According to a recent study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) one out of three Americans are taking medication that has a side effect of causing depression. Furthermore there are millions of Americans taking anti-depressant medication with their own slew of side effects. What should we do?

Given the option of stopping and thinking about how to respond to a particular situation, or doing what we have done for decades, our brains are going to opt for the easy way out: autopilot. But another way of stating that is to say we are being mindless, that is the exact opposite of being mindful.

Let’s talk about love—lovingkindness. It’s one of the foundational attitudes of mindfulness and without it, well let’s face it, you might be paying attention but not with an attitude that will reduce your stress.