Health Journal Online

Category: Mental Health

You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them
When presented with difficulty, a first reaction may be to ward off or ignore unpleasant emotions. It’s normal. However, with practice, we can learn to lean on the comfort of safe spaces—or meditation spaces—to instead engage with them directly. One of the essential qualities of mindfulness is being with whatever comes up, rather than suppressing emotion or running away from inner challenges.

In this short video, founding editor Barry Boyce answers our questions about emotional health and how we can turn toward our feelings.

A Q&A with Mindful Founding Editor Barry Boyce

How to Let Go of Suppressing Our Emotions

Q: If we let ourselves feel our emotions, one concern may be that we won’t be able to stop feeling them. If we’ve avoided our emotions for a long time, will it be too much to handle? What would you recommend?

A: The fear that our emotions will overtake us and rule our lives (or at least a significant chunk of our time) is indeed one of the reasons we seek mindless distraction. Being kind to ourselves, repeatedly, is job one. Mindfulness practice is not about aggressively “tackling” our emotions in a fight to the death. If we’ve been suppressing something for a long time and mindfulness begins to bring it up into our conscious awareness—as it will—the key instruction is to notice it and move on. When it comes up again, maybe seconds later, we do the same. This approach of a little bit at a time, moment by moment, reduces the emotional wallop by breaking it into momentary pieces, rather than treating it as one big permanent thing, which it is not.

It never pays to push ourselves to the brink in the hopes of gaining freedom or insight.

This is easy to say, but it does take a bit of ongoing gentle effort—leavened with a lot of kindness toward ourselves—to touch the emotion and let it go. Touch it, and let it go. If we are really overwhelmed and breaking down, we may need the help of a friend or a counselor. It never pays to push ourselves to the brink in the hopes of gaining freedom or insight. Easy does it. If you’re wounded, attend to the wound, or get the help you need to heal.

At some point, when we feel safer, we can explore our emotional landscape further, with the benefit of the repeated noticing we’ve been doing. But that is more awareness and inquiry practice, as opposed to straight mindfulness.

Coping Mechanisms and Suppressing Emotions

Q: Sometimes ignoring our feelings can be a coping mechanism in stressful times. Can we suppress our feelings sometimes, but also open up to them the rest of the time? Is “not suppressing emotions” an all-or-nothing deal?

A: An excellent and delicate question. As noted above, first and foremost, it’s vital to be kind to ourselves—again and again and again. So, when emotions threaten to overwhelm us, we can respond to them with some form of “Yes, I know you’re there, but now is not the time for me to go there.” You may have to do that repeatedly. That kind of attitude doesn’t mean you are suppressing or ignoring the emotion. You are, in fact, noticing it and acknowledging it. Touching it and moving on. That’s mindfulness.

When emotions threaten to overwhelm us, we can respond to them with some form of “Yes, I know you’re there, but now is not the time for me to go there.”

When you notice it simply like that, you generally lessen its power to overwhelm you a bit. By contrast, suppressing—actively, energetically pushing it down and away—increases that power.

Is Emotional Intelligence a Luxury?

Q: For some, working on emotional intelligence seems impractical—or a like luxury. What are some examples of ways we might use emotional intelligence in our daily lives?

A: To appreciate why emotional intelligence might not be an impractical luxury, it will first help to define what we mean by “emotional intelligence.” According to the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, this notion first emerged when two emotion researchers, Peter Salovey and John Mayer, “lamented that theories of intelligence had no systematic place for emotions,” which inspired them to articulate “a theory that described a new kind of intelligence: the ability to recognize, understand, utilize, and regulate emotions effectively in everyday life.” In a pivotal paper, published in 1990, they described this revolutionary idea, which they called “emotional intelligence.” The idea caught on, and Salovey and his laboratory at Yale became recognized leaders, pushing the field toward new discoveries and innovations. Five years later, Dan Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, became a bestseller and popularized the idea further. When Google began its mindfulness program, Search Inside Yourself, in 2007, it emphasized emotional intelligence. In that respect, the program followed the belief that mindfulness and awareness practice as well as loving-kindness and compassion practices could enhance our emotional intelligence.

When we have less ability to “recognize, understand, utilize, and regulate emotions effectively in everyday life,” it quite simply creates pain, for others and for ourselves. Finding ways to lessen pain is not impractical nor a luxury. It’s the healthy thing to do.

How do we find ways to use emotional intelligence in our daily lives? From a mindfulness perspective, the key habit that can help us cultivate more emotional intelligence is pausing, which lets the momentum of our emotions to be interrupted, so we have a moment to notice how they are showing up in our body and mind. As we do that more often—a little bit of regular mindfulness practice helps develop the pausing habit—the choices we make concerning how we express and act on our emotions may be more “intelligent.” When they’re not so intelligent and we make a mess? We might notice that and learn from our encounter, rather than blindly stumbling toward wherever our emotions lead us.

We featured the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s assistant director, Dena Simmons, in the April 2019 issue of Mindful and on mindful.org. The center’s director, Marc Brackett, recently released his book Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive, which is reviewed on mindful.org.

Men and Emotional Well-Being

Q: Men are often taught that crying (or showing nearly any emotion) is too feminine. What can we do to help change this ingrained idea, in ourselves and those around us?

A: On a very simple level, when a man or boy seems on the verge of tears, we can very gently let them know that’s it’s fine to cry. A word or two or a nonverbal message can often be enough to convey that feeling without having to get too conceptual about it. Quiet listening and warmth go a long way in allowing someone to let their emotion simply be. At least you can respond without judging it as inappropriate.

Changing gender stereotyping on a broader scale raises deep questions that go beyond the scope of personal mindfulness practice. The ways children are socialized and taught what gender means has been explored extensively by many people and form the basis of a variety of programs aimed at social change. One of the most interesting is The Representation Project, started by Jennifer Seibel Newsom (who is married to the current governor of California).

Her film Miss Representation concerns how girls are taught to think about gender in limiting ways, while The Mask You Live In “follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity,” according The Representation Project website. Newsome’s most recent film, The Great American Lie, focuses on a social addiction to a certain definition of masculine values, which are held up as superior to those identified as feminine. Newsome has presented on these issues several times at the Wisdom 2.0 conference. The Mask You Live In features the work of Ashanti Branch, who is one of the featured teachers in Mindful’s Mindful30 challenge. These films can be screened by school groups and others interested in gender education.
How to Test Your Emotional Maturity

Learning the language of emotional maturity is like learning a second language. If you weren’t raised with it, it may take tens of thousands of hours to master.
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Nicole Bayes-Fleming

November 22, 2019
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September 29, 2025
Mindful Marble Art: A Creative & Sensory Practice for Kids
This marble-painting activity activates all the senses and lets you enjoy a mindful moment while making art with your little ones.
Mindfulness isn’t just about stillness—it can be a playful, swirling, and colorful experience. Mindful marble art transforms a simple creative activity into a sensory-rich moment of presence, helping children slow down, focus, and express themselves.

Through gentle movement, breath awareness, and sensory exploration, this practice fosters patience, emotional regulation, and creativity—all while making art! See what it can look like. The sensation of rolling marbles, the vibrant blending of colors, and the rhythmic tilting of the tray help little ones engage their senses and cultivate mindful awareness.

Benefits of Making Mindful Marble Art
- Encourages patience: Children practice slowing down and guiding movement with care.
- Engages the senses: Touch, sight, and motion deepen awareness of the present moment.
- Strengthens breath-body connection: Pairing breath with movement supports self-regulation.
- Fosters creativity & self-expression: Encourages open-ended exploration and focus.
What You’ll Need
- A shallow tray or box (a baking pan or shoebox lid works well)
- A sheet of paper (cut to fit inside the tray)
- Non-toxic, washable paint in 2-3 colors
- Marbles or small rolling objects (ping pong balls, beads, or crumpled foil work too!)
- A damp cloth or wipes for easy cleanup
How to Do Mindful Marble Art

1. Set the Space

Begin by creating a calm and inviting atmosphere. Place materials in front of you and your child. Before starting, take a deep breath together:
- Breathe in slowly through your nose (as if smelling a flower).
- Exhale gently through your mouth (as if blowing out a candle).
Repeat this breath 2-3 times.

Ask your child, “How do you feel right now?”

2. Sensory Preparation

Invite your child to explore the marbles before painting:
- What do they feel like? Smooth? Cool? Round?
- Can you roll them between your fingers without dropping them?
Dip a marble into the paint and ask:
- What does the paint feel like? Sticky? Slippery? Gooey?
- What colors do you see? Are they mixing together?
3. Rolling with Awareness

Place the marbles onto the paper in the tray. Guide your child to hold the edges, feeling its weight.

Encourage mindful movement:
- As they tilt the tray forward—breathe in.
- As they tilt it back—breathe out.
Mindful questions to keep attention focused:
- What happens when you move the tray fast? What about slow?
- Do the marbles ever get ‘stuck’? What can we do to help them move?
- How do the colors mix together?
If attention drifts, take a pause-and-wiggle break, shaking out hands before resuming.

4. Reflect and Appreciate

Once finished, pause to admire the marble art. Ask:
- What do you see in the patterns? (Clouds? Rivers? Something new?)
- How did it feel to roll the marbles?
End with a gratitude moment together. Place a hand on your heart and say, Thank you for this time to create and play.
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September 27, 2025
A Teaching and Meditation to Relax and Welcome Deep Rest
In today’s offering, Jenee Johnson guides us through a teaching on the why and how of deep relaxation practices, along with a meditation you can do anytime.
Rest isn’t a “reward” for working hard enough. It’s a human need and birthright.

This week’s episode is a little different. We’re not only sharing a guided meditation from mindfulness leader and professional coach Jenée Johnson, but also her teaching on some of the brain science behind relaxation—why it’s essential for our well-being, how it works, and how to incorporate intentional relaxation practices into your daily life.

Jenée Johnson is the founder of the Right Within Experience, where she works to cultivate the experience of inner calm, resilience, self-love, and joy through meditation and mindfulness practices for people of African ancestry. She is also the former program innovation leader at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Mindfulness, Trauma and Racial Healing.

A Teaching and Meditation to Relax and Welcome Deep Rest

At some point during the day, the body will signal us that it is time to rest, to be still, to withdraw from activity, to be quiet, to take the journey from sound to silence. The mind and body need moments when they can be at ease, free from agitation, pressing, planning, or even celebration.

Stress and trauma and tension play a role in our ability to rest and relax. Therefore, it is so important to do daily “relaxation drills” to help counter the bad effects that stress has on the human body. According to Dr. Frank Staggers Jr., people who do daily relaxation drills remain healthier, have more energy, and think more clearly. This is why it’s important to take 20 minutes, once or twice daily, to deeply relax.

An effective deep relaxation technique is known as quiet sitting or free-floating relaxation. You simply sit quietly for about 20 minutes and allow your mind to float freely until it settles down. Don’t think about anything in particular. Don’t concentrate on anything. Just allow your mind and body to settle down naturally on its own.

An effective deep relaxation technique is known as quiet sitting or free-floating relaxation. You simply sit quietly for about 20 minutes and allow your mind to float freely until it settles down.

In order to deeply relax, you must let thoughts come and go as they please. As you are relaxing, some thoughts may spontaneously rush through your mind. That’s okay. Don’t worry about these thoughts. Don’t exert yourself by trying to block these thoughts. Don’t dwell on these thoughts, either. Just remain passive. Leave the thoughts alone, and the thoughts will gradually fade into the background so you can continue to relax.

The scientific term for the deep state of awake relaxation is the alpha state. This is because the brain calms and produces smooth, harmonious waves called alpha brain waves when it is completely relaxed. The alpha brainwaves have a frequency of eight to 12 cycles per second, whereas arousal or excitation brain waves, called beta brain waves, are much faster at 13 to 40 cycles per second. The alpha state is usually associated with widespread relaxation throughout the entire body and a healthy lowering of the body’s metabolism.

Activities like watching TV, listening to the radio, reading, sewing, or fishing will not hit the alpha deep relaxation state, because these activities still place demands on the brain and keep the brain too busy to completely relax. This means that these activities may get you to the shallow states of relaxation, but they won’t get you into deep states of relaxation. Even sleep will not hit the alpha deep relaxation state, because the brain remains very active during sleep, especially during dreaming.

Even after sleep, you can still be stressed out. Relaxation drills allow your mind and body to hit the deep states of relaxation.

Therefore, while obviously essential for multiple other functions, sleep does not completely relax the brain or counter stress. Even after sleep, you can still be stressed out. Relaxation drills allow your mind and body to hit the deep states of relaxation. So settle back, and let’s try a practice together.

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Sitting in an upright but relaxed position, drop your gaze or close your eyes. Take a deep breath in and an audible exhale out. Breathing in and breathing out, sitting quietly, free floating, invite your body to relax.
2. When we simply sit and breathe, we activate the body’s calming response. It allows the brain to display the calm, smooth, harmonious waves called alpha brain waves—like the waves of the ocean, coming in to the shore and rolling back out. Coming in and going out. Breathing in and breathing out. Relax.
3. Drop your shoulders, relax the jaw, and unfurl your brow. Allow your mind to float freely until it settles down. Let thoughts come and go as they please.
4. Bring your attention back gently to your breath. Don’t exert yourself trying to block thoughts. Just remain passive and remind your body that we’re sitting now, we’re breathing now, we’re relaxing now. Sit quietly, stay with your breath. Like the waves of the ocean, breathing in, breathing out. Let thoughts fade into the background. Relax. To be still, to be quiet, to be at ease. This is the gift of relaxation.
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September 25, 2025
Jenée Johnson on How Mindful Leaders Can Heal Trauma

Jenée Johnson explains how healing trauma and mindfulness go hand in hand in this 5-minute video.

In this video from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference held in San Francisco in 2019, Jenée Johnson shares her own journey of doing trauma-informed work within traumatizing systems, and explains how mindful leaders can help heal trauma. Watch the video, or read the transcript below.

Jenée Johnson discusses trauma-informed work and how mindful leaders can help heal trauma.

San Francisco is in the midst of probably the worst housing crisis in the country, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health is tasked with stewarding the health of the city and county’s population, and inside of that we have recognized that the way we function is often trauma-inducing not only to the communities that we serve, but to the workforce.

That we are often bureaucratic, siloed, that people are demoralized, that we are not trustworthy, and that it can be a very mean place to work. And because of that, we have gone on a mission to move from being trauma-inducing to a trauma-informed, and ultimately a healing organization, and organization that is trustworthy and has at its core compassion and empathy, and is thoughtful about the way we deliver services.

We ask the key question—not, “What is wrong with you?” but, “What has happened?”

We ask the key question—not, “What is wrong with you?” but, “What has happened?” And when you ask what has happened it invites compassion, it invites looking at strengths in the face of adversity.

I was an embedded trauma trainer inside a maternal adolescent health ward, and as I was delivering the trauma training I noticed that the workforce, although interested in trauma principles, did not seem like it had the strength and the bandwidth to really hold the important work that was ahead of us. And it occurred to me that what we needed to do was become a mindful organization, in order to become a trauma-informed organization. That trauma-informed and healing needed to exist inside of a nest of mindfulness.

I went to the trauma leader and I said I know of an organization that has curated mindfulness in the workforce, the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. I went to Search Inside Yourself, and thus began the journey of me becoming a trained teacher to deliver the program, and then I landed the role of the program innovation leader in mindfulness, trauma, and racial equity.

It occurred to me that what we needed to do was become a mindful organization, in order to become a trauma-informed organization.

Mindfulness, trauma, and racial equity are knit together, because part of what makes our organization trauma-inducing is we can be a very demoralizing place to work, and the people who have the worst health outcomes across every data point that we measure are people of colour. And it’s telling us a story of how we have yet to truly, honestly, grapple with racial equity, and part of the challenge of grappling with racial equity is we need people to be strong in their core, we need people to grapple with white fragility, which often derails the conversation.

To move the conversation forward, we all need to be able to be resilient, and mindfulness is the pathway.

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September 19, 2025
A Guided Meditation You Can Do Sitting at Your Desk
Need a mindful break at work? Here’s an anytime, anywhere guided practice that can help you find a moment of calm.
Since most of us spend a great deal of time at work ̶─whether that’s in an office, a classroom, or in our own homes ̶─knowing how to meditate at your desk can be beneficial. This short practice helps you refresh your attention while at work. What I call the “desk chair” meditation gives you a way to incorporate a short mindfulness practice into your day.

This meditation can be done anywhere you are able to sit quietly and practice.

If you work in an open office, you may need to be creative to find a quiet place to practice. Many people have told me that they’re best able to do this practice by leaving their office and finding an empty conference room, or even leaving the building to sit in their car during part of their lunch break.

The “meditate at your desk” part need not be taken literally. This meditation can be done anywhere you are able to sit quietly and practice—be it the staff room, a park bench, or even an airplane seat.

How to Meditate at Your Desk

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Begin by bringing your attention to the sensations of your breath.
2. When you’re ready, direct your attention to the soles of your feet, opening your mind to whatever sensations are there to be noticed.
3. Perhaps you are noticing the pressure on the soles of your feet as the weight of your legs rests on them. Perhaps the soles of your feet feel warm or cool.
4. Just notice. No need to judge or engage in discursive thinking. If your mind is pulled away or wanders, redirect your attention, firmly and gently.
5. Move your attention next to the tops of your feet, ankles, lower legs, knees, and so forth.
6. Gradually scan through your body, noticing sensations, noticing discomfort, and noticing areas of your body where you detect an absence of sensations. No need to search for sensations; just keep scanning through your body, taking your time and being open to what is here.
Excerpted from Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership by Janice Marturano. Copyright ©2014 by Janice Marturano. January, 2014, by Bloomsbury Press. Reprinted with permission.
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September 17, 2025
Flow State: How to Get in the Zone
As you have very likely experienced through mindfulness practice, our ordinary state is not one of flow, but of mind wandering—a state in which our attention drifts between the present moment and thoughts about past and future. When we practice presence, we begin regularly shifting our attention back to the present moment whenever our mind wanders.

Turning attention into engagement is similar. Think of it as “directed presence” or as cultivating presence in the midst of the activities we engage in, whether it’s brainstorming with colleagues, working out, catching up with our partner, or putting our kids to bed. Psychologists have a name for this state of full engagement. They refer to it as “flow.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, one of the first psychologists to carry out research on this experience, talks about it in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He describes flow as “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

Linking Flow State and Mindfulness

By definition, you can experience presence any time, anywhere: lying on the beach, walking to your car, or sitting in traffic. It can be either passive or active. Flow, on the other hand, is a purely active state that feels almost effortless. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the ideal conditions for flow arise when “both challenges and skills are high and equal to each other.”

Many top athletes, artists, and intellectuals describe this experience. Greek tennis champion Stefanos Tsitsipas recently described the dramatic shift between when he’s playing normally, versus when he’s playing in a flow state: “It felt like I was in a cage and someone decided to unlock it. I suddenly felt free. Every decision I went for felt right,” he said. “It brings you to another level. You’re not playing with your skill any more, you’re playing with your soul.”

Flow doesn’t always come naturally. We often have to resist the temptation of short-term pleasure to get there.

Buster Williams, the legendary jazz bassist, recalls his experience playing with Miles Davis that led to a heightened state of engagement. “With Miles, it would get to the point where we followed the music rather than the music following us. We just followed the music wherever it wanted to go.”

These descriptions might make flow sound mystical, but you don’t have to be a star tennis player or a legendary jazz bassist to experience a state of full engagement. Whether it’s on a challenging morning run, during an important PTA meeting, or while delivering a presentation at work, flow is something that everyone can access. For example, Csikszentmihalyi’s research found that full-time caregivers were just as likely to experience this state as athletes and musicians. One mother described a state of engagement happening as she worked with her daughter when she was discovering something new. “Her reading is one thing that she’s really into, and we read together. She reads to me, and I read to her, and that’s a time when I sort of lose touch with the rest of the world. I’m totally absorbed in what I am doing.”

FOMO–The Flow of Missing Out?

Csikszentmihalyi and fellow researcher Martin Seligman’s research illuminates the connection between flow and well-being. In one study, his team had 250 “high-flow” and 250 “low-flow” teenagers keep a record of their mood at specific times throughout the day. When the team examined the responses, the low-flow teens spent the bulk of their time in a state of disengagement, and were said to either be hanging out at the mall or watching television. The high-flow teens, by contrast, were more likely to spend their time developing hobbies, academic interests, and athletic abilities.

How did these two groups score on measures of happiness? It turned out that the high-flow group outperformed the low-flow group on every measure of psychological well-being, except one. Seligman writes, “The exception is important: The high-flow kids think their low-flow peers are having more fun, and say they would rather be at the mall doing all those ‘fun’ things or watching television.”

The only disadvantage of experiencing flow was the feeling of missing out on short-term pleasures. Pleasures that fail to produce long-term happiness. Two helpful conclusions can be drawn from this research.

First, engagement is associated with an increase in happiness and well-being. The more we live in the state of flow, the more we grow and experience meaningful success. However, experiencing mental health challenges like depression and anxiety may correlate to a reduced ability to access flow. In a 2022 study published in PLOS One, researchers examined 664 musicians (a population with high rates of anxiety) and the factors that made them more or less amenable to a flow state while performing. The researchers found that the more anxiety a musician reported, the less likely they were to experience flow.

Secondly, flow doesn’t always come naturally. We often have to resist the temptation of short-term pleasure to get there. When we do, we set the stage for this exquisite experience of total absorption in the task at hand.

3 Essentials for Flow State

As Csikszentmihalyi and subsequent flow researchers have identified, three main conditions are needed to experience flow:

1. A clear and purposeful set of goals for your activity, which helps channel your attention.
2. A subjective sense of balance between the challenging nature of the activity and your skill-level to navigate it, which leads to feeling absorbed in the activity.
3. Clear, immediate feedback telling you how well you’re progressing and where you can improve.

To create these ideal conditions for flow, reserve 10 minutes (or more) each day for engaged and purposeful work. Shut down or silence your phone, close your browser and email, and turn off the TV to eliminate digital distractions. Now, use those 10 minutes to focus on a project, task, or hobby you find difficult yet enjoyable. If you make a mistake or a result isn’t what you intended, instead of criticizing yourself, simply see it as feedback and adjust what you’re doing accordingly.

You can also try alternating between periods of focused engagement and periods of rest and recovery. Notice when your thinking starts to slow down or when you’re no longer operating at peak levels of focus. Then shift your behavior by taking time to allow your mind to recharge: Walk around, stretch, or take a few deep breaths. Finally, rewire your brain to create this habit by savoring the feeling of giving your mind and body a well earned break. Neuroscientist Judson Brewer says it’s powerful when we start to notice: “What’s it like when I get caught up in thinking, compared to when I’m noticing these body sensations that are trying to tell us to do things, and just being with them? We just have to get out of our own way.”

How to Get into a Flow State

For some, flow comes almost naturally. Mozart started playing concerts at age six. Picasso painted his first masterpiece at eight. People like Mozart and Picasso don’t have to consciously train the skill of engagement. This experience of total absorption in the task at hand becomes a way of life early on.

However, for most of us, discovering how to get into a flow state requires a bit more practice and reflection.

The first step is to identify activities that offer the potential for flow. Here are three points to help you identify which activities, either at work or at home, may be conducive to a flow state for you:
1. Challenge: Remember that flow doesn’t arise when things are easy. It’s actually the opposite. Flow arises when we push our skills and abilities to their very limit. What are the activities that challenge you?
2. Enthusiasm: Flow and lack of interest don’t go well together. You don’t have to love the activity that you are doing, but it helps if you choose something that brings you at least some level of enjoyment. What are the tasks you enjoy doing?
3. Skill: Flow requires a certain level of mastery. A beginner learning to play her first song on the piano is less likely to experience flow than a concert pianist with twenty years of experience. You don’t have to achieve complete mastery, but achieving a high level of skill is essential. What are your most highly developed or natural skills?
Write your answers to these three questions on a sheet of paper. Then take some time to reflect on the activities in your life that allow you to experience these three qualities.

Adapted from Start Here: Master the Lifelong Habit of Wellbeing by Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp, PhD.
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September 13, 2025
A 12-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Daily Gratitude
In this guided meditation, Kim Armstrong walks you through a simple practice to expand your capacity for gratitude in the everyday moments of life.
We often think about gratitude as happening in response to “good” things, especially if those moments or events are also significant—a new job, a windfall, an amazing vacation. While these high points can easily spark positive emotion, a daily gratitude practice can go much deeper.

For instance, what about moments that aren’t grand or overtly happy, but are small and emotionally neutral? What does it feel like to notice, take in, and consciously appreciate even the basic things we do every single day?

This week, join Kim Armstrong as she leads a gratitude visualization practice. This gentle meditation invites you to shift your gaze inward and discover the often-overlooked moments of joy and contentment that punctuate your day. Kim guides us to visualize the warm embrace of our morning coffee, the soft light of dawn, or the comfort of a familiar smile. By focusing on these simple yet profound experiences, we grow our capacity for gratitude, because we begin to realize we can appreciate everything from the mundane to the magnificent.

A Meditation for Cultivating Daily Gratitude
1. This practice can be done in the evenings before bed. You can also do it in the mornings, looking back at the day before.
2. Begin by finding a comfortable posture of your choice. You can do this practice while sitting, standing, or lying down. Shift your body to find what’s comfortable.
3. Whenever you feel ready, take three breaths. Breathe in through your nose, and exhale through your nose or your mouth.
4. Take a few relaxing breaths. Close your mouth and breathe in slowly through your nose. Then let it out through either your nose or your mouth.
5. First, tune in to a moment this morning, or yesterday morning, when you first woke up. Note one or two things that you appreciate or are thankful for about that moment. Maybe it was your warm bed, or the pet or the partner sleeping next to you.
6. Next, move to the moment right after you woke up. It can be anything that springs to mind—putting on your slippers, making a little stretch, brushing your teeth. Note this and say it to yourself, even out loud if you wish.
7. Now, keep moving through the morning, taking note of things you remember. For example, the sounds of loved ones, the delicious taste of your coffee or your tea, your cozy robe or your favorite outfit or socks. They can be very small things.
8. Next, consider that transition between home life and work life, noticing something you appreciate, something you’re grateful for from that moment.
9. Keep moving to the next phase of your day—when you were digging into work, school, or caregiving. Take note of something you appreciated in an interaction with a colleague or loved one: a little bit of humor, a little laughter, a little lightness or ease.
10. Move on to midday, and again, just flag with gratitude some simple moments. This could be the tastes and smells of your lunch, intentionally focusing on all the steps and people involved in bringing you this meal.
11. Continue on in this same way, going through the rest of your day: gratitude for the purpose you served that day, for leaving work and arriving home, for moments in your evening as you wound down from the day, a pleasant meal or conversation, a favorite TV show, a comforting beverage. This could be placing your hand on your heart, or giving yourself a hug—whatever would feel soothing and reassuring.
12. Remember, these moments do not have to be grand. For this exercise, it’s perfect if they’re small or emotionally neutral, moments you’d usually pass right over and not notice at all. You can say Thank you, in your head or even out loud.
13. Notice how it feels in your body to go over your day like this. What’s happening? What is the experience like for you?
14. Close with a breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
15. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed this gratitude practice.
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September 11, 2025
The One Thing You Can Do to Make Meditation a Habit
The march of mindfulness into the mainstream seems to show no sign of slowing. On balance that’s a good thing. However, I’m struck more and more how an aspect of the approach—long-considered to be crucial in order to make meditation a habit—doesn’t get mentioned very much these days.

An individualistic culture often portrays mindfulness as a solo practice. Maybe that’s no surprise. We imagine a person sitting alone, cultivating attitudes such as curiosity and gentleness. I’ve no doubt that practising mindfulness on your own can be helpful. But traditionally, learners trained in groups and communities. I suspect a large part of the therapeutic benefit of mindfulness for individuals comes from this tradition. Why? Because approaching practice this way enables us to learn with and from other people.

Why Community Can Make Meditation a Habit That Lasts

When people come together for a first session of mindfulness training, it’s common to explore what brings each individual to the approach.

In an opening session, you’ll likely hear others speak of the stress arising from common problems such as:
- busy, uncontrolled thoughts
- physical or emotional pain
- the strain of personal and professional commitments
- the speed of a world that demands a dehumanizing degree of consumption and acquisition
There often dawns a first recognition that the real problem doesn’t just lie in me as an individual. Instead, people see the common burden of living a human existence, with human frailties, in a human world.

Suddenly, often from a place of feeling alienated and alone, there comes a realization: We’re all in this together, and we’re not feeling bad because we’re defective, but because this is the way of things in the world we share.

Suddenly, often from a place of feeling alienated and alone, there comes a realization. We’re all in this together. And we’re not feeling bad because we’re defective, but because this is the way of things in the world we share. It’s not all our own fault. This lessens and lightens the pressure to have it all together. The journey into mindfulness—together—has begun.

Over time, as a group of people cultivates mindfulness in this way, the feeling of connectedness and commonality usually grows. There is a sense of mutual support that enables us to learn, love, laugh at ourselves, and let go together.

It may well be that this way of being together as a group is just as, or perhaps even more important, than the formal meditation practices we undertake as part of the work.

Especially when facilitated by a good teacher, people discover it’s easier to open up to ourselves and one another. Also, as it happens, I’ve found that meditating in a group on a regular basis is also one of the best ways to encourage people to practise on their own. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but that togetherness makes meditation more meaningful. That, in turn, makes meditating alone more manageable. The togetherness helps make meditation a habit, whether done solo or in community.

More Research Is Needed

In my opinion, this hypothesis—that mindfulness as a group activity is much more powerful than practising on your own, with a book, with an app or a CD (good though these may be)—hasn’t been explored enough in mindfulness research.

We don’t really know what the specific benefits of learning mindfulness together are. However, related research which shows that people’s attitudes and behaviours are strongly primed by the environments in which they operate offers some clues.

It seems logical that a meditative community will be a more inspiring and influential learning zone for mindfulness than a place where speed, greed, and “going it alone” are the norm. But this isn’t what’s being offered to most people, at least not beyond the first eight weeks of a mindfulness-based stress reduction or cognitive therapy course. There are still few fully secular options for ongoing training available to graduates of such courses, and no retreat centers (so far as I know) completely devoted to a non-doctrinal mindfulness approach.

If we want the current surging interest in mindfulness to become more than a drop of sanity in an ocean of materialistic madness, we will need to create communities capable of curating the core attitudes and approaches whose preservation protects the practices from perversion, dissolution, and misappropriation. We want to make meditation a habit for more people…and we want to do it in a healthy, supported way.

This is not an easy task, and it won’t happen perfectly. We live in a messy world, with messy minds. Taking a preaching, purist line is likely to be counter-productive.

Mindfulness is entering a mainstream in which feeling like we have to go it alone is part of the problem, not the solution.

I reckon we have a better chance if we name the issue. Mindfulness is entering a mainstream in which feeling like we have to go it alone is part of the problem, not the solution. Yes, the pressure for a primarily do-it-yourself, self-help approach to mindfulness is strong. But down that road, we might actually end up with something that’s a pale imitation of the powerful force for good that mindfulness can be.

If we compassionately acknowledge the social and environmental obstacles we are all collectively responsible for, and lean on each other for support, we can make a lasting, positive impact.
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September 9, 2025
How to Feel Present, and Stay Present
When your schedule (and your mind) never seem to rest, here are three simple ways to feel more present in everyday life that don’t take much time.
We’ve all been through a lot—both together and alone—and as the long, warm days of summer turn the corner toward autumn, there’s a little more darkness each night and a cooler nip to the air. It’s like the tilt of the Earth is sending a reminder: that each of us can be the light in the darkness (and that on the other side of that darkness is light).

Many take this time of year to look back (poring over a summer’s worth of photos, anyone?) or look ahead (rushing into a new term, a new routine, a new vision for what we want to achieve). Here’s an invitation to just be here. Right here, right now, in this moment.

It’s like the tilt of the Earth is sending a reminder: that each of us can be the light in the darkness (and that on the other side of that darkness is light).

Some of these moments will bring great peace. Others may leave us in pieces. The more we can bring our focus and presence to these moments, the more skilled we become at kindness, compassion—for ourselves and others—and finding joy, and the more we can surf the changes of life with ease. It all starts with being present, here and now.

3 Mindful Practices to Feel Present—and Find Your Presence

1. Bring your whole heart to the moment.

“Joy has its roots in wholehearted appreciative attention,” writes Willem Kuyken. “As you go about your day, bring your attention to seeing, touching, and listening wholeheartedly—mindful of how you are touching and being touched by the world. Take moments to pause.” There are just two steps in this practice, so you can use it anytime you need it.

Deepen Your Practice: Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy

2. Find your foundation in the breath.

When we face stress, it can be tempting to zone out, ruminate on the past, or plan the future. Give yourself—and the mindful kids in your life— the gift of this moment, with a basic breathing practice to anchor you in the simplicity of the present. J.G. Larochette shares a catchy rhyme to help you feel present, calm, and clear all day long: “Repeat to yourself, “I’ve got my feet on the floor, I’ve got my spine in a line, I’ve got my hands in my lap, I’ve got my heart to the sky.”

Deepen Your practice: A Meditation to Breathe Out Love

3. Savor what comes.

It’s all going to come anyway—the good and the bad, the highs and the lows. During his week-long savoring practice, founding editor Barry Boyce writes, “What I was prepared for was taking time to really enjoy things, in the present moment. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much it would challenge underlying attitudes and assumptions.” It’s an invitation to be with the moments as they come and savor them, no matter their flavor.

Deepen Your Practice: Gratitude Practice: Savor the Moment by Tapping In to Your Senses
6 Ways to Enjoy Mindful Walking

Research shows that mindful walking in nature offers stress-busting and mood-boosting advantages, plus a welcome chance to stretch our legs. Chris Willard, PhD shares six ways to customize your next mindful stroll.
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Christopher Willard

June 20, 2023
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September 5, 2025
A Meditation for Finding Safety in the Body
This week, mindfulness teacher and recovery coach Emily Jane guides a grounding practice to find safety in our bodies when trauma, fear, or anxiety are pulling us to escape from or numb our discomfort.
When we are living with a lot of stress or recovering from trauma or addiction, we can find ourselves living in a fight-flight-freeze state, where we feel either disconnected from or unsafe in our bodies. It’s hard to remember, In this moment, I am safe. This practice is designed to gently cultivate a sense of safety and then create a kinesthetic anchor (rooted in awareness of how our body is moving) to start building a felt sense of security that your body can remember.

A Meditation for Finding Safety in the Body

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Begin by finding a comfortable position. You can sit down, lie down, let your body be your guide, and see what feels most supportive for you in this moment.
2. When you’ve settled into your chosen position, close your eyes or lower your gaze. Notice how your body connects with the surface beneath you, and take a few moments to really feel into that sense of support and grounding. Bring your awareness to your breath and simply notice the natural rhythm of the breath.
3. Noticing without judgment, just let the breath be exactly as it is. Soften the muscles in your forehead, relax the jaw and allow your shoulders to gently drop down. Now let’s take a couple of deeper breaths. Take a deep breath in through the nose, inhaling from the belly. Then extending that exhale with a long sigh. Just bring in a sense of ease and softening into the body. When we take deep conscious breaths like this, it’s like we are giving a signal of safety to our nervous system. Take one more breath like this, inhaling from the belly and exhaling with a sense of letting go.
When we take deep conscious breaths like this, it’s like we are giving a signal of safety to our nervous system.
1. Now start gently scanning through your body. As you do, notice any areas of tension or parts that might feel a bit more heavy, uncomfortable, activated, or even in physical pain. Note what you’re feeling with a curious and compassionate awareness. Then take a deep breath and send the breath into that area. Maybe you notice this provides a sense of ease or spaciousness around this part. Or maybe you don’t. Whatever you’re feeling is okay. There’s no right or wrong experience here.
2. Continue with your scanning awareness. Explore if there is a part of your body that feels safe, more at ease or calm. And if those words don’t resonate for you, feel free to choose one that does. Maybe you just find that there is a part of your body that feels more neutral and less activated. Gently explore where that is in the body—it could be in your chest, your hands, your belly, your feet. Feel what that sensation feels like.
3. Bring your full attention to that place. Notice its qualities. Does it have a color, shape, or texture? Allow yourself to really attune to this part of the body. Lean into that sense of safety, ease, calm, or neutrality.
4. Next, expand your awareness to the rest of the body. Maybe you notice there is still some discomfort or tension in these other areas. And if there is, notice the contrast, holding both the tension and the sense of safety in your awareness. Then bring your full attention back to that sensation of safety. Noticing the qualities. Take a deep breath into this sensation. As you inhale, let it expand. And with your exhale, allow it to flow into the rest of your body. Invite this sensation to expand, to magnify through the whole of your body. Notice what that feels like to rest with this or in this.
5. Now place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. Apply just the right amount of pressure that feels supportive for you. This is an anchor, a somatic cue your body can remember. The more you return to this meditation, the more your body will associate this touch with safety. Let’s take two final deep breaths, breathing in a sense of safety, calm, and ease. On the exhale, breathing it out into the space around you. Breathing in safety, calm, ease; breathing out safety, calm, ease.
This is an anchor, a somatic cue your body can remember. The more you return to this meditation, the more your body will associate this touch with safety.
1. If you are now feeling more regulated at ease and safe in your body, acknowledge this. Also acknowledge that you have the power to consciously regulate your nervous system. If there has been no change, that is okay. You didn’t do anything wrong, and sometimes establishing safety just takes practice and time. The best attitude we can have when working with our nervous system is one of acceptance and non-resistance.
2. When you feel ready, you can gently open your eyes. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this meditation with me. May the rest of your day carry the same sense of safety, ease, and calm.
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September 3, 2025