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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How ancient practice of Vipassana meditation breathes life into ... - ESPN

Dear Doctors: Ive had back pain since my 20s and have gotten to the point where I cant use aspirin or other pain relievers because they tear up my stomach. My sister-in-law wants me to try meditation, which sounds a little nutty. Do you think it can help?

Dear Reader: The power of the mind over the body is a concept that has been explored, questioned, promoted and ridiculed for centuries, if not millennia. However, the latest studies on the subject offer intriguing insights. Researchers are uncovering evidence that techniques such as meditation and mindfulness can be an effective means of dealing with pain. This is good news for the estimated 11 percent of Americans who live with chronic pain.

Several recent studies have focused on meditation and mindfulness techniques to alleviate lower back pain, with some surprising results. Not only did researchers add to the growing body of evidence that mind-based techniques can be effective, but they also discovered that the relief from pain comes via unexpected pathways.

One study involved 342 adults between the ages of 20 and 70 who had lower back pain for three or more months, a length of time for it to be considered chronic. None of the individuals could attribute the onset of their pain to a particular cause, such as injury, overuse or disease.

The participants were divided into three treatment groups one that followed the traditional medical approach of rest, activity modification, heat or ice, and over-the-counter pain relievers. A second group learned a technique called cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, which addresses thought and behavior. The third group was taught something the researchers called mindfulness-based stress reduction, which included several types of meditation as well as gentle yoga practice.

Six months later, 61 percent of each mind-based treatment group reported improved physical function. About 45 percent of them said they had less back pain. That was measurably better than the group assigned to traditional medical practices. In that group, 44 percent reported improved function, and 27 percent said they had less pain.

While the results may not be extraordinary, they are significant. And as acceptance of this novel pain relief pathway grows, the hope is that continued research will lead to greater understanding and to new techniques that are even more effective.

Speaking of understanding, the results of a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience last year also offered a few surprises.

When you hurt yourself stub your toe or scrape your knee your body responds with a flood of natural opioid compounds that make the resulting pain more bearable. But for the participants in this study, researchers blocked that pain relief pathway. Yet patients involved in meditation still reported feeling less pain in response to unpleasant stimuli than those who did not meditate. This led researchers to conclude the pain relief mechanism of meditation occurs independent of the opioid receptors in the brain.

Bottom line: Your sister-in-law has a point regarding meditation. With a bit of research, you can find a class or program in your area. And if you do follow through, please let us know how it goes.

Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Elizabeth Ko, M.D., is an internist and primary care physician at UCLA Health.

Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

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Ask the Doctors: Meditation might alleviate back pain for some ... - Indiana Gazette

Meditation, its been said, is self-medication. But are our modern-day forms of accessing this ancient practice for its proven health benefits doing us more harm than good?

As the collective of meditation businesses has grown to a billion-dollar industry, theres been an influx of quick-hit meditation products and services popping up on every device and city corner near you.

There are now hundreds of apps, such as Headspace and buddhify, devoted to guided and customized meditation. There are also pricey drop-in classes available at increasingly omnipresent calming centers from New York to Los Angeles.

Inscape, a 5,000-square-foot studio in New Yorks Chelsea neighborhood, offers sessions like Deep Rest, where you can pay $22 to sleep, profoundly, followed by curated drinks and bites, if youre so inclined. Just-opened The Lotus in Denver has 18 different classes with titles like Dont Worry, Be Happy and Lighten Up.

So should we feel happy that we can stop by a studio for some quick relief after a stressful day at work or bliss out with our favorite meditation app while were waiting for a red-eye?

Are we really tuning into ourselves and getting the benefits of meditation in single doses, or are we just distracting ourselves with another feel-good health one-hitter with limited lasting impacts?

Is dropping in with other like-minded people, no matter how we do it, more powerful in the long run than dropping out on our bedroom zafu?

The answers are nuanced, according to Andra Brill, a Denver-based meditation instructor, retreat leader and founder of Happy Mindful Families. Im all for planting the seed and offering people a taste of what the experience is like, she tells GrindTV.

Shes not too worried about the format, whether its an app, drop-in studio or committed practice through private instruction.

We could all do yoga in our house for free, but we value what we pay for, says Brill, who finds that many of her clients request paid private instruction even when they know they can do it for nothing. I see it as a continuum. If I try a meditation app and it helps me sleep a little better and yell a little less, thats a positive.

Its also possible that drop-in meditation centers and apps are just a contemporary version of building community.

Theyre all different flavors of the same thing. I see them as entry points, Brill says. For all the ways we self-soothe in modern society excessive work, food, alcohol, TV, exercise to deal with our frantic lives, I see meditation as one of the least destructive ways to do it.

Its better to do 10 minutes of meditation a day than an hour and a half once a week, offers Brill. So perhaps dropping in for breath doesnt really undermine meditation after all.

Maybe one big hit of breath however you get it is more than OK.

Pick up more tips about wellness from GrindTV

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Why intermittent fasting might be right for you

See the article here:

Is one-hit meditation a healthy trend? - GrindTV

So you fell asleep easily enough, but now its 3 a.m. Your mind is spinning, and rest is elusive. Youre reliving every foolish or embarrassing thing you did in the past 24 or 48 or 72 hours, and that is a lot of material to run through. And you simply cant stop.

Except maybe you could, if only you knew how to be mindful.

When youre caught in that loop of rumination, thats very real, and it creates very intense feelings, explains psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman, who reported on brain and behavioral sciences for the New York Times. If youre mindful, you realize its just a thought. You dont have to believe your thoughts. You can question them, and that changes them. It takes energy from the brain that creates the heaviness. Looking at it in a different way makes the rumination less intense.

You might think, on hearing such praises of mindfulness a form of meditative practice that it will solve just about every problem in your life. Meditation can halt the late-night rumination cycle, right? So cant it also make you into a better person? Enlarge your brain? Make you taller and thinner and richer?

Well, no, says Goleman, whos also the author of the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence. Some claims of meditations power are overblown. Some studies are less rigorous than they should be. But science has proven that meditation can induce healthy and important physical improvements, such as lowering your blood pressure, decreasing relapses into depression and managing chronic pain.

Daniel Goleman, also the author of the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence, will talk about Altered Traits at Miami Dade College.

Which leaves us with a question: As our interest in meditation grows, how do we know whats too good to be true?

Goleman, who appears at Miami Dade Colleges Wolfson Campus on Sept. 7, has some answers. With Richard J. Davidson, who directs a brain lab and founded the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Goleman has just published Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Avery, $27). The book separates truth from fiction, debunking studies and highlighting truth about meditations startling effects on the brain.

Altered Traits also chronicles the authors decades-long friendship and lifelong interest in the subject of meditation, which began at a time during which scientific circles had little patience or interest in the subject.

The book is important because it represents the coming together of two very important voices, says Scott Rogers, founder and director of the Mindfulness and Law Program at the University of Miami School of Law. He will be in conversation with Goleman at Miami Dade College.

Rogers, co-founder of UMindfulness, the universitys inter-disciplinary collaboration that marries research to training, notes another benefit: Not only are Goleman and Davidson experts in their fields, theyre also meditation practitioners.

Scott Rogers of the University of Miami, here leading a group meditation at the Lowe Art Museum, will be in conversation with Daniel Goleman at Miami Dade College.

We need responsible, reasoned voices speaking from a variety of perspectives, and here we have the hard science and the journalist, and both are practitioners. We need a book we can look to as a reliable source of information, Rogers says. They both practice and have for a long time. A lot of researchers have been interested in this over the last 10 or 15 years, but they havent historically practiced mindfulness. There are a bunch of people practicing, but theyre not scientists.

Altered Traits examines scientific studies on meditation and the benefits of intensive retreats, learning to view our selves and our brains in a whole new light and the importance of a good teacher (I feel strongly the quality of the teacher is important, Goleman says). The book also challenges notions we (or at least our bosses) hold dear, such as the idea that multitasking is a positive endeavor.

Multitasking is a myth, Goleman says. You cant really do two things at once. What happens is your brain switches rapidly. As it switches, you lose the power of your concentration. You do many things at once, you do them less well.

But there is good news for multitaskers, according to Altered Traits: Cognitive control can be improved. One test of undergrad volunteers tried short sessions of focusing or breath-counting. Just three 10-minute sessions of breath counting was enough to appreciably increase their attention skills on a battery of tests. And the biggest gains were among the heavy multitaskers, who did more poorly on those tests initially, the authors write.

Which brings up another important question: If the benefits of meditation expand the deeper a persons practice goes, is meditating in short sessions still useful?

Goleman says yes.

Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson. Avery. 330 pages. $27.

Casual practice helps you in surprising ways, but the deeper you go and the more you practice, the more benefits you get, he says. The research shows that right from the beginning mindfulness practices counter the ill effects of multitasking. Were all doing so many things a day. But the improvement in attention starts at the beginning.

And if you can only spare 10 minutes at a time for meditation, Goleman suggests spreading your practice throughout the day.

Intersperse it through the day. Ten minutes in the morning. Ten at lunch. Ten at night. The effect is prolonged. If you can do 20 minutes, even better. If you can do it for a year, thats good. Five years is even better.

Who: Daniel Goleman

When: 7 p.m. Sept. 7

Where: Chapman Conference Center, Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami

Cost: Free

Info: 305-442-4408; http://booksandbooks.com/

More here:

What are the health benefits of meditation and mindfulness? | Miami ... - Miami Herald

For the data-driven runner: Simple Habit

Not only does this app boasts a massive library of more than 1,000 meditations from 60-plus teachers, it automatically tracks your progress, tallying your mindful minutes each day, week, and month and rewarding you with badges for streaks. You can sort the programs by guide, goal (boost energy, sleep better), or context (morning, walking, commute, or big event). Searching for athlete, I found a centering exercise designed to psychologically prep for a competition. In six minutes, I was guided through a process of quieting negative thoughts and harnessing the power of adrenaline, rather than letting it derail me. Its a track I can definitely see myself cuing it up on race morning this September.

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Holding yoga poses for minutes at a time releases tension in the body and the mind.

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Get Your Head in the Game: These 5 Meditation Apps Can Help - Runner's World