What does consciousness do, what is it for, and what does it have to do with artificial intelligence? In the summer of 2017, I was honored to present at one of a series of eight workshops organized by SRI International’s computer science laboratory that looked at these and other questions related to technology and consciousness. Daniel Sanchez and John Rushby’s smart, accessible Technology and Consciousness Workshops Report is now available. It provides an excellent overview of theories of consciousness, the possibility of machine or technological consciousness, and their potential implications.

The Kaiser / Greenland family has an annual New Year's tradition. There’s not much to it. Armed with pencils and paper, we write down anything and everything that we'd like to leave behind in the old year as we look toward a new one. Comparing mind? That stays in 2018. Procrastination?  Not going to play that one forward. Old grudges, knee-jerk reactions, and tedious habits of mind?  Jot them down. Done. Done. Done.

My grown son once had a middle seat on a cross-country flight. He was seated between a family of three – dad on one side, mother on the other. With them, they had a young child who was restless and crying for much of the flight. When I asked about his trip, he said, "Mom, I was traveling with the Clumsy Tea Boy.” If you don’t know the story of the Clumsy Tea Boy, here’s how it goes.

The community that has emerged around sharing mindfulness with children and families may not have the size or reach of a major media company or political party, but we have something else. We have a healthy, targeted, and most importantly, highly engaged reach into communities from every facet of the political spectrum who care deeply about children and families. We have a spotlight of our own, we have a megaphone of our own, and we have an opportunity to use them to find common ground among people who disagree on many political issues but not on the welfare of kids. Together let's use our reach - newsletters, blogs, and social media feeds - to keep shining a light on families who have been forcibly separated at the border. I'm not going to shut-up about them until this awful mess gets sorted: I hope you’ll join me in this pledge. 

As the conversation on “certification” and “professionalization” of mindfulness teachers waxes and wanes, it's clear that such a change would bring some benefits and certainly unexpected consequences. Fundamentally, I believe the goal is a noble one, and the effort appears to be led by smart, thoughtful people of great integrity. Finding the right balance of trade-offs might well be impossible, not for lack of effort or good intentions, but because, well, we're human.

The most straightforward explanation for why inner work is not narcissistic is common sense: when someone becomes less neurotic and more discerning, those around him or her reap the benefits. Usually, when starting out, people look to self-compassion (and mindfulness) for stress reduction and emotional healing, in the hope that these practices will help them feel better. The exercise is mostly conceptual, as people investigate painful patterns and behaviors. It’s only later, when the investigative process couples with a more experiential one, that self-compassion is more likely to emerge. Compassion becomes an insight born of experience rather than an aspiration.

In these overheated political moments where the rhetoric becomes incendiary, it is important to remember that if we fight fire with fire, we’ll all be consumed by the flames. Fire must instead be met by water, by waves that take the form of kindness and compassion and empathy. This is how we’ll be able to dial back the passions that are tearing us apart. To do otherwise will only turn up the heat and create a world that is uninhabitable.

The test of genuine compassion lies in our actions, not our mindsets. It’s easy to think kind thoughts, but acting with compassion is what matters, especially when we don't feel it. Parents get a lot of advice about how to help their kids manage hurt feelings, but not so much about how to manage their own. Mindfulness offers four insights that help parents navigate emotional ups and downs with wisdom and compassion.

Before speaking up, I remember two fundamental principles of mindfulness and compassion that are helpful at times like these; the one who responds to a conflict determines its course, not the one who starts it; and, pay attention even when it hurts.

I step back, take a hard look at the facts, and recognize that while the situation may be annoying today, and – I don’t kid myself – could get worse before it gets better, I know that I have to remain calm in order to deal with it and to get on with the other things that make up my life.

A story and a game to help kids and adults become more comfortable with complexity and uncertainty.

My favorite description of the scientific method doubles as a good shorthand definition of mindfulness meditation, and it comes from comic science fiction.

An unlikely New Year's message from an old movie and an even older wisdom tradition.

Like the chewy chocolate center of a Tootsie Pop, there are peaceful moments of joy and connection hidden inside festive, yet sometimes hectic, family activities.

You don’t have to be outside to take a gratitude walk; you can ground yourself by walking slowly and deliberately anywhere, even upstairs at your in-law's house.

Children place a stuffed animal on their tummies and pretend that they're rocking it to sleep with the up and down movements of their breathing. 

Is the 2016 Election Putting You in a Funk? Here’s a Common Sense Antidote to Election Anxiety.

Interactions between adults and children take on a radically different feel when an adult lets go of his or her own agenda to simply connect with a child in that very moment.

Get comfortable, relax, and gaze at the sky to explore what’s happening within and around you.

Legal challenges are to be expected as a field develops and, in this context, might well be considered developmentally appropriate. They can also offer a hidden blessing.