The Top 10 Mindful Articles of 2024

The Mindful editors share the top 10 online articles of the year, all in one handy place for you to read and revisit.

alleksana/Pexels.com

Our goal at Mindful is always to bring you the very best from the science, deep experience, and big questions of mindfulness. This past year has been filled with so much uncertainty, and we believe more than ever that mindfulness is designed to meet us exactly where we are to help us live better and experience stronger connections with ourselves and others.

The top articles of 2024 demonstrate the breadth and depth of all these shimmering, unexpected places that mindfulness can find us: anywhere from a children’s television show and our closets and to the books we read and the heavy spaces of disconnection, loss, and healing we’re navigating in our lifetimes.

1. The Whole Child Matters—What It Means to Have Mindfulness in Schools

In an age of increasing anxiety, introducing the mental resilience skills of mindfulness to young minds seems more important than ever. Writer Leslie Garrett went directly to teachers and mindfulness leaders to learn how it supports students, teachers, and their wider communities.

Rear view of sports teacher practicing Yoga with her students at school gym.

The Whole Child Matters—What It Means to Have Mindfulness in Schools

More schools are bringing meditation to their classrooms. Writer Leslie Garrett spoke to teachers and mindfulness leaders about how it supports students, teachers, and their wider communities.

2. What to Do When You Feel Like You Don’t Have Enough Time

Free time can feel like a rare commodity these days. Dr. Diana Hill explores what free time really means to us and how our experience of it has more to do with how we’re spending our time than the amount of it we have.

Images on an alarm clock, hour glass and a girl looking at her watch.

What to Do When You Feel Like You Don’t Have Enough Time

The answer may have more to do with aligning your activities with your values than having more free time.

3. Mindfulness for Racial Healing

The May 2020 killing of George Floyd is still having reverberating effects around the US. Educator and leader Tovi Scruggs-Hussein walks through six key ways that mindful practices can facilitate deeper connections by addressing the core emotional experiences at play in racial bias.

Mindfulness for Racial Healing

Mindfulness for Racial Healing

Mindfulness can serve as the foundation for powerful conversations, transformational growth, and self-awareness when it comes to race and racism.

4. Nanalan’: The Viral Show That Models How Mindfulness Looks and Feels

Since 1999, Nanalan’ co-creators Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon have been sharing mindful concepts like empathy, awareness, and acceptance with their young audience. Discover how this heartfelt show (that’s only technically for kids) found TikTok fame and is now reaching and healing people of all ages.

Modeling Mindfulness: Nanalan' Shows Kids (and Adults) How Mindfulness Looks and Feels—Screen grab from the Nanalan' opening sequence with Mona and Nana outside in the garden.

Nanalan’: The Viral Show That Models How Mindfulness Looks and Feels

The TikTok-famous kids show Nanalan’ has won the hearts of millions. Creators Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley share how mindfulness is at the heart of the show’s impact.

5. How Meditation Supports Health and Healing

Even in an era of unprecedented technical “connection,” the percentage of people who report that they’re struggling with depression, anxiety, and loneliness continues to rise. Studies show that mindfulness is ultimately an effective, low-cost way to manage (and maybe even improve) physical and mental health and well-being.

How Meditation Supports Health and Healing

How Meditation Supports Health and Healing

Studies show that mindfulness is ultimately an effective, low-cost way to manage (and maybe even improve) physical and mental health and well-being.

6. Cultivating Mindfulness Beyond Meditation: How 8 Skills Empower Us in Everyday Life

One of the most common questions people ask about mindfulness is, What does this have to do with my actual life? Shalini Bahl explores eight key ways that mindful practices can impact your daily thoughts, interactions, and choices.

A happy woman sits in the flower and waters it. Smiling girl cares about herself and her future. Concept of love yourself and a healthy lifestyle.

Cultivating Mindfulness Beyond Meditation: How 8 Skills Empower Us in Everyday Life

Even as meditators, we often struggle to be mindful in our day-to-day lives. Author and researcher Shalini Bahl shares what she’s discovered about our ability to return to mindfulness when it matters most.

7. Decluttering—Outside and Inside

Letting go is hardly ever easy. Here Barry Boyce examines how decluttering physical spaces can offer gentle insight into how we can also create more lightness and freedom inside our minds.

Illustration of the back of a woman looking into a messy closet, full of laundry, accessories, and storage.

Decluttering—Outside and Inside

Sorting through and letting go of physical objects we no longer need teaches us about all the things we’re holding onto. As Barry Boyce realizes, it can also help us find kinder, wiser ways of decluttering our mind.

8. After the Funeral: When Grief is Part of Daily Life

Grief is a universal human experience that’s also not talked about with much openness. In her own uniquely compassionate and humorous way, Elaine Smookler shares her personal grief journey and offers comfort and wisdom for others on the long road of loss.

Artwork_After the Funeral- When Grief is Part of Daily Life: Illustration of a woman giving herself a hug

After the Funeral: When Grief is Part of Daily Life

Once all the hubbub dies down…now what? Mindfulness can help us be with our grief, and ourselves, with self-compassion.

9. Mindful Reading Guide: Contemporary Authors to Deepen Your Practice

We don’t often think of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry as being an integral part of growing our own mindful practices. Using examples from her own library, poet Angela Stubbs walks readers through how we, too, can identify and connect with mindful themes in our favorite books.

A Mindful Reading Guide -- A woman in a white sweater holds a stack of books up in front of her face.

Mindful Reading Guide: Contemporary Authors to Deepen Your Practice

These contemporary authors explore the facets of mindfulness in their novels, essays, and poems, inviting readers to do the same.

10. Q&A: How Connecting With Our Senses Supports Mental Health and Resilience

Modern Western culture is notoriously disconnected from the body, and this fragmentation has far-reaching effects on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Authors Norman Farb and Zindel Segal talk about their new book Better in Every Sense and how reconnecting with our senses can help get us unstuck and find real healing.

A woman sitting in the park smelling a flower; mental health and resilience

Q&A: How Connecting With Our Senses Supports Mental Health and Resilience

Mindful founding editor Barry Boyce sits down with Norman Farb and Zindel Segal to talk about their new book Better In Every Sense and how reconnecting with our senses can help get us unstuck and establish new patterns.

About The Author

GET THE LATEST ON EVERYTHING MINDFULNESS


Our free newsletter delivers updates on the science of mindfulness, guided mindfulness meditation practices from leading teachers, special offers, and rich content to support your mindful growth.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Newsletter

Get the latest on everything mindfulness


Our free newsletter delivers updates on the science of mindfulness, guided mindfulness meditation practices from leading teachers, special offers, and rich content to support your mindful growth.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.