New review of the research finds that mindfulness benefits the people around you. Can mindfulness make you a kinder person? That’s the question Australian researchers asked when they reviewed 31 published studies linking mindfulness and prosocial behavior. The result – those with mindful dispositions, and people who’d completed some form of structured mindfulness instruction were more compassionate and helpful than less mindful individuals and those who hadn’t tried mindfulne

Nasal breathing may enhance your memory new research finds. Humans have long proposed a connection between how we breathe and our state of mind. In fact, modern lore tells us that breathing in deeply is the pathway to relaxation and mental peace. But does the scientific evidence back that up? A growing number of studies are now examining whether breathing affects cognition. One such study published in October in the Journal of Neuroscience looked at whether how we breathe aff

Researchers in Alberta Canada discover that stress is contagious, and that social support may help buffer these effects, but only for women. Last year Americans reported their highest stress levels in over a decade according to an American Psychological Association survey. Emotion researchers have long known that feelings like joy, sadness, and anger are “contagious.” Could this also be true for stress? A team at the Cumming School of Medicine’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute at t

A study finds that the rhythm of your breath can influence brain activity that enhances memory recall and emotional experience. Breathing doesn't just keep you alive. Research shows that it is directly linked to brain function and behavior. For the first time, a team of scientists Northwestern Medicine have discovered that the rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall. These effects depend on whether you i

Researchers find that being mindful may reduce both stress and motivation. We’ve all been told that meditation can make us more focused and productive. In fact, mindfulness in the workplace has achieved almost “cult status”. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? In a series of studies, scientists in Portugal and the U.S. discovered that the state of being mindful may be linked not only to feeling less stressed, but also less motivated. The researchers recruited