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Richard Davidson: “Happiness is a skill.”

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Jon Kabat-Zinn: “Mindfulness is paying attention
in the present moment in a non-judgmental way.” 

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When we engage in mental training,
we change the function and structure of our brain.
In this respect, the mind is no different than the body… 

Becoming Conscious: The Science of Mindfulness

The final event of the 2013 “The Emerging Science of Consciousness Series” presented by the Nour Foundation, Wisconsin Public Radio’s nationally-syndicated program features Neuroscientists Richard Davidson and Amishi Jha joined clinical mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn to explore the role of consciousness in mental and physical health.

These experts report that we can train the mind to become more flexible and adaptable. 

The entire session is included (below)
in the comments section of this post.

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Now, news on studies that focus
on mindfulness and our youth: 

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This music video from the USA is called Paul Robeson, “Joe Hill”. Lyrics are here.

By Hywel Francis in Wales:

Thursday 1st May 2014

Dr Hywel Francis, founding chair of the Paul Robeson Wales Trust, pays tribute to the lasting legacy of Paul Robeson Jr

“I have known Paul Robeson Jr for nearly 40 years. It was with great sadness that I received the news from Paul Robeson Jr’s wife Marilyn at the weekend that he had died in Jersey City, US, aged 86.

The son of the great singer and black civil rights and peace champion Paul Robeson, Robeson Jr was very proud of his father’s lifelong campaigning for progressive and cultural causes, including his links with Wales and especially the south Wales miners.

A qualified electrical engineer, writer, lecturer and Russian translator, he wrote the definitive two-volume biography The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, published…

William Hague and Angelina Jolie in Srebrenica, March 2014

Author of original text in Croatian: Vedrana Milas, Objektiv, 23 April 2014
Translated into English: Ina Vukic

In late March 2014, the International conference “Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict – A Stronger Role of Regional Security Forces on Peace Support Operations” was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was organised by the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with support from the Embassies of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Norway. The establishment of a centre for education of preventing sexual violence in armed conflicts was announced at the conference and a new model of training soldiers and the police from the region who will be sent on peace missions was also presented.

This is a part of the Global campaign against sexual violence in war initiated in May 2012 by William Hague, chief of British…

These strawberries are not quite in season

We wish really good strawberries would arrive soon. Until then we’ll keep drowning the substandard ones we’re buying — in hopes they’re the real deal — in alcohol.

Strawberry Mojitos

• 2 large strawberries
• 1-2 sugar cubes
• 4 mint leaves
• 1 1/2 oz rum
• tonic water

In the bottom of a Collins glass muddle the strawberries, mint and sugar. Top with rum and a few ice cubes. Fill glass with tonic water. The drink can be strained before the tonic water is added to remove the pulp. We enjoyed the drink both ways.

Or…  Is having an ordinary life thought to mean it’s a meaningless life?

Its awkward and difficult when I’m put on the spot sometimes.

Getting past that was something of a triumph as I grew in my career; but that wasn’t all there was to it because somewhere along the line, I began to wonder too if vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage.

This topic is deep. I had no idea just how much I’d learn by review of my life’s experience while listening to this one hour video — oh my!
Actually, I watched it twice.

Here’s one for you:

If someone said “What’s the difference between shame, guilt, humiliation, and embarrassment?” would you be able to respond with the knowledge work — the knowing from your experiences what’s the difference — the crux of what’s the struggles from the lifelong learning?

Brené Brown
The Power of…

This video from Britain is called BBC wildlife Documentary – The BADGERS Secrets of the Sett – full length – David Attenborough.

From Wildlife Extra:

Independent badger cull monitors will not be asked to oversee again

The second year of the badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire will not be monitored by The Independent Experts Panel, the Government has revealed.

The news was criticised by Labour MP Maria Eagle who accused the Government of ignoring advice they didn’t like or didn’t want to hear.

“Now ministers have confirmed that they will not allow further expert scrutiny of their disastrous policy when the cull resumes later this year. What do the Tories do if they don’t like the independent scientific advice they get? Stop asking for advice,” she says.

Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at Parliamentary Questions:…

This video about nazi Germany is called Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.

By Gwyn Griffiths in Wales:

Book review: An extraordinary tale of a ruined life rebuilt in Wales

Tuesday 29th April 2014

A Haven From Hitler

by Heini Gruffudd

(Y Lolfa 9.95)

A haven from Hitler not only shows the fragility of society and the resilience of the human spirit, it’s also the story of one woman and her extraordinary family.

Written by Swansea lecturer Heini Gruffudd it is a translation of Yr Erlid, winner of the 2013 Welsh Language Book Of The Year prize.

It is mostly the story of Gruffudd’s mother Kate Bosse-Griffiths and her life in Wittenberg, Germany from the early 1920s on, with the gradual coming to power of the nazis and the horrors facing a Jewish family as anti-semitism gathers pace. Eventually she arrived in Wales, married and made a valuable and…