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Meditation is an ancient practice that involves focusing the mind. It increases awareness, promotes relaxation, reduces stress and anxiety, and improves well-being. It also offers benefits for your physical health. If you want to begin meditating, your home is a great place to start, says Steph Strauss, a certified yoga instructor and meditation teacher. This article explores the types of meditation you can try, the benefits of at-home meditation, and tips on how to begin meditating at home....

Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Every Monday on The Verywell Mind Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Amy Morin, LCSW, interviews authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and other inspirational people about the strategies that help them think, feel, and do their best in life. Meet Cobie Smulders Cobie Smulders is an actress who is known for her role as Robin Scherbatsky in the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” She’s also starred in many movies, including her role as agent Maria Hill in Marvel movies....

You may not realize it, but your self-talk may be sabotaging your stress levels! Self-talk—the way your inner voice makes sense of the world around you and the way you communicate with your inner self—can greatly affect your stress levels in multiple ways. If your self-talk is generally negative, you may be perceiving events if your life as more stressful than they need to be and creating unnecessary anxiety and stress for yourself....

It’s no secret that exercising when you’re pregnant is good for both you and your baby. It can reduce some of your symptoms like aches and pains, improve your blood circulation, manage your weight gain, and help you sleep. “Exercise is extremely beneficial in preparing the body for labor, delivery, and postpartum,” says Amanda DeGrace, a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor who specializes in pre-and postnatal wellness. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant people get 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week....

Living with bipolar disorder can be challenging enough. However, learning that having bipolar disorder has the potential to reduce life expectancy can be quite distressing. Here’s what to know about life expectancy for bipolar disorder: what the studies say, what can cause reduced life expectancies, and what you can do to live a full life. While it’s true that studies have found a reduction in life expectancy for people with bipolar disorder, it’s not all gloom and doom....

What Is Mysophobia? Mysophobia is a type of phobia that centers on an extreme and irrational fear of germs, dirt, or contamination. It is normal and prudent to be concerned about issues such as cross-contamination of foods, exposure to the bodily fluids of others, and maintaining good hygiene. However, if you have mysophobia, these normal concerns become overblown and disruptive to everyday life. The condition is also known by other names including:...

Everyone has heard the saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The problem is, this statement is not the least bit true. Name-calling is one of the most damaging and painful types of bullying. It leaves victims with negative messages about who they are. It’s also harmful because name-calling attempts to falsely define people. For instance, calling someone “fat,” “retard,” “nerd,” or any other derogatory name chips away at the target’s self-esteem, sense of self-worth, and self-concept....

Everyone has feelings of regret, but changing how these feelings are approached may help people move forward. A new study published in Psychological Science found that participants had more regret with idealized forgone alternatives. Key Takeaways When making decisions, people tend to overestimate the appeal of the choices not made, which increases regret.If able to see the reality of the forgone alternative, or second choice, individuals report less feelings of regret....

You are watching your 4-year-old playing with their little siblings, pretending that they are the parent and their little sibling is the baby. Tears of happiness well up in your eyes as you savor this special moment. But the moment doesn’t last. The next thing you hear is your preschooler’s stern voice calling out “No baby! Don’t touch the puzzles. Come this way to the castle! You have to come to the castle right now!...

Few things are more tragic than the loss of a precious, new life to sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). Sudden unexpected infant deaths include sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accidental suffocation in a sleeping environment, and other deaths from unknown causes. Any sudden and unexpected death of a baby under one year old, in which the cause was not obvious, is considered SUID. These deaths often happen while babies are sleeping or in the area where they sleep....

Anxiety Coach by Mayo Clinic is a self-help app designed to reduce anxiety, fear and worry common to social anxiety disorder (SAD) and other anxiety disorders. Anxiety Coach was designed by clinical psychologists Stephen Whiteside (Director of the Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Program at Mayo Clinic) and Jonathan Abramowitz (University of North Carolina). Exercises are based on exposure training commonly practiced as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The app also includes learning material so that users can learn more about how and why these techniques work....

A new study, published January 27 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that people with schizophrenia are almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those without the illness. In fact, schizophrenia is second only to age when it comes to coronavirus risk factors. Key Takeaways People with schizophrenia are almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who don’t have the disorder, according to a new study....

Relationships are an important part of a healthy life. Research has consistently shown that social connections are critical for both mental and physical health. People who have healthy relationships have better health outcomes, are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, and have a decreased risk of mortality. This article discusses some of the characteristics of a healthy relationship and how to spot the signs of potential problems. It also explores some of the steps you can take to improve the health of your relationship....

The holidays are a time of many gatherings. Meanwhile, reuniting with friends and family after a difficult two years is becoming a closer reality for many. If you are socially anxious, the thought of attending these events may fill you with dread. “Social anxiety is more than just being shy or nervous around people. It’s a real condition that can cause significant distress,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Nathan Brandon. People who have social anxiety may worry for days or weeks before an event....

Just as the 12 steps lay the spiritual path of recovery for individual members, the 12 Traditions provide the principles that keep 12-step support groups, like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the Al-Anon Family Support Group, healthy and grounded, and focused on their primary purpose of fellowship. The 12 Traditions got its start in 1939 in the foreword of the first editions of the “Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.” Due to the quick growth of the group, many questions surrounding publicity, religion, and finances came up....

If you’re tight on money and high in stress, you are in luck—many of the best stress relievers are free! These free stress relievers work well for short-term stress relief and are even more effective at building resilience with regular practice. This is because many of them have cumulative positive effects, meaning that the more you practice them, the better these free stress relief strategies work! Here’s a list of some of the most effective techniques to relieve stress, with explanations of why they rank high with so many people....

Back in 2001, when then-President George W. Bush’s 19-year-old daughter was cited for underage drinking offenses, the debate about lowering the legal drinking age once again came into the national spotlight. Jenna Bush’s two arrests in less than a month, for consuming alcohol and trying to purchase alcohol with a fake identification card, placed the drinking age debate in the national media, with the old argument that if an 18-year-old is old enough to vote, sign contracts, join the armed forces, and get married, he or she should be old enough to drink a beer....

As more people become vaccinated and the “new normal” post-pandemic is in reach, you may undergo mourning as you transition into this new stage. Key Takeaways Life post-COVID can bring about feelings of grief.Whether you mourn the loss of a loved one during the pandemic or loss of free time you gained during a slower-paced pandemic life, there are ways to cope.Accepting your feelings, nourishing your physical needs, and finding a support group can help you cope....

A self-contained classroom is one in which the students share similar academic requirements. For example, all the gifted children in a school or school district will be contained in the same classroom. Sometimes the children are all in the same grade level, but other times, particularly when there are a limited number of gifted children, the classroom may contain children spanning more than one grade level, grades four through six, for example....

If you are considering dating someone with panic disorder, you may have some concerns about their health and what it means for your relationship. Even though not every person with panic disorder experiences the condition in the exact same way, certain characteristics are common among panic disorder sufferers. For instance, most people with panic disorder will encounter feelings of fear and anxiety and may be participating in some form of treatment to manage symptoms....