Center for Healthy Minds

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has received a $2.5 million four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a research network on the plasticity of well-being and to develop innovative measures of the key pillars of well-being. Faculty and experts from the Center for Healthy Minds are leading the effort.

A recent paper explored a promising research framework that adapts research on well-being practices such as meditation to be more inclusive to underrepresented groups of people.

Researchers at the Center for Healthy Minds introduce a new framework based on scientific evidence that suggests that well-being can be thought of as a set of skills that people can learn through practice in daily life.

A new study from researchers at the Center for Healthy Minds and the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison suggests that a fully remote program administered on smartphones can also produce some of the benefits of in-person mindfulness interventions, including a reduction in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress and an increase in feelings of social connection.

A team at the Center for Healthy Minds is starting new research to understand whether a mobile well-being app, the Healthy Minds Program, can improve depression for people living with the condition.

This year's The World We Make event is free and open to the public, from October 5 - 9, 2020. The nightly virtual events  will explore science of well-being and feature new insights from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In a recent collaborative study across institutions, researchers developed a new framework to identify mental states during meditation. This included the focus-on-breath state and mind wandering, and estimates of how much time meditators spend in each state.

Researchers at the Center for Healthy Minds found that people who took part in the most common and widely available secular mindfulness program did not experience psychological harm at a rate higher compared to people in control groups who did not take part in the program.

A new study from Center faculty member, Dr. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan and other researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison finds that families affected by parental incarceration benefited from resources that Sesame Workshop developed to support them.

Humanity has an opportunity to transform negative emotions like fear and anxiety into determination and compassion for others, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This message of hope is front and center in the Dalai Lama’s recent video conversation with Dan Harris, ABC News anchor and co-founder of Ten Percent Happier, and Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin–Madison professor and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds.