Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum is well-known for the incredible focus he displays on the basketball court as one of the NBAs most efficient and deadly scorers. On Wednesday afternoon, he visited local youth at the Boys & Girls Club in Northeast Portland to share one of his techniques for locking in: meditation. McCollum and Headspaces Andy Puddicombe led a guided meditation session for the kids and gave them a unique tool to clear their heads.

I first got into meditation probably two years ago, McCollum told Blazers Edge. Thats when I really started doing it consistently every day, just kind of focusing in on my breathing and understanding that its important not just for my well-being but for my heartrate and concentration and focus.

McCollum explained to the kids how his daily routine now includes meditating with the Headspace app in his free time and listening to classical music on the way to basketball practice. Something without words, like Beethoven. Something that he can listen to and be present for, focusing on controlled breathing and the drive instead of the lyrics. It helps him clear his mind and prepare for the days tasks.

There is something special about really being in a moment. The heightened awareness has a calming effect. Its a state of mind that can benefit anyone from 10-year-old kids to basketball superstars, and McCollum asserts that its a big part of how he stays cool under pressure.

You can only control certain circumstances, which is how you react to adversity, how you react to certain plays, then just your energy and effort. So when things arent going well in the game, I can still stay calm, I can still stay focused in a hectic environment. Maybe its crucial free throws down the stretch or its a crucial possession where we need a basket, Im able to lock in and really not worry about the chaos thats surrounding me. It helps me keep a calming demeanor.

For the kids, that chaos is represented in everyday demands, like homework, problem solving, and social engagement. With McCollum and Puddicombe, they had the opportunity to learn about relaxation and how it can help them improve their lives.

Deep breaths, Puddicombe would say to a roomful of children, sitting peacefully with their eyes closed, 10 more seconds. Not all the kids got it right away, fidgeting as kids do, but some were clearly absorbed in the exercise.

After watching the kids adjourn to their tablets to learn more about meditation, McCollum was pleased with their interest. Five months earlier, he had opened the CJ McCollum Dream Center at the Boys & Girls Club in hopes of encouraging children to find their passions and explore them.

Growing up where I came from in Canton, Ohio, I wasnt exposed to this type of stuff, so with the Dream Center, we want to expose them to as much as possible; educate them on different things that are out there and available to them, McCollum smiled. Especially something like mindfulness and meditation, which can actually help themnot just their day-to-day lifestyle, but their actual health.

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CJ McCollum Teaches Kids the Benefits of Meditation - Blazer's Edge

Amid new-age meditation practices, Odissi dancer Zia Nath is reviving an ancient form of meditation whirling mandalas and sacred dances

This weekend, Odissi dancer Zia Nath (42) wants to take you back to the ancient cultures of whirling dances. Nath has been practising the sacred dances, a unique form of movement meditation, for 25 years. Last week, she started monthly workshops at Bandras performing space, House of Wow. However, she is not looking to popularise the art form or to make it trendy. Whirling and movement meditation find its roots in ancient Asian cultures. I respect it, and dont want it to become just another fad. No offense to Zumba or Zumba Bhangra, but when people sign up for this workshop, I want them to know that its purely a form of meditation, says Nath.

Zia Nath taking a workshop.

Last week, at her introductory session, 15 participants took part. Nath was surprised to see that most of them were interested in the raw form of meditation, and either had theoretical or practical knowledge. The culture of whirling is predominant in Rajasthans traditional folk dance, Ghoomar, as well as in Sufism, says Nath who is a self-taught artist inspired by these dance forms. Her initiation into these meditation practices happened at the Osho Meditation Centre in Pune over two decades ago. For the next few years, she trained at an institute in New Mexico.

Nath, who has been teaching movement meditationacross India, UK and China, for the past 15 years, says she categorically refrains from calling her dance form a spiritual practice. The meditation invokes a sacred consciousness within us. The moment you say spiritual, people come with a range of expectations. In the practice of these dances, we recognise experiences in our body and come close to the understanding of the law of three affirming, denying and reconciling, she adds.

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What: Zia Naths workshop on Sacred Dance and Whirling Mandala, will take place on April 9, 10.30am to 12pm Where: House of Wow, Bandra (W) Call: 99302 46031 to register Price: Rs 1,100 per person

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This Odissi dancer teaches meditation through sacred dances - Hindustan Times

By Mick LaSalle The San Francisco Chronicle

In 1932, the great comic director Ernst Lubitsch switched gears to make an agonizing anti-war drama, "Broken Lullaby, that did not impress audiences or critics and remains under-appreciated to this day.

"Frantz is a new film by Francois Ozon that takes the "Broken Lullaby story and tells it from a different angle. This new film is exceptional and one of Ozons best.

Talking about "Frantz and its connection to "Broken Lullaby is a bit awkward, in that the premise of "Broken Lullaby the essential thing that the audience knows from the first minutes is made into a mystery in "Frantz.

Both films are set about a year after World War I and involve a young Frenchman who travels to Germany, grief-stricken over the death of Frantz, a German soldier of his acquaintance. The difference is that, while Lubitsch told the story from the perspective of the Frenchman, Ozon focuses on Anna, Frantzs Germans fiancee, played brilliantly by newcomer Paula Beer.

Anna lives with the family of her fiancee, and its a house of grief in a small town that is also grieving, filled with heartsick women and old men all the young men are dead. Anna starts noticing that flowers are appearing on Frantzs grave, placed by the mysterious young man. Soon, she meets this man, Adrien (Pierre Niney) and she brings him to meet Frantzs parents. Like Frantz, Adrien was a music student and his stories about his friendship with Frantz in pre-war Paris bring some relief to the familys sorrow.

A sense of loss pervades "Frantz, one of tragedy that cant be undone, of lives changed forever, of pain that can never go away. The movie is shot in a glossy but unglamorous black and white, which only sometimes switches or melts into color, either for pre-war scenes or brief moments of hope. Ozon creates a beautiful stillness in "Frantz that makes us feel we are there in the midst of these lives, witnessing the purity of their sadness.

For those few who have seen "Broken Lullaby, and even for those who havent, its worth noting that Ozon takes the story of "Frantz months past the ending of the Lubitsch film. "Broken Lullaby was anti-war vehemently, stridently, almost hysterically. The recentness of World War I and the fear of World War II gave the original story a frantic immediacy. "Frantz is about something else. Its a meditation on the impact of tragedy and on the various ways different people are affected.

Paula Beer is only 22, but she has a gravity beyond her years, which is fundamental for playing Anna, who is practically widowed without having been married. Annas youth is her strength and we sense that somehow she will find something approximating happiness, even if she will never be able to return to her pre-war blitheness. Whats in question throughout the film is the form that this future life will take.

Ozon never forgets that these are individuals and not archetypes. With consummate subtlety, he introduces a question about the sexuality of one or more of the characters just the barest hint, but it adds an extra dimension. World War I was a horror that happened to all kinds of people, every one of them with a particular dream and vision of what life might be.

The title, incidentally, is a curious choice. In "Broken Lullaby, the dead soldiers name was Walter. Here hes Frantz, which sounds almost identical to the way youd pronounce "France in French. Thats a nice change that has some relevance to the course of the film.

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'Frantz': Anti-war drama becomes a meditation on loss - The Columbus Dispatch

Meditation app startup teaches users inner peace, projects $20 million in revenue for 2017 San Francisco Business Times In 2012, he co-founded a meditation app with Michael Acton Smith in San Francisco. The two, both British and both tech veterans, have been growing the app with plans to launch of ancillary products eventually. The company makes money using a freemium ...

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Meditation app startup teaches users inner peace, projects $20 million in revenue for 2017 - San Francisco Business Times

Even though its been around for thousands of years, meditation seems to be especially trendy these days. Its part of the mindfulness movement thats been gaining traction in the health and wellness world. And it makes sense that more and more people are actively seeking ways to manage their stress: A 2015 survey from the American Psychological Association found that overall stress levels have increased in Americans in recent years. These higher stress levels can affect mental and physical health in numerous ways: 39 percent of those surveyed reporting overeating or eating unhealthy foods in the last month due to stress, and 46 percent reported losing sleep over it.

Given what a profound affect stress can have on wellbeing, its no wonder that people are looking for innovative ways to get that moment of zen. Meditation studios have recently popped up in some of the countrys big cities (theres Unplug Meditation in Los Angeles, MNDFL in New York City). But theres also a variety of helpful meditation smartphone apps on the market. You may already know about Headspace, which is one of the most-downloaded mindfulness apps. But here are five new or under-the-radar meditation apps worth a try. Because, in addition to relieving stress, meditating can also improve concentration and benefits digestion as well as cardiovascular and immune health.

Sway Cost: $2.99 While most apps in this space feature guided meditations, this brand new optionit launched in late Marchfocuses on your movement as way to help you achieve mindfulness. The app uses your phones gyroscope and accelerometer to measure your moves. In order for the app to work, you need to be moving in a slow, consistent motion (think swaying back and forth or walking slowly). Once you at youre at the proper pace, the app will soundtrack your moves with soothing music. If you get distracted or your movements are interrupted, the app interprets that as a lack of mindfulness and reminds you to refocus. According to the makers of this app, this interactive meditation is one of the newest ways to approach the practice.

Muse Cost: Free Another app that offers interactive feedback is Muse. And while the app is free, it does require you to use Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband ($249) in conjunction with the program. The sensor-equipped headband monitors your brain activity while you mediate with a soothing soundscape (such as a rainforest or beach sounds) playing in the app. If youre zoning out to beach sounds, for instance, the ocean waves get louder when you get distracted, and lower when youre back in a calm zone. The app tracks your sessions so you can see your improvements and set weekly goals in your practice.

Sattva Cost: Free (with in-app purchases) This app has been around for a couple of years, but its recent updates have given Sattva an improved experience. For Apple iPhone users, the app now works seamlessly with the Health app, using info on your heart rate and blood pressure (tracking these stats before and after each session). If youre obsessed with numbers and data, this is the mediation app for you. It features a timer to help you time and track your sessions, and stats like your longest session and longest streak are also stored in the program. And if youre the competitive type, you can compare your stats to your friends who also use Sattva.

Pause Cost: $1.99 Inspired by the principles of Tai Chi, the makers of this app help you achieve calmness by incorporating touch as well as sound. You move your fingertip along a small, colorful blob around the screen while soothing sounds flood your headphones. The act triggers the bodys rest and digest response, which helps you regain focus and release stress in a calm manner. If youre not a fan of guided meditations, this is a way to relax without the pressure of a voice leading (and possibly disrupting) you every step of the way.

Meditation Music Cost: Free If youre an experienced meditator, you might not need any gimmicks to help you stay mindful through your practice. Enter this Android app, which strictly provides music as the soundtrack to your session. The app features a variety of ambient sounds (from a soft piano playing to mystic temple music) that promise to help you relax. Simply choose your preferred music, set the in-app timer and just say ohm. A gong sound will gently ring to let you know your session is about to end. And if you consider cooking a meditative process, use this app as your kitchen timer and the background music as you make dinner.

Kevin Aeh is a New York City-based writer and editor. He has written for Time Out New York, Refinery29, New York Magazines Vulture blog, Furthermore from Equinox and more.

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5 Apps That Will Help You Master Meditation - Healthy Eats (blog)

Of course we all know about the pleasure of eating cakebut, as it turns out,we haven't been paying enough attention to the benefits of baking up our own creations.

Measuring, sieving, mixing and kneading... apparently all the efforts of preparationhave a much more profound effect on our mental health than simply popping out to the bakery.

(via Fox Searchlight)

Speaking to a series of psychologists, theHuffington Posthas suggested that baking can be just as good for our psychological well-being as meditation is for yogis.

And the reason behind the claim is simple.When we meditate, we allow ourselves a quiet moment ofreflection and focus which leads to stress relief; a process that can also be associated withbaking.

As associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston UniversityDonna Pincus explains:

"Baking actually requires alot of full attention. You have to measure, focus physically on rolling out dough.

If youre focusing on smell and taste, on being present with what youre creating, that act of mindfulness in that present moment can also have a result in stress reduction."

So much so, in fact, that there's even a whole branch of healing dedicated to culinary art therapy, the effects of which can be significant. As theHuffington Postreminds us,John Whaite, the winner of the 2012 edition of The Great British Baking Show,claims that baking helped him overcome depression.

But it's not just the idea of focusing on the here and now that makes the activity so therapeutic. In hard times, food can serve as a form of communication and supportwhile the idea of making something yourself gives you a sense of achievement. As Pincus explains:

"Baking for others can increase a feeling of wellbeing, contribute to stress relief and make you feel like youve done something good for the world, which perhaps increases your meaning in life and connection with other people."

As creating a tangible productyou know will give others pleasure is always going to be a positive experience, baking can also be a way of practicingaltruism. As culinary art therapist Susan Whitbourne notes:

"I think offering food to somebody else is just as much a comfort to the person receiving as the person whos serving and offering."

So there you have it, now you don't have to wait until somebody's birthday for an excuse to whip upthat chocolate cake. Happy baking!

Read More ->In Photos: Here's All The Food You Can Eat At Coachella

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Apparently Baking Cakes Is As Good For Your Mental Health As Meditation - Konbini US

At the end of a dark earthen trail in the Peruvian Amazon stands a round structure with a thatched roof that appears to glow from within.

In the Temple of the Way of Light, as it is known, indigenous healers called Onanya teach visitors about the therapeutic uses of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew that's been used by locals for thousands of years.

Across the Atlantic, researchers in an ornate blue-tiled hospital in Barcelona, Spain are studying ayahuasca's physical effects on the brain.

The teams in those two disparate locations approach the study of the psychedelic drug very differently, but researchers at each one are coming to similar conclusions about the way ayahuasca affects the mind.

Among volunteers who take ayahuasca for studies, scientists have documented a rise in certain key traits that mirror those of experienced meditators. These changes include increases in openness, optimism, and a particularly powerful ability known as decentering.

Amanda Feilding, the founder and director of the UK-based nonprofit Beckley Foundation, collaborates with scientists around the world to understand how psychedelic drugs affect the brain.

Feilding describes decentering as "the ability to objectively observe one's thoughts and feelings without associating them with identity".

Decentering might sound esoteric, but it's one of the key aims of mindful meditation and is also a goal of successful depression treatments in some cases.

In volunteers who've taken ayahuasca as part of Beckley's research, decentering has been linked with higher scores on questionnaires designed to measure well-being and happiness and lower scores on measurements of depressive or anxious thoughts and symptoms of grief.

"It's interesting because even though our research out of Peru is based on surveys, while in Barcelona it's based on more traditional scientific research, our results out of both places are showing an increase in these traits," Feilding says.

"It seems patients are finally able to liberate themselves from the emotional pain they have long been suffering from. To calmly observe one's thoughts and feelings in an objective way in order to become less judgemental and more self-accepting."

Since the findings out of Peru are based on surveys, they can't prove that ayahuasca caused the reduction in symptoms of depression and grief - only that there's a connection between the two.

But in Spain, as part of a collaboration between Beckley and Sant Pau hospital, neurologist Jordi Riba is looking at the brain activity in depressed volunteers who are given ayahuasca.

His findings indicate that in addition to people simply reporting that they feel more decentered and less depressed after taking ayahuasca, there is a corresponding neurological change in their brain activity.

One small study of 17 depressed volunteers who took ayahuasca saw a decrease in activity in areas of the brain that tend to be overactive in conditions like depression and anxiety.

And a new study of regular ayahuasca users suggests a physical shrinking in these parts of the brain, though that work has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

These findings are bolstered by other research on the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics. Studies out of New York University and Johns Hopkins suggest that the psychedelic drug psilocybin - the ingredient in magic mushrooms -elicits similar effects among depressed people.

"With the psilocybin, you get an appreciation - it's out of time - of well-being, of simply being alive and a witness to life and to everything and to the mystery itself," Clark Martin, a patient who participated in one of the Johns Hopkins trials, previously told Business Insider of his experience.

David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London, has been working with Feilding, and says the brains of people with depression or addiction get locked into patterns of thinking driven by the brain's control centre.

"Psychedelics disrupt that process so people can escape," he says.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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Meditation and the psychedelic drug ayahuasca seem to change the ... - ScienceAlert

Meditation is a powerful tool.

Singer-songwriter Jewel is a prime example of the practices life-changing benefits. In a recent interview with ABC News anchor Dan Harris, she said that learning to meditate helped her manage chronic anxiety and debilitating panic attacks, which stemmed from a tumultuous childhood.

I learned to do this meditation where I imagined I was on a very stormy ocean, she told Harris on his 10% Happier mindfulness podcast. Id imagine myself sinking through the ocean, allowing myself to relax, I would get calmer. I would notice the color of the ocean change. Id notice the taste of salt on my lips. Id notice the rays of sunlight coming in and the further I got down to the sandy floor, it got calm, it got tranquil by then, and I would look up at the stormy surface and it was in the distance.

The singer is certainly onto something: The benefits of meditation are robust. Research shows it canreduce stress, increasefocusand help with the management of painand sleeping problems.

If youre looking to add the practice to your life, weve rounded up a handful of meditation apps so you can reap the rewards, too. The programs will teach you how to meditate under any condition, give you the tools to handle things that make you anxious(the stress of the political climate, anyone?) and add an overall sense of calm to your day.

Scroll through the options below and find the one thats right for you:

Guided meditations cover topics like how to cope with anxiety, political stress or falling asleep. You can download the app for free with the option to subscribe for $7.99 per month. The app works onthe iPad, iPhone and Android.

Children can learn how toidentify their feelings, cope with emotions and learn social skills. Teen meditations focus more heavily on school transitioning and planning for the future. Adults will meditate on topics such as presence, listening skills, mindful eating. It also will help you learn "how to step back and pay attention to your thoughts and emotions," according to the Smiling Mind site.

Smiling Mind is a non-profit organization in Australia and the app is completely free. It can be downloaded on an iPad, iPhone and Android.

By doing so, the app aimstoteachyou how to observeyour thoughts and feelings without passing judgment with the goal of helping youcultivate kindness and self-compassion.

Subscribe for $6.99 a month for guided meditations thatconnect you to your body and emotion. The app works on an iPad, iPhone and Android.

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The Best Meditation Apps For iPhone, iPad And Android | The ... - Huffington Post

The first thing I see is sunlight glistening off the gently rolling waves in the distance, while I stand on a small foliage-decked island so green it almost glows. Later, I'm standing on the balcony of the kind of aggressively minimalist luxury apartment only seen in movies and television shows. I can imagine a soft breeze flowing through these expansive spaces, but it's only that: imagination.

In fact, I'm standing in my own living room and in a virtual reality creation, one especially designed to complement the practice of meditation, or at least one very specific version of it.

The program I'm using is called Guided Meditation VR, and I'm experiencing it through an HTC Vive virtual reality headset connected to powerful desktop computer. Besides choosing from about a dozen different locales to meditate in, I can listen to a wide variety of audio programs, called guided meditations, that run from 2 to 10 minutes and cover topics from breathing to compassion. (The app is $15 on the Steam platform for Vive, and a limited version is available for free for the phone-based Gear VR headset.)

Meditation in virtual locations isn't the most traditional way to approach the practice, but it may entice skeptics who aren't keen to sit in their living rooms with their eyes shut. "VR adds a really powerful, emotional ability to be in another place and to actually feel that emotional weight of another place," says Josh Farkas, CEO of Cubicle Ninjas, Guided Meditation's developer. "You can meditate anywhere, but at the end of the day, the ability to actually go to a virtual world and take a breather lowers the barrier to entry, and I hope gets people more excited."

Meditation is trendy again, as corporate CEOs, athletes and even Navy SEALs embrace it as a potential performance booster. But compared with earlier flirtations with mainstream acceptance dating to the 1960s, this modern approach to meditation has a harder, more scientific edge, built around taking advantage of the cognitive benefits it offers. One Harvard Medical School study found meditation actually increased the volume of gray matter in the brain, improving memory, learning and empathy.

The view from inside the Guided Meditation VR app.

ABC News reporter and anchor Dan Harris has played an outsized role in popularizing the concept of a modern, science-based form of meditation. In his popular 2014 book, "10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works," Harris described how he discovered the benefits of meditation once he was able to separate it from "the bearded swamis, unwashed hippies and fans of John Tesh music."

While Harris is a believer in technology-assisted meditation, including iOS and Android apps like Headspace, Insight Timer and his own 10% Happier app (based on his book), he thinks virtual reality may be one step too far.

"I've done some thinking about using VR for meditation," says Harris. But he also says he has yet to find a way to "harness what the technology is capable of to truly augment your meditation experience."

And that's because for traditional meditation, the idea of having a lush virtual environment to look at is actually counterproductive -- if anything, you're supposed to create it yourself. Harris says using virtual reality and 3D graphics for visualization "seems obvious on the one hand, because there are all these elaborate, particularly in the Tibetan tradition, visualization techniques. But if the VR is doing it for you, then you're not actually doing it. You're supposed to be closing your eyes and creating it on your own, that's a mental exercise."

Cubicle Ninjas' Farkas disagrees. He sees virtual meditation environments as perfect for "Type-A, very process-oriented, very analytical" people whom he describes as "the folks that have the worst time just sitting there with their eyes closed." By providing jungles and temples and other virtual landscapes, he says, an app makes it so "they can get distracted by this environment, and then they learn how to turn off those processes in their mind."

I can see both sides to this argument. The visuals in Guided Meditation VR are some of the best I've experienced in virtual reality, and there are plenty of customization options for program length and content, and even background music. But at the same time, it's hard to be mindful when there's a 1.2-pound headset strapped to your skull.

The biggest hurdle for me was actually time. Many casual meditators devote just 5 to 10 minutes per day to practice (a baseline suggested by Harris in his book), and simply setting up the HTC Vive headset and launching the required software can take that long by itself.

Despite being a VR skeptic, Harris thinks there is potentially a way to use virtual reality for meditation that makes sense. "It's very rare to have an opportunity to be in the room with a true meditation master," he says. "So one thing I think VR could do is put you in the room, maybe even a live setting, where you're actually interacting with the teacher. There's something really interesting, and, dare I say, special about being 'around' somebody who's spent decades of his or her life intensively meditating."

But while phone and VR apps can help, and are especially valuable for beginners, a practice thousands of years old is never going to be entirely dependent on technology. "I do think that technology can obviously be very useful," says Harris. "But I don't think it's the only answer."

This story appears in the spring 2017 edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, click here.

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Meditation in VR: Virtually mindful - CNET - CNET

Singer-songwriter Jewel is best known for ballads such as You Were Meant for Me and Who Will Save Your Soul, but lately shes been focused on promoting mindfulness and sharing her mental health story. Late last year she launched Never Broken , a site dedicated to emotional fitness through online tools. And last week, on a new episode of Dan Harris podcast 10% Happier, the 42-year-old Alaska native explained how she used the practice to take control after ending up homeless and plagued by panic attacks at age 18.

"The word mindfulness wasn't even around back then, but I went back to this idea of how can I rewire my brain," she says on the podcast. I remembered this quote by Buddha: 'Happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have, it depends on what you think.' I had the distinct pleasure of only having what I thought left. I had no family, no house, no foodnothing to distract me, if you will.

Looking through her journals, Jewel realized shed been addicted to negative thinking and knew she needed to make a change. To do so, she created her own series of meditations to help her be more mindful every day and also to aid her in specific difficult moments. Her quick visualization to cope with panic attackswhich started plaguing her at age 16is one such example:

"I learned to do this meditation where I imagined I was on a very stormy ocean. Id imagine myself sinking through the ocean, allowing myself to relax, I would get calmer. I would notice the color of the ocean change. Id notice the taste of salt on my lips. Id notice the rays of sunlight coming in and the further I got down to the sandy floor, it got calm, it got tranquil by then, and I would look up at the stormy surface and it was in the distance."

Jewel's panic attack visualization both distracts her and calms her downtwo key ways to ease up the discomfort of a panic attack. And it's a perfect visualization to bookmark for the next time you're feeling a panic attack set in.

It makes sense that meditation would help Jewel cope with her anxiety. Meditation can actually change the way your brain works . Studies have shown meditation amps up activity in the parts of the brain dedicated to focus, calmness, and processing stressand this makes it an effective treatment for mental health issues like anxiety , depression , and PTSD . Experts have previously told SELF that to see the results of meditation, it's important to be consistent and ideally practice every day.

Jewel says meditating helped her learn to observe her thoughts rather than let them run amok. "I would notice my anxiety, and I would force myself to...track the thought to see what the lie was my brain was telling me, and I'd tell myself the truth," she said. "For me, the truth was: I am capable of learning and I will learn more today. That calmed my anxiety down and helped me rewire, and that started creating resilience and that started creating a tenacious attitude, which is a much better thing to get addicted to [than negative thinking]."

Jewel credits this practice with helping her find happiness after a tough childhood. The singer grew up in Alaska, surrounded by people who used "relationships, drugs, [and] alcohol to try to numb and medicate feelings." Her voice was her way out. At age 15, she got a vocal scholarship to a performing arts school in Michigan. But by age 18, she found herself homeless, shoplifting, and plagued by panic attacks. Determined not to become a "statistic""I was going to end up in jail or dead, in short order"Jewel used mindfulness to take control of her mental health and life.

"You have to get rid of believing every single thought that comes into your head," Jewel told Harris. "When I meditate, I just count [to 20]one is an inhale, two is an exhale. The whole point is just to observe and be curious because that's the state of mindfulness and of being present."

Watch Jewel's full interview with Dan Harris on "10% Happier" below.

h/t ABC

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The 15-Second Meditation That Helps Jewel Calm Her Panic ... - SELF