Center for Healthy Minds

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Pride In Who We Are

All the parts of our identities make us unique and different. In this 10-minute practice, we'll consider how they can be a source of growth, connection and strength.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds app provides relief from pandemic stress

The Healthy Minds Program was featured by UW–Madison as an example of how university and affiliated organizations power the state’s economy through research and innovation, educates the next generation and reaches out to Wisconsinites to improve their lives.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Reconnect to the World

In this 10 minute practice, we reflect on learnings and wisdom we have gained over the past year and how to intentionally carry that forward as we begin to reconnect with the world around us.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: A New Beginning

In this 10 minute practice, we reflect on challenging times and carry lessons learned forward for a new beginning this spring.

Your Well-Being

Giving Gratitude and Receiving Resilience Guided Meditation

This meditation, hosted by Loka Director Dekila Chungyalpa, practices Tonglen with Nature on how to give gratitude and receive resilience in the natural world.

Your Well-Being

Students Find Strength in Uncertainty, with Boost from UW Flourishing Course

Nearly 150 UW–Madison students took part in a new kind of class that focused not on traditional subjects like chemistry or literature, but rather their own minds. The Art and Science of Human Flourishing was designed with first-year students in mind and many students experienced personal growth from life’s setbacks and a renewed sense of meaning in their lives.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Giving and Receiving Love

Love is a powerful emotion. It can be an anchor to keep us grounded and a tie that keeps us connected to others. In this 12 minute practice, we’ll celebrate love and invite more of it into our lives.

Your Well-Being

Meditating and Healing in a Traumatized World

Mushim Ikeda is a Buddhist teacher and writer who leads community engagement at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, Calif. In this Q&A, Ikeda shares how mindfulness meditation can be both inclusive and exclusive, both healing and traumatizing – all depending on people’s lived experiences and how they’re met with care during meditation practice or in their community.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Healing Intergenerational Trauma

Historical or intergenerational trauma can impact groups of people in both subtle and more acute ways, across generations. It can be helpful to make space for strong emotions by getting curious about them through Insight and by leaning on gratitude. That’s what we’ll be doing in this practice today, as an honor to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Your Well-Being

Badgers at forefront of mindfulness training in collegiate athletics

Center collaborator Chad McGehee leads UW’s efforts as meditation specialist for student-athletes and staff

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Working with Difficult Emotions during the Holidays

This eight-minute practice explores the inner world of our emotions through the lens of curiosity, transforming overwhelming feelings into something that feels more balanced and workable.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Appreciating Friends and Loved Ones

This 10-minute practice guides you through focusing on the positive qualities of your loved ones as a way to feel more connected to them and more appreciative of the impact they have on your life.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Invisible Forces

This 10-minute practice uses self-inquiry to help us see the attitudes, stereotypes and other hidden biases that shape our thoughts and emotions.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Tonglen for Eco-Anxiety

Eco-anxiety is fear and distress regarding the environmental and climate crises we face today. Tonglen is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice that focuses on giving and receiving, and can be particularly helpful when dealing with eco-anxiety and climate despair. Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative, shares a nine-minute practice designed to transform your eco-anxiety into the motivation to heal others.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Interdependence With Nature

Reawakening a sense of connection to all beings on the earth is a way to feel part of something bigger, and can help enhance awareness as we notice the ways in which our lives are deeply connected with everything on the planet. Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative, shares a five-minute practice designed to strengthen your experience of interconnectedness with the natural world using breath and awareness.

Your Well-Being

Four Ways to Cultivate Purpose

Science suggests that having a sense of purpose is vitally important to well-being - both for our physical health and our state of mind. There’s growing research that shows a clear sense of purpose is one of the cornerstones of human flourishing.

Your Well-Being

How We Can Reconnect with Each Other and the Planet During Crisis

Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative, recently hosted a conversation with Lama Rod Owens, a Buddhist teacher, author and minister from Harvard Divinity School, on ways people can understand the messiness and pain of this moment, but also the opportunity for profound change and transformation that can unfold.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Clarity in Uncertain Times

When thoughts and reactions overwhelm us, we can see more clearly by reframing things with insight and appreciation. This 10-minute practice helps to regain clarity during uncertain times.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Calm in the Midst of Chaos

Having a sense of resilience can help us find calm and perspective in even the most challenging situations. This 10-minute practice calms the mind and helps us tap into our inner resilience.

Your Well-Being

How appreciating basic goodness can help us get through this pandemic

Center Founder and Director Richard Davidson shares research-backed insights on how to appreciate basic goodness in order to help us get through this pandemic.

Your Well-Being

Art and Tibetan Medicine during Stressful Times

Tawni Tidwell, Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Center recently collaborated with The Rubin Museum on their Rubin Daily Offering, which provides art, ideas and practices to help us achieve greater balance at a moment of considerable upheaval.

Your Well-Being

COVID-19 Preparedness for Faith Leaders

Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative, shares emergency preparedness guidelines for faith leaders to consider during the COVID-19 pandemic

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Compassion in Challenging Times

Compassion puts us in touch with a tremendous source of inner strength and resilience. This 12-minute guided practice taps our potential to care, even when we are physically distanced from others.

Your Well-Being

10 Well-Being Tips During the Days of COVID-19

Pelin Kesebir, Assistant Scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds, shares 10 well-being tips for the time of COVID-19.

Your Well-Being

COVID-19 Well-Being Toolkit and Resources

This toolkit has a list of resources to support well-being during this trying time.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Valuing Strangers Audio Practice

In this five minute practice, we consider the common ground we have with strangers to be happy and free from suffering.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: "This One Moment" Audio Practice

In this five minute practice, we work on pausing and reflecting to bring ourselves back into the present moment and strengthening our sense of purpose.

Your Well-Being

Are Stress Hormones ‘Bad’?

This year, the Center welcomed a new Science Director, Heather Abercrombie. Her previous work helped debunk popular notions of the stress-related hormone cortisol as unequivocally harmful and examines the role of stress hormones in depression.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Dear Friends Mindfulness Practice

In this practice, we work on extending the same level of compassion to strangers as we do our dearest friends in order to help foster connection.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Mindful Breathing Audio Practice

In this five-minute active practice, we use the breath to calm the mind and strengthen mindfulness.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Exploring Change Audio Practice

In this five minute active mindfulness practice, you'll focus on noticing change around you and in your life to build insight around life's transitions.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Compassion Audio Practice

In this five minute active compassion practice, you'll strengthen your compassion practice by expressing care for a close friend or loved one.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Mindful Sensations Audio Practice

In this five minute seated body scan practice, you'll learn how to focus your attention on the sensations in your body to help you be more present and aware.

Your Well-Being

Mobile Program Expands Possibilities

A collaboration with the Center’s affiliated nonprofit Healthy Minds Innovations is opening the door to new research, made possible by its Healthy Minds @Work Program. Sasha Sommerfeldt discusses how this collaboration is working in a new study.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Kindness Audio Practice

In this five minute active practice, you’ll learn how expressing kindness toward others can help you feel more connected.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Core Values Audio Practice

In this five minute seated practice, you’ll uncover the values and principles that guide you in your life, and help you define your inner sense of purpose.

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: A Tour of the Senses Audio Practice

In this ten minute seated practice, you’ll learn how paying attention to your senses can help you feel more connected to the present moment.

Your Well-Being

How Ancient Practices Fuel New Approaches to Well-Being

New research considers the idea of using heat to improve mental states

Your Well-Being

The Power of the Arts – New Pathways to Well-Being

A new initiative explores how the arts may enrich our understanding of well-being

Your Well-Being

The Whole Picture for Well-Being and What End of Life Can Teach Us

Center researcher Dylan Lott shares his determination to understand the factors that shape our well-being during the process of dying.

Your Well-Being

Why Spirituality Matters in Addressing Climate Change

Center faculty member John Dunne shares why spirituality is an essential aspect of combating climate change

Your Well-Being

"Tour of the Senses" Guided Practice

Take a tour of your senses in this ten minute guided practice from Center well-being expert Cortland Dahl

Your Well-Being

Research Sheds Light on New Understanding of Our Emotions

Center collaborator Alexander Shackman discusses "The Nature of Emotion, 2nd Edition" which explores the nature and origins of emotion

Your Well-Being

Grit: What It Is and How You Can Learn It

Angela Duckworth, a psychologist from University of Pennsylvania who studies grit and self-control, discusses what grit is and how we can incorporate it into our lives

Your Well-Being

Is Humility the Soil for Happiness to Grow?

Research shows that humility is linked to mental and physical well-being. But what is humility and how can we cultivate it? Center researcher Pelin Kesebir explores those questions.

Your Well-Being

Meditation Can Help During Crisis and Everyday Life

Center faculty Charles Raison discusses how meditation can help with stress, even in the most dire situations.

Your Well-Being

Can Compassion Heal?

Can integrating compassion, empathy, and mindfulness into healthcare transform care and improve outcomes for patients?

Your Well-Being

Your "Second Brain" and Well-Being

How does our microbiome - the microscopic bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in our bodies -affect our physical and mental health?

Your Well-Being

The Relationship Between Emotions and Alzheimer's

Can studying emotions in the early stages of Alzheimer's lead to a better understanding of the disease?

Your Well-Being

Finding the Friend Within: The Science and Art of Self-Compassion

A growing field of research is showing the importance of self-compassion for our physical and emotional well-being.

Your Well-Being

"Under the Hood" of Neuroscience

Your Well-Being

Should Caring be a New Currency?

Your Well-Being

From States to Traits: the Latest Science on What Meditation Can and Can’t Do

What does the latest say about meditation's impact on the brain and well-being? Center Founder Richard Davidson and Co-Author Daniel Goleman find out in their new book.

Your Well-Being

Do We Have Depression All Wrong?

Is the latest science at odds with current popular understandings of depression?

Your Well-Being

Purpose in Life and a Long-Term View on Well-Being

How does purpose in life play into a person's larger sense of well-being?

Your Well-Being

The Science of Meditation with Richard Davidson

Learn more about the science of well-being and participate in a short practice

Your Well-Being

Well-Being Course with Richard Davidson

Children, Your Well-Being

Loving-Kindness Practice for Teachers

Your Well-Being

The Art of Listening

Shilagh Mirgain shares tips to help us deepen our connection with others

Your Well-Being

Virtues: Irreplaceable Tools to Cultivate Your Well-Being

Good, bad, moral, immoral, virtuous – what exactly do these terms mean and how do they shape how happy we are in life?

Your Well-Being

The Next Scientific Frontier

There is undeniable evidence that practices to cultivate well-being influence the functioning of the brain

Your Well-Being

Does Journaling Boost Your Well-Being?

Your Well-Being

Watch Highlights from "The World We Make"

In March 2016, the Center gathered thought-leaders, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to alter humanity's course by sharing how we can cultivate well-being in ourselves, our communities and the world.

Your Well-Being

The Science of a Happy Mind

Center Founder Richard Davidson discusses the science of well-being with National Geographic Live

Your Well-Being

Watch '10% Happier with Dan Harris'

Your Well-Being

Moving Toward Well-Being with Tai Chi

Your Well-Being

Give the Gift of Mindfulness This Holiday

Shilagh Mirgain shares tips on fighting stress and promoting well-being this holiday season

Your Well-Being

Try the Center's Compassion Training

Strengthen your compassion muscle with training from a Center study

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Watch "Your Brain at Work" Webcast

Watch the free webcast, join the conversation.

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Guided Practice: Break for a Body Scan

Break from a busy day to pay attention to your breath, body and thoughts

Your Well-Being

Where No One Has Gone Before

Where humanities and science collide to understand the mind

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Guided Practice: Compassion at Work

Strengthen your compassion to benefit yourself and others

Your Well-Being

Ask an Expert

You asked, we answered

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Guided Practice: Just Stop and Breathe

Stop and check in with your breath and body

Children, Your Well-Being

Pixar’s “Inside Out” and Managing Our Emotions

How do we dictate which emotions are more frequently at the helm in our brains?

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Try the 5-3-1 Practice

The 5-3-1 Practice from the Center for Healthy Minds is a set of informal tips aimed at cultivating well-being

Your Well-Being

Circuit Training for Your Brain

Learn how healthy habits of mind affect the brain and well-being

Your Well-Being

Managing Your Emotions

How can we cultivate acceptance over our emotions?

Your Well-Being

The Center's Breath Counting Tool

Exploring well-being, one breath at a time

Your Well-Being

Cultivate Attention and Focus Through Breath Counting

How Center research begins to shed light on attention and focus

Your Well-Being

Why Well-Being is a Skill

Center Founder Richard Davidson shares why well-being is a skill that can be learned

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Learning To Be Happy Is "No Different Than Learning The Violin"

Richard Davidson shares why well-being can be learned with HuffPo Live

Workplace, Your Well-Being

Making Well-Being Part of Daily Life

What are practical ways to incorporate well-being skills into your daily life?

Your Well-Being

Listen to Podcast on Well-Being with Richard Davidson

Learn more about the science of well-being and participate in a short practice

Your Well-Being

Watch Event "Change Your Mind, Change the World"

Imagine a kinder, more compassionate world

Your Well-Being

What is Innate Kindness?

Tune into a conversation on the neuroscience of well-being

Your Well-Being

9 Ways to Stop Being Negative

The latest neuroscience shows that we can change our brains by transforming our minds and behavior through specific mental exercises

Your Well-Being

Healthy Minds in Practice: Compassion For All Beings

This 10-minute practice, "Compassion for All Beings" works through the concept of dropping all barriers to compassion and progressively extending compassionate wishes to all beings.

Workplace, Your Well-Being

What's Your Emotional Style?

Learn about our research and your own emotional style

Workplace, Your Well-Being

The Human Brain: Deconstructing Mindfulness

What's the latest science behind meditation and well-being?