Google the word "mindful" and you'll find about 24,900,000 entries. Google the word "mindfulness" and there are around 13,600,000 entries. Ever wonder how these ancient, distant, and diverse Asian practices known as mindfulness have made their way into our living rooms today? Quite simply it is thanks to some noteworthy...

It's the habit and the hubris of parents and educators to ask, "What can we teach teenagers?" rather than the other way around. Yet, when it comes to using technology wisely, we would be wise to take a lesson from them.

In next weekend's first annual Wisdom 2.0 for...

The term "Executive Function" may sound more relevant to business school than elementary school, yet it's crucial to your child's social and emotional development. Executive Function is a family of attention-related processes involved in planning and carrying out goal directed behavior. It predicts school readiness better than IQ scores and...

What if happiness was a habit that we could teach children? We can. Qualities that lead away from happiness (strong negative emotions) and qualities that lead toward happiness (ethical actions) are all rooted in habits developed in the past. Mindfulness helps children and teens recognize the habits that lead to...

As a mom with young children there were times that life seemed to stand still and I wished it would get moving. I remember thinking that the day my kids would be toilet trained would never come, but it did. I remember worrying that my children would never learn to...

Some people think my author husband cultivates an 'edgy' persona and voice. So this morning, when I saw him tear up watching a YouTube video I worried that he had crashed head-on into a mid-life crisis. But when I saw the video he was watching, of Paul Simon...

Are kids who meditate happier as adults? Are they more compassionate and altruistic? Or, having been raised by somewhat "kooky" parents do they tend to be a little nutty themselves? Written with the idealism of a meditator pursuing a career in law, the following brief essay sheds light, in ways...

Right after "Plop-plop, fizz-fizz," the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "relief" is . . .

A handful of Buddhist teachers have been credited for...

Meditation looks like the simplest thing in the world. After all, what could be easier than sitting on a cushion and doing nothing? For many who try meditation the simple answer is: anything. Why? Because when people begin to meditate and park themselves on their meditation cushions, their brains often...

Yesterday, California's application for federal Race to the Top school funding was denied for a second time, and the LA Times reported that US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will repeatedly single out LA Unified in his speech today. This is likely to heat up the already heated controversy around...

The current LA Times controversy regarding their value-added statistical analysis of teacher performance is a tricky one. By conducting a rigorous, value-added analysis of teacher/student data the Times has brought to light a cause and effect relationship between teachers and the standardized test scores of their students. That's a big...

In my humble opinion, bringing the transformative practice of mindful awareness to children, teens and their families could revolutionize the world as we know it. There are great educational programs that teach valuable life-skills cradle to grave. But it's tough to use those life-skills in a crisis or other difficult...

It's tough to find time to meditate day after day, but in my humble opinion it's never been more important: Our future may well depend on it.

Recently I was asked to write about the future of secular mindfulness in America. It's hard to predict but my educated guess...

When driving around Los Angeles my attention is often drawn to something eye-catching. I love it when Disney Hall comes into view, or the Getty Center, but my favorite local sight is the nighttime image of the solar powered Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier. With its dazzling kinetic...

Snow globes are not only some of my favorite knick-knacks, but they're also a perfect tool to illustrate the clear perspective that we can developed with mindfulness meditation. When you shake a snow globe, the snow falls on a tiny New York City, a miniature Eiffel Tower, or a little...

It's not always easy to understand what is meant by "Now" or "Present Moment Awareness" when practicing mindfulness meditation. People often think that paying attention to what's happening 'Now' means ignoring the past and the future. Of course, this isn't true, but it can be a confusing concept.

For...

When I was in elementary school teachers used "the ABCs" as a shorthand phrase for the alphabet, a fundamental building block of learning to read. While the traditional ABCs are as crucial as they ever were when it comes to reading, there is another set of ABCs which, in their...

Has your child ever come to you, breathless with tears -- so over-excited that it's hard for them to speak? When you ask them what's wrong, they can't even get it out?

What if you could use a simple snow globe to help calm them? By taking just a...

Have you ever noticed a funny feeling in your body the split-second before doing something that you later regret? Maybe the funny feeling is a tightening in your chest, or a flush of heat rushing to your face, or a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. These funny...

Recently, James Baraz and his writing partner Shoshana Tembeck Alexander posted a blog here describing a gratitude practice that James taught his 89-year-old mother. They write about how James' mom mentioned she had a tendency to view life more as a glass that is half empty than one...