Sleep: You Probably Need 8 Hours

  A new University of Pennsylvania study indicates convincingly that almost everyone needs 8 hours of sleep each night to remain their sharpest: response time on tests began to slow even in most who had 7 hours. More here at the NY Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210        

Featured Happiness is a Muscle. You Have to Exercise It.

How to get happier? Use your strengths to build the life you want. What are your strengths, and how can you use them? Great questions. Start by taking the VIA Signature Strengths Survey at www.viacharacter.org. (Clients, please print two copies of the report at the end of the survey, and bringthem to your next session.) Click here: WWW.VIACharacter.Org    … Read more...

Featured Meditation Made Simple

Meditation has been showing remarkable effectiveness in the research studying its impact on anxiety, depression and trauma. A lot of people are turned off because they’ve heard about meditation as a part of a religious practice, but it’s actually a form of mental exercise. Meditating is simple, and, once you’re accustomed to it, most people find it pleasurable. There… Read more...

Walking meditation: “Each Step You Make Must ...

This short instructional video in Walking Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh is also a brief visit with a simply radiant person. He happens to be Buddhist, but don’t let that dissuade you if you are disinclined from a religious perspective, just enjoy his obviously loving, happy presence, and extraordinary skill as a teacher. This is an example of the kind… Read more...

How to Meditate: Video

Here’s an engaging video by one of the best-known meditation instructors, Jon Kabat-Zinn.

How meditation changes your brain

Here’s some more in-depth information on how meditation changes the structure of the brain, from one of our leading researchers.