Recently we have had a surge of interest in Mindfulness and Meditation services here at The Viva Center. It seems that people from all kinds of backgrounds and at different stages of healing and self-growth have been hearing about Mindfulness and are eager to learn how they can incorporate it into their everyday lives. And it’s not just within The Viva Community that people are noticing the benefits of Mindfulness. Clinicians and Scientists alike have shown how Mindfulness can be used in infinite ways including to treat chronic pain, overcome insomnia and improve sleep, and even help children be better at math! To top it off, the cover story of last month’s Time Magazine was about “The Mindful Revolution: The Science of Finding Focus in a Stressed-Out, Multi-Tasking Culture.”
Mindful.org, an excellent resource for people looking to incorporate Mindfulness into all aspects of daily living, offered an in-depth look at some of the research and practices mentioned in the Time piece:
Kate Pickert, writing for TIME, notes that “We’re in the midst of a popular obsession with mindfulness as the secret to health and happiness—and a growing body of evidence suggests it has clear benefits.” Pickert takes a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course to write the article, and talks about how the course was developed back in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The current issue of Mindful features Kabat-Zinn and his pioneering mindfulness work, including his thoughts on the present and future of mindfulness.
“There are tremendous benefits that arise from mindfulness practice, but it works precisely because we don’t try to attain benefit,” says Kabat-Zinn. “Instead, we befriend ourselves as we are. We learn how to drop in on ourselves, visit, and hang out in awareness.”
Pickert points out that calling mindfulness the “latest self-help fad” totally ignores how the practice is gaining acceptance among those who would otherwise considered meditation a bit flaky: Silicon Valley enrepreneurs, Pentagon chiefs, FORTUNE 500 titans, among others.
That’s something we’ve seen in our year of publishing Mindful, too. Our June 2013 issue featured Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), author of A Mindful Nation talking about bringing mindfulness into politics and society. Eileen Fisher talked to Mindful about why kindness and collaboration are king in her business. “I have a deep sense that I didn’t create this business alone,” she says in Mindful’s December issue. “I listened, I heard, and we worked together. Working in a collaborative way made it so much better.”
Even police officers are seeing the benefits of having a mindfulness practice. Lieutenant Richard Goerling of the Hillsboro Police Department brought a mindfulness training program to his department after they had “hit rock bottom,” as journalist Maureen O’Hagan reported in Mindful’s October issue. O’Hagan points to an incident involving a veteran officer who faced off against the rest of the police force in January 2013. It left the team shaken, and the current police chief dedicated to finding new approaches to supporting the men and women in the department.
And with the constant surge of new apps, social media, and digital-device-distraction, Silicon Valley has a lot to say about mindfully navigating technology. Read “A User’s Guide to Living Well in Screenworld” from the August issue of Mindful, where three tech insiders talk about making digital technology work for us—not the other way around. (If you’re looking to mindfully navigate your tech, check out our infographic on how to take control of your tech.) And if you’re looking to download some mindfulness to your phone, you’ll want to check out our mindful apps review—all apps mentioned are available from iOs and Android devices.
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One of the reasons mindfulness has become so popular is the growing research around its benefits and how science is learning about our brains’ ability to rewire itself. Our science columnist Sharon Begley tackles neuroplasticity in “Rewiring Your Emotions,” and speaks with neurobiologist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin on his pionnering work in the field. In “Collisions of Creativity,” Begley looks at how psychologists and neuroscientists are trying to understand how we generate new ideas, and debunks three popular ideas we have about where original ideas come from in our brains.
(“The Mindful Revolution,” Mindful.org, emphasis added)
Mindfulness and Meditation is a big part of our ethos at The Viva Center. Along with other incredible practitioners here, Candida DeLuise, LICSW, a contemplative psychotherapist integrates 
mindfulness and psycho-spiritual approaches into the therapy process and guides a weekly open meditation on Wednesdays.
In response to this mindful revolution and in an effort to help those in our community who are searching for Mindfulness, we are launching Mindfulness March where our regular Free Group Meditation will provide a few minutes of Mindfulness education followed by a 20-minute guided session. If you are interested, please join us as Candida DeLuise, LICSW guides us through Mindfulness and Meditation at The Viva Center on Wednesdays from 6:00-6:30 pm! We look forward to having you!
For more information on our Mindfulness Services call 202.265.1000 or email info@vivapartnership.com.
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