Deconstructing Yourself

By Jessica Graham The seven-day retreat had just ended and I was sitting with my boyfriend and a small group of fellow meditators. We were eating lunch and speaking our first words since coming out of silence. In an attempt to start a little friendly conversation, one woman asked if we would all go around [...]

by Michael W. Taft Here’s the thing about meditation: it’s really hard. Anyone who says it isn’t hard is playing you for a sucker, or trying to be kind, like when the doctor says, “This won’t hurt a bit.” Anyone who thinks spending ten thousand hours sitting on their ass, locked in a wrestling match [...]

MIT and Harvard neuroscientists explain why the practice helps tune out distractions and relieve pain. Studies have shown that meditating regularly can help relieve symptoms in people who suffer from chronic pain, but the neural mechanisms underlying the relief were unclear. Now, MIT and Harvard researchers have found a possible explanation for this phenomenon. In [...]