Mindfulness Center of Atlanta

08/21/2026

If you are ready to move beyond simply managing stress and begin exploring mindfulness as a way of living, come practice with us. Join our upcoming, online, Tuesday evening, 8-week mindfulness course. Visit our website for more info.

08/19/2026

Mindfulness, Purpose, and Loving the World, by Mark Dannenfelser

…Mindfulness is often introduced as a way to reduce stress, improve sleep, lower blood pressure, or manage anxiety. And it certainly can do those things. Decades of research support the benefits of mindfulness for both physical and psychological well-being.

But mindfulness is also about something deeper than improving symptoms and conditions, as important as that is. It’s about living an intentional life rooted in love and compassion. It’s OK if that’s not why you are practicing mindfulness, but I want you to know that it does offer this way of living.

So, today I'd like to reflect on what it means to live mindfully in such a way as to live with more intention, purpose, and love for this one life we've been given. And if we can become more present and more compassionate in our lives, how might that allow us to give something back to the world?

There is a saying widely attributed to the theologian and mystic Howard Thurman: “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

It’s worth considering what it is you have to give back to this world. And that doesn’t have to be grandiose. Your offering can be found in everyday experiences.

How can I bring more kindness into my family? How can I serve my community? How can I use whatever gifts I have to make the world better? How can I become more fully myself, not in an egoic sense, but in the sense of becoming the person I was created to be?

Another important question to ask is: What gets in the way of us looking at the big picture? What keeps us in a micro-view of our lives?

One way to look at it through the lens of mindfulness is that we get caught up in judgment, and judgment, by design, is a narrow field of view. Seeing the big picture requires an expansive view. I have said many times that the antidote to judgment is curiosity. Curiosity is an open-ended response rather than a narrow, knee-jerk reactive judgment. We move from a simplistic, dualistic approach that sees only left-right, up-down, black-white, to a broad field of awareness that is open to new possibilities and broader perspectives…

M4M is a free 30-minute live online weekly communal practice group....

08/14/2026

Try it and see. For one week, take five minutes each day & offer loving thoughts and wishes of kindness to yourself along with someone you love. Notice what begins to shift. And for an actual loving-kindness meditation, visit our website for last week’s recording of Mindfulness for the Moment. Every week we offer a free, online practice group. Sign up for information & join us!

08/12/2026

Loving Kindness Meditation, by Mark Dannenfelser

Mindfulness is more than a stress reduction program; it’s more than a relaxation technique or a medical intervention, though it can profoundly support physical and mental well-being. But at its core, mindfulness is a way of being; a way of living from a place of compassion so that we are better able to reduce suffering in ourselves and in others, and are freer to love unconditionally. Mindfulness is ultimately about love.

Extensive research supports the benefits of loving-kindness meditation. Scientific studies, including neuroimaging research, show that loving-kindness meditation activates the brain’s emotional centers, enhancing empathy, emotional regulation, and a sense of well-being (Lutz et al., 2009).

In the end, loving-kindness meditation invites us to a radical way of seeing and relating that takes us from judgment to acceptance, from separation to connection, and from hate to love.

M4M is a free 30-minute live online weekly communal practice group....

08/05/2026

Regrets, Clinging, and Suffering, Mark Dannenfelser

The question of regret, especially regrets around not living an intentional life, does not only show up in meditation groups. We see this addressed in modern psychology.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has found that people flourish not by waiting for life to go my way, or to get what we want, but by living according to their deepest values today, even in the presence of disappointment, pain, uncertainty, or fear (Hayes et al., 2006).

Daniel Pink, an American non-fiction writer, has authored seven New York Times bestsellers. His book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward (2022), is particularly valuable to our discussion because he does not simply offer personal observations; he synthesizes more than 50 years of psychological research on regret, along with original survey data from over 26,000 people in 105 countries.

That research found that people's deepest regrets are rarely about wealth, status, or possessions. Instead, they center on missed opportunities for courage, authentic living, meaningful relationships, and living in accordance with one's deepest values (Pink, 2022). Pink says that essentially, people intrinsically want to do things that matter; people want to make a difference.

Pink’s thesis is that if we allow regret to be present so that we might see it for what it is and what it represents, and if we can do so with kindness and understanding, and without harsh judgment, then we may be able to really be present to the entirety of our lives, and to make real changes when available to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p54uWCWzRg
This insight is remarkably consistent with mindfulness:

Rather than denying regret or becoming consumed by it, we can turn toward it with curiosity, allowing it to clarify what matters most.

Mindfulness offers us the possibility of not waiting for some imagined future before allowing ourselves to live with gratitude, love, and presence today. Do it now, in the now.

Mindfulness for the Moment sessions are 30-minute, practice-based, ...

08/05/2026

Beginner's Mind, Rachel Abraham

Mindfulness for the Moment sessions are 30-minute, practice-based, ...

07/24/2026

To increase your comfort and exposure to silence try these simple things: 1) Begin to he first 10 minutes of your morning without screens 2) Take a walk without earbuds or speaking 3) Allow a little break of silence between tasks, and when you can, try completing a task without any music or speaking or noise in the background. Remember, silence is not the absence of anything, it is a rich space waiting to be discovered.

07/17/2026

Mindfulness isn’t about pretending difficult things don’t matter. It’s about learning to stop gripping what we cannot control and returning our attention to the life we have right here and right now.

07/10/2026

The path through grief begins exactly where you are. Not where you wish you were. Not where others think you should be. The practice is to stop turning away from your grief and instead meet it with honesty, patience, and compassion. If you’re looking for mindfulness training or support along the way, visit us online.

07/08/2026

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Mindfulness for the Moment sessions are 30-minute, practice-based, ...