Science Says Mindfulness Can Actually Make You A Nicer Human

The benefits of mindfulness are not lost on us. Or on anyone who regularly takes the time, meditates, and looks within. According to science, mindfulness and meditation can already help you eat healthier, drink less alcohol, and improve your sex life, among a host of other daily benefits. Now, researchers out of California State University San Marcos are showing that it can also make you a better person overall.

Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, those people who practice mindfulness are shown to be much kinder to strangers, and especially strangers who are being victimized by others.

“When people witness someone being victimized, it’s really common for us to get distressed by it,” study author Daniel Berry says.

“Sometimes that upset is displaced so that we’re not feeling upset for the other person; we’re just feeling negatively,” Berry explains. “When that happens, people actually tend to turn away from the person in need.”

But when the study authors performed the research, they found that people who regularly practiced mindfulness — and meditation, in particular — were more likely to channel their emotions toward the person who is being victimized by others. (MORE)

Source: Sporteluxe.com

Avoid Getting Caught Up in Drama by Releasing the Need to Be Right

“Concern yourself not with what is right and what is wrong but with what is important.” ~Unknown

I remember quite distinctly the point where my rational self, less invested in the discussion, took a step back and pointed out that I was descending down the path of needing to prove that I was right.

It was precisely when I started seeing the other commenter as needling my position and attacking the ideas as mine.

What started out as an appeal to respect cultures that celebrate death as a normal part of life turned into a mud-slinging event the moment I ceased to educate and instead went down the road of righteous anger.

Even if one were to keep our social network to the closest friends and family members, there will inevitably come the time when, as we scroll through our Facebook feed, we encounter something that we disagree with.

If we are not careful about the way we react or respond to these kinds of things, drama will arise.

And oh, such drama it was! Despite not participating any further once some ganging up occurred and outright insults were being flung, I came away from the debacle more furious with myself than anyone else.

In hindsight, it really was hilarious the way it quickly descended into a playground squabble where the crux of the matter was “I’m right, you’re wrong!”

But unlike childhood fights where it is rare that full-blown grudges develop (notice how children make up and play together easily?) the issues that adults tend to have petty fights over are a bit more complicated, simply because we are way more invested in it.

It isn’t over a fire truck belonging to us that can be easily shared with another child. It is occasionally belief systems and ideologies that define us and so we do not take too easily to them being challenged.  (MORE)

Source: Tiny Buddha