Since the previous issue of Mindful magazine was published, a lot has happened behind the scenes. We’ve joined the passionate and skilled team behind the popular app Mindfulness.com, and they’ve joined us. For over a year, we’ve been exploring and learning from one another. Amid all the newness, this collaboration has also allowed us to return to Mindful’s roots—to making this magazine for you.
But first, we’d love to introduce ourselves. We’re Amber Tucker and Ava Whitney-Coulter, editors who have been with Mindful through many waves of change, have helped produce dozens of past issues, and are now humbled to be at the helm of this very special annual edition. We’re also deeply grateful to the wise minds and beautiful hearts that came before us (like founding editor Barry Boyce, who returns in his classic Point of View column.)
For this 60th issue of Mindful, we’re shining a spotlight on compassion. This quality often appears to play second fiddle to the more sought-after benefits of mindfulness: the calmer mood, the focused mind, the inner clarity. All worth cultivating—and, as the teachers and writers in this issue reflect, compassion is inherent within mindfulness teachings and practice.
Beloved teacher and author Sharon Salzberg puts it this way: “When we realize we’ve gotten distracted, we give ourselves a break, we come back, and we begin again. What we’re really practicing, whether we call it that or not, is a kind of self-compassion.” In difficult times, we don’t abandon ourselves; we choose to come back. In doing so, we strengthen the part of our being that helps us come back for one another, too.
For us, this issue is a collection of reasons to feel powerful hope and gratitude for our messy world and humanity. It’s also a reminder of how many people are doing the heroic work of staying present and engaged.
Elaine Smookler shares tools for tending to your inner light with self-compassion, while Sophie Kelly unpacks the science of shifting from snap judgments toward a more open mind. We celebrate 10 courageous, insightful women who are shaping the present—and the future—through compassionate leadership. And our meditation guide offers a variety of practices to help you flow through the seasons of your life.
Our hope is that this magazine serves as a companion and treasure trove: one you can return to, pass along to loved ones, dog-ear its pages, cut out the artwork and quotes that speak to you. For us, this issue is a collection of reasons to feel powerful hope and gratitude for our messy world and humanity. It’s also a reminder of how many people are doing the heroic work of staying present and engaged—and that they’re ready to welcome us all into the movement to create a more compassionate world together.
