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New York Today

New York Today: Readers Try a Week of Meditation

Making room for mindfulness.Credit...Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

Good morning on this radiant Friday.

How can stressed-out, busy New Yorkers incorporate meditation into their daily routines? And can it make a difference?

To explore those questions, we asked 13 readers who have little to no meditation experience to try it for 20 minutes each morning last week and share their feedback.

The 10 participants who completed the project, who ranged in age from 25 to 82, included students, lawyers, nonprofit professionals and business consultants from across the city.

To get started, we asked them to follow The Times’s How to Meditate guide. We also had two meditation experts answer questions: Holly Duckworth, who often works with top executives across North America, and Tara Brach, the author of “Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha.” And we sent daily text reminders, too.

(Please note: This was not a scientific study, and results can vary from person to person.)

Here is how a daily dose of meditation helped a few of your fellow New York Today readers:

A boost of energy

Michael Arcati, 41, a lawyer from Forest Hills, Queens, said he’s usually relaxed over the weekend, but by 10 a.m. on Monday, he feels a “tidal wave of short-fused projects and family responsibilities.” He, like other participants, was skeptical about the benefits of meditation. Two days into the project, he said, he noticed that his frequent stress headaches had disappeared and he no longer needed his afternoon power nap. At the end of the week, he told us, meditation was a “great stress reliever” and he got better with practice.

Anxiety control

Erin A. Paul, 30, a musician from the Bronx, said she often has trouble concentrating. Last Thursday, she was playing the French horn at a concert when, she said, she experienced a panic attack. But her meditation practice had helped her through it, she said. “I was able to keep breathing in a methodical way, and focus my mind on the task at hand rather than allowing myself to go down the path of ‘what’s going to happen next? Am I going to barf during this concert and ruin it?’” She said she plans to continue meditating three to four times per week.

Stress relief

Erilia Wu, 29, is a public health researcher who moved to Sunnyside, Queens, from China in 2014. Like many of our participants, she said she is under a lot of pressure at her job. Before the meditation project began, she had ended a two-year relationship and was “devastated,” she said. But during a meditation session on Tuesday, when thoughts of her ex began to surface, she was able to stop and refocus. “It was 15 minutes of calmness that I could use more often.” She plans to fit small meditation sessions into her schedule.

Help managing pain

A few days before she started meditating, Lola Guerrero, 25, a choreographer and theater director living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, had hip surgery. The meditation sessions, she said, helped her “maintain a calm relationship” with how she felt physically. She spent most of the week in bed, she said. Practicing meditation allowed her to transform her situation “into something constructive and eye-opening.”

Those experiences were only a handful of the stories we heard from participants. We’d like to also thank: Judith Caporale of Tudor City; Mary Li Hsu of Lower Manhattan; Sam Liff of Gravesend, Brooklyn; Carolyn Loeb of Ridgewood, Queens; Jonathan Maldonado of the Bronx; Casey Noel of the Upper West Side; Dara Silverman and Sharene Williams of Kensington, Brooklyn; and Jane Wolff of Brooklyn Heights.

Stay tuned for our next hands-on project with readers (and yes, we will be looking for volunteers).

Here’s what else is happening:

Take a deep breath, exhale, and enjoy: It’s a bright and sunny Friday.

It’s still mid-November, though, so don’t expect too much. The high is 49 and the wind could make the morning commute a little chilly.

There’s rain up ahead this weekend. Enjoy the blue skies while you can.

The federal corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey ended in a mistrial. [New York Times]

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Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey outside Federal District Court in Newark on Thursday.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency will allow DACA applicants whose renewal permits were rejected because of mail delays to resubmit their paperwork. [New York Times]

A Democratic incumbent in Queens lost her seat on New York City Council to a Republican, a vocal critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio. [New York Times]

More than half of the city’s schools targeted for improvement as part of the Renewal program have fallen short of their graduation rate goals. [New York Times]

A mistrial was also declared in the case of Norman Seabrook, the former head of the New York City correction officers’ union. [New York Times]

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Prosecutors argued that Norman Seabrook steered $20 million from the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association into a hedge fund in exchange for kickbacks.Credit...Holly Pickett for The New York Times

The pay gap between the city’s airport workers and their peers in New Jersey is about to widen again, and union leaders are looking for ways to bridge it. [New York Times]

The city is planning to create a mobile push alert that would go out when a person is killed or seriously hurt in a hit-and-run incident. [New York Daily News]

Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “The Outing Left Her Hungry

For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.

Visit the exhibition “Rodin at the Brooklyn Museum: The Body in Bronze,” which contains 58 Rodin statues, at the Brooklyn Museum. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. [$16]

An interactive performance, Hercules in Mott Haven, at the Mott Haven Library in the Bronx. 5:30 p.m. [Free]

An evening of dance, Dance on a Shoestring, at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in the East Village. 7 p.m. [$15]

A discussion about mafia lifestyle with the writers Frank DiMatteo and Chris Chiarmonte at the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn Heights. 7:15 p.m. [Free]

Islanders at Lightning, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Rangers at Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Knicks at Raptors, 7:30 p.m. (MSG). Net host Jazz, 7:30 p.m. (YES).

Watch “The New York Times Close Up,” featuring The Times’s Brian Rosenthal and other guests. Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on CUNY-TV.

Alternate-side parking remains in effect until Nov. 23.

Weekend travel hassles: Check subway disruptions and a list of street closings.

Saturday

Bring your kids to the “Three Bears Holiday Bash” variety show at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park. 1 p.m. [$8 children, $12 adults]

A performance of Kunqu, traditional Chinese theater, at Flushing Town Hall in Queens. 1:30 p.m. [$16]

A performance of the opera “La Traviata” at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help school in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 3 p.m. [$26]

A dramatic reading of Eugene O’Neill’s “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” at the St. George Library Center in Staten Island. 6 p.m. [Free]

Devils at Jets, 3 p.m. (MSG). Islanders at Hurricanes, 5 p.m. (MSG+).

Sunday

Learn how to identify waterfowl at the South Beach fishing peer at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk and Beach on Staten Island. 9 a.m. [Free]

Dress your pup and head to the Dog Day Harvest Costume Party and Parade in Washington Square Park. 11 a.m. [Free]

Visit more than 30 artist studios at the Open Studios Weekend at various locations in Park Slope and Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn. Noon to 5 p.m. [Free]

A screening of the documentary “Ex Libris: The New York Public Library” at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. 2 and 6 p.m. [$15]

Giants host Chiefs, 1 p.m. (CBS). Nets host Warriors, 6 p.m. (YES). Rangers host Senators, 7 p.m. (MSG).

For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

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Are the Catskills upstate?Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

What area is considered upstate New York?

We’ve heard a few definitions.

Among the 10 regional economic development councils established by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2010, there’s a North Country that touches the border with Canada and a Southern Tier just north of Pennsylvania.

Some argue that upstate New York is anywhere north of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s commuter rail lines.

We’ve even heard snarky Lower Manhattan residents say upstate lies above 14th Street.

So we ask you: What do you consider to be upstate New York? Where does it start? Let us know in the comments or send us an email to nytoday@nytimes.com. Include your name, age and the neighborhood in which you live. We may contact you for possible inclusion in a column.

New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.

For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com, or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra Levine and Jonathan Wolfe, on Twitter.

You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.

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