vulnerable to hot, humid weather or when styled with the wrong product. It tends to be the driest and most frizz-prone hair type, therefore finding the perfect balance between moisturized and volumized is the main concern. Once you’ve found the happy medium that gives your curls definition without the dreaded deflategate, you’re golden! That said, our story with Jonah has a happy ending; a few scrunches of gel now have him loving his wild red hair....

Chronic stress and aging take their toll on the mind and body, including our genes. A number of studies show that for some, meditation decreases stress, and slows down the rate at which cells age. Now, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that practicing loving-kindness may be the key. Cellular aging is often determined by telomere length. Telomeres, which are located at the end of chromosomes, are like the plastic tips of shoelaces that protect genes from deteriorating too rapidly over time....

The first meditation instruction I ever got was sit down and feel your breath, just feel the natural flow of your in and out breath. And as many of you have probably heard, I was very disappointed at first. I thought, “Feel my breath? I came all the way to India.” You know, where’s the magical esoteric practice thats going to wipe out all my suffering and make me a totally happy person?...