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 learning new mindfulness exercises & tips!”

It’s amazing what you notice when you simply bring your attention to your body, your feelings, and your thoughts.  When you check in with yourself, you might find tension or sadness or anger or happiness or peace.  Things could feel pleasant or unpleasant or there might not be much of a feeling at all.  Mindfulness is the tool that helps us to pay attention with curiosity and kindness so that no matter what we find when we look, we can be with it without reactivity.  Hey, then you can relax. No need to struggle with what’s happening.  We are just looking in to see what’s there.

Take a few breaths and, voila!  In a moment or two something else is happening and we can relax around that too.  Mindfulness helps us to sit beside our experiences as well as be in the middle of our experiences at the same time.  This ability to abide with our lives can come in real handy, because, as you know, life is filled with ups-and-downs coming at us constantly and mindfulness lets us ride the waves.

Listening to NPR this morning, the benefits of meditation practice are even being picked up on by business schools around the country—from Harvard to  Michigan’s Ross School of Business.  The bottom line is that “slowing down” (taking a three minute breathing break) helps them be more effective.  Listen to the whole story here.