The Mrs Universe finalists from more than 80 countries are loving the vibe in Durban. IMAGES: Images: Abhi Indrarajan

Beauty with a purpose: Mrs Universe finalists, who are in Durban for the World Finals on September 2, 2017, visited three schools in the greater Durban area, on Monday.

Tapping into this years event theme of empowering women, creating change, the contestants from more than 80 countries, spoke to pupils about the importance of education and helped create awareness of the global gender-based violence crisis.

Pupils from Bhekisisa High School in Ntuzuma and two schools in Umlazi, namely Menzi High School and Vukuzakhe High School, met with the women to hear about how they overcame personal challenges to achieve success and make a meaningful contribution to their communities back home.

The beautiful contestants enjoyed spending time with the pupils.

To add to the festive atmosphere at the schools, Vodacom handed over 10 tablets to each of three schools. Teachers will award the ten high performing pupils in each school with the tablets at the end of the year.

The Mrs Universe event is a women-empowerment initiative that brings together married women between the ages of 25 and 45 who are doing phenomenal work to uplift and enhance their local communities through CSI initiatives.

The Mrs Universe World Finals will be held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre on September 2, 2017. For more information, visit http://www.mrsuniverse 2017.co.za

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Mrs Universe contestants empower Durban pupils - Rising Sun Chatsworth

Bill Goble and his wife Debra Louise Barry reached out to members of Hilm, a local Muslim non-profit organization, and offered to train members of the Muslim community in self-defence.Fariha Naqvi

A few days after the terrorist attack at a mosque in Quebec City this past January, the Roxboro United Church invited the local Muslim community to join them for their annual pancake dinner.

Congregants from both communities joined together to eat, pray and get to know one another. At the dinner, Pierrefonds residents Bill Goble and his wife Debra Louise Barry reached out to members of Hilm, a local Muslim non-profit organization, and offered to train members of the Muslim community in self-defence.

There was a sense of fear and concern regarding racism, sexism, religious prejudices and other class distinctions (in the Muslim community), Goble said.

With 20 years of training in Chinese internal martial arts and variousAsian self-defence systems, Goble has a personal background in violence prevention instruction and wanted to offer his services.

When a person is intersected by multiple prejudicial definitions there is an increase in susceptibility to various forms of violence. Strong Orange Violence Prevention (SOVP) tries to help empower people to be aware of these forms of violence, how they form and how to be able to avoid or manage the development of violence as it is forming, said Goble, director, instructor and responsible for certification development at SOVP.

There seemed to be a need to help with development of personal empowerment and personal safety in the Muslim community, he said, which prompted him to lend a hand.

This self-defence course should be a must for every woman. The same way we should all know how to change a tire, we should all know the basics of self defence, noted Kirkland resident Umberine Chaudhry, a chartered accountant and mother of four. She attended the course along with a group of other Muslim women from the West Island.

Id like to thank mayor Jim Beis and the (borough) of (Pierrefonds-Roxboro) for providing us with the location we used for training, Goble said. There was a lot of discussion regarding de-escalation methodologies and a lot of awareness scenario discussion, in the first few sessions of the self defence workshops.

We are so thankful to Bill and his lovely wife Debra for their generous offer to help equip our community with the tools we need to protect ourselves, Chaudhry said.

We have worked with First Nations communities and front line workers from Womens Shelters and various social agencies. We have provided empowerment based training across the spectrum for many definable demographics who might be at risk, said Goble, an electrical designer in the aerospace industry by profession. He works with other communities and charities as well, including people in remote communities and various metropolitan areas in Canada.

Goble credits his wife Debra as the first person who ever got him to teach an empowerment based self-defence course as part of her ethics program to Grade 7 girls at St. Thomas High School in 2002.

When asked what was still needed to help the community, Goble responded, We need to find and develop facilitators and certified instructors within portions of the community who might be at risk.

The courses wrap up next month but will be repeated so long as there is an interest and need.

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Naqvi-Mohamed: Communities join forces to battle prejudice and fear - Montreal Gazette

Youth empowerment is imperative not only for national development but also for personal development of an individual. According to the recently released census data, our population comprises 60 percent of the youth. This is both a threat and an opportunity. If this raw talents energy is not channelised well then we have a real challenge at hand as it might act as a time bomb for our country. However, by channelising the energy and raw talent of the youth in the right direction, we can prepare them for a productive role aimed at shaping the future of the nation.

History shows that under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-e-Azam, the youth played an instrumental role in bringing Pakistan into being. Quaid-e-Azam considered the youth as nation builders of tomorrow. He strongly believed in equipping the youth with discipline, education and training for the arduous tasks lying ahead of them.

Today, the youth of Pakistan is facing various social, political and economic changes. If we review our past policies, we would notice the palpable lack of concrete youth targeted policies. These policies lacked consistency, coherence and a broader perspective.

Given the present scenario of our country in terms of youth bulge, the slogan of youth empowerment has taken the centre-stage. However, the best way to empower our youth is through provision of greater educational and economic opportunities.

Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) is South Asias largest scholarship program. The basic purpose behind the programme is to provide scholarships to the deserving but talented students who arent able to pursue higher education due to financial constraints. The scholarships of worth Rs12 billion have been awarded so far.

Under the umbrella of PEEF, Shahbaz Sharif Merit Scholarship (SSMS) is a revolutionary step of the Punjab government, which enables the youth to study in the top ranked educational institutions of the world by funding their whole expenditure. PEEF is a story of dedication and vision in the service of the youth that is changing lives and help realise dreams.

In the middle of difficulty lies an opportunity and educational scholarship is a gateway to opening of new avenues of socio-economic mobility and growth. The launch of Chinese and Turkish Language Scholarship programmes by the Punjab government is a step in the right direction.

I believe that scholarship programmes are very productive exercise with far-reaching results. Besides being time-tested and sincere friends of Pakistan, both China and Turkey are our trusted development partners. Given the increasing footprint of the Chinese and Turkish investment and trade in Punjab and Pakistan, the language courses being funded by Punjab government will help our students acquire expertise and understanding that will help facilitate interaction between our two countries. In addition to further strengthening our bilateral relations with these countries, the scholarship programmes will open up more avenues for our youth in terms of better career prospects.

Skill development has created a huge space for generation of employment in todays world. The idea of earning millions by bringing fresh prospective and out of box thinking on the table is very encouraging and unique. One cannot only create job for oneself but also create livelihood opportunities for others. Unfortunately, we as a nation are lagging behind in developing skills of our youth. But the recent keen interest of government in this field is laudable.

On the directions of the chief minister, TEVTA is engaged in imparting skills to two million youth of Punjab by the end of 2018. The project of Punjab Tianjin Technical University has been envisaged and definitely, Chinese expertise would be useful for the Punjab government. The students of Punjab Tianjin Technical University will get same facilities and latest technical education which is being provided in Tianjin University. The students of this university would get dual degrees.

Punjab chief ministers E-Rozgar Scheme, and Interest-free Loan Scheme are some other initiatives taken by Punjab government to empower youth. It is a high time we utilise our resources to train our students in terms of technical, human resource and skill development. We need to create backward and forward linkages between industry and academia. Instead of preparing generalists, we should focus on producing qualified human resource keeping in view the indigenous and foreign demands. The construction of CPEC projects across the country has thrown open a huge demand for skilled labour and it is now on us how we convert this challenge into an opportunity.

The Chinese model of converting youth bulge into a demographic dividend needs to be emulated in our efforts to empower our youth.

There is no denying of the fact that our youth is talented and hard working. They have the overwhelming desire to realise their potential into an asset for the nation-building, provided the state can enable and equip them with necessary tools. It is heartening to note that there is a discernible realisation of giving our youth the conducive environment for development.

While the Punjab government has launched much needed initiatives, it is important that sustainable youth empowerment policies at the national level are worked out after consultation with all stakeholders particularly the youth bodies. We have to make our youth agent of change through investment in their future.

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Youth Empowerment: Punjab leads the way - The Nation (blog)

Reporter: Houston Is Another of Uncle Sams Disasters

Storms are natural events, but floods are usually man-made disasters, writes Michael Grunwald at Politico. And in Houston, part of that man-made disaster can be traced to the ostensibly good intentions of the government, which has aided residential sprawl into vulnerable low-lying areas near water with its relatively cheap and easily gamed federal flood insurance. And while climate change might play a role, experts say the main culprit is the explosive growth of low-lying riverine and coastal development, which has had the double effect of increasing floods (by replacing prairies and other natural sponges that hold water with pavement that deflects water) while moving more property into the path of those floods. But, ironically, Congress is unlikely to limit the subsidies in the wake of a storm like Harvey.

Libertarian: Nanny-Staters Engage in Parental Abuse

When rats ate enough of a poor Bronx familys food to make the children under-nourished, the city stepped in to take the children away, citing bad parenting. This is an all-too-common story, says Lenore Skenazy at Reason: Because we default to the notion of bad parents, that becomes the primary problem we address. Its like treating all car accidents as the fault of the driver, even on streets with malfunctioning stop lights. This is especially damaging to those mired in poverty, since theres a problem the government could be addressing instead that now goes untreated. The government tars people with parental neglect. Quips Skenazy: Maybe parental abuse is a term we need to start using to cover government intervention in cases where parents are trying to do the best they can, but they just cant be perfect.

From the right: Muslim Reformer Takes on Left-Wingers

The Southern Poverty Law Center has in recent years taken to labeling an array of legitimate Christian and other organizations as hate groups. These targets now have an unlikely ally in anti-Islamist British politician Maajid Nawaz. He has been added to groups hate lists and is suing for defamation, reports Tyler ONeil at PJ Media. Indeed, given the way Nawaz angers Muslim extremists and the way the SPLC riles up left-wing nuts (a man who shot up the Family Research Council, a Christian group, in 2012 said he did so because he was following the SPLCs hate map), its an issue of personal safety as well: From the murder of Theo van Gogh, to the Scalise shooting, to the terror committed against the FRC, it is no hyperbole for Nawaz to say that the SPLCs list is putting his very life in danger.

Law prof: Americans Wont Elect Big Brother President

Mark Zuckerberg might once have been able to run for president as a stainless nerd-knight, argues Glenn Reynolds in USA Today. But now the Facebook founder has, like many in Silicon Valley, become a censorship-happy left-wing culture warrior, and thatll give the public pause: An industry that once seemed to be about personal liberation and empowerment as illustrated in that famous 1984-themed Apple commercial now seems to be creepy and controlling, and has signed up as enforcers in the culture wars that many Americans fear. And Facebooks reputation for violating users privacy to amass personal data isnt exactly an argument in favor of putting Zuckerberg in charge of the federal government: President Big Brother? Call me crazy, but I dont think itll sell.

Security beat: What Antifa & Neo-Nazis Have in Common

Antifa and the right-wing Tiki-torch Nazis have more in common than they realize, says Eli Lake at Bloomberg. This isnt to equate them, exactly. Indeed, the cause of anti-fascism is noble, whereas the racists marching in Charlottesville are telling journalists like me I should be sent to the ovens. The problem is antifa isnt what its cracked up to be: Originally it confronted neo-Nazis at punk concerts and the like. Today though, antifa has become the violent vanguard of the censorious progressive safe space movement, in which ideas and speakers deemed offensive are equated with physical violence. So this rivalry isnt a fight for the soul of America: Neither the Tiki-torch Nazis nor the masked anarchists represent a viable American future.

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Why Zuckerberg won't be president, Uncle Sam's role in Houston's floods & other comments - New York Post

Carie Lemack, CEO and cofounder of DreamUp.

Carie Lemack is co-founder and CEO ofDreamUp, the first company to bring space into classrooms and classrooms into space.A former national security policy expert/advocate and producer of an Academy Award-nominated film, Lemack is a proud alumna of Space Camp and supporter of all space cadets reaching for the stars. Lemackcontributed this article toSpace.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

If the United States wants to reclaim the honor and glory of reaching for the heavens; inspire a new generation of heroes and heroines, curious minds and courageous spirits; and give today's students the skills to achieve a better tomorrow, we must make the dream of reaching for the stars as real as the rockets that launch into space.

We need a space age for the digital age, in which teachers combine education with a form of entertainment like no other: the chance to see those rockets' red glare as they launch their payloads to the International Space Station. [Blastoff! How to See a Rocket Launch in Person This Summer]

That invigorating, firsthand experience with science is more powerful than any movie about science fiction. After all, hands-on time with science is interactive, personal and exciting, whereas science fiction is passive, occasionally preposterous, and less effective at engaging and motivating young minds. It's also a chance to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in a way that can unite it with the arts and humanities.

Effectively incorporating space into our nation's education begins with a customized curriculum that is both accessible for teachers and aspirational for students. My company, DreamUp a sister company of NanoRacks is dedicated to bringing space-based education and research into classrooms and launching student experiments into space.

The program accommodates students of all ages, from primary school to postdoctoral, and it's accessible to those in urban, suburban, rural and regional districts. With a suite of multimedia tools and a user-friendly approach toward science, the DreamUp curriculum is dynamic and effective, with an emphasis on individual student engagement and personal empowerment.

These strengths provide a record to stand on, and successes to expand upon, as we continue to add to more than 375 unique student experiments already flown to the International Space Station. Those experiments prove that, in this country, we can democratize space-based research with commercial spaceflight, because we do not need bureaucracies to review and approve this work. We will continue to do this while helping our nation's youth become fluent in the language of science.

That language including its dialects involving data and statistics, analysis and applied mathematics is as critical to improving our public schools as it is indispensable to maintaining the competitive edge of our most prestigious colleges and universities.

We need to inaugurate this space age with moral energy equal to the physical energy of the earliest human spaceflight missions, where media convene and crowds converge to cheer the efforts of our greatest explorers.

We need to highlight the benefits of space-based research, ensuring the program has the economic and educational support to thrive.

We need, in short, to make the space age popular again.

We can achieve that goal and we can exceed that promise if we do our duty, by making the possible probable and the hypothetical (to some) undeniably real.

Let us fulfill this dream of reviving the space age through hands-on education, for the good of science and the betterment of students and, ultimately, employers throughout America.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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To Inspire Future Space Travelers, Bring Space-Based Research to Schools - Space.com

By Shelia Baynes, Guest Columnist

At a time when many Americans are thinking harder about racial issues and equity, members of the Marsala Giving Circle and othershave been commemoratingBlackPhilanthropy Month in August.

Historically, charity tends to be instilled in the African American experience. For us, philanthropy isnt a late-in-life revelation or practice, but rather an embedded value and way of being for many in our communities.

For generations we have given time, talent and treasure in order to strengthen our communities through helping friends, neighbors and family when theyre in need. Some of our earliest memories are those of passing around collection boxes down the church pew.

We established African American organizations and groups to uplift and support each other when it was difficult to receive help from other entities. There were no fancy words for it we simply called it giving back because thats exactly what it was.

When the Masala Giving Circle, made up of a local group of successful African American businesswomen, was founded through the Community Foundation of Sarasota County in 2013, it joined a growing group of black philanthropic organizations across the globe. We had one mission: Promote economic and personal empowerment through financial support for programs and initiatives that benefit African American communities in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Our vision was to continue a legacy of giving back by establishing a more formal way for us, as African American women, to make a difference in our community and beyond.

Pooling our money together, were proud to have awarded since our founding more than $20,000 in grant money to nonprofits thathelp meetAfrican American needs in our community. More Too Life, Turning Points, the Newtown Farmers Market, Pearls of Excellence, and the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex are all organizations that have benefited directly from our philanthropy.

However, our support goes beyond a financial transaction. A key component to Masalas philosophy is sharing our long history of philanthropy and bringing awareness to, and creating conversation around, black philanthropic causes. So we proudly join the numerous African American Giving Circles across the United States that celebrate and give recognition to Black Philanthropy Month.

Started in 2011 by Dr. Jacqueline Copeland-Carson and the Pan-African Womens Philanthropy Network, the commemorative month affirms a commitment of all black philanthropic organizations to empower their communities and aims to strengthen social investments, volunteerism, activism and advocacy toward promoting the future of people and communities of African descent.

In past years, Black Philanthropy Month luncheon forums were hosted to celebrate and hear from local African American philanthropists in recognition of their lifelong commitment to making a difference.

Our region is rich with women who have been doing this work for many years and continue to do so. Audrey Coleman, Lois Watson and Sophia LaRusso are all local names who embody the spirit of giving back and have had a life-long commitment to philanthropy.

I thank these women, and all others, who leave an extraordinary legacy of giving and work to lift up important stories, spotlight good work, educate the generations, and inspire collective action to advance justice for all African American people.

Now and for years to come, I invite all people of African ancestry and allied friends of ours to continue to promote the power of giving to transform lives.

Shelia Baynes is the founder and president of the Masala Giving Circle. For more information about the Masala Giving Circle, visit http://www.MasalaGiving.com.

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Baynes: African Americans giving back - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

EDWARDSVILLE Before their first day of classes, approximately 650 incoming Southern Illinois University Edwardsville freshmen were loaded into buses on Saturday, Aug. 19 and transported to Metro East farms, gardens, wetlands and more to learn a valuable lesson about community service.

We want to introduce them to SIUEs value of citizenship and what it means for them, said Sarah Laux, assistant director of civic engagement with SIUEs Kimmel Student Involvement Center. We want them to start early in providing service to their community and thinking about how they can give back.

The locations were chosen based on their needs and because some are in partnership with SIUE, according to Laux. For example, La Vista CSA Farm provides produce for Campus Kitchen at SIUE.

The students conducted an array of jobs such as planting, weeding, mulching, harvesting, removing invasive species and painting. The sites where students worked:

Watershed Nature Center is an organization dedicated to providing environmental education, passive recreation, and enjoyment of native habitats.

Willoughby Farm is part of the Collinsville Area Recreation District (CARD). It is a place where the history of the area comes alive through historic structures, original tools, replica gardens and a restored environment.

Arlington Wetlands is an American Bottom wetland acquired by the Collinsville Area Recreation District (CARD) with efforts to bring the land to full restoration. Because of its proximity to the confluence of the Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, Arlington Wetlands plays a major role in the migration of waterfowl throughout the year.

The Granite City Community Gardens (GCCG) is a network that brings neighbors together to create and sustain gardens that benefit the Granite City community.

La Vista CSA Farm is community-supported agriculture.

Beverly Farm is home to nearly 400 individuals who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Garden of Harmony (Aya Grows) is a nonprofit initiative in East St. Louis that invests in ecological enrichment, community solidarity and personal empowerment through creative community-based place making.

These sites gave the students a sense of our diverse community and the diverse needs, Laux. Also, a lot of these sites have continuing needs, so students who want to continue to volunteer can.

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The Telegraph | SIUE students learn about community service - Alton Telegraph

As you get ready to send the children back to school, here are some tips from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information to help make the process easier:

As parents prepare to send their children into the halls of secondary schools, the concern of many is the performance of their child throughout the tenure of high school. That is our concern as well. With a new school, come new challenges and new expectations.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is aware that all students are unique in their style of leaning. To ensure all students have an equal opportunity of learning, we have created the Alternative Pathways to Secondary Education (APSE).

The results from your child's Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), or the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination starting in 2019, will determine the pathway he or she is placed in during the monitored years of their secondary journey. This is not a final pathway; as your children progress, they are advanced to the suitable pathway based on their achievements. Students will also be supported during their years of secondary school with the aid of student support pathway coaches.

The APSE is an initiative that is based on tailored curricula that enables learners to perform at his or her fullest potential based on aptitude, interest and ability. This initiative has three pathways: Pathway I (SPI), Pathway II (SPII) and Pathway III (SP III).

Students on Pathway will have access to the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) through grades seven to 13 as per the appropriate syllabi. This pathway allows students to access the necessary exit examination based on their abilities inclusive of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC), City and Guilds, Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) and the National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQJ).

Support is integral for all students to excel and this is indicative of Secondary Pathway II. It isn't permanent. Pathway II is a two-year transitional programme that aids students who might need additional instructional support. There will be an evaluation at grade eight which will determine the crossover into either SP I or SP II.

The Secondary Pathway III supports students who have not mastered the Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy examination. This pathway will be taught through a curriculum in the following subjects: mathematics, English kanguage, communication, social studies and science. Their academic journey will also be enhanced with personal empowerment, technical and vocational instruction, as well as the performing and creative arts. At grade nine, a career interest inventory will be administered to determine their path under the Career Advancement Programme (CAP).

The Career Advancement Programme (CAP) is an initiative under the ministry that seeks to create opportunities for students ages 16 to 18 who are currently in secondary schools or have graduated. It is offered at selected secondary schools, and other private and government centres across the island. Under CAP, students may seek to advance through three pathways: the technical, traditional and general pathways. Our traditional and technical components are offered at 110 centres across the island while the general Pathway is facilitated through the Jamaica for Life Long Leaning (JFLL).

The CAP will also provide two additional years to assist students who wish to pursue CSEC or technical and vocational courses as required for matriculation into the world of work. This means if students weren't successful in their CSEC subjects, there is hope through the CAP! We have also allocated $40,000 each to assist 40 students who are enrolled in approved sixth-form programmes and are pursuing the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), or a National Council on Technical, Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) skill.

For further information, please visit our website at http://www.moey.gov.jm or call 967-9020 or 967-7802. To apply for CAP, click on the logo and complete form.

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Back-to-School Corner | Multiple education pathways at secondary level - Jamaica Gleaner

Executive Summary

Whether you are trying to reconcile conflicting stakeholder priorities, finding a solution to a customers issue, or launching a new product line, your solution probably wont come out of a textbook. But its hard to keep having great ideas day after day. What do you do when you run out of good ideas? How do you get your mojo back?One increasingly popular solution is mindfulness meditation.Google, Goldman Sachs, and Medtronicare among the many leading firms that have introduced meditation and other mindfulness practices to their employees. Executives at these and other companies say meditation is not only useful as a stress-reduction tool but can also enhance creativity, opening doors where once there seemed to be only a wall.To gain a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of short meditation sessions in boosting creativity, the authorslooked first at the literature and then conducted their own experiments.They found thatmindfulness mediation works to enhance creativity and innovation, and 10 to 12 minutes of itare enough to boost creativity.

In more and more occupations, creativity is part of the job description. Whether you are trying to reconcile conflicting stakeholder priorities, finding a solution to a customers issue, or launching a new product line, your solution probably wont come out of a textbook. But its hard to keep having great ideas day after day. What do you do when you run out of good ideas? How do you get your mojo back?

One increasingly popular solution is mindfulness meditation. Google, Goldman Sachs, and Medtronic are among the many leading firms that have introduced meditation and other mindfulness practices to their employees. Executives at these and other companies say meditation is not only useful as a stress-reduction tool but can also enhance creativity, opening doors where once there seemed to be only a wall.

To gain a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of short meditation sessions in boosting creativity, we looked first at the literature and then conducted our own experiments. Heres what we found.

Mindfulness mediation works to enhance creativity and innovation.Many executives have taken up meditation because they find it helps themswitch gears when stress piles up. Research shows that mindfulness meditation can have many positive effects on workplace outcomes. Regularly doing it boosts your resilience, enabling you to mitigate stress, regulate emotions, and have a more positive outlook so that you can bounce back from setbacks. It helps you develop the ability to switch off reactive fight-or-flight responses and engage in a more thoughtful mode thats crucial for making balanced decisions.

In hisbookMindfulness for Creativity, Danny Penman argues that mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness practices enhance three essential skills necessary for creative problem solving. First, mindfulness switches on divergent thinking. In other words, meditation opens your mind to new ideas. Second, mindfulness practice improves attention and makes it easier to register the novelty and usefulness of ideas. And finally, mindfulness nurtures courage and resilience in the face of skepticism and setbacks, which is important because failure and setbacks are inextricably linked with any innovation process.

Ten to 12 minutes are enough to boost creativity.To further verify that creativity is among the early benefits of mindfulness meditation, and to test how earlier findings could be applied to benefit idea generation in organizations, we set up an experiment at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Unlike the objectives of earlier research, we were interested in whether a few minutes of mindfulness mediation would be enough to boost creativity. One hundred twenty-nine participants (all of them students) were divided into three groups and assigned a creative task: Generate as many business ideas as possible for using drones.

Before the individual brainstorming began, one group participated in a 10-minute audio-guided mindfulness meditation, and a second group participated in a 10-minute fake meditation exercise (they were instructed to think freely by letting their minds wander). A third group started to brainstorm immediately.

Each of the three groups generated roughly the same number of ideas, and the length of the descriptions of the ideas was similar. The main difference was that meditators came up with a much wider range of ideas.The ideas of each participant in the two non-meditator groups were in at least two categories, versus four categories for the meditators. The ideas of eachindividual in the largest segment ofnon-meditators (20% of the two groups)fell into fivecategories (such as delivering and filming items). By comparison, the ideas of each person in the largest segment of meditators (21% of the group) were in ninecategories, which included gardening (cutting trees, watering flowers) and security (extinguishing fires) and ranged from the somewhat plausible (washing windows) to the downright silly (feeding giraffes).

We looked for other reasons besides meditation that could explain the differences. In our regression analyses, we controlled for several variables that could influence idea flexibility, such as whether participants enjoyed the brainstorming task. Even discounting the results ofthese other factors, the meditators demonstrated a 22% wider range of ideas than the two non-meditating groups.

We also found that a short meditation, similar to physical exercise, often put people in a more positive and relaxed frame of mind. Inthe group that had meditated, most people felt less negative. In particular, meditation decreased participants feeling of restlessness (by 23%), nervousness (by 17%), and irritation (by 24%).

To further corroborate our findings, we conducted a second experiment with a group of 24 senior innovation managers at a large Dutch research organization. Similar to the exercise with the students, these executives meditated for 12 minutes and then generated ideas individually on how to create a more inclusive culture in an organization. Subsequently, they worked in groups to develop their ideas further.

Most participants reported that meditation helped them clear their minds, focus more on the task at hand, and come up with original solutions. And they did: One idea was that managers or employees would swap departments for a week (and subsequently report in a company magazine and to their own departments about what they observed) in a way that was reminiscent of a Dutch reality program where teenagers swap families. Another idea was to give in-company TED talks to highlight cool ideas and scientists across various divisions.

Better ideas, better decision making, and a better mood all in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee? Our study suggests that its all true. As Mirabai Bush, Googles adviser forSearch Inside Yourself, the companys corporate mindfulness program, puts it, Mindfulness will make your life work better and your work life better. Its a win-win!

In the end, the only way to really see whether you like mindfulness meditation is to try it yourself. Download one of the many short mindfulness meditation courses available online (including meditation apps such as Headspace, Calm, or buddhify), or just follow the instructions below.

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Can 10 Minutes of Meditation Make You More Creative? - Harvard Business Review

11:18 AM ET

Aishwarya KumarESPN.com

SHELBURNE FALLS, Mass. -- Imagine arriving at a secluded, eerily quiet compound tucked into the woods, giving up your cell phone, laptop and other technology and taking what is essentially a vow of silence for the next week-and-a-half.

That's exactly what pro golfer Anirban Lahiri did not long after his runner-up finish at the Memorial Tournament in June. He checked into the Vipassana Meditation Center in rural northwest Massachusetts for a 10-day regimen of inhaling, exhaling and clearing his head.

"Over the course of meditation, different thoughts and tensions come up, and your continuous effort to go back to focusing on your breath will get you to go deeper into your concentration," said Craig Miller, Lahiri's trainer at the center. "This, I am sure, helps him a lot when he is out on the golf course."

For the 30-year-old Lahiri, the first player from India to earn a top-five finish in a major (2015 PGA Championship), the benefits of Vipassana go beyond his sporting endeavors.

"I went in there thinking it was just going to be good for my golf, it will help me with my concentration, and I came out feeling this is great for life," Lahiri said. "Golf's just a part of our lives. We do have a life off the course, and it helped me be a better person, made it easy for me to make decisions."

AN ALMOST-FORGOTTEN, 2,500-year-old Buddhist practice that was revived by Burmese-Indian meditation expert S.N. Goenka in the 1970s, Vipassana has gained popularity in India in the past decade, with nonprofit centers being established in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. Before his death in 2013, Goenka launched 200 centers across the globe.

In 1982, the Shelburne Falls compound was the first Vipassana center opened in North America. The facility, which started in a two-story house and barn, has grown to include several connected, nondescript buildings spread over 108 acres. The compound is hidden among trees and red tulips and sunflower patches approximately 90 miles west of Boston. Although it's only 10 minutes off Interstate 91, the first thing that strikes you when you go inside is the silence.

Hanging on the wall next to the registration desk are white signs displaying the day's schedule, the center's motto and the rules in bold, black letters. Like any powerful tool is accompanied by a set of instructions, Vipassana comes with five ethics to be followed during the course: do not kill, steal, commit sexual misconduct, lie or become intoxicated.

"When people come here, first thing they say is, 'My vow is to be ethically pure. I am being especially ethical for these 10 days to help myself,'" Miller said.

The facility is designed to eliminate all distractions. There are octagon-shaped individual rooms for meditation, a large rectangular hall -- with flat, square cushions spread throughout for students to sit on during group meditation sessions -- dining areas with long tables and basic folding plastic chairs, and single bedrooms that contain nothing more than a basic cot and a wooden chair.

The corridor leading to the individual meditation rooms opens into a courtyard, wherein sits the facility's only hint of luster: a majestic, gold, dome-shaped pagoda. A portion of the center is under construction, with more bedrooms and meditation halls being added (the current capacity is 114 students in the winter months and more when the weather permits the use of tents and cabins).

There is no set fee for the 10-day course, but students usually make donations -- anything from $10 to $10,000 -- to the nonprofit organization when they finish their stays. One- and three-day sessions are also offered, as well as longer courses of up to 60 days for more experienced Vipassana practitioners. The staffers, including cooks, trainers and assistants, are all volunteers.

Lahiri was part of a course that included 140 other students who woke up to a bell at 4 a.m. and went to bed at 9 p.m. In between, there were scheduled individual and joint meditation sessions, food breaks and short, one-on-one sessions with instructors. Those sessions were the only times attendees were permitted to speak. A group lecture session was held at 7 p.m. daily, at which students listened to Goenka's recorded talks -- in English or in other languages, such as Spanish, Hindi, French and Chinese.

Meals consisted of simple vegetarian food such as kale, salad and rice for lunch and fruits and tea for dinner. Continued meditation slows the metabolism, decreasing appetite. Lahiri and the other students broke their silence on the 10th day, symbolizing a return to their usual schedule.

4 a.m. - Wake up4:30-6:30 - Individual meditation6:30-8:00 - Breakfast break (attendees can also sleep, go for walks or meditate during meal breaks)8:00-9:00 - Group meditation9:15-11:00 - Individual meditation11 a.m.-1 p.m.: Lunch break1:00-2:30: Individual meditation2:30-3:30 - Group meditation3:45-4:00 - Instructions for meditation4:00-5:00 - Individual meditation5:00-6:00 - Dinner break6:00-7:00 - Group meditation7:00-8:00 - Evening discourse (recordings by Vipassana centers founder S.N.Goenka)8:00-8:30 - Instructions for the next day8:30-9:00 - Individual meditation9:00 - End of the day; individual conversation between instructor and student, and then sleep

VIPASSANA -- also known as insight meditation -- is about overcoming bad habits and establishing good habits, and the trainers help students through this difficult process. Miller used a sporting analogy to describe it: If you're learning a bad golf swing, you are reinforcing a bad habit; if you're learning a good swing from an expert, you're reinforcing a good habit. Vipassana trains your mind to take good swings.

Miller explained that everything a person does at the physical level is affected by the health of his mind, and everything a person does at the mental level is affected by the health of his body. Focusing energy on one point -- breathing -- neutralizes the fight between the physical and mental being. Lahiri is drawn to this, Miller said, because a golfer uses the same technique on the course.

This was not Lahiri's first time at a Vipassana center. He took his first course at age 17. His parents had completed the course, and he wanted to find out if it would help him concentrate better on the golf course.

Lahiri said as a teenager he had a tendency to be self-destructive during close competitions, and he didn't know how to handle his intense energy. Vipassana helped him deal with that.

"[After my first retreat] when I went out and played and felt the nerves, I would just channelize it into something positive, and that really helped me," Lahiri said.

The meditation practice also helped Lahiri attain "equanimity" with his emotions -- happiness, anger or sadness -- both on and off the course. The process is extremely difficult, he said, because it goes against the human nature.

"We don't want things we don't like, and we want things we like, and Vipassana basically helps you to bridge that gap and react the same to either situation and not get too angry or too happy and be 'equanimous,'" Lahiri said.

His recent session was his fourth Vipassana course and first outside India. Classes at the Massachusetts facility can fill up several months in advance, with waiting lists numbering in the hundreds, and the one Lahiri signed up for happened to overlap with the U.S. Open.

There was almost a tough decision to make after his second-place performance at the Memorial (it was his best finish on the PGA Tour, though he has 18 international victories) increased his world ranking to just short of U.S. Open qualifying. When his wife asked what he would do if he qualified for the major -- Vipassana or golf -- he did not have an answer. But he said it worked out well in the end.

"Funny I say it worked out in the sense of me not getting in, but that's what I wanted to do at that point in time," Lahiri said.

In his first tournament after the course, Lahiri tied for 17th at the Travelers Championship with a performance that included a career-best 63 in the second round. Then came The Open Championship, in which he missed the cut by a single stroke after hitting into a bunker on and bogeying his final hole at Royal Birkdale.

Still, Lahiri, who is ranked No. 75 in the world and has earned more than $1.6 million on the PGA Tour this year, credits his success to Vipassana.

"I am happy with the way I am playing ... and I am looking forward to the next few events," he said.

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