Mindfulness Articles

Article / Updated 10-23-2023

Just as the aim of mindfulness isn’t to relax the body, though this sometimes happens, so the aim of mindfulness isn’t to calm the mind, though this sometimes happens too. Your mind is like the ocean – occasionally wild, and at other times calm. Sometimes your mind goes from thought to thought without stopping to rest. At other times, your thoughts come slower and have more of a space between them. Mindfulness isn’t so much about changing the rate of your thoughts, but about noticing the thoughts arising in the first place. Listen to your thoughts with mindfulness Everything man-made around you was originally a thought in someone’s head. Many people consider thought to be all-powerful. All your words, all your action and activities – everything is motivated by thought. So, being aware of the kind of thoughts going through your mind makes sense. The brain easily gets into habitual patterns, as your thoughts travel their paths within the brain. Each time you have a particular thought, or carry out a particular action, you slightly increase the chance of having the same thought again. Through repeated thinking or action, the connection between neurons strengthens. If you aren’t mindful of these thoughts or actions, you may have all sorts of negative, untrue, unhelpful thoughts or behaviors that influence your life without you even being aware of them or questioning the truth or validity of them. Mindfulness encourages you to watch your thoughts, emotions and actions; then you’re better able to notice unhelpful thoughts and question their truth. Use mindfulness to make better decisions Every moment of every day you make decisions, whether you’re aware of them or not. At some point, you’ll decide to stop and do something else. More significant decisions you have to make have a bigger impact, and a ‘good’ decision is highly desirable. All that you do and have at the moment is partly due to the decisions you made in the past. Awareness of your body can help you make better decisions – a gut feeling is a signal from your belly telling you what to do and has been found in some experiments to be faster and more accurate than logical thinking. Research shows a mass of nerves in the gut that’s like a second brain. This intuition is routinely used by top CEOs of corporations to make critical decisions. Come to your senses through mindfulness One of the key ways of becoming more mindful and of calming the mind is to connect with your senses – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. People’s use of the word ‘sense’ shows they appreciate and value being in touch with our organs of perception. You know innately the value of connecting to your senses if you want to make a sensible decision. What is the benefit of purposefully connecting with your senses? Well, if you aren’t paying attention to the stimulation coming through your five senses you’re only paying attention to your thoughts and emotions. You’re not aware of anything else. Your thoughts are mainly based on your experiences from the past, from memory. You may imagine something new, but on the whole, your mind reworks past experiences, or projects ideas into the future based on your past experiences. Emotions are also very much influenced by your thoughts. So, without paying attention to your senses, you’re stuck with your own thoughts and emotions based on the past instead of the present. By purposefully connecting with one of your senses, say, touch, you begin naturally to calm your mind a little. In mindfulness you can begin by focusing on your breathing. Focus on your belly stretching or your chest expanding or perhaps the movement of the air as it enters and leaves your body. By focusing on a particular sense, in this case the sense of touch, you’re focusing your attention. Rather than your mind wandering wherever it pleases, you’re gently training it to stay on one object, namely your breathing. By coming to your senses mindfully you are Training your attention to focus. Being kind to yourself when your mind wanders off. Realizing that you’ve a certain amount of choice about what you pay attention to. Understanding that you can deliberately choose to shift attention away from thinking and into the senses. Calming your mind. Create an attentive mind with mindfulness Attention is essential in achieving anything. If you can’t pay attention, you can’t get the job done, whatever the job is. Mindfulness trains your attention by sustaining your attention on one thing, or by switching the type of attention from time to time. There are several types of attention: Narrow attention is focused and sharp, like the beam of a laser. You may use this type of attention when chopping vegetables or writing a letter. Wide attention is more open and spacious, like a floodlight. When you’re driving, ideally your attention is open so you’d notice if a car moved closer to you from the side, or if children were playing up ahead. Outer attention is attention to the outer world through your senses. Inner attention is an awareness of your thoughts and feelings. Observer or witness awareness is your capacity to know what type of attention you’re using. For example, if you’re drawing a picture, you’re aware that your attention is narrow. If you’re walking through the countryside, you’re aware that your attention is wide.

Article / Updated 07-07-2023

As with a lot of practices, mindfulness takes time to learn, understand, and incorporate into a daily routine. As with anything new, it will have its share of difficulties but they can all be overcome. Finding the time for formal mindfulness practice One of the most difficult things about mindfulness practice is finding the time to get into the habit of doing it. Like all daily habits, such as brushing your teeth, you will have had to learn how to get into it. Plan a time when you can reasonably fit it in to your daily schedule. Find whatever works for you. Try building it into your routine slowly and if you miss a couple of days, don’t berate yourself either. The habit will come. Finding the time for informal mindfulness practice You can bring informal mindfulness to the daily activities you were already doing. For example, you could try doing things with the opposite hand like brushing your teeth, showering, cooking and even cleaning. Make sure you give your full attention to the task at hand and remember that mindfulness is not about multitasking. Just let your mindful awareness be in the present moment. Staying awake during meditation Staying awake can also be quite a challenge when practicing mindfulness meditation. Everyone falls asleep sometimes, even Buddhist monks! Try experimenting with different times of day to practice or even try lying on the floor instead of your bed as long as you are comfortable. Avoid meditating last thing before bed as you will be more likely to fall asleep. You can also try changing your posture, for example, try the body scan meditation sitting on a chair rather than lying on a bed. Make sure you always get enough sleep and have a good sleep routine, otherwise you will always fall asleep in meditation if you are over tired. Keeping interested If you have got into a mindfulness routine and are comfortable in it, that is great! However, if the mindfulness you are doing always feels the same and continues to make you sleepy, it might be time to mix it up a bit. Try practicing with a friend, a local group, at a different time of day and try mixing up the meditation exercises you are doing. External distractions Distractions can be annoying, especially for a beginner. Try and find a quiet place to meditate if you can for at least ten minutes. If you can’t avoid the distraction, try opening up your attention toward it for a little while. Notice the volume, pitch and quality of the sounds you can hear. By opening up your attention you are no longer fighting the distraction and getting annoyed, you are allowing and accepting it, which is the essence of mindfulness. Becoming uncomfortable As you are sitting or lying still for quite long periods of time, you may start to experience discomfort. Discomfort is actually a great way to learn mindfulness, because mindfulness is about moving toward difficulties and accepting them. You may have itching, throbbing, stiffness, tension or some other sensation. Try bringing an attitude of curiosity to that sensation. What is the location, the shape and the color of it? Be as accepting and as curious as you can. Becoming bored Being bored is connected to low levels of energy and agitation with high levels of energy. Mindfulness is about a present moment awareness and therefore is about noticing both these states. Try bringing a sense of curiosity to your boredom. It is good to be aware and curious of your boredom when practicing, as otherwise it can prevent you from continuing with your meditation. Odd experiences At some point you may have an odd experience in your mindfulness experience. This could be feeling like you are floating, an odd dream-like state which one of my clients has reported feeling in the past, feeling itchy or restless and feeling very heavy. These are normal and will pass. If you can, allow the experience to unfold unless it gets too much. If it gets too much, you can stop and take a break and then go back to it. You are in control, not anyone else. If it helps, you can consider working this through with a mindfulness therapist. Difficult emotions arising Mindfulness is a powerful way of dealing with emotions. Because mindfulness shines a light and brings to the surface your present moment experience, strong emotions that you may have suppressed may become much more noticeable. If a strong, difficult emotion surfaces in your mindfulness practice such as deep sadness or severe anger, try being with the emotion instead of suppressing it. All emotions really want is to be felt. Then they will pass away just like every other experience. This may be easier said than done of course, but avoiding strong emotions just gives them power and influence over you. Difficult thoughts It is important to remember that your thoughts are not facts, they are just merely thoughts. In mindfulness people deal with thoughts using decentering techniques. This means we take a step back and see our thoughts as if we were an observer of them rather than attached to them. There are several ways of doing this like pinning your thoughts on clouds and watching them pass by, imagining you are on a train and watching the scenery out of the window and pinning your thoughts on it. Difficulties can be really disturbing when you avoid them and run away from them, but once you start to move toward them, the more they lose their hold over you.

Article / Updated 07-05-2023

Distractions – whether internal or external – are a part of mindfulness meditation. They go hand in hand. If you find yourself frustrated, criticizing the distraction and getting annoyed, feel it, let it be part of the mindfulness practice, and gently guide your attention back to the breathing or the focus of your meditation. Getting frustrated can be a mind pattern and watching and noticing the frustration, rather than reacting to it, may gradually change the pattern. Being distracted during meditation is a very common experience, a part of the learning process. Expect some frustration and then see how to cope with it rather than trying to run away from it. Reduce external distractions to a minimum. Here are a few precautions to take: Switch off or unplug all your phones. Turn off all televisions, computers and pretty much anything electronic. Ask anyone else in your home to give you some quiet time if possible. The very effort you make to reduce distractions can have a beneficial effect on your practice. If you still get distracted, remember that everyday events always get in the way of the practice – listen to the sounds and let them become part of the practice rather than blocking them out. You can manage internal distractions in the following ways: If you need to deal with something particularly urgent or important, do it before you start meditating. Your mind can then be at rest during the meditation. Watch the stream of thoughts that arise in your mind like clouds that pass across the sky. See the thoughts as separate from you and note what effect that separation has. Welcome your thoughts for a while. Notice how you feel. Be patient. Remember that it’s natural for the mind to think. Label each thought with a word such as "thinking" or "planning" and then gently invite the attention back to your breathing. How to handle unusual experiences during meditation Meditation isn’t about getting a certain experience but about experiencing whatever is happening right now. Blissful experiences come and go. Painful experiences come and go. You just need to keep watching without holding on to either. The practice itself does the rest. Meditation is far, far simpler than people think. In meditation you may sometimes experience floating, flashing lights, flying pigs or pretty much anything the mind can imagine. Whatever unusual feelings arise, remember that these are just experiences and come back to the focus of the meditation. In mindfulness you don’t need to analyze these experiences – simply let them go, as far as you can, and then come back to the senses. Learn to relax for mindfulness The word relax originally comes from the Latin word to loosen or open again. Relax is such a common word. "Just relax," people say. If only it were so simple. How do you relax during meditation? Essentially by learning to accept the tension you’re currently experiencing, rather than fighting with it. Consider this scenario: You feel tense. Your shoulders are hunched up and you can’t let go. What do you do? Try the following steps if tension arises during your meditation: Become aware of the tension. Get a sense of its location in your body. Notice whether the tension has an associated color, shape, size or texture. Allow yourself to be curious about it rather than trying to get rid of the tension. Feel right into the center of the tension and breathe into it. Feel the tense part of the body as you simultaneously feel your natural breathing. Just be with the tension as it is. Notice if you have any feeling or desire to get rid of the tension. As best you can, let go of that too and see if you can accept the sense of tension a little bit more than you already do. Fighting to let go of tension just leads to more stress and tension. That’s because trying implies effort and if the tension doesn’t disappear, you can end up more frustrated and angry. A warm, gentle acceptance of the feeling is far more effective. Meditation can lead to very deep relaxation. However, relaxation is not the aim of meditation – meditation is ultimately an aimless activity. Develop patience with mindfulness Meditation is patience training. To commit to connect with the breath or the senses requires patience. If you feel impatient in your meditation practice but continue to sit there, you’re beginning to train the patience muscle. You may be impatient for results if you’re a beginner to mindfulness. You’ve heard of all the benefits of meditation and so you want some. That’s fair enough. However, because meditation requires patience, when you begin to practice regularly, you’ll see that the more impatient you are, the fewer "results" you get. Decide how long you’re going to practice mindfulness meditation and stick to it. Take the meditation moment by moment and see what unfolds. You spend all your life trying to get somewhere and achieve something. Meditation is a special time for you to let go of all that and just be in the moment. As well as requiring patience, meditation develops it. If you can’t cope with being still and feeling your breath for ten minutes, try five minutes. If that’s too much, try two minutes. If that’s too much, try ten seconds. Begin with however long you can manage, and build it up, step by step. The most important thing is to keep at it, practice as regularly as you can, and gradually increase the time you can practice for.

Article / Updated 06-06-2023

The digital age has brought huge benefits: from saving lives in emergencies, to sharing information with the world, the advantages are countless. But without mindfulness, living in the digital age can drive you crazy! If you don’t turn your phone or computer off from time to time, your attention can be completely hijacked by websites, incoming messages, social media, games and more. Gadgets are so compelling. If you think that the digital age is getting too much, check out the suggestions supplied here to get yourself back in control. Assess your level of technology and internet addiction Nowadays, people seem to use their phones a lot. A recent survey of over 4,000 users found that . . . Average smartphone users check their phones 47 times a day. 85 percent of smartphone users will check their phone when speaking with friends and family. 80 percent of smartphone users check their phone within an hour of waking up or going to sleep. Almost half of all smartphone users have tried to limit their usage in the past. When you find you’re spending more time on your phone than interacting with real people, it may be time to reassess your phone usage. Smartphone addiction is often fueled by Internet overuse, as it’s often the games, apps and online worlds that are most compelling. Here’s a quiz you can use to get an idea of just how addicted you are to your phone: You’re doing some work and a phone rings in another room. Do you: Take no notice: it must be someone else’s; your phone is normally off. Ignore it and check it later. Walk casually to pick it up. Run to pick up the phone, sometimes tripping over or stubbing your toe in the process, and getting annoyed by anyone in the way. You’re planning a holiday, but the hotel has no Wi-Fi and no phone signal. Will you go? Yes, why not? Oh, I’d love the chance to get a break from my devices. Heaven! Probably wouldn’t go there. No way! How can I have a vacation without my phone and/or laptop – that doesn’t make sense. I need a good phone signal and superfast Internet 24/7. Where’s your phone right now? My what? Oh, phone . . . Err, no idea. I’m not sure if I have a phone actually. Somewhere around here. In this room. It’s right here – my beautiful, precious phone. What do you use your phone for? Phone calls, of course. What else is it for? Calls and texts from time to time. Mainly emergencies. Call and texts. And picking up emails sometimes too. A few pictures. Everything. It’s my life! Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, email, texting, photos, video, playing games, fitness, Skype. Oh yes, and ocassionally phone calls too. Do you keep your phone nearby as you sleep? No way! Sometimes. Or just for my alarm clock. Don’t really check last thing at night or first thing in the morning. Quite often. Send the odd text and maybe have a peek at my messages first thing in the morning too. Every night. I sleep with my phone. It’s the last thing I look at before falling asleep and the first thing I see when I wake up. It’s a compulsion. Add up your score: Each number is assigned that same point value. For example, if your answer was #2, then you award yourself two points. 5–10 points: you’re not really addicted to your phone at all – you’re probably too busy meditating. 11–15 points: you like your phone, but not that much. You’re still in control and can live comfortably without it. 16–18 points: you’re pretty dependent on your phone for many things. You might like to take a little break from your phone from time to time. 19–20 points: you love your phone. What if you lose your phone? Or it gets stolen? Make sure you have some moments in the day where you take a break from your device and do some mindful walking or stretching, or sit and meditate away from your phone. If you feel that your phone usage is out of control, try some of the tips in the section below to help, or consider getting professional help if you feel overwhelmed. Use mindfulness to get back in control of yourself in the digital age If you’ve discovered that you’re using digital devices to the point that they’re having a negative impact on your work or social life, it’s time to get back in control. You can manage overuse of digital devices in many ways. It’s not as hard as you may think. In fact, once you start using some of these strategies, you may find that you don’t even want to look at your mobile devices. Here are some techniques that you can try: Engage in other activities. You can participate in a new hobby regularly, such as knitting, gardening or playing an instrument. By paying mindful attention to your hobby and keeping your phones and computers out of the way, you’ll develop greater mindfulness. And you can also get on with a few household chores – you’ll feel good once they’re done. Again, keep your devices switched off and try focusing on the chore – it can be soothing and enjoyable to polish the dining table or clear your desk with full attention and a little smile. Make good use of flight mode, or switch your phone off. When you have an important task to do, try to keep your phone off or in flight mode. That way, you can’t be disturbed. The iPhone even has a new mode called ‘do not disturb’. This prevents calls and alerts from coming through. Set boundaries. Just before you go to bed, it’s important not to look at screens too much. Television, laptops and phones emit a light which signals to your body that it’s still daytime. Then you may have trouble falling asleep and may wake up tired. Also, you may not want to be disturbed at other specific times in the day. For example, when walking through the park keep your phone off and enjoy nature and the people around you. And obviously, when you’re with friends or family or eating a meal, switch your phone off or leave it out of the way. If distancing yourself from your phone sounds like a challenge, just try it once and see how that goes. Eventually, it can feel freeing to leave your gadgets behind. Switch off notifications. Does your computer beep each time an email comes through? Does your phone make a noise each time someone chats to you on social media or sends you a message? If so, you can end up with perpetual distraction. Every time you’re doing one task, you’re distracted by another. The more you keep switching your attention, the less your mindful awareness develops. Turn off as many notifications as you can. This way, you can focus on doing whatever you need to do with awareness. Be kind to yourself when you slip up. Ever had that feeling of frustration when you’ve spent the last hour or so just surfing the Internet rather than finishing your work? I have. But when you do eventually catch yourself doing this, don’t beat yourself up too much. It’s okay. Everyone has their downtime and gets distracted. Say to yourself, “It’s okay. Let me take a break from my computer and phone and have a little mindful walk. I’ll then come back with a smile and get on with my Everyone gets too caught up with the barrage of technology nowadays.” If you feel you need more help to reduce your Internet usage, consider an evidence-based therapy like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to ease your compulsive behavior and change your perception about internet usage. Professional help can offer alternative ways of dealing with the underlying emotions and thoughts that may be fueling your smartphone use. Use technology to enhance mindful awareness If you’re looking for a way to enhance your mindfulness, you may want to avoid technology altogether – and that’s understandable. Use of technology can distract your mind. But for you, using digital devices may be part of your everyday life. Switching them off for an extended period may seem impossible to achieve. In such a case, you can make good use of mindfulness apps, websites and more. You can download and use apps for mobile devices like phones and tablets. Simply search for mindfulness or meditation in the app stores and you’ll find lots of resources – take your pick. New apps come out every week! Popular ones at the moment are Insight Timer, Calm or Headspace. But there are many more. If you use social media a lot, following people or organizations, such as Shamash Alidina, that offer mindful images, tweets and resources may help you. You can also use software to help you focus mindfully on your work. One free piece of software that is helpful is called Self Control. It’s available free for Apple Mac computers, and there are equivalent software products for Windows PCs. Don’t be discouraged. Even seasoned mindfulness practitioners need technology tools to help manage technology usage.

Article / Updated 12-29-2021

Mindfulness is simple in essence — it’s about cultivating present-moment awareness more than anything else — but the difficulty is in practicing mindfulness consistently. This article gives you a series of short, easy ways of integrating the principles of mindfulness into your everyday life. Don’t underestimate their value – they may take relatively little time and seem overly simplistic, but many of these tips have been proven to be effective. Try them out for yourself and hold back your judgment until you’ve given the tools a try for at least a few weeks. Spend some quiet time every day for more mindful living Having some quiet time every day is the most important tip for mindful living. The importance of connecting with some form of mindfulness practice on a daily basis can’t be emphasized enough, preferably for ten minutes or more. By deliberately practicing mindfulness every day, you strengthen your mind’s ability to be more aware and awake. If you want to be more mindful, you need daily training, just as when if you want to become more physically fit, you need to exercise your body on a daily basis. If you only exercised once a week, you wouldn’t benefit as much. Your mind goes back to its original state even more quickly than the body does. To practice mindfulness on a daily basis can involve sitting still and feeling the sensation of your breathing, or doing some yoga, or simply sitting in your garden and looking at the trees and birds with a warm drink before starting work. Here are some ways to ensure that you remember to be mindful every day: Use the principle of habit stacking. Practice at the same time and in the same place every day, following from an existing habit in your routine. This way, mindfulness becomes part of your routine like brushing your teeth, and you’re much more likely to remember. Don’t push yourself too much. If ten minutes seems too long, just do whatever you can manage. You can gradually build up the time for which you practice. Put reminders on your mirror, refrigerator, computer or phone. When you see the reminder, do a little meditation. Connect with people to be more mindful In the first instant that you meet someone, within a split second, you judge them. You may think they're too fat or too thin, you don’t like their hairstyle, they remind you of someone you don’t like. Your mind instantly tries to categorize, which is why first impressions are so important in interviews. The moment you make an initial judgment of a person, you begin to look for evidence to support your theory. If they don't look you in the eye properly, or fail to say thanks, you take these moments as evidence about them, and your opinion becomes more fixed. Then, you create an image in your mind. You think that you know this other person, when all you know are your own judgments of them. When you meet someone, connect with your senses rather than your ideas. Look the person in the eye in a natural way. Listen to what they have to say, rather than thinking about what you’re about to say. Be curious and ask questions rather than imposing your own perceptions so much. See things from the other person’s point of view — what would you be like in that person’s situation? How would you feel, and what would you want? By being less judgmental of others, you’ll also become less judgmental of yourself, and vice versa. Mindfulness is about paying attention with a sense of warmth and kindness, as well as a sense of curiosity and openness. Bring these attitudes to the relationship and see what happens. Enjoy the beauty of nature to be more mindful The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. John Muir Nature has a way of drawing a mindful awareness from you, rather than you forcing yourself to be mindful. Walking among old trees with their branches overhanging the path you’re treading, smelling the scent of freshly cut grass, or listening to the birds sing and the twigs crunching under your feet, you can’t help but be aware in the moment. Gardening is also a wonderful way of connecting with nature and experiencing “flow." Absorb yourself in tasks, such as weeding and planting, and enjoy the fruits of your labors as you see tiny shoots grow into beautiful plants and flowers. If you have a garden or live near a park or a bit of greenery, realize how fortunate you are. Take time to reconnect with mother nature — make time for doing so. Nature is a miraculous living being, and you’re part of that life. As a child you may have loved to play in natural surroundings, jumping in puddles and sliding in mud. With your acute senses, perhaps you were quite happy to explore and observe all day long if permitted. Try reconnecting with a childlike innocence and visit a natural environment, whatever that means to you. In a famous study in a care home, half the elderly folk were given a plant to look after themselves, and the other half were given a plant but told that the nurses would look after it. Those who had responsibility to water and nurture the plants lived significantly longer than the others. The study concluded that responsibility gave the elderly a sense of control, leading to longer life. The study also suggests that not only looking at nature in a passive way, but also growing plants and ensuring that they thrive as best you can, is a healthy and life-enhancing activity to engage in on a regular basis. Change your daily routine for more mindful living Humans are creatures of habit. If you think about the things you’ve done today, they’re probably the same things you’ve done many times before. One way of being more mindful is to change your routine. Yes, you have to get up, get dressed, go to work and so on, but you don’t have to do all that in exactly the same way. And what about the way you spend your free time (if you’re lucky enough to have free time)? Do you always do the same hobbies, watch the same kind of movies, read the same type of books, meet the same sort of people, think the same sort of thoughts? The answer is probably yes. Try changing your routine to boost your mindful awareness. When you’re in your routine lifestyle, your mind goes into a sleep state. You’re less likely to notice the good things happening around you. You’re unable to think creatively. By making just small changes in your routine, your brain wakes up. You gently nudge yourself out of your comfort zone. And in that more awakened state, you’re immediately more mindful. Choose one of these options to help shift out of your automatic-pilot living: Meet up with a friend you haven’t seen for ages. Drive to work without switching on the radio. Pick up a random book next time you’re in a bookshop or library and read a chapter. Try signing up to an evening class to learn a new skill such as painting, photography, or pottery — ideally something that may push you out of your comfort zone a little. Switch around your daily morning routine — maybe have breakfast before having a shower, or vice versa Do a random act of kindness today. Make tea for a coworker. Pick up some litter from the ground. Or even just take extra care of some plants or your pet today. See the wonder of the present moment Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, today is a gift: that’s why it’s called the present. This moment is the only moment you have, and you have it right now. Memories of the past come up in the present moment. Ideas of the future are shaped by past experience and projected into an imagined tomorrow. In reality, this present moment is all that’s available. If you’re currently going through a difficult time, you probably don’t think that the present moment is wonderful at all. That’s okay. You can remember that you don’t have to worry too much about the future and only need to cope with whatever you’re facing here and now. In this sense, being in the present moment is helpful — you don’t need to worry about the future. To really appreciate the present moment, feel your senses. Connect with your sense of sight. Notice the range of different colors in front of you. Reflect on the fact that this experience of color is partly due to a large amount of biochemical reactions rapidly turning into electrical impulses going into your brain, leading to this incredible experience called color. What would it be like to see color for the first time? How would you describe the experience to someone who’d never seen color before? Try looking without naming objects or people – just connect with the bare awareness of light itself. Be grateful you have eyes that are able to see in the first place. Look with the effortless gaze of a child. Another way to really connect with the present is to focus on your breathing. Think these words while breathing in and out, if you find them helpful: Breathing in: "I am in the present moment." Breathing out: "This is a wonderful moment." If you don’t like feeling your breathing, you could try feeling your feet on the floor, listening to the sounds around you or simply gazing at the sky curiously for a few moments. Experiment! Find what you find most enjoyable or engaging. Listen to unpleasant emotions with mindfulness How do you see the wonder of the present moment if you feel down, upset or annoyed? In these situations, don’t try to impose a different emotion on what you’re experiencing. Be in the present moment and open up the emotion as best you can. Give yourself time to feel it rather than immediately running from it. Remember that all emotions have a beginning and an end — try to see the feeling as a temporary visitor. Additionally, see yourself as separate from the emotion. The emotion rises and falls, but you maintain a sense of stability and greater emotional balance. Imagine that someone turns up at your front door and rings the doorbell. You decide to ignore the sound. The bell rings again and again. You get frustrated and try all sorts of ways of distracting yourself from the sound of the doorbell, but you can’t. And all that work distracting yourself means you can’t get on with your day. By simply opening the door and allowing the person ringing the bell to come in, you can stop all your avoidance strategies and do what matters. You’re facing your fears. You’re looking toward the unpleasant emotions rather than running away (which is an understandable response). Moving toward the emotion, without forcing it to go away, often has the effect of dissipating the emotion. The emotion comes in, has a cup of tea or whatever, and off it goes. The emotion just wanted some mindful awareness. The idea is to offer just that — becoming aware of the emotions you spend so much time running away from with a kind, curious, open, non-judgmental awareness, as best you can. Explore and discover what effect this has on negative emotions in the long run, not to get rid of them, but to learn from them. If you practice mindfulness to try to get rid of an emotion, that’s not mindfulness. That’s avoidance, which is the opposite of what we’re trying to cultivate. Avoidance is like putting fuel in the fire of your emotions: They’ll just get stronger. The idea is to allow the emotion space to be in your awareness, acknowledge and learn from it, and then to continue on with whatever matters to you. You are above your emotions as you’re aware of them. You don’t need to let the emotion rule your life. Remember that thoughts are just thoughts If you had the thought, “I’m a flying, pink chimpanzee,” you obviously wouldn’t believe it. That’s a crazy idea. Then why do you believe thoughts like “I’m useless” or “I’ll never get better” or “I can’t go on”? They’re thoughts too, that have just popped into your head. Don’t believe everything you think. Your mind often makes assumptions and inferences that simply aren’t true. “I’m feeling low at the moment” may be true, but “I’ll always be depressed” is not. “I find it annoying when she doesn’t do her chores” may be true, but “She never helps me” is unlikely to be true. Thoughts are just words, images and sounds that pop up in your mind. But most of the time, you get hooked to your thoughts and believe them to be true. But you don’t have to. As you discover how to observe the nature of your mind in mindfulness, you realize from experience that thoughts are always arising in your mind, no matter how much mindful practice you do. Even people who’ve been practicing mindfulness for years have plenty of thoughts. The thoughts aren’t going to stop. You simply need to change your relationship to thoughts. Seeing thoughts as just thoughts rather than facts makes a world of difference. If the thought “I’m pathetic” comes up and you believe whatever arises in your mind, you’re bound to feel low and uneasy. However, if exactly the same thought comes up and you’re mindful of it, you see it as just a thought and not a fact. This takes much of the sting out of the thought, and you’re free to dismiss it and carry on with whatever you’re doing, relatively untouched. This is freedom. Freedom, or peace of mind, isn’t about stopping your thoughts, but seeing thoughts as just thoughts and not giving them too much attention, and not believing them as reality. I believe that reality is contained in the here and now, beyond ideas and concepts. This implies that you’re not your mind — you’re the observer, the silent witness, always complete, whole, and free. If you practice meditation regularly, you begin naturally to take a step back from your thinking. Normally, if you have a thought, you act on it, especially if you aren’t fully conscious of the thought. In meditation, you observe the thought without acting on it. You see your thoughts as a pattern, as energy moving through your mind. Be grateful every day Gratitude is the best attitude! Gratitude is when you discover how to want what you have and not want what you don’t have. Usually, people want what they don’t have and don’t want what they do have. This is bound to lead to a sense of dissatisfaction. You can practice gratitude right now. Millions of people in the world don’t have a single book. Think about the fact that you can read — another skill inaccessible to millions. Gratitude requires mindfulness. Let's say you're cooking. To be grateful of how fortunate you are to have food available to you requires you to be mindful, and that brings you into the present moment. Here are some ways to nurture feelings of gratitude: Sleep with gratitude. Before going to sleep, spend a minute or two thinking about five things you’re grateful for. They can be very simple things, and you don’t have to feel hugely grateful for them. Just go through each one and see what effect that has on your sleep. To enhance the experience, consider why you’re grateful for them too. Say thank you. This is a simple act but very powerful. Saying thank you is both an act of gratitude and kindness — you’re making clear to the other person that you’ve recognized their generosity. Carry out an action to say thanks. Send a thank-you card or a small gift, or do something like making coffee or helping someone with her work. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Try being grateful for things you wouldn’t normally be. For example, when things are difficult, you can be grateful for the challenge the difficulty offers. Be grateful for access to running water or for your ability to hear. Or try being grateful for being alive in the first place — perhaps this is the greatest miracle. Here’s an extract from a wonderful poem by an unknown author, on thanks and gratitude: Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don’t know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow. Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement. Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons. Be thankful when you’re tired and weary, because it means you’ve made a difference. It’s easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfilment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings. Use technology mindfully Just as plants and animals evolve to better survive and thrive in their environment, technology has also evolved over time. And part of technology’s evolution has been to become both faster and more addictive. With the advent of smart phones, you can use technology from the very moment you wake up until you drift off to sleep. And even if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can find yourself checking social media or surfing the web before you know it. Video games are another form of technology that’s highly addictive. Some people spend so long playing games, it affects their work and home lives and has even lead to marriage breakups. I’m not dismissing the huge benefits of technology, but you need to manage your use of digital devices. Here are some tips: Have a digital detox day or half day once a week. Give your brain a break. Charge your phone in your kitchen at night. This is a clever way of keeping your phone away from the side of your bed each night. This way you can start your mornings mindfully and tech-free. Be courteous. Switch off your phone at mealtimes or when out with friends and family. Challenge yourself and see whether you can resist the temptation to check your phone at the table, even if your friend does. Go for a walk without your phone. If you’re not used to this, you’ll probably find the experience strange at first and then tremendously refreshing. I love doing this regularly. Make a note of how many times you check your phone in a day. That’s an experience of mindfulness in itself. Average users check their phones over 100 times a day! Switch off your phone for chunks of the day and find something more enjoyable to do with your time. Surf the urge to use technology. When you feel the desire to use technology but don’t really have to, notice the feeling in your body. See whether you can ride that urge, just feeling it and relaxing into it. Each time you do that, your addiction will lessen until eventually the urge will disappear completely. Breathe and smile! You’ll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile. Charles Chaplin The muscles in your face link with your feeling of happiness. When you’re happy, you smile — you know that of course. But did you know that smiling can make you feel better? Try the process right now, no matter how you feel. Simply hold a subtle, gentle smile as you read these sentences. Continue for a few minutes and note what effect the smiling has. Combine this with feeling your own breathing. You can apply this technique of feeling your breathing and smiling gently in a systematic way every day for ten minutes, or while you’re going about your daily activities. Think of it as yoga for your mouth! In this way you can be mindful doing whatever you’re doing, whether washing the dishes, writing a report or waiting in a queue. Each moment is an opportunity to come back to the here and now, the present moment. You don’t need anything extra — your breath and smile are both highly portable! You may feel reluctant to smile right now, because you don’t think that the smile is genuine. You’ll smile when you’re happy, not now. Just try it out. Yes, you’re bound to feel unnatural at the beginning but that soon goes. Just give it a try, even though it feels strange, and see what happens after a time. As is often said: "Fake it till you make it!" Mindfulness is not about forcing your yourself to feel better — it’s more about bringing a sense of curiosity to your feelings and thoughts and gaining information from them, whatever you’re experiencing. Being aware of thoughts or feelings and accepting them as they are is far more important than trying to change your thoughts or feelings.

Article / Updated 12-28-2021

Flow is an essential element of mindfulness. Have you ever noticed that when you’re eating your favorite food, you forget all your worries and problems? The experience is so lovely that the sense of who you are, what you do, where you come from, and whatever the plan is for tomorrow all vanish for a moment. In fact, most pleasures that you engage in result in you letting go. Imagine skiing downhill at high speed. You sense the wind whooshing past you, feel the cool mountain breeze, and enjoy the deep blue of the sky. You’re in the zone; in the moment, at one with all around you. When you’re in the zone, you let go of doing mode and come into being mode – the present moment. This “in the zone” state of mind is called “flow” by psychologist Mikhail Csíkszentmihályi. But what’s flow got to do with the being mode of mind? Surely being in the zone is always about doing? Not quite. Practicing mindfulness helps to generate flow experiences directly. Here’s what you experience when you’re in a state of flow: You feel at one with the world. You let go of your sense of an individual and any worries and problems. You’re completely focused. You feel very satisfied with what you’re doing. You’re happy, although you don’t really notice it at the time because you’re so engrossed in whatever you’re doing. Mindfulness and the factors of flow Csíkszentmihályi found some key factors that accompany an experience of flow. As long as you do a task mindfully, it’s potentially going to be a flow experience. Here are some of key factors of flow and how you can generate them using mindfulness: Attention. Flow experiences need attention. Mindfulness is all about attention, and mindfulness increases your level of attention with practice. Through regular mindfulness practice, your brain becomes better at paying attention to whatever you choose to focus on, making a flow experience far more likely. When driving, you simply pay attention to your surroundings rather than letting your mind wander off. Direct and immediate feedback. Flow needs direct feedback as to how you’re doing. When you’re practicing mindfulness, you’re getting immediate feedback because you know at any time if you’re paying attention or if your mind has wandered off. So, if driving, you notice when your mind has drifted into dreaming about what’s for dinner tonight, and you bring your attention gently back to the here and now. Sufficiently challenging task. Mindfulness is an active process of repeatedly rebalancing to come back to the present moment while the mind — doing what minds do — wants to pull you away into other thoughts. To drive in a mindful way from work to home would be a suitable challenge for anyone, potentially creating a flow experience. Sense of personal control. When you’re mindful of your thoughts and feelings, you create a choice. You don’t have to react to them or do what they tell you to do. This generates a sense of control, as you become aware of the choices you have. If whilst driving, someone cuts in front of you, you’ve got the choice to react and feel annoyed, or practice letting it go. Intrinsically rewarding. You perform a task for the sake of itself. If you’re driving your car to get home as fast as possible to have your cup of tea, you’re not going to be in a flow experience. If you drive to simply enjoy each moment of the journey, that’s different. You can feel the warmth of the sunshine on your arm and appreciate the color of the sky. Normally, mindfulness would make you a safer driver rather than a more dangerous one. However, begin by being mindful of safer tasks like washing dishes or going for a walk before you attempt mindfulness of driving, just so you get used to being mindful. Don’t use mindfulness of driving if you find the experience distracting. Discover your mindfulness flow experiences Everyone’s had flow experiences. By knowing when you’ve been in flow, you can encourage more opportunities to experience it in the future. The following are some typical activities that people often find themselves flowing in. You may even find something here to try yourself: Reading or writing. When you’re fully engaged in a good book full of a challenging storyline, you’re in flow. You forget about everything else and time flies by. When writing in flow, words simply pop into your head and onto your page with effortless ease. You stop criticizing what you’re creating, and enjoy seeing the report or book pouring out of you. Art or hobbies. Most artistic endeavors involve flow. You’re directly connected with your senses and people often describe themselves as being “at one with the music.” If you’re doing a particular hobby because you’re forced to, it may or may not be a flow experience as the intrinsic motivation isn’t there. Exercise. Some people love exercise so much that they get addicted to it. The rush of adrenaline, the full focus in the present moment, and the feeling of exhilaration makes for a flow experience. Work. Perhaps surprisingly, you can be in flow at work. Research has found that people are happier at work than they are in their leisure time. Work encourages you to do something with a focused attention, and often involves interaction with others. You need to give something of yourself. This can set the stage for flow. In contrast, watching TV at home can drain your energy. Anything done mindfully. Remember, anything that you do with a mindful awareness is going to generate a flow state of mind, from making love to making a cup of tea.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 12-13-2021

Whether you’re suffering from stress, fatigue, or illness or simply want to regain some balance in your life, mindfulness can help. These bite-sized chunks of hands-on advice will help increase your understanding of mindfulness, outline some short meditations, and provide enough information to enable you to inject mindfulness into your life.

Article / Updated 06-27-2021

Acceptance turns out to be one of the most helpful attitudes to bring to mindfulness. Acceptance means perceiving your experience and simply acknowledging it rather than judging it as good or bad. For some people, the word "acceptance" is off-putting — replace it with the word acknowledgement, if you prefer. For example, when you feel pain, whether it’s physical, such as a painful shoulder, or mental, such as depression or anxiety, the natural reaction is to try to avoid feeling the pain. This seems very sensible because the sensation of physical or mental pain is unpleasant. You ignore it, distract yourself, or perhaps even go so far as turning to recreational drugs or alcohol to numb the discomfort. Dealing with 'the second arrow' This avoidance may work in the immediate short term, but before long, avoidance fails in the mental and emotional realm. You still feel the pain, but on top of that, you feel the emotional hurt and struggle with the pain itself. Buddha called this the "second arrow." For example, if a warrior is injured by an arrow and unleashes a thought like "why did this happen to me?" that’s a second arrow. You may inflict this on yourself each time you feel some form of pain or even just a bit of discomfort, rather than accepting what has happened and taking the next step. Avoidance — running away — is an aspect of the second arrow and compounds the suffering. Acceptance means stopping fighting with your moment-to-moment experience. Acceptance removes that second arrow of blame, criticism, or denial. Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. This doesn’t mean, "If you think you can’t do something, accept it" — that would be giving up rather than accepting. Acceptance refers to your experience from moment to moment. Perhaps you sit down to meditate and feel bombarded by thoughts dragging you away again and again. If you don’t accept the fact that your mind likes thinking, you become more and more frustrated, upset and annoyed with yourself. You want to focus on the meditation but just can’t. In the above example: First arrow — lots of thoughts entering your mind during meditation. Second arrow — not accepting that thoughts are bound to come up in meditation. Criticizing yourself for having too many thoughts. Solution — to acknowledge and accept that thoughts are part and parcel of meditation. You can do this by gently saying to yourself "thinking is happening," or "it’s natural to think," or simply labeling it as "thinking . . . thinking." By acknowledging the feeling, thought or sensation and going into it, the experience changes. Even with physical pain, try experimenting by actually feeling it. Research has found that the pain reduces. But remember, you’re not acknowledging it to get rid of the feeling. That’s not acceptance. You need to acknowledge the sensation, feeling, or thought without trying to change it at all. Pure acceptance of what is upsetting you, just as it is. Easing into discomfort One way to relax into the discomfort is by courageously turning to the sensation of discomfort, and simultaneously feeling the sensation of your own breath. With each out-breath, allow yourself to move closer and soften the tension around the discomfort. If all of this acceptance or acknowledgement of your pain seems impossible, just try getting a sense of it and make the tiniest step toward it. The smallest step toward acceptance can set up a chain of events ultimately leading towards transformation. Any tiny amount of acceptance is better than none at all. Another aspect of acceptance is to come to terms with your current situation. If you’re lost, even if you have a map of where you want to get to, you have no hope of getting there if you don’t know where you are to begin with. You need to know and accept where you are before you can begin working out how to get to where you want to be. Paradoxically, acceptance is the first step for any radical change. If you don’t acknowledge where you are and what’s currently happening, you can’t move on appropriately from that point. Here are some ways you can try to cultivate acceptance: Gently state the label of the experience you aren’t accepting. For example, if you’re not accepting that you’re angry, state in your mind, to yourself, "I’m feeling angry at the moment . . . I’m feeling angry." In this way, you begin to acknowledge your feeling. Notice which part of your body feels tense and imagine your breath going into and out of the area of tightness. As you breathe in and out, say to yourself, "It’s okay. It’s already here . . . It’s already here." Consider how much you accept or acknowledge your current thoughts/feelings/sensation on a scale of 1 to 10. Ask yourself what you need to do to increase your acceptance by 1, and then do it as best you can. Become really curious about your experience. Consider: "Where did this feeling come from? Where do I feel it? What’s interesting about it?" In this way, the curiosity leads you to a little more acceptance. In the realm of emotions, the quickest way to get from A to B isn’t to try and force yourself to get to B, but to accept A. Wholehearted acceptance leads to change automatically.

Article / Updated 06-26-2021

Anger can be healthy if the emotion is controlled and used sparingly. Mindfulness can help cool the unwanted, unhealthy anger. When is anger helpful? Healthy anger is good if you’re being treated unfairly, and need to become angry to ensure you’re treated justly and with respect. However, being out of control when you’re angry can cause tremendous harm both to yourself and to your relationships with others. Use mindfulness to cope when the fire rises up You arrive home and your partner hasn’t cooked any food, even after promising they would. You were working late and you begin to feel anger rising — not just in your empty stomach, but in the rest of you, too. What do you do? You know that logically, you’re far better off talking calmly about the issue and resolving the conflict. Here’s how: Become aware of the physical sensation of anger in your body. Notice the sensations in your stomach, chest and face. Become aware of your rapid heart and breathing rate. Observe if your fists or jaw are clenched. Breathe. Breathe into the physical sensations of your body. Close your eyes if you want to. You may find counting out ten breaths helpful. Imagine the breath entering your nose into your belly, and as you breathe out, imagine the breath going out of your fingers and toes, if you find this useful. Continue to stay with the sensations as best you can. Bring a sense of kindness and gentleness to your feelings of anger. Try to see the anger as an opportunity to understand about the feeling, how the burning rises up in your being, and how the breath may or may not have a cooling effect on the flame within you. Notice your thoughts. Thoughts like "it’s not fair" or "I’m not putting up with this" feed anger. Notice what effect you have by letting go of these thoughts. If you can’t let go of the thoughts, which is common, continue to watch the way your thoughts and feelings feed each other. Step back. Take a step back from your internal experiences. Notice that you’re the observer of your thoughts and emotions and you are not the thoughts and emotions themselves. Communicate. As soon as the main force of your anger has dissipated, you may need to communicate your feelings with the other person. Begin with ‘I’ statements instead of ‘you’ accusations. As you continue to communicate, stay aware and awake to your own feelings, and let go of any aggression if you can – less aggression and more honesty are more likely to lead to a harmonious and productive conversation and result. Coping with anger is a challenging task. The idea is to keep these steps in mind, and follow them with small levels of frustration rather than outright anger. When you do, you become more adept at cooling the flames of anger. Here are some other ways of managing your feelings of anger: Be mindful of the thought patterns that feed your anger. These include: Over-generalizing by using sentences like "You always ignore me" or "You never respect me." Watch out for these absolutes. Be specific instead. Mind-reading by thinking you know what the other person is thinking, such as "I know you think I nag you too much." Chances are you're not trained in ESP! Try to avoid making assumptions like this. Blaming others for your own anger with thoughts like "You always make me angry" or "It’s all their fault." Instead, take responsibility for your anger. Practice mindful physical exercise. By exercising regularly, you build up a greater resilience to stress. This may dissipate some of your anger. By exercising mindfully, you simultaneously build up your mindfulness muscles too, leading to greater levels of awareness and less reactive, automatic-pilot behavior. Connect with your senses. Listen to the sounds around you or listen mindfully to some music. Smell some of your favorite, calming scents. Have a shower or bath and connect with the sensations on your skin. Question your reaction. Ask yourself questions like "Is this worth it?", "Is this important in the big picture?", and "How else can I respond in this situation?" Use mindful attitudes to cool the flame of anger Cultivating a mindful attitude can reduce the frequency, duration and level of anger you experience from day to day. Mindfulness groups sometimes use the acronym RAIN as a mindful way of dealing with emotions: Recognize that a strong emotion is present. Often, you can easily be swept up by the emotion itself, and immediately begin acting on it. Emotions can be such an integral part of who you are that you don’t give the feeling due credit. Begin with recognition of the emotion. Don't let the tidal wave wash you away before you identify it! Accept that the emotion is there. With strong emotions, sometimes the natural reaction is to pretend the feeling isn’t really present. In this step, you accept that in this precise moment, you’re experiencing anger. You aren’t being passive and giving in to the feeling. If you don’t accept what’s here now, you can’t hope to manage the emotion in any way. Investigate thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. In this third step, observe what’s going on in your mind, heart, and body. What thoughts are running through your head? What feelings are you mindful of? What areas of your body feel tense, or burning, or warm, or relaxed? Where is the core of the emotion located exactly, and what effect does a sustained mindful awareness have on the physical aspect of your experience? Non-identification with the passing emotion. Emotion has the word motion in it. Emotions are always moving, fluxing, and changing. This final step is to try to distance yourself and create a space between you and your emotion. The emotion is more likely to do what emotions do quite naturally, which is to keep moving. Anger comes and goes, but you don’t come and go — you’re always here.

Article / Updated 01-24-2021

Mindfulness is a practice that encourages you to modify your perspective and focus on positive thinking. In doing so, you gain the ability to focus on self improvement, but in doing so, to be of greater service to those around you. Have you ever heard the safety announcements on a plane? In the event of an emergency, cabin crew advise you to put your own oxygen mask on first, before you help put one on anyone else, even your own child. The reason is obvious. If you can’t breathe yourself, how can you possibly help anyone else? Looking after yourself isn’t just necessary in emergencies. In normal everyday life, you need to look after your own needs. If you don’t, not only do you suffer, but so do all the people who interact or depend on you. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish: it’s the best way to be of optimal service to others. Eating, sleeping, exercising, and meditating regularly are all ways of looking after yourself and hence others. Exercise mindfully You can practice mindfulness and do physical exercise at the same time. In fact, Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the key founders of mindfulness in the West, trained the USA men’s Olympic rowing team in 1984. A couple of the men won gold – not bad for a bunch of meditators! And in the more recent Olympics, several athletes claimed that mindfulness helped them to reach peak performance and achieve their gold medals. Regular exercise is beneficial for both body and mind, as confirmed by thousands of research studies. If you already exercise on a regular basis, you know the advantages. If not, and your doctor is happy with you exercising, you can begin by simply walking. Walking is an aerobic exercise and a great way to practice mindfulness. Then, if you want to, you can build up to whatever type of more strenuous exercise you fancy. Approach each new exercise with a mindful attitude: be curious of what will happen, stay with uncomfortable sensations for a while, explore the edge between comfort and discomfort, and look around you. Whatever exercise you choose, allow yourself to enjoy the experience. Find simple physical activities that make you smile rather than frown, and you’re much more likely to stick with the mindful practices. And if you find the word ‘exercise’ a turn off, called it ‘physical activity’ or simply ‘moving your body’ everyday. Use words that are appealing to you. To start you off, here are a few typical physical exercises and ideas for how to suffuse them with mindfulness. Mindful running Leave your music and phone at home. Try running outside rather than at the gym – your senses have more to connect with outside. Begin by taking ten mindful breaths as you walk along. Become aware of your body as a whole. Build up from normal walking to walking fast to running. Notice how quickly your breathing rate changes, and focus on your breathing whenever your mind wanders away from the present moment. Feel your heart beating and the rhythm of your feet bouncing on the ground. Notice whether you’re tensing up any parts of your body unnecessarily. Enjoy the wind against your face and the warmth of your body. Observe what sort of thoughts pop up when you’re running, without being judgmental of them. If running begins to be painful, explore whether you need to keep going or slow down. If you’re a regular runner, you may want to stay on the edge a little bit longer; if you’re new to it, slow down and build up more gradually. At the end of your run, notice how you feel. Try doing a mini meditation and notice its effect. Keep observing the effects of your run over the next few hours. Mindful swimming Mindful swimming can be very meditative. Begin with some mindful breathing as you approach the pool. Notice the effect of the water on your body as you enter. What sort of thoughts arise? As you begin to swim, feel the contact between your arms and legs and the water. What does the water feel like? Be grateful that you can swim and have access to the water. Allow yourself to get into the rhythm of swimming. Become aware of your heartbeat, breath rate, and the muscles in your body. At times, you may even feel at one with the water – enjoy that experience. When you’ve finished, observe how your body and mind feel. Mindful cycling Begin with some mindful breathing as you sit on your bike. Feel the weight of your body, the contact between your hands and the handlebars, and your foot on the pedal. As you begin cycling, listen to the sound of the wind. Notice how your leg muscles work together rapidly as you move. Switch between focusing on a specific part of your body like the hands or face to a wide and spacious awareness of your body as a whole. Let go of wherever you’re heading and come back to the here and now. As you get off your bike, perceive the sensations in your body. Scan through your body and detect how you feel after that exercise. Prepare for sleep with mindfulness Sleep, essential to your wellbeing, is one of the first things to improve when people do a course in mindfulness. People sleep better, and their sleep is deeper. Studies found similar results from people who suffered from insomnia who did an eight-week course in MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction). Sleep is about completely letting go of the world. Falling asleep isn’t something you do – it’s about non-doing. In that sense sleep is similar to mindfulness. If you’re trying to sleep, you’re putting in a certain effort, which is the opposite of letting go. Here are some tips for preparing to sleep using mindfulness: Stick to a regular time to go to bed and to wake up. Waking up very early one day and very late the next confuses your body clock and may cause difficulties in sleeping. Avoid over-stimulating yourself by watching television or being on the computer before bed. The light from the screen tricks your brain into believing it’s still daytime, and then it takes longer for you to fall asleep. Try doing some formal mindfulness practice like a sitting meditation or the body scan before going to bed. Try doing some yoga or gentle stretching before going to bed. I’ve noticed cats naturally stretch before curling up on the sofa for a snooze. This may help you to relax and your muscles unwind. Try purring while you’re stretching, too – maybe that’s the secret to their relaxed way of life! Do some mindful walking indoors before bed. Take five or ten minutes to walk a few steps and feel all the sensations in your body as you do so. The slower, the better. When you lie in bed, feel your in-breath and out-breath. Rather than trying to sleep, just be with your breathing. Count your out-breaths from one to ten. Each time you breathe out, say the number to yourself. Every time your mind wanders off, begin again at one. If you’re lying in bed worrying, perhaps even about getting to sleep, accept your worries. Challenging or fighting thoughts just makes them more powerful. Note them, and gently come back to the feeling of the breath. If you seem to be sleeping less than usual, try not to worry about it too much. In fact, worrying about how little sleep you’re getting becomes a vicious circle. Many people sleep far less than eight hours a day, and most people have bad nights once in a while. Not being able to sleep doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. A regular mindfulness practice will probably help you in the long run. Look at a mindful work–life balance Work–life balance means balancing work and career ambitions on the one side, and home, family, leisure and spiritual pursuits on the other. Working too much can have a negative impact on other important areas. By keeping things in balance, you’re able to get your work done quicker and your relationship quality tends to improve. With the advent of mobile technology, or a demanding career, work may be taking over your free time. And sometimes you may struggle to see how you can re-dress this imbalance. The mindful reflection below may help. Try this little reflection to help reflect on and improve your work–life balance: Sit in a comfortable upright posture, with a sense of dignity and stability. Become aware of your body as a whole, with all its various changing sensations. Guide your attention to the ebb and flow of your breath. Allow your mind to settle on the feeling of the breath. Observe the balance of the breath. Notice how your in-breath naturally stops when it needs to, as does the out-breath. You don’t need to do anything – it just happens. Enjoy the flow of the breath. When you’re ready, reflect on this question for a few minutes:What can I do to find a wiser and healthier balance in my life? Go back to the sensations of the breathing. See what ideas arise. No need to force any ideas. Just reflect on the question gently, and see what happens. You may get a new thought, image or perhaps a feeling. When you’re ready, bring the meditation to a close and jot down any ideas that may have arisen. Regardless of how you apply mindfulness in your own life, focusing on self-improvement can help you reach your personal growth goals to embrace a better you.