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Personal Essays

First-person stories about what mindfulness looks like in real, messy, everyday life. These essays are honest, personal, and often funny - written by people who've found that paying attention changes everything.
Magazine
The wisdom of commitment over moral flexibility 

Which takes more self-control? Lying well or telling the truth? Your answer might say a lot about how trustworthy you are. According to a study by Harvard psychologists, telling the truth is the more challenging of the two—but only for those who are also willing to cheat. Researchers invited participants… Read More 

  • Kelly McGonigal
  • February 3, 2012
Focus & Attention
What are you missing? An experiment. 

It was around this time of year in 2007 when The Washington Post organized a grand social experiment—one definitely worth revisiting. See what happens in the 3-minute video below. Here’s the recap: On a cold January morning, in a Washington DC metro station, a man with a… Read More 

  • Line Goguen-Hughes
  • January 11, 2012
Magazine
The Hardest Work in the World 

JKZ It is only fair for me to point outright from the start, in the spirit of full disclosure, that the cultivation of mindfulness may just be the hardest work in the world. Ironically, to grow into the fullness of who we actually already are is the challenge of a… Read More 

  • Line Goguen-Hughes
  • January 6, 2012
Magazine
Too Small 

A while back, I was guiding a mindful leadership session with a group of experienced leader-meditators. It was late afternoon, the ending of a work day, and we slowly moved from sitting practice to mindful yoga and then to a reflection on the following line written by David Whyte:… Read More 

  • Janice Marturano
  • December 7, 2011
Depression & Grief
Making sense of little Wang Yue’s death 

Part of the decision to become a parent involves responsibly weighing whether the world is a place you want to bring children into. I’m generally an optimist, and I’ve always believed, to put it simply, that there is more good in the world than bad. That’s what my husband and… Read More 

  • Line Goguen-Hughes
  • October 21, 2011
A woman with long hair smiling for the camera.
Expert Interviews
Susan Smalley on becoming mindful in midlife 

Recently Dr. Susan Smalley, professor of psychiatry and founding director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, shared her personal story about how, at age 47, an experience with melanoma caused "a massive reorganization of [her] world view."  Read More 

  • Line Goguen-Hughes
  • October 18, 2011
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