Over several thousand years, different cultures have discovered how to nurture the seed of a specifically human capacity—a saving grace, as it were—for mentally stepping outside the rat cage of our own attachments and learning how to escape the whirring agitation of our minds. Over the past couple of decades, these meditative disciplines have become something of a national indoor sport, at least among a large segment of the American middle class seeking to quiet the mind and even develop a quality of genuine wisdom in our overstimulating and stressful world

By replacing the exotic aura of spirituality with the language of science and a down-to-earth self-help approach, mindfulness has brought practices once considered New Age hokum into mainstream acceptance. But as it increasingly becomes a product to be sold in the marketplace, does it risk losing something vital to its transformative power?

A Conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Since he first developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn has not only become a key figure in shaping our ideas about physical and mental health, but a cultural icon. Here he talks about handling his public role and being placed on a pedestal.

If we engage in meditation long enough, we discover that our sense of being a separate, coherent, enduring self is actually a delusion maintained by our constant inner chatter. Seeing ourselves in this light can pull the rug out from under us in alarming—though potentially liberating—ways.

As pressures mount to narrow the focus of psychotherapy into a medicalized, evidence-based approach, one of the teachers who first helped integrate mindfulness into psychotherapy argues for recognizing the role of ritual and embracing the sacred in our work.

For the first time in history, we’re mainly experiencing nature through intermediary technology that paradoxically provides more detail while flattening our sensory experience. Can becoming entranced by electronic media alter our brains?

The mental health professions are now being forced to address the debate over marijuana legalization.

Clients with ADHD often know the coping skills that can improve their lives—the problem is applying them in daily life.

The case of a young man hearing voices shows how even problems that first appear to be extreme can be resolved by empowering clients to alter subtle aspects of their internal experience.

Esther Perel, a couples therapist whose TED talk has had more than 5 million views, believes that it’s time to challenge the mismatch between the romantic ideal and the changing realities of contemporary life.

Review of: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League

Why did a seeming rags-to-riches story of a young man’s triumph over poverty and the lure of the streets end so tragically?

It’s never too late to change your story