In October, 40 politicians from 14 nations spent the day exploring how mindfulness can influence government discourse and decision-making. Mindfulness in Politics was held in the British House of Commons and included representatives from Iceland, Denmark, Israel, Sri Lanka, and the United States.
Jon Kabat-Zinn led a meditation session at the event that aimed “to help political leaders stay resilient, clear-minded and creative in the face of constant change,” according to The Mindfulness Initiative. This policy institute established in 2013 helped create the nonpartisan Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group, and has offered MBCT training to more than 145 British MPs and their staff.
Kabat-Zinn’s attendance came on the heels of another notable event, the International Day of Peace, where he led almost 1,000 people in a 30-minute meditation on the lawn of the Canadian parliament in Ottawa.
How do we feel? Let us count the 27 ways…A study from the University of California, Berkeley, challenges a long-held idea that we mostly experience just six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. Alan Cowen and Dacher Keltner instead identified 27 different emotions—ranging from admiration and boredom to sexual desire. (They analyzed how…
