Session Highlights 

By Mo Edjlali, Founder of Mindful Leader; Author, Open MBSR

At this point, you may be wondering why I am so interested in contempt. Fair question. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article called 4 Ways We Carry Contempt. Then I wrote 4 Signs You’re a Mindful Zombie, which was, let’s say, not exactly written with the softness of a lavender eye pillow.

And now here I am, back at contempt again. So either I am developing a specialty, or contempt has been trying to tell me something.

After writing abo…

In the bustling corridors of modern workplaces, the need for self-reflection and continuous improvement is more crucial than ever. Rooted in principles of organizational development, the Start, Stop, Continue exercise is simple and effective. Its origins, while not attributed to a single creator, lie in the collective wisdom of management and human resources professionals who recognize the power of actionable feedback.

The Essence of the Model

The model is disarmingly simple: categorize action…

A closer look at the 2026 meditation practice report

By Mo Edjlali, Founder, Mindful Leader. Author, Open MBSR. Creator, Meditate Together.

In my last article, we went looking for mindful zombies. The people performing depth instead of living it. The half-smile. The woo-woo vocabulary. The serenity worn like a costume. 

But it left a harder question hanging. If the calm face and the right words don't prove anything, then what does? Strip away the performance, the lineage, the performed enligh…

By Mo Edjlali, Founder of Mindful Leader; Author, Open MBSR

Nobody sets out to become a mindful zombie. You started down this path wanting to be kinder, less reactive, a better partner, boss, or parent. Maybe you were recovering from a difficult time: a job loss, a divorce, a personal tragedy.

You signed up for a course, did a retreat, started reading or watching videos. You found something that had been missing, something that made sense, and teachers, neuroscientists, leaders, celebrities, a…

"Most people are shocked to discover they are addicted to contempt."

At our 2025 Mindful Leader Summit, Tim Shriver, CEO of the Special Olympics and co-creator of the Dignity Index, said that to a room full of mindfulness practitioners, researchers, and leaders who had gathered precisely because they cared about how we treat each other. He was joined by Marc Brackett, founder of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, whose decades of research on emotional intelligence made the point land e…

The 2026 Meditation Practice Report presents findings from 272 practitioners surveyed in Spring 2026. Our findings help mindfulness professionals design more effective programs that align with actual practice patterns.

Key Findings:

• Most practitioners (61.6%) meditate daily, with 10–20 minutes the most common session length (36.2%)
• Morning practice dominates (64.6%), suggesting optimal timing for group sessions and reminders
• "Too many distractions" (32.7%) has overtaken "not enough time" (29…

By Mo Edjlali, Founder of Mindful Leader; Author, Open MBSR

In the age of AI, what role does mindfulness play, and why do we still need to practice?

Every day it becomes easier to outsource attention, avoid discomfort, simulate connection without relationship, and live inside systems designed to anticipate and monetize our impulses before we have fully formed our intentions. What happens to our attention, our presence, our liberty, our compassion?

1. Attention Exploitation 

Every app, feed, …

By The Mindful Leader Team

In the 1950s, legendary golfer Walter Hagen offered sage advice in his book The Walter Hagen Story, reminding us, "You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." This counsel has evolved into the well-known exhortation to "stop and smell the roses," a metaphor for taking time out of our busy lives to appreciate the small joys and natural beauty around us. This concept aligns perfectly with the practice of…

By The Mindful Leader Team

Is AI unburdening knowledge work — or doing the opposite? In our Spring 2026 Research Roundup, we look at three new studies: a large workplace survey, an eight-month embedded ethnography, and a small but widely discussed neuroimaging preprint. Together, they suggest AI tools are reshaping the cognitive demands of knowledge work in ways worth paying attention to.

What happens to sustained attention when the workday becomes, in large part, the supervision of AI?  Do …