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No, but really: The wild kingdom offers us a glimpse of our animal nature in action. These shows are like metaphors for the dog-eat-dog competitive quality of daily life. But along with capturing what life looks like when you’re at the wrong end of the food chain, nature shows also depict animal communities whose behavior reminds us of our own species in other, less harrowing ways. Your friendly neighborhood meerkat, for example, relies on cooperation, agreement, and a kind of friendliness to survive....

Employers aren’t easily convinced that investing in stillness, openness and gentleness will improve productivity. We’ve come to associate business with busyness, and slowing down to notice more can seem at odds with a corporate culture of speed and acquisition. Yet this is actually what makes mindfulness so valuable in a business context. Workers are human beings, and we function better when we feel centered—all the anxious multi-tasking and plate-spinning doesn’t actually do us or our work any good....

“More and more people report using meditation practices for stress reduction, but we know very little about how much you need to do for stress reduction and health benefits,” said lead author David Creswell. A similar number has been echoed lately by another neuroscientist: Richard Davidson of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, U-W Madison. As Davidson tells Mindful, research is beginning to show how as little as 30 minutes per day training our minds to do something different can result in measurable changes that can be tracked in a brain scanner....

From the event post: This four-day, three-night retreat is ideal for lawyers, judges, law teachers, and law students who either seek an introduction to mindfulness, or wish to integrate an existing mindfulness practice into their work, studies, and life, and to deepen their understanding of meditative practice. Open to beginner and those with some meditation experience, this retreat will provide substantial periods of silent meditation practice, including sitting meditation, silent walking, and qi gong....

“Corporations have jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon because it conveniently shifts the burden onto the individual employee,” write Ron Purser and David Loy in the Huffington Post. “Stress is framed as a personal problem, and mindfulness is offered as just the right medicine to help employees work more efficiently and calmly within toxic environments.” Do such arguments have scientific merit? Or do they throw the mindful baby out with the corporate bath water?...