Center for Healthy Minds

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.

Healthy Minds Innovations offers a live meditation every weekday during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sessions start at various hours to ensure that people in different time zones can participate.

 The Center for Healthy Minds is launching new studies to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affects mental health and whether certain skills can help reduce stress and improve emotional well-being in a wide range of people across the United States.

In a recent study, the brain of monk and long-time meditator Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, who was 41 years old at the time, looked eight years younger than his actual age. The possibility that a person’s “brain-age” might be affected by meditation adds to a growing list of how mental training may yield lasting changes.

Focusing on how global challenges can bring out the best in our humanity

A college student’s mind is constantly in motion. There are classes, homework, a social life, work, and more. But there’s growing research showing that we can all benefit from taking a few moments each day to, well, live in the moment. Center Postdoctoral Research Associate Matt Hirshberg answers questions about how mindfulness can help college students ease their mind.