There probably isn’t anything I find more powerful or helpful than a pause. Stopping and taking a deep breath when you’re stressed, angry, impatient, or frustrated can keep you from (a) saying things that you wished you hadn’t said, (b) sending emails you wished you hadn’t sent, (c) doing things that you wish you hadn’t
I’ve recently been asked to say, in one sentence, my advice to people getting into mindfulness. There are so many things I would like to say that parsing it down to one sentence seemed like quite a challenge. To help me and (hopefully) you in the process, I will share the advice that I’ve been given
Managing your energy throughout the day will determine if you feel good, get your work done, and have enough get-up-and-go left over to have fun with your family and friends after work. Believe it or not, your energy level is one of the only things you have control over. Some behaviors decrease your energy (like
Our life is only lived in moments. And, I have discovered that some of the most important moments (if such a thing exists) are the very first moments of the day. A long time ago, I heard to try to be mindful from the moment you awake. After trying that a few times, I thought
Feeling a little frantic lately? Needing a little peace in your day? Well, I have just the thing for you. There is a new book out called Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World. It is written by Mark Williams, who is a wonderful mindfulness teacher and researcher that I met
Wouldn’t you know a Google engineer would write one of the clearest, most straightforward, easy-to-compute books on mindfulness that I’ve read in a long time. Actually it’s a book on mindfulness and emotional intelligence based on the seven week course being taught at Google called “Search Inside Yourself.” Mindfulness is like having a search engine
Over the years of defining mindfulness for people just being introduced to the term and the practice of meditation, I have noticed a change in my explanations. As my own understanding of mindfulness has deepened and changed me, my instructions have taken a decidedly softer and kinder portrayal of this way of being and sensing the
It’s the second week of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program and some people are wondering why on earth I am asking them to do the body scan every day (a formal mindfulness exercise that asks people to systematically bring attention to their body from head to toe). All kinds of comments are made after we
But Maryam Fakhradeen from the University of Missouri-Kansas City won the book “Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice” by posting her comment about doing the three minute meditation. She said “Helped a LOT; I knew I was tense but didn’t realize I was THAT tense until I was doing the exercise. Love
Meditation is like taking a good friend to a coffee shop and getting to know her better, only without the coffee and the good friend is you. Just sit down with yourself and bring your open, curious attention to what is going on with you. Notice what thoughts are passing through your mind, what feelings are
