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Nani’s Sheer Khurma

(Image credit: Jerrelle Guy)

The buildup to Eid, the celebratory holiday that marks the end of Ramazan (the Urdu pronunciation), begins past the 15th fast. The streets come alive with open-air markets, ablaze with colorful glass bangles, henna tattoo stalls, and festive outfits hanging in window displays. The food bazaars heave with the sweet, spiced aromas of fresh nuts, raisins, and savory snacks. The sweet shops are filled with Pakistani Eid staples such as ras malai (sweet milky cottage cheese dumplings), dahi baras (lentil fritters with spices) and most importantly, stacks of bags filled with dried roasted vermicelli.

It is this vermicelli that links to my most treasured Eid memories.

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(Image credit: Samantha Bolton)

How often do you head to the grocery store with a long list of things to buy and very little time to do it? Pretty often, I’m guessing. Having to weigh out ingredients in the produce aisle can feel like one more task you don’t have time for, which is why I recommend you learn what they look like instead. If it’s pears you’re picking up, here’s how to spot a pound.

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(Image credit: Bartles & Jaymes)

I still remember when (long before my 21st birthday), my dad tossed me a neon pineapple-flavored wine cooler at the beach. “It’s just a wine cooler,” he said, “It won’t hurt you.” Although that statement isn’t completely true (as many of us learned in college), there is something incredibly innocent about these mesmerizingly colored, dangerously easy bottled beverages.

And with summer finally upon us, what better time to revisit these nostalgic drinks of our youth (which, by the way, are staging a comeback)? In the name of research, I tasted the entire lineup from Bartles and Jaymes and ranked them. Here is my completely subjective analysis of the flavors of summer.

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(Image credit: Samantha Bolton)

Kerry Diamond is always juggling various food projects. Currently, she owns a few fabulous restaurants in Brooklyn with her boyfriend, Rob Newton, and is also co-founder of Cherry Bombe, a biannual magazine that celebrates women and food. Of course, like any smart publication, Cherry Bombe is also a conference, podcast, and social media presence. Basically, she knows what she’s doing.

In her limited spare time, Kerry makes room for ice cream. Here’s what she has to say about her favorite pint.

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(Image credit: Samantha Bolton)

When it comes to lunch, some feel that variety is overrated. Just as the fashion world has been spotting creative, successful people who wear the same thing every day — freeing their minds of mundane daily decisions to put their energy elsewhere — we’ve been noticing a few smart people who choose to eat the same lunch, day in and day out.

This week we’re sharing five stories of five different people who are successful in different ways — in their health goals, in their creative pursuits — and find the habit of a uniform-style lunch to give simplicity and freedom.

Liz Kupillas believes in saying yes to opportunities that come along, which is how the American found herself living in Barcelona. Originally from Oregon, she got a job with a bottler for PepsiCo that sent her off to Budapest for a couple of years. Then PepsiCo bought the bottler, and they moved her to Barcelona. She’s never looked back, and she’s not sure if she’ll ever return to the States. But she’s still maintained her American identity — at least when it comes to her lunch regimen. Here, she shares why she eats the same thing every day.

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4th of July Wine Sparklers

(Image credit: Coco Morante)

The internet isn’t sure exactly why wine coolers fell from grace. Perhaps White Zinfandel is to blame, or maybe their slide into oblivion was the result of a perfect storm of food trends of the 1990s. Regardless, the beverage favorite of the 1980s is staging a comeback, popping up on cocktail menus, cooking shows, and (let’s be honest) our hearts. Here are three reasons we’re betting this is the summer of the wine cooler.

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How To Make Marinara Pasta Sauce

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Cooking up a bit pot of pasta is already a weeknight savior — it’s generally pretty fast and it’s always a crowd-pleaser — but what if you could make the whole process even faster? The truth is, you can.

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I camp mostly for the stargazing. Everything else is important, of course. The campfire, the smoky bacon, the muddy coffee. Trees, fresh air, endless trails. All great. But what I look forward to most of all is slipping out of my tent on a dark, moonless night, finding a clearing in the trees, looking up at the sky, and realizing that light from a star that shot out a hundred thousand years ago is only just now hitting my retina.

That’s awe.

Awe is what John Muir felt when he came up over that ridge to see the Merced Valley laid out below on his first High Sierra excursion, or inched out along a narrow granite ledge behind Yosemite Falls to watch thousands of gallons tumble past his face every second.

Awe is what Oppenheimer conveyed in his response to seeing the first atom bomb—his creation—tested: “I remembered the line from the Hindu Scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’”

Awe is what the first humans to reach Australia likely felt when they stumbled upon a fantastical world of 1000 pound flightless birds, 20 foot lizards, and 10 foot kangaroos.

Awe is what astronauts invariably report feeling upon seeing Earth from orbit.

We’ve all felt something similar. Describing the types of experiences that induce awe isn’t hard. What’s hard is describing the feeling itself. It’s almost beyond words.

Researchers Jonathan Haidt and Dacher Keltner have proposed a description, what they call the “prototype of awe” (PDF): perceived vastness and induced accommodation. But what does this mean?

Perceived vastness: For a stimulus to provoke awe, it must be vast, larger than life, and certainly larger than you. This can be true in a physical (Grand Canyon, skyscraper, monster wave) or metaphorical (piece of music, religious text, rousing speech, opening crawl of Star Wars) sense.

Induced accommodation: Because an awe stimulus is bigger than you and transcends your normal frame of reference, you must shift your worldview to accommodate the experience. Folks who report feeling awe use words like “earth-shattering” or “changed how I saw” or “I’d never realized” are coming to terms with induced accommodation. If you don’t come to terms with the new reality, it’s terrifying, so you’re compelled to integrate it.

My dogs probably love hiking more than I do, but they don’t stop at lookouts to take in the scenery. They don’t feel awe. Why do we? What’s all this about?

There are several possibilities as to why awe arose.

Haidt and Keitner suggest awe developed in humans to enable hierarchies. If low-status people were “in awe of” higher-status people, the latter could become leaders and maintain social cohesion. Faced with immense power (“vastness”), the lower-status people would need the capacity to accept lower status (“induced accommodation”) without causing strife.

According to another hypothesis, awe arose because it allowed humans to process and accommodate novel information and experiences. Organisms that can handle and integrate major disruptions to their world view are more likely to survive and adapt.

Or it could just be a necessary byproduct of higher cognition. Awe is part of being a big-brained talking ape.

Whatever the reason for its evolution, experiencing awe has several interesting effects on how we think, feel, and even heal.

Awe turns our attention outward, not inward

Astronauts looking at Earth from orbit frequently report a sense of kinship with their home planet. They truly want to protect it from environmental degradation, not just buy a Prius and make sure the recycling bin’s full every Sunday. Human foibles are rendered inconsequential (“we shouldn’t be killing and fighting”; “you’re small compared to everything else”) in the face of such vastness. A series of studies found that awe makes the self “smaller.”

Awe promotes generosity

In a recent UC Berkeley study, subjects standing in a grove of eucalyptus trees who experienced awe increased their prosocial behavior—they were more willing to give—and reduced their sense of entitlement.

Awe stretches time

Studies find that people exposed to awe-inducing stimuli feel less pressed for time (PDF). They grow more willing to donate time (but not money) to help others. Time scarcity, perceived or real, is a serious condition in the modern world that increases stress, limits our ability to focus on the present moment, and increases unhealthy behaviors (there’s no time to cook or go to the gym!). It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where we spend so much energy fretting over the scarcity of time that we run out of time to do anything. Anything that reduces time scarcity will improve your quality of life. In my experience, the biggest moments of awe stop time altogether.

Awe improves your ability to parse arguments

In a 2010 study, researchers examined the effects of different mood states on a subject’s ability to discern good arguments from bad ones. Compared to amusement, anticipatory enthusiasm, and attachment love, awe reduced persuasion by weak arguments.

Time and time again, awe appears to reduce our sense of self, increase our connection to the world and its inhabitants, and expand time perception, if only for a few moments.

The coolest thing about this research is that it doesn’t take much to elicit awe. To study awe’s effect in people, the researchers aren’t taking their subjects to the Grand Canyon to take in the view, or big wave surfing, or scuba diving, or anything amazing. That’s too expensive. They’re showing them commercials for LCD TVs that feature waterfalls and astronauts, or having them stand in grove of eucalyptus trees on the Berkeley campus. And they’re still getting these results. Imagine the real thing.

You look into your infant child’s eyes, opening for the first time. The kid is defenseless, physically tiny, not at all imposing, and certainly not vast. But he does inspire awe. He’s the 50/50 genetic manifestation of you and your partner. And boy do you have to shift your reality to accommodate this new human.

Awe isn’t necessarily positive. Watching those jets crash into the Twin Towers certainly inspired awe, but also terror. You knew that everything was going to be different, that you were looking at history unfolding itself before you.

Awe doesn’t require trekking out to a national park. Small moments can work, too. They’re all around us. You just have to pay attention. In a future post, I’ll get specific with tips, tricks, and examples.

Let me know down below how often you experience awe.

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We live in a world of almost infinite possibility for distraction. A recent study in PLOS One found that the average young adult checks his or her smartphone every 11 minutes and spends more than five hours (30 percent of the day) interacting with it (1). In moments that once presented the opportunity for reflection and quiet presence, many of us are more likely to pick up our phone and browse the internet, check our email, scroll through Facebook or Twitter, or listen to a podcast.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these activities, of course. But when they collectively replace all of the potential moments in which we might find ourselves alone, without distraction, I think it’s a problem. I’ve written a lot about the mismatch between our genes and biology and our current diet and lifestyle. The increasing impact of technology and its propensity to distract and fragment our attention is yet another aspect of this mismatch.

Studies have shown that increased use of a smartphone is associated with anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance in adolescents and adults (2, 3). Other studies have shown a relationship between problematic internet use and electronic gaming and psychological distress and problem behavior in youths (4).

In short, the greater the opportunities for distraction become, the greater the necessity for a practice that centers our attention in the present moment and counteracts the negative consequences of our increasingly fragmented attention.

Mindfulness is one such practice.

What is mindfulness practice?

Mindfulness simply means being aware of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment on a moment-to-moment basis. It means paying attention to what is, rather than getting lost in our thoughts about the future or the past.

In many ways, mindfulness practice is the antidote to a modern life characterized by distraction, worry, anxiety, and other sources of perceived stress. It trains us to keep our awareness and attention in the present moment and experience our feelings and sensations without judgment.

A large body of evidence has shown that practicing mindfulness—even for a short time—increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions and stress (5). It also helps us tune out distractions and improve our ability to focus (6). It enhances our relationships, makes us feel more connected and relaxed, and boosts our compassion for ourselves and others (7).

In this article, we’ll take a deeper dive into the ongoing research on how mindfulness affects us, literally rewiring our brains and bodies to become more resilient in the face of stress.

This is your brain on mindfulness

Neuroplasticity refers to the potential that the brain has to reorganize or adapt in response to its inputs (8), and it’s because of neuroplasticity that researchers can directly observe and quantify the effects of mindfulness meditation on the brain (9, 10, 11).

People assessed to be more mindful on a Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) had reduced volume of gray matter within the right amygdala and left caudate of their brains compared to those assessed to be less mindful (10). This result supports a differential role for the left and right amygdala in the brain (12) and highlights a possible functional role for the right amygdala in processing perceived stress. This study also supports research that suggests the caudate is responsive to negative stimuli (13).

To more directly test the functional role and connectivity of the right amygdala in the stress response, a group of 35 unemployed men and women experiencing high levels of stress took part in a study where half were formally taught mindful meditation, and the rest were taught relaxation techniques that did not introduce mindfulness (each condensed to a three-day class).

The group that was taught mindfulness techniques showed a marked decrease in right amygdala resting state functional connectivity over time, indicating less stress-related communication within the brain. Interestingly, despite the lack of an ongoing formal mindful meditation practice, the group armed with mindfulness techniques had lower cumulative markers of a neuroendocrine stress response in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis up to four months after the study (9).

Practicing mindfulness can have an impressive impact on your brain–and your body.

How does mindfulness change your body?

How can a mindfulness component in decreasing stress-related communication within the brain affect the rest of the body? The answer, in part, lies in a nerve that is essentially a superhighway between the brain and the gut. The vagus nerve connects the brain to most visceral organs—and vice versa. It is responsible for normal resting state parasympathetic processes like heart rate and digestive processes (14). It is a bidirectional system, sending out signals to your organs and collecting information from them in return. Communication between the brain and gut has even been found to be influenced by neurotransmitters created by bacterial communities hosted in your gut (15).

The functional fitness of the vagus nerve is measured by its “vagal tone.” People with robust, high vagal tone have a greater heart rate variability than people with a more compromised, lower vagal tone. While low vagal tone is related to inflammation, poor cardiac function, and gastrointestinal dysfunction (16, 17), high vagal tone is related to healthy bodily function as well as increased positive feelings and better emotional control (18, 19).

There are many things known to exercise vagal tone to improve the gut-brain connection; among them are deep breathing, mindful meditation skills, and having the tools to foster self-love and kindness (20, 21, 18). There is a strong positive feedback loop between improved vagal tone and mindfulness and, consequently, the strength of the mind-body connection.

What can mindfulness meditation do for you?

Research on the health benefits of mindfulness meditation is broad, from pain management (22, 23, 24), to reduction in anxiety and depression (25, 26, 27), to blood sugar control (28), to increased focus (29, 30, 31), to cellular aging (32), to healthy pregnancy (33), to improved sleep (34, 35), and overall improved immunity.

• Reduce pain. A double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study where people experienced a cold stimulus before and after meditation revealed an “analgesic” effect of meditation involving endogenous opioid pathways that reduce pain more than the standard of care (22).
• Reduce anxiety & depression. Fifty-two participants took part in an eight-week study where they meditated for 30 minutes and completed 30 minutes of aerobic exercise twice a week. They reported fewer depressive symptoms and less rumination at follow-up (26). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and a Health Enhancement Program (HEP) consisting of exercise, music therapy, and nutritional education was evaluated relative to treatment-as-usual for 173 adults with depression. The results indicate that MBCT was significantly more influential in reducing depression (36.6 percent vs. 25.3 percent) as measured on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and had a significantly higher rate of responders (30.3 percent vs. 15.3 percent) relative to the HEP (27).
• Improve glycemic control. In a study of 23 people with type 2 diabetes, 11 were assigned a walking program, 30 minutes on a treadmill three times per week at 50 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate; 11 were assigned the same protocol, only with the addition of a Buddhism-based walking meditation component. After 12 weeks, both groups had lower fasting blood glucose and increased oxygen consumption, but only the group with the meditation component had lower HbA1c, blood pressure, and blood cortisol levels (28).
• Improve focus. A group of 40 people who were not meditators were randomized into a meditation group or a wait list group. The meditation group received three hours of mindfulness training and were asked to meditate 10 minutes daily. The subjects were analyzed on an electroencephalogram (EEG) while completing a cognitive test at the study onset, at eight weeks, and at 16 weeks. The EEG results indicated that the meditation group improved focusing and attentional resources in the brain over the course of the study and decreased the recruitment of other resources in the brain, indicating more efficient allocation of cognitive resources (30).
• Slow cellular aging. Telomeres, which are found on the tips of chromosomes, shorten every time a cell divides. Longevity is associated with longer telomere length. Longer telomeres and a smaller percentage of short telomeres were measured among 20 Zen meditation experts as compared against 20 matched, healthy non-meditating participants. The researchers note that “although limited by a small sample size, these results suggest that the absence of experiential avoidance of negative emotions and thoughts is integral to the connection between meditation and telomeres” (32).
• Healthy pregnancy. Maternal stress is correlated to hypertension and preeclampsia during pregnancy. Pregnant women who practiced mindful meditation experienced a significant decrease in perceived stress, decrease in blood pressure response to cold pressor test, and a significant increase in heart rate variability over pregnant women who were not meditating. The researchers conclude that mindfulness meditation has the potential to decrease perceived maternal stress in order to reduce complications in pregnancy (33).
• Improve sleep. In a year-long study, two groups of adults were randomized to either a Mindful Awareness Program (MAP) or Sleep Hygiene Education (SHE). Each group received a six-week training in its respective approaches. The MAP group had improvement over the SHE group on a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale and with respect to insomnia symptoms, depression symptoms, fatigue interference, and fatigue severity (35).

How do you become more mindful?

Last year I wrote an article called “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience” in which I described six steps toward cultivating mindfulness and increasing your awareness:

• Practice mindfulness meditation
• Stop multitasking (it doesn’t work anyway!)
• Batch your email and social media
• Turn off notifications on your phone and computer
• Go off the grid
• Do less (and accomplish more)

There are tons of free resources online for getting started with meditation. Lifehacker has some helpful information, and the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center has a free meditation podcast with guided weekly meditations. I also like the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, and some people have found apps like Headspace to be helpful.

Okay, now I’d like to hear from you. Do you have a mindfulness and meditation practice? How has it helped you to become more resilient? What psychological and physiological changes have you noticed? Let us know in the comments section.