Improve Adolescent Mental Health and School Performance with Yoga

Improve Adolescent Mental Health and School Performance with Yoga   By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “school-based yoga cultivates competencies in mind-body awareness, self-regulation, and physical fitness. And classroom teachers benefit as well. Taken together, these competencies may lead to improvements in students’ behavior, mental state, health, and performance, as well as teacher resilience, […]

Increase Connectedness by Meditating in Pairs

Increase Connectedness by Meditating in Pairs   By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “Couples meditation provides a great way for you and your partner to tune your instruments to one another. By taking a few minutes to meditate with your partner, you greatly increase your chances of having meaningful conversation and intimate connection. Couples […]

Improve the Symptoms of Stress with Mindfulness

Improve the Symptoms of Stress with Mindfulness   By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “Through mindfulness, individuals start to see their thoughts as less powerful. These distorted thoughts – such as “I always make mistakes” or “I’m a horrible person” – start to hold less weight. We ‘experience’ thoughts and other sensations, but we […]

The Power of Retreat 7 – The Middle Way

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, […]

Pay Attention with Mindfulness

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “The quality of your attention determines whether you are present and alert, or mentally and/or emotionally distracted. The good news is that it’s possible to train your attention and gain the associated benefits, and practicing mindfulness offers one of the most accessible and effective approaches.” – Deborah David   […]

Improve Attention by Reducing Mind Wandering with Mindfulness

  By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.   “mindfulness meditation promotes metacognitive awareness, decreases rumination via disengagement from perseverative cognitive activities and enhances attentional capacities through gains in working memory. These cognitive gains, in turn, contribute to effective emotion-regulation strategies.” – Daphne Davis   Human life is one of constant change. We revel in our […]