Relaxation

Collecting Art, take a look The best mindfulness methods are the ones that work for you. Balancing work, relationships, and all that comes with life in the real world is a truly impressive feat—one that’s supported greatly by simple mindfulness practices. Discovering tools that allow you to be more present throughout your day is among the quickest ways to elevate your existence, and 2025 brought some new go-to tricks that we intend to take from the present into the future. The routines we picked up this year were all about optimizing our lifestyles to create more room for awareness. That means instead of waiting for for perfect stillness, we try to meet ourselves exactly where we are. From active takes on meditation to stacking new habits on existing routines, these ideas can help make your everyday life more intentional. 5 Helpful Mindfulness Practices We Learned in 2025 Living mindfully should be a relatively simple endeavor. Take what works for you and leave the rest. 1. Habit ...

Collecting Art, take a look In 2025, mindfulness teacher Andrew Safer tracked the effects of attention training for workshop participants with ADHD. What he learned has implications for all of us. It seems that distraction is the oxygen we breathe nowadays, with infinite bits of information at our restless fingertips. Each time I open my Edge browser, captivating news headlines and flashy images assault me. Half the time, I forget where I was headed! Is the effort to maintain control of our attention a fool’s errand? Nicholas Carr, in his best-seller, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, notes that more than a few top journalists have stopped reading books because 1 they can easily find the information they need at Wikipedia and other online sources, and 2 their attention spans have withered. Mindfulness meditation nudges us in the opposite direction. Rather than surround ourselves with endless options, we simplify. The practice has us paying attention to this pre...

Collecting Art, take a look Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is a leading figure in body horror, a film genre that explores disturbing and often grotesque aspects of the human body. Films such as The Fly 1986, eXistenZ 1999 and Crimes of the Future 2022 depict scenes of physical mutilation, illness and technological invasion to represent deeper fears about identity, society and the human condition. Through intense bodily imagery, Cronenberg’s films raise powerful questions about human relationships with technology and nature. As our relationship with technology rapidly evolves alongside escalating environmental catastrophe, there is a timely significance in these ideas. His latest film, The Shrouds, evokes the writing of Stacy Alaimo, a scholar known for her work exploring the connections between the human body, the environment, and the social forces that shape both. Alaimo’s work combines feminist and materialist ideas and examines how our bodies are physically connected to the w...

Collecting Art, take a look In this 2-minute video, meditation teacher Christiane Wolf explains what “formal” and “informal” mean when it comes to mindfulness. If you’ve heard the terms “formal mindfulness” or “informal mindfulness,” you might have been left scratching your head. Yes, it is—and it can still refer to different kinds of practices. In this short video, meditation teacher and author Christiane Wolf offers simple definitions of formal and informal mindfulness. Within each of these terms, there’s an abundance of ways to come home to the present moment. As Sharon Salzberg wrote in her book Real Happiness: “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” What Is Formal Mindfulness Practice? Formal practice is what we call every type of practice where you really take the time to do nothing but this particular practice or meditation at that moment. Formal mindfulness meditation usually includes a clear structure or framework, such as steps to follow, a begin...

Collecting Art, take a look Explore this mindfulness practice to foster forgiveness and let go of the tendency to add to suffering during challenging situations. Two monks are walking down the road. They arrive at a muddy stream crossing, and a well-dressed woman declares without introduction, “Don’t just stand there. She says nothing, not even a thank you. The two monks walk all day. The whole time, the younger one stews in his mind—How could he pick her up? And she was so rude, someone should say something to her, she didn’t deserve our help. Finally, arriving at the inn for dinner, he can’t hold himself back. “What were you thinking?” he asks his friend. “Wow, I put that woman down hours ago, but you’ve been carrying her all this time!” Why We Carry Anger and Resentment So what does that mean in real life? There’s an actual experience that can be trivial or even traumatic. We add to the suffering with judgment, anger, and blame. It’s sometimes referred to as adding a second arr...

Collecting Art, take a look In this week’s guided meditation, teacher and author Melli O’Brien offers a practice to unwind anxiety by connecting with a gentle and steady awareness when you are feeling stressed. Often the toughest part of experiencing anxiety is just the sense of being helplessly caught up in the thought loops that keep us feeling stuck and stressed. It’s tough to unwind anxiety, and we long for the kind of support that could actually help escape the tangle of those anxious webs. In this week’s guided meditation, teacher and author Melli O’Brien offers a practice that uses gentle, steady awareness to help you find your calm center again when you’re feeling wound up with stress or anxiety. SOS Meditation to Unwind Anxiety Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.,