ON BEING MINDFUL

Mindfulness affects many aspects of our psychological well-being—improving our mood, increasing positive emotions, decreasing anxiety, emotional reactivity, and job burnout. Studies even suggest that mindfulness is beneficial for stress reduction which can impact your heart health and immune responses.

“Meditation, simply put, cultivates presence. It’s a state where we are aware and mindful of our relationship with, and our agency to respond to, what is happening,” explains Larkins, who is also a mental health advocate and founder of the wellness platform Sankalpa. “Presence marks the moments where we feel all of our resources are available to us. But when we are distracted by ruminations on the past, worries, and to-do lists