Health Journal Online

Category: Mental Health

  • A Guided Meditation You Can Do Sitting at Your Desk

    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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  • Flow State: How to Get in the Zone

    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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  • A 12-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Daily Gratitude

    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.

    Never Miss a Meditation

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  • The One Thing You Can Do to Make Meditation a Habit

    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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  • How to Feel Present, and Stay Present

    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.
    Read More 

    • Christopher Willard
    • June 20, 2023



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  • A Meditation for Finding Safety in the Body

    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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  • Formal vs. Informal Mindfulness: 2 Ways to Practice

    Formal vs. Informal Mindfulness: 2 Ways to Practice

    In this 2-minute video, meditation teacher Christiane Wolf explains what “formal” and “informal” mean when it comes to mindfulness.

    If you’ve heard the terms “formal mindfulness” or “informal mindfulness,” you might have been left scratching your head. Isn’t mindfulness just mindfulness? Yes, it is—and it can still refer to different kinds of practices. 

    In this short video, meditation teacher and author Christiane Wolf offers simple definitions of formal and informal mindfulness. Within each of these terms, there’s an abundance of ways to come home to the present moment. As Sharon Salzberg wrote in her book Real Happiness: “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.”

    What Is Formal Mindfulness Practice?

    Formal practice is what we call every type of practice where you really take the time to do nothing but this particular practice or meditation at that moment. (Formal mindfulness meditation usually includes a clear structure or framework, such as steps to follow, a beginning and an end, and/or techniques that are an integral part of the practice.) That could be when you do a five-minute breathing meditation, or it could be when you do a body scan, or when you do formal walking meditation. Any of these examples would be “formal” meditation. 

    The idea with formal practice is that you’re really only focusing on your given object of meditation during that time. Your focus could be on the sensations of the breath going in and out of the body, the sound of your feet on the floor, or the movements of walking.

    Examples of Formal Mindfulness

    For some beginner-friendly formal practices, try these guided meditations:

    What Is Informal Mindfulness Practice?

    Informal practice, on the other hand, is about bringing the same quality of kind, open attention to whatever you’re already doing in your day, whether it’s petting your cat, opening your car door, or brushing your teeth. It’s really the idea that you bring all your attention and all your senses to this particular moment.

    Being mindfully aware through informal practice does not take any extra time. If you see it from this point of view, then suddenly you have an opportunity to practice mindfulness in every moment that you are awake—and, of course, in every moment that you remember.

    Examples of Informal Mindfulness

    For a few ideas for how to easily integrate informal mindfulness into your day-to-day activities, check out the following:



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  • A Meditation to Get Into the Flow of Sensations

    A Meditation to Get Into the Flow of Sensations

    This week, Toby Sola guides us through a practice to hone attention and tap into the effervescent joy of flow state.

    You may have heard of “impermanence” as an important theme in meditation practice. In this guided practice, Toby Sola introduces us to the ease of flow state with two simple but profound techniques: exploring impermanence directly by noticing changes in our body sensations, and using labels to hone concentration. 

    Note that this meditation includes long pauses of complete silence as part of the practice. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.

    A Meditation to Get Into the Flow of Sensations

    Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

    1. In this guided meditation, we’ll explore the theme of flow. Let your legs relax. Let your pelvis be heavy. Lengthen your spine and neck. Tuck in the chin a little. Relax the face. Relax the shoulders, arms, and hands. Relax the belly. 
    2. Next, bring your attention to any body sensations. Maybe you feel the touch of your clothes. The expansion and contraction of your chest as you breathe. Or an emotion in your belly. It’s all good, just bring your attention to whatever you’re feeling in the body. 
    3. If your attention is pulled to sounds, thoughts, or other experiences, that’s okay. The distractions don’t have to go away. Just let them come and go in the background of your awareness and bring the spotlight of your attention back to the body.
    4. As you focus on body sensations, see if you can notice any changes. For example, a body sensation beginning or ending. A body sensation getting more intense or less intense. A body sensation changing in size. A body sensation vibrating or undulating.
    5. Now, let’s add labels. A label is a word or phrase that briefly describes what you’re focusing on. There are many label systems, but here’s how we’ll use labels for this practice. As you focus on body sensations, if you’re noticing a change, say flow. And if you’re not noticing a change, say stable. You can say labels out loud or in your head. The pace should be steady and the tone should be calm and matter of fact. I’ll give an example of what it can sound like, and then give you a chance to try it for yourself. 
    6. If you’re spacing out a lot, speak the labels out loud. Spoken labels can help you keep concentration. Make sure to say either flow or stable about once every 15 seconds, depending on whether you’re noticing a change in your body sensations.
    7. Now, just keep practicing. Notice sensations, notice changes or sameness, and label them silently or out loud. (The audio for this meditation ends here.) 
    8. Continue noticing and labeling for another minute or two. Eventually, you should notice a sense of ease, like you’re bobbing gently in a flowing river of attention.
    9. When you’re ready, take a few breaths to conclude your practice, and gently return to your regular day.



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  • Allow the Storm to Pass

    Allow the Storm to Pass

    In this practice, Scott Rogers guides us to take the role of observer to difficult emotions, so that we can more easily create the space we need to let them go.

    Sometimes we can see our intense emotions coming, and sometimes we can’t. Emotions can build up, increasing in strength slowly. At other times, they crash down on us all at once. We can get lost in our emotions, swept up in a feeling. They can be beautiful and they can be scary. In all of these ways, emotions are like storms. As such we need to allow the storm to pass.

    Let’s look to different aspects of the hurricane and see how they connect to our own thoughts, feelings, and sensations.  

    The good news is that we can allow the storm to pass, and so do emotions. With mindfulness, we can practice taking the role of observer to our strong feelings. When we put that space between ourselves and the whirlwinds, we can find stability and cultivate resilience. Scott Rogers leads us in this guided practice with the metaphor of a hurricane to help us recognize the qualities and the impermanence of even our stormiest emotions. 

    A 12-Minute Meditation for Emotional Resilience

    1. We begin this 12-minute mindfulness practice by bringing ourselves into a posture that’s upright and stable. We lower or close our eyes and bring our attention to our body sitting in the chair. 
    2. As we breathe, we are aware of where our bottom meets the seat of the chair and of where our back meets the back of the chair. We are aware of our feet and where they make contact with the ground, our shoes, or our socks. We are aware of the sensations of the body, of the hands resting one in the other or on our lap. We are aware of the fingertips, the palms, the points of contact, as we begin this practice by coming to our senses as we breathe.
    3. At times, things can become intense and quickly turn, much like a hurricane, so this practice will draw upon the metaphor of a hurricane to help us understand our own true nature. It can help us understand the ways that mindfulness practice can be helpful in observing our nature moment by moment. That observation can create spaciousness around the tumultuousness that can arise during the course of our day and at times throughout our life. 
    4. We take three slow, deep breaths. A little slower and a little deeper than we might otherwise take. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. 
    5. The hurricane arises when the conditions are sufficient for it to come together and, in time, it dissipates, much like our own emotional conditions. So, let’s look at a few of the different aspects of the hurricane and see how they connect to our own thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and the spaciousness and ease that we can find with agitated thoughts, feelings, and sensations. In this way, we can allow the storm to pass. 
    6. There are times when we experience agitation and frustration in the body, much like the strong, gusty winds and heavy rains that feed into the hurricane. We might reflect for a moment on times when we have felt that intensity in the body—that tension, that tightness.
    7. Thoughts arise from time to time that can be judgmental, pessimistic, and reactive, like the outflow of high-level clouds that intensify the hurricane as they move away from it. We might take note of thoughts that arise in our mind now, or thoughts that have arisen today, that carry that judgmental, harsh, reactive quality. Just notice these thoughts as we breathe. 
    8. There are moments we experience intense emotions like anger and fear that are akin to the eye wall, the extreme conditions that form around the eye of the hurricane. You may notice these arising now, perhaps because of the circumstances of the day, or that they arise on a fairly regular basis. 
    9. And so, too, there are times we experience inner calm, much as is found within the eye of the storm. This is a reminder that we don’t have to have the intense and agitated thoughts, feelings, and sensations go away to find that inner calm, that inner tranquility. By shifting to an observing state, we find freedom from the intensity of those thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It’s like finding our way into the eye of the storm,  into a place of our own safe refuge without needing anything to change. 
    10. Let us settle into the body, aware of thoughts, aware of feelings that will come and go, aware of the sensations in the body, aware of preserving and allowing the breath to anchor us a little bit more fully, to steady us a little bit more comfortably into the moments of this practice. In doing so, we begin to develop and cultivate a resilience to steady us in the moments of our life. 
    11. Breathe in and out, allowing this moment to be as it is. When, from time to time, the mind wanders, gently return to the sensations of the breath flowing through the body. When you’re ready in the next moment or two, with awareness, lift the gaze, open the eyes. 



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  • Will My Well-Being Increase If I Meditate?

    Will My Well-Being Increase If I Meditate?

    The question that nearly all prospective meditators have: Will you actually have greater health and well-being if you meditate? Mindfulness teacher Steven Hickman addresses the question from a scientific (and pragmatic) perspective.

    Q: I keep hearing that science has proven the benefits of mindfulness meditation. Is that a thoroughly accurate statement? Does research show, in a way that’s objectively measurable, that your well-being will increase if you meditate?

    A: Science can’t definitively show anything, especially when it comes to human experience. That’s not to impugn the value of science, but to note its limitations. Science does its best to predict outcomes in the future based on observations of the past. With meditation science, there is a large and growing body of research that suggests the odds are good that meditation practice will have a generally salutary and positive impact on someone who practices it regularly.

    But science works with statistics and probabilities, usually regarding groups, so that what happens for 80% of the population, for example, doesn’t translate into an 80% chance that you will experience it. Statistics can be misleading. If you roll a die five times and each time it comes up as a 5, when you roll that die again, what are the chances you will get another 5? The same as all the other times: 1 in 6.

    So, putting the statistics lesson aside, we all know that life is uncertain. The same is true with meditation, but research does suggest that certain practices and programs do seem to have a measurable, and in some cases, clearly observable positive effect on things like mood, well-being, and self-compassion, among others.

    My advice would be to let this science lead you to be a skeptic, which means to explore the practice with an open, curious mind that has let go of preconceived notions.

    Back to your question: Will your well-being increase if you meditate? My advice would be to let this science lead you to be a skeptic, which means to explore the practice with an open, curious mind that has let go of preconceived notions. As I like to tell my students: Don’t take my word for anything. Let your own experience be your guide.

    This article appeared in the February 2018 issue of Mindful magazine.



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