We should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt without Congress lifting the debt ceiling, Yellen said Sunday on ABCs This Week.

This would be a constitutional crisis, she said.

Constitutional scholars and economists have been split on the idea that the administration continue issuing debt by citing a provision of the US Constitution that says the validity of public debts shall not be questioned. 

Yellen deflected several questions on whether Biden might use that option, returning time and again to her insistence that Congress lift the ceiling.

All I want to say is that its Congresss job to do this, she said. If they fail to do it, we will have an economic and financial catastrophe that will be of our own making, and there is no action that President Biden and US Treasury can take to prevent that catastrophe.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss the debt ceiling.

Biden and congressional Republicans are locked in a staredown over raising the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit, with GOP leaders demanding promises of future spending cuts before they approve a higher ceiling. Biden has insisted on a clean increase, with budget talks kept separate.

I dont want to consider emergency options, Yellen said Sunday. What to if Congress fails to meet its responsibility there is simply no good options.

The federal government reached the statutory cap on borrowing in January and the Treasury has since been using special accounting measures to make cash available. Those measures could run out as soon as June 1, Yellen told Congress last week.

Biden said on Friday he wasnt yet prepared to invoke the 14th Amendment to avert a breach of the debt ceiling, but didnt rule out the possible executive action.

Ive not gotten there yet, Biden said when asked about the possibility in an interview with MSNBC.

Invoking the amendment would seem certain to prompt a high-stakes legal fight that risks roiling markets. Yellen was dismissive of the idea during a 2021 debt-ceiling standoff, saying it would be disastrous if the administration needed to consider it.

On Sunday, she repeatedly sought to turn the onus to Congress, where the Republican-led House in April passed legislation calling for an increase in the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion enough to prevent a default until next March 31 in exchange for $4.8 trillion in budget cuts. Senate Democrats have put forward a bill calling for an unconditional debt cap increase.

It simply is unacceptable for Congress to threaten economic calamity for American households and the global financial system as the cost of raising the debt ceiling and getting agreement on budget priorities, Yellen said.

One effective way to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion is through meditation.

For more than 20 years, as a clinical psychologist, research scientist and educator, I taught meditation to students and clinical patients and took a deep dive into the research literature. My recent book, The Self-Talk Workout: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism and Transform the Voice in Your Head, highlights much of that research.

I learned even more when I evaluated mental health programs and psychology classes that train participants in mindfulness and compassion-based techniques.

Defining mindfulness and self-compassion

Mindfulness means purposefully paying attention to the present moment with an attitude of interest or curiosity rather than judgment.

Self-compassion involves being kind and understanding toward yourself, even during moments of suffering or failure.

Both are associated with greater well-being.

But dont confuse self-compassion with self-esteem or self-centeredness, or assume that it somehow lowers your standards, motivation or productivity. Instead, research shows that self-compassion is linked with greater motivation, less procrastination and better relationships.

Be patient when starting a meditation practice

I didnt like meditation the specific practice sessions that train mindfulness and self-compassion the first time I tried it as a college student in the late 90s. I felt like a failure when my mind wandered, and I interpreted that as a sign that I couldnt do it.

In both my own and others meditation practices, Ive noticed that the beginning is often rocky and full of doubt, resistance and distraction.

But what seem like impediments can actually enhance meditation practice, because the mental work of handling them builds strength.

For the first six months I meditated, my body and mind were restless. I wanted to get up and do other tasks. But I didnt. Eventually it became easier to notice my urges and thoughts without acting upon them. I didnt get as upset with myself.

After about a year of consistent meditation, my mind seemed more organized and controllable; it no longer got stuck in self-critical loops. I felt a sense of kindness or friendliness toward myself in everyday moments, as well as during joyful or difficult experiences. I enjoyed ordinary activities more, such as walking or cleaning.

It took a while to understand that anytime you sit down and try to meditate, thats meditation. It is a mental process, rather than a destination.

How meditation works on the mind

Just having a general intention to be more mindful or self-compassionate is unlikely to work.

Most programs shown to make meaningful differences involve at least seven sessions. Studies show these repeated workouts improve attention skills and decrease rumination, or repeated negative thinking.

They also lessen self-criticism, which is linked to numerous mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Meditation is not just about sustaining your attention its also about shifting and returning your focus after the distraction. The act of shifting and refocusing cultivates attention skills and decreases rumination.

Trying repeatedly to refrain from self-judgment during the session will train your mind to be less self-critical.

An interconnected group of brain regions called the default mode network is strikingly affected by meditation. Much of this networks activity reflects repetitive thinking, such as a rehash of a decadeslong tension with your sister. Its most prominent when youre not doing much of anything. Activity of the default mode network is related to rumination, unhappiness and depression.

Research shows that just one month of meditation reduces the noise of the default mode network. The type of meditation practice doesnt seem to matter.

Establishing the formal practice

A common misconception about mindfulness is that its simply a way to relax or clear the mind. Rather, it means intentionally paying attention to your experiences in a nonjudgmental way.

Consider meditation the formal part of your practice that is, setting aside a time to work on specific mindfulness and self-compassion techniques.

Cultivating mindfulness with meditation often involves focusing on paying attention to the breath. A common way to start practice is to sit in a comfortable place and bring attention to your breathing, wherever you feel it most strongly.

At some point, probably after a breath or two, your mind will wander to another thought or feeling. As soon as you notice that, you can bring your attention back to the breath and try not to judge yourself for losing focus for five to 10 minutes.

When I was just getting started meditating, I would have to redirect my attention dozens or hundreds of times in a 20-to-30-minute session. Counting 10 breaths, and then another 10, and so on, helped me link my mind to the task of paying attention to my breathing.

The most well-established technique for cultivating self-compassion is called loving-kindness meditation. To practice, you can find a comfortable position, and for at least five minutes, internally repeat phrases such as, May I be safe. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.

When your attention wanders, you can bring it back with as little self-judgment as possible and continue repeating the phrases. Then, if you like, offer the same well wishes to other people or to all beings.

Every time you return your focus to your practice without judging, youre flexing your mental awareness, because you noticed your mind wandered. You also improve your capacity to shift attention, a valuable anti-rumination skill, and your nonjudgment, an antidote to self-criticism.

These practices work. Studies show that brain activity during meditation results in less self-judgment, depression and anxiety and results in less rumination.

Mindfulness also occurs when you tune into present-moment sensations, such as tasting your food or washing the dishes.

An ongoing routine of formal and informal practice can transform your thinking. And again, doing it once in a while wont help as much. Its like situps: A single situp isnt likely to strengthen your abdominal muscles, but doing several sets each day will.

Meditation reduces self-criticism

Studies show that mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation reduce self-criticism, which leads to better mental health, including lower levels of depression, anxiety and PTSD. After an eight-week mindfulness program, participants experienced less self-judgment. These changes were linked with decreases in depression and anxiety.

One final point: Beginning meditators may find that self-criticism gets worse before it gets better.

After years or decades of habitual self-judgment, people often judge themselves harshly about losing focus during meditation. But once students get through the first few weeks of practice, the self-judgment begins to abate, both about meditation and about oneself in general.

As one of my students recently said after several weeks of mindfulness meditation: I am more stable, more able to detach from unhelpful thoughts and can do all of this while being a little more compassionate and loving toward myself.

Rachel Goldsmith Turow, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Population Health Science and Policy, Seattle University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A new study from the University of Zurich found that couples who engage in unhealthy behaviors together, such as drinking, smoking cigarettes and binge-watching TV, felt closer to each other the following day compared to couples that engaged in healthy activities.

The study is an example of symptom-system fit theory, which suggests that problematic behaviors are maintained by the social system (e.g., the couple relationship) in which they occur because they help promote positive relationship functioning in the short-term.

The heart of an intimate relationship is two people creating their own little world together, explains Dr. Alexandra Solomon, therapist, author and host of the podcast Reimagining Love. A couples system becomes a sort of microculture and there are rituals, traditions and language that create the core of the we. The relationship itself is almost a third entity. Nothing creates a more powerful sense of we than things that are transgressive or secretive, or things we do together, but the rest of the world probably shouldnt know about.

Researchers analyzed data from three daily life studies of unhealthy behavior in couples. In the first, they found that couples were more likely to report high closeness and relationship satisfaction on days on which they smoked more cigarettes together. 

In the second study, participants used an activity monitoring device and researchers learned that those who demonstrated more shared sedentary behavior were linked with increased closeness and relationship satisfaction in inactive couples with excess weight or obesity. However, the third study, in which participants recorded the food they ate each day, did not find any differences in daily closeness of relationship satisfaction on days on which couples reported more or less shared unhealthy food consumption.

There is an element of pleasure involved in indulging together or escaping together, says Solomon, who was not part of the study. If we see that as the core of the ritual, I think that couples can work together to figure out what other avenues are available to co-create the experience of pleasure or leaving the rest of the world behind.

To do that, Solomon encourages couples to spend time discussing what they were initially seeking in those problematic behaviors, whether it was an escape, pleasure or avoiding roles and responsibilities by being more playful in nature. Once theyve discerned the origin of their behavior, they can work together to discover new, healthier activities that may fill that void, such as exploring new elements of their erotic connection or new physical adventures, such as rock climbing, hiking or taking a ballroom dance class.

From there, it creates a wide open space of possibility, she says. They can work together, which is the heart of intimacy, to create something fun and different that serves them better.