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  • Rewire Your Food Cravings and Triggers

    Rewire Your Food Cravings and Triggers

    This is part of a four-part mini-workshop called Train Your Brain to Break Bad Habits. You can find links to all four sessions in this series here.

    Last session we learned how to map the mechanics of our habit loops. This session, we’re using those skills to look specifically at any habits we’ve formed around food and eating.

    As a recap: our brains learn through a process that has three components: trigger, behavior, reward. There’s a trigger (perhaps stress) that moves you to behave in a certain way (maybe leaving your desk at work and going out for a cigarette); and there’s a result or reward (having that cigarette gets the initial feelings of stress to drop a bit for a short period of time). According to the brain, that’s a successful pattern that deserves to be repeated.

    Since last session, did you discover any habit loops in your life? If you didn’t get an opportunity to practice, you could pause right now to see if you can identify one or two habit loops in your own experience.

    This session we’re examining habit loops with regards to food in particular. And eating is an extremely interesting example. That’s because the habit-loop structure of getting hungry, finding food, and testing and eating that food, is designed to do something else: to aid us in locating that food again.

    Imagine being out in a wilderness: when hungry and looking for food in that sort of environment, our brains aim to record our successes because we need to eat to stay alive. We spot some bright berries (trigger); we bring that food to our mouths to test it—we eat a berry or two (behavior); and if we find that the berries don’t harm us, but instead provide us fuel in the form of calories and even taste good, we’ve set the groundwork for the habit loop that will propel us to eat those berries again whenever we find them (a reward that encourages us to not only look for that food again, but gather and store it or eat it whenever we do). Essentially, the stomach has sent a dopamine signal to the brain that says, “Remember what you ate and where you found it.”

    But most of us do not live in a wilderness anymore—unless you count coffee shops on every corner, copious numbers of fast-food joints, restaurants, and grocery stores as a new kind of wilderness. Point being, our brains don’t necessarily need this reward-based learning system to help us remember where food is anymore. In fact, though, that system is still at play—only now it operates with other types of triggers and foods. For example, if we get into the habit of reaching for ice cream every time we get stressed out, our brain starts to learn to eat when we’re stressed. Because when we do, like the person who smokes, we feel some stress relief (albeit brief) while we’re digging into that container of vanilla bean gelato.

    And triggers don’t always need to be bad to set up the potential for a habit loop to form. Maybe, like so many of us, you associate food with celebrations, whether it’s a birthday, Thanksgiving or another holiday: it’s easy to begin to associate fun social times with the array of food we get to enjoy.

    Regardless, whether it’s celebratory, stress-based or even boredom or sadness that triggers us to eat, once our brains make a habit loop that includes eating food as a go-to behavior in response to a particular trigger, and when eating makes us feel a little bit better in the moment, our brains set the tracks: “That was good; I feel a bit better; let’s do it again.” And so we do.

    So this is the focus of our practice: any types of habits we may have formed around eating. Let’s begin.

    Rewire Your Food Cravings and Triggers

    Watch the video:

    1. Get settled into a comfortable position, whether sitting, standing or lying down.Just like we did last week, anchor your awareness in your body—in the breath and the body, in your direct experience in the moment What do these physical sensations feel like? Introduce some curiosity. And go ahead and think of this as anchoring: that aware connection will serve as the point that will keep your boat from floating off. If your attention drifts away, that anchor catches so that you can come back. This helps to orient us around our mind—because if our mind is drifting off this way or that, it’s very difficult to identify, observe and map out our habit loops. We need that steady awareness, too, to map the different types of rewards that we get from those habits. Let’s focus on what’s actually happening for us in the first part of the equation: trigger and behavior.
    2. Bring to mind your favorite food. Resting in awareness in the breath and body, now simply bring to mind your favorite comfort food. You may imagine what it smells and tastes like. Take it further: what are the qualities of the sensations of that food on your tongue, in your mouth? Is it cool? Soft and delicate? Crunchy? Spend some time with these sensations.
    3. Notice the type of reaction that your body has simply by bringing up the memory of this food. What are you experiencing in your body? Maybe you notice you now have a craving for that food, even if you’ve just eaten, even if you’re not hungry at all. If you do find yourself in the midst of a craving, what does that feel like in your body and mind? Are there physical sensations associated with it? Invite curiosity into this.
    4. Try to notice any changes to the sensations associated with your craving. Is there a predominant sensation in your body right now? Are you finding tightness? Does that tightness change? Is there a sensation of heat? Does that heat move? Are you noticing any other sensations? And what happens as you bring your awareness fully to those sensations?
    5. Come back to the breath. Gently bring your attention away from your craving, and simply bring your awareness back to your body or your breath.

    Perhaps you noticed that simply bringing a memory of a food item to mind can arouse cravings. I’m hoping you noticed something else, too: that bringing awareness to the craving itself can change our relationship to it—we can be with that craving rather than be caught up in it. We can feel the trigger and pause before the behavior. If we are caught up in a craving it’s just like being on autopilot. But if we’re aware of that craving, we’re in the driver’s seat, in first gear.

    Try to notice any types of food cravings you have. And when they strike, try to drop into your body, even if it’s just for a few moments. The goal here is to really explore what that craving feels like in your body and mind. Then bring your awareness to whether or not that craving changes from moment to moment to moment.

    You might go ahead and eat the food you have in mind, and you might not. But simply start by exploring, getting comfortable and really familiar with what that craving feels like. Take a good, long, curious look at the beginning of that habit loop: from trigger to the urge to act to just before you act, and then whether you act or not. Notice that behavior and then the results of whatever that behavior is.

    Unhook From Your Phone Addiction 

    Our phones are masterfully designed weapons of mass distraction, and it’s so easy to get sucked into that distraction—Here’s how we can regain control of our attention. Read More 

    • Judson Brewer
    • April 2, 2019



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  • A Meditation on Endings – Mindful

    A Meditation on Endings – Mindful

    By drawing our attention to endings and our developed habits about the way we meet endings, we can learn how to step fully into our lives with appreciation and gratitude, says Frank Ostaseski.

    How Do You Meet Endings?

    I want to draw our attention to endings: the end of a day, the end of a meal, the end of something precious and rare, the end of this sentence. 

    How do you meet endings? I mean, most of us have some developed habits about the way in which we meet endings. Are you aware of your habits? Without any judgment or criticality, let’s just take a look to see what our relationship to endings are. Like, when you go to a party, or you go to a conference: Do you have a tendency to leave emotionally or mentally before the conference is over or before the party’s over? Or maybe you’re the one in the parking lot waving goodbye to everybody as they depart. Or maybe you find some way of cocooning yourself, isolating in some way, pulling back into a kind of protective stance. Or perhaps you become ambivalent or indifferent about endings—maybe endings are very emotional for you. Maybe you get sad or scared. Let’s just take a look.

    When you end a relationship, how do you do it? Do you try to shift it into some other form of relationship so that it will continue? Do you end it with a text? How do you say goodbye in the afternoon when you leave your work—do you say goodbye to your colleagues? When a friend is sick and dying, do you go visit them? How do you meet endings? What are your patterns? Are you happy with the way you meet endings? You don’t have to be wedded to your old way of doing it. You have the freedom to change it, right here, right now. 

    When an ending comes, what happens in your body? Do you get tight, contracted? What’s the emotional experience? Does it bring about anxiety, fear, sadness? And what happens in your mind when endings come? Do you have remembering thoughts or planning thoughts? How do you meet this experience? 

    Exploring Endings and Beginnings

    The way that we end something shapes the way the next thing begins. When we hang on to the past, it limits our capacity to welcome the new. A lot of times we hang on because we’re still demanding something of the past, wanting it to give us more of what we’d hoped to get from that situation—more success, more love. The more comfortable we are with endings, the more we can welcome the new and release the old.

    The way that we end something shapes the way the next thing begins. When we hang on to the past, it limits our capacity to welcome the new.

    I used to run a preschool with a friend of mine, and we had these three- to five-year-olds that we would take into the outdoors. There, we would give them the task of collecting dead things, and the kids loved this. They’d go out into the woods and collect an old stick or fallen leaf or a rusty old car part, or sometimes the bones of a bird or a small animal. And then we’d bring them together and we’d lay out all of their discoveries on a blue tarp and in a grove of fir trees. And then we had a kind of show and tell. And the kids had no fear—they were full of curiosity. And sometimes when they presented the item they found, they would weave a great story about it, like how this rusty old car part had fallen from a spaceship. Or this leaf was being used by a mouse—to keep him warm until summer came. They had no fear. I remember one little girl said to me, I think the trees are very kind that they allow the leaves to fall from them so that new ones can grow. It would be really sad if the tree couldn’t grow new leaves.

    We know that birth will end in death. And reflecting on this might imbue our lives with more appreciation and gratitude. We know that the coming together of things inevitably means their dispersion, and reflecting on this may cause us to live a life of simplicity, to really cherish and care for what we have. 

    We know that everyone we love will one day die. Reflecting on this may cause us to think about how we want to care for them now. The way we meet in ending shapes the way the next moment arises. The study of endings is a beautiful way to step fully into our lives. 

    Learning From the Breath

    And the breath can help us restore; it can revitalize our life. The breath helps us to unhook from the daily frenzy. It brings balance to the instinctive drive to fight, take flight or freeze. Breath offers us an extraordinary opportunity to look at our relationship to endings. 

    1. Let the belly be soft; let the shoulders relax. Bring your attention to the breath, to the direct experience of breathing in and breathing out. 
    2. Be aware of the sensations in the body: the large, gross sensations and the subtler sensations of tingling or pulsing. Just let yourself settle into the rhythm of the breath however it is. There’s no need to control it or shape it in any way. 
    3. See if you can become aware of the very beginning of the inhale, the middle, and the end of the inhale. Do the same with the exhale: note the very beginning, the middle, and end of each exhale.
    4. See if you can become aware of that moment of transformation when the inhale becomes the exhale, when the exhale becomes the inhale. Relax. Let the breath breathe itself. Then you might notice that little gap, that pause, at the end of the exhale—maybe it’s just a nanosecond. Bring your attention fully and completely there. What happens in the gap? Were there physical sensations? Is there an emotional response? Do you find yourself anxious or feeling a sigh of relief? What happens in the mind? Is there a tendency to want to control the breath, to micromanage it in some way?
    5. Just let yourself rest in the gap. Rest in the pause. This pause: it’s a moment of faith or fear. Do you trust that the next breath will emerge? Can you relax with things just as they are? Breath is a microcosm of our whole life: coming and going, appearing and disappearing. 
    6. As we settle, we begin to feel like the breath is breathing us. Relinquish your control of the breath and let it breathe you. Settle back into the constant change—the coming and going, the beginning and ending of all experience. 

    Thank you for your practice.



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  • Let Them Lead – Mindful

    Let Them Lead – Mindful

    Many of us strive to show up skillfully for the young people in our lives, whether it’s as their parent or relative, as an educator, coach, or mentor. Yet knowing just what they need to fuel their growth and leadership is not always easy. While facing all the challenges of growing up, youth today are also deeply aware of conflict and uncertainty in the world around them, and many come from families and communities impacted by systemic inequality. However, their experiences and voices are key to their ability to create change—something I recently witnessed firsthand through a youth leadership program.   

    Nuestra Juventud: Creating Communities of Hope was founded on the principle that healing communities means centering youth voices and fostering a deep sense of trust in their own wisdom. Launched in 2023, the fellowship gently nurtures youth leadership, voice, and vision in the heart of Southern New Mexico, a region that has often been overlooked and under-resourced. The program, designed to cultivate philanthropy, leadership, and collective care, invites youth to act with intention and generosity in service of their communities. Serving as the Project Coordinator for Nuestra Juventud, I learned just as much from the first youth cohort as I hoped to offer them. 

    Learning to Lead 

    Developed in partnership with Ivy Child International and Aprendamos Family of Services, Nuestra Juventud—“Our Youth”—is a six-month fellowship that brings together high school and middle school students, primarily those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color from underserved communities. Participants gather monthly to engage in leadership workshops, community exploration, and intergenerational dialogue. 

    Nuestra Juventud is guided by six key objectives:

    • Educate and Engage: Youth explore systems of collective impact and have opportunities to visit and learn about nonprofits in their communities.
    • Personal Development: Fellows reflect on their own identities, values, and growth.
    • Cultivate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy: Through learning the “Three T’s” of giving—time, talent, and treasure—youth can see themselves as active contributors.
    • Enhance Collaboration: Intergenerational dialogue and teamwork teach youth how to build with others.
    • Empowerment: Youth discover their voices and the impact they can have.
    • Leadership Skills: Training sessions focus on  SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s five practices of leadership, and leadership qualities.

    A cornerstone of the fellowship is the opportunity for each young person to develop their personal mission statement and select a local nonprofit organization that aligns with their values to support with a mini-grant, made possible through the generosity of the Covarrubias–Aprendamos Foundation. Through this process, youth learn not only about the mechanics of philanthropy but also about the importance of aligning one’s actions with deeply held beliefs or values. 

    In the first iteration of the program, our youth chose to award mini-grants to a range of nonprofits spanning services for families and youth, a domestic violence shelter, a community health center, a local arts council, a community faith center, an animal shelter, a children’s literacy group, an immigrant and migrant hospitality and advocacy center, and others. A special highlight for the youth was the opportunity to develop a logo with symbolic meaning to the inaugural group. This logo will be used for the program moving forward.

    Follow the Wisdom of Young Leaders

    From the very first session, youth began discovering their voices and connection to one another. One of the most powerful moments came when several fellows spoke on a youth panel at a regional conference for educators and social workers. Their stories and insights became the highlight of the event, offering powerful reminders of what becomes possible when we trust young people. These reflections speak to the lasting ripple effects of this work. But it wasn’t just the fellows who transformed—mentors, family members, and nonprofit partners shared with me that they’d come to see youth not just as recipients, but as collaborators and visionaries. That shift in perception may be one of the most meaningful outcomes of all. With the permission of the fellows (some of whom prefer to remain anonymous), I share some of their remarks here.

    Youth are not empty vessels waiting to be filled—they’re full of insight born from lived experience. Whether it’s navigating systems, caring for siblings, or advocating for peers, their wisdom is real and necessary.

    1. Trust Young People as Experts of Their Experience

    Youth are not empty vessels waiting to be filled—they’re full of insight born from lived experience. Whether it’s navigating systems, caring for siblings, or advocating for peers, their wisdom is real and necessary.

    Through the first iteration of the program, youth discovered new ways to not only trust their own wisdom, but also put it into action: “I learned that I am not the only one who feels I can do more for our community and the meaningfulness of philanthropy and acts of kindness,” said one participant. Another fellow, Alex, shared, “It takes courage to stand up when you see something wrong. A good leader encourages the heart.”

    2. Recognize Different Kinds of Leadership

    Alexa reminded her peers to “Stay true to what you believe in.” Encouraging youth to lead from who they are, rather than who others expect them to be, is a vital way to nurture their convictions, skills, and dreams.

    One of the greatest lessons from Nuestra Juventud is that leadership doesn’t always look like standing at a podium. Sometimes it’s quiet listening. Sometimes it’s creating space for others. Sometimes it’s saying, “I don’t know, but I want to learn.” As Avery offered, “A leader is someone who is good at listening to others and is understanding of others’ perspectives”—a reminder that authentic leadership is rooted in humility and care.

    3. Celebrate Cultural Identity as a Source of Power

    By centering the cultural backgrounds of participants—Chicana, Indigenous, Afro-Latinx, and more—Nuestra Juventud affirms that cultural knowledge is a leadership asset. Youth reflect on their ancestors, their languages, their lived experiences, and the land itself as sources of strength. As Anelise put it, “I want to lead with my abuelita in my heart.”

    When youth deepen their connection to their own identity, they also gain more confidence to help them understand and communicate across cultures and backgrounds. “I learned how to get out of my comfort zone and talk to new people,” another participant said.

    4. Create Space for Healing

    Many fellows come into the program holding the weight of family challenges, racism, and intergenerational trauma. Through peer circles, storytelling,  mentorship, and opportunities for creativity, they find space to heal. And in healing, they find clarity, courage, and connection.

    Many expressed the desire to continue helping their community after the program ended. Anelise reflected, “A good leader demonstrates compassion with the people they lead.” And in the words of another fellow: “I didn’t know how to be a leader and never considered myself a leader. Now I know I am a leader and can make a difference.” 

    5. Know That We All Have a Role to Play

    Youth benefit from experiencing intergenerational connection and support. As one fellow put it, “I learned how to collaborate with people of all ages and how to share a space with others.” Others shared that they enjoyed having a mentor.

    “Leadership begins with love—for our people, our places, our future generations and the futures we imagine together.” — Manny, youth fellow

    The success of Nuestra Juventud isn’t just about the youth; it’s also about the adults who listen, step back, and support. Community members, mentors, funders, and facilitators show that transformation is collective work.

    As youth fellow Manny said, “My mission is to make my community a better place to live.” It’s a reminder that leadership begins with love—for our people, our places, our future generations and the futures we imagine together.

    5 Ways to Uplift the Next Generation 

    Nuestra Juventud is not just cultivating philanthropy and social responsibility for the future—it’s nurturing the leaders of now and creating communities of hope in Southern New Mexico. Each of these youth fellows is a testament to what’s possible when we trust our youth.

    The wisdom shared by Nuestra Juventud participants makes one thing clear: Young people are ready to lead, but they need us—the adults in their lives—to show up with presence and corazón (a word often used in Chicanx expressions of care and leadership) differently. Here are a few ways we can all support our youth and honor their leadership:

    • Listen With Respect and Curiosity: Create space for youth to speak openly, and listen to them with the intent to understand, not to respond.
    • Mentor Without Controlling: Offer guidance and presence, but let youth lead and make decisions.
    • Invite Youth Into Real Decision-Making: Include them meaningfully in program design, community efforts, and leadership roles.
    • Celebrate Identity, Don’t Erase It: Acknowledge and affirm the cultural backgrounds and lived experiences of our youth.
    • Invest in Youth—Financially and Emotionally: Support programs like Nuestra Juventud and believe in the vision youth hold for their communities. Our collective work is needed for our youth to lead with corazón, culture, and courage.



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  • How to Set an Intention for Your Future

    How to Set an Intention for Your Future

    When we use our imaginations to envision the future life we most hope, we can bring ourselves one step closer to that actual life. This mindfulness practice is called “imagine if.” 

    If you joined me for Module 1, or even if you haven’t, let’s just recap: we’ve explored how to uncover the meaning in our lives, how to touch in with our core values. So, today, I want to build on that and really think about how to set an intention based on the things that are important to us. In order to do that, I always like to begin by taking a moment to arrive. As you’re listening to this, you may be just starting your day or arriving from a busy day. Whatever the circumstances, I always find it really nourishing to just take a moment to allow our mind and heart and body to catch up with one another—inviting all parts of us into the same moment and taking a moment to arrive here.

    How to Set an Intention for Your Future

    Watch the video:

    Listen to the audio:

    Read the practice:

    1. If you’re comfortable, I invite you to close your eyes or simply direct your gaze downward, softening the visual field. Sit or find a comfortable position for your body. Allow your attention to settle. 

    2. Collect your attention and become aware of your body. Feel the places where your feet make contact with the ground or the chair. Tune into the felt sense of your body wherever you find yourself—perhaps sitting in a way that’s alert but relaxed at the same time; sitting in a way that embodies this quality of alertness, of clarity, that we will be practicing today. 

    3. Now gently but firmly gather your attention and direct it towards the sensation of breathing. Note the sense of the air moving in and out of your body. Bring your full, undivided attention in a firm but gentle way to this experience of breathing. 

    4. And just as you are, let’s continue this meditation on intention by considering something you hope for in your life. More specifically, what you may hope your life will look like at some future date and time. It could be near-term: the next six months or a year; or longer-term: three years, five years, 10 years. Choose whatever time horizon is useful for you at this moment.

    5. Now, really consider what you envision for your life, with vividness and clarity. I invite you to imagine you living your best life. And to take this further, I’d like you to imagine you living your best life in a way as though it’s already happened. So, what are you hoping for? Imagine it’s five years from now, or 10, and you’re living your best life. What does that look like? Let’s pause here and really envision what this future life looks like. Who are you? What are you doing? Who is there with you? What conditions exist, what circumstances? 

    6. Continuing now, call into your mind and heart and sense in your body what it feels like to be living this future life that you most hope for. The easiest way to envision this is to simply imagine what it would feel like. What would it feel like to be living this future life? 

    7. As we end this meditation I invite you to take a few deeper breaths at your own pace. And then rejoin: Open your eyes, if you have your eyes closed. 

    Reflecting on your intention practice:

    So, this is really an exercise in “imagine if.” And again, this is part of an intention-setting exercise. And the reason I’m inviting you to envision a future life that you most hope for is because imagining it, and thinking and acting as though we’ve already experienced it, we can bring ourselves one step closer to that actual life. If that doesn’t seem clear, here’s another simple prompt you can either use as a meditation or reflection, or you can write or journal about. It’s a kind of fill-in-the-blank: I am living my best life, and I am ….

    If there’s something that you’re hoping for—a change, a difference in your life—begin with that. An example of this reflection would be: It is three years from now, and I’m living my best life, and I am …. I invite you to fill in that blank. 

    It’s 10 years from now, I am living my best life, and I am writing and teaching—that would be mine. And I am a published author of three books.

    So I invite you to try this out for yourself: imagine your future life because this is the intention-setting exercise at the heart of this module. 

    I invite those who aren’t writing to just meditate on that prompt. And if you’re comfortable writing, please go ahead and take a minute or so and write this out: I’m living my best life and I am …. Fill in the blank. 

    Continue that reflection by considering how you feel. What does it feel like in this future place? Write that down, or inhabit that feeling. What are you doing? How do you feel? What’s happening in this best version of your life?

    Just remember this vision, this felt sense, as we end the reflection. If you’re doing this as a meditation, take a couple of deep breaths at your own pace and then rejoin us. 

    Thank you for that thought exercise, that meditation. This is intention-setting: imagining the way forward and setting the intention around it. I specifically wanted to invite you to reflect on your own life, perhaps your life and work, and then consider how all of this would look in the best life you could hope for—and then, write it down. Or you can really get clear on the qualities of that best life and then live your way forward into that life. That is the intention-setting invitation. Have a great day.



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  • Setting Intentions and How to Manifest Your Deepest Desires

    Setting Intentions and How to Manifest Your Deepest Desires

    If you want to be successful at anything, whether it’s being a more relaxed parent, quitting smoking, or running a marathon, setting an intention—and then concentrating on it mindfully—will give you the focus to help turn your dream into reality. Our culture often uses the terms goal and intention interchangeably. But they actually aren’t the same. In reality, intentions are the things that should be leading the way, and that’s why it’s essential that when you’re setting intentions, you’re aligned with your deepest, truest self.

    Intentions help you stay oriented toward your goal when strong emotions, exhaustion, boredom, or distraction threaten to throw you off course. Intentions connect deeply to your true heart’s desire, to what really matters to you, and use that rudder to set your course forward. 

    An intention isn’t a wish or a fantasy. It isn’t a proclamation of who or how you think you should be. It comes from truly listening to what’s important for you to feel most alive and, well, yourself. 

    Not an intention: I want to lose 25 pounds and fit into my old jeans. 

    Intention: I am listening deeply to my body’s desire to be healthy and active, and my heart’s desire to feel vibrant and whole. 

    We offer ourselves the greatest potential for easing our own suffering.

    Here’s where mindfulness plays an essential role. When we take the time to tune into ourselves, to learn our inner landscape, it’s easier to discern our truth from fantasy. It’s like when you investigate a sudden craving. Is it that your body needs chips right this minute to function, or are you looking for a distraction (a crunchy, salty, flavor-bomb of one) while you nervously await word from your publisher about your manuscript?

    Perhaps what you really want is to have fulfilling, creative, intellectually stimulating work, own a home you love, where friends and family will come to visit and where you have a place to garden, or learn to manage your stress better, and feel more grounded and happy. 

    From this place of deep knowing, you can craft a plan to achieve what you’ve identified. And when you veer off track—you’re tempted by the mind-numbing job because you’re scared no one else will hire you; you contemplate spending all your savings on a trip to Paris; or find yourself (again) stress-eating at 9 p.m.—you have something real and true to anchor you.  

    Saying Yes to Commitment

    Change isn’t easy. But it’s often exactly what’s needed. Knowing what really matters to us, and setting an intention that helps create the circumstances for that desire to flourish, also makes it far easier to commit to changing behavior or habits that keep us from our goal. 

    After mindfully reflecting on my experience with my stepdaughter, I realized that my deepest desire was to have a warmer relationship with her. I set the intention to be loving and warm toward her, as I am with other people I care deeply for. On a recent visit, when I felt myself becoming cranky and brittle, I recalled my intention. In an instant, I saw the extraneous stuff that wasn’t contributing to greater love or warmth but instead lessening my resolve to keep my intention. I recommitted to what I really wanted, not to the random thoughts and feelings that were triggered by, say, my low blood sugar or my petulance. And because it mattered—this is how I want to live—that commitment felt invigorating, and was easy. The rest of the day went beautifully.  

    Two things here speak to the power of intention: When you know what’s important to you, and you intend to honor that, your intention is an alarm that goes off when you forget what really matters. Then you can choose to chart a different way forward.  

    Saying No to Resolutions

    You may want to lose weight, get your real estate license, or be a better listener—but if you don’t know why you want this, you will quickly lose motivation and fall back into your old habits. However, discomfort and resistance are no longer insurmountable obstacles when we know what we really want and recommit to it again and again.

    I’ve never been able to diet. But I have managed to control my diabetes by setting the intention to stay alive through changing the way I eat. I tell people, “I’m not on a diet. I just don’t want to die-yet.” Once I focused on my intention of staying alive, eating healthfully was a breeze. 

    Intention can also, simply, help you align your values with the way you live your life, in ways big and small. Without it, life can feel a bit like a pinball machine, slinging you about, miserable, confused, never satisfied with what you have because you don’t know what you really want. In this way, intention becomes less about making wishes come true; it’s really about honoring who you are. 



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  • Bring Your Practice to Digital Work

    Bring Your Practice to Digital Work

    I’m fascinated by technology, yet I yearn for a calm, peaceful life. This dual interest led me to draw insights from both camps and experiment with a mindful way of being with tech, not against it. For my entire adult life, I’ve been trying to figure out how to live mindfully and love technology at the same time.

    This has been a very personal journey, but a big part of it is professional, too. I love sitting in silence when I can, but I’m also a tech designer and entrepreneur. I lead a fractional product team creating mindfulness-related technologies remotely from a laptop, so I know the struggle of finding balance with tech more than most. 

    It’s not easy to do your best work, think deeply, and be creative in this attention economy. 

    It’s not easy to do your best work, think deeply, and be creative in this attention economy. It’s even harder to stay grounded when the pressure is high and you’re swimming in emails, notifications, and demands. Here are a few of my favorite tips to mindfully fine-tune the ways you engage with tech at work. 

    1. Redesign Your Work Environment

    Recently, I had a big project that demanded a lot of focus. It was hard to even imagine, knowing all the requests that pull at my attention on any given workday. I reduced the burden on my willpower by installing my second computer monitor on a swivel and putting a big, comfy chair on the other side of my desk. 

    Now, whenever I need to focus on something (including as I type these words), I rotate my second monitor to face backward with nothing else visible. I sit on the wrong side of my desk and type on a wireless keyboard with no trackpad. I can’t reach my email, social media, and web browser. And they can’t reach me. 

    Those who create tech aren’t the only ones who can leverage the power of design. My physical setup provides me with the constraint I need to get into a flow without too much effort. I couldn’t redesign the operating system, but I did redesign the room in which it operates.

    This mindset also helps me park my phone outside of work hours. When I’m at home with my family, I try to leave it charging on my desk as much as possible. If I want to check something, I’m forced to politely excuse myself and walk over to my desk. Less convenient, but just enough friction to prevent me from habitually reaching for Slack or my work email while my six-year-old is trying to play with me.

    2. Be Intentional With Email 

    When I start my workday, the first thing on my calendar is a block of time to clear my inbox. I do this for a few important reasons.

    First, I don’t have work email on my phone, so I don’t see messages in the evening or early morning and feel like I need to catch up. On top of that, I like taking time to respond thoughtfully to people to prevent downstream conflicts and miscommunications. I even try to include something in every message that might make the receiver smile.

    Mindfully noticing patterns in how tech influences your state of mind will help you make similar skillful adjustments to accommodate your unique habits and idiosyncrasies.

    At the end of the day, I check my email one last time, but I try not to send any replies. If I do, I’ll ruminate on whatever I sent and compulsively check for replies in the evening. And if I actually get a reply in the evening, instead of satisfying me, it usually ends up with me sneaking back into my office late at night to follow up.

    This tip isn’t necessarily for everyone; it’s a nuance I’ve discovered about myself. Mindfully noticing patterns in how tech influences your state of mind will help you make similar skillful adjustments to accommodate your unique habits and idiosyncrasies.

    3. Reject False Urgency 

    Across both personal and professional information channels, there’s one destructive illusion that makes tech way more stressful than it needs to be: false urgency. Work messaging becomes much saner when you customize it to present with an appropriate level of urgency for the information being conveyed.

    Consider how urgent your current settings are, compared to how urgent they need to be.

    For email, team messaging, calendar alerts, project notifications, or any other information channels, you can consider how urgent your current settings are compared to how urgent they need to be. An alert on your phone notifying you that a critical system just failed makes sense. That same alert is unnecessary for a random email that can easily wait until tomorrow.

    It also helps to manage urgency with your team. At Still Ape, we have a communications charter that describes how urgently we expect each other to reply: Emails warrant a response within two days, work messaging within one day, a text within a few hours, and calls immediately. When we tag someone in a document, we don’t expect them to see it until they’re actively in the file. Not only does our charter protect receivers’ attention, it also prevents senders from anxiously waiting for immediate replies on a non-immediate channel.

    If you’ve been frantically refreshing your inbox, it might feel pretty uncomfortable to slow down. It’ll get easier as you form new habits and your team builds new expectations. Rejecting false urgency frees up a lot of mental energy for focus, creativity, deep thinking, and effective collaboration. 

    4. Use AI Wisely

    You can use AI apps to gather and assemble ideas quickly, but at least for now, you need to pause to verify facts, trim the excess, and edit for clarity and authenticity. For many tasks, AI is more like cruise control than autopilot; you still need to steer.

    By now you’ve probably seen an AI agent join a video call, listen to an entire meeting, and then email everyone an immediate summary. But did you actually read the summary? Probably not, unless a human being who understood the full context edited it down to what actually matters.

    Things are evolving quickly in this space, but as a rule, I recommend making sure it doesn’t take you less time to create something than it will for others to engage with it. If it does, respect your recipient’s attention by spending a bit more time reading it and refining it yourself. Something feels off about having ChatGPT whip up a 10-page report in two minutes and expecting others to read it in-depth when you didn’t even bother.

    Your work might look very different from these examples. It’s all good. People are diverse, and things change over time. What matters is that a mindful relationship with technology is all about paying close attention to how different tech affects you and using that insight to fearlessly experiment in your own life.

    Excerpt from Reclaim Your Mind: Seven Strategies to Enjoy Tech Mindfully by Jay Vidyarthi, published by Still Ape Press. Copyright © 2025 by Jay Vidyarthi. 



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  • Tap Into Ease with This Guided Meditation for Holiday Stress

    Tap Into Ease with This Guided Meditation for Holiday Stress

    Get the latest on everything mindfulness

    Our free newsletter delivers updates on the science of mindfulness, guided mindfulness meditation practices from leading teachers, special offers, and rich content to support your mindful growth.


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  • Alive, Together – Mindful

    Alive, Together – Mindful

    A letter from Mindful Magazine’s 2026 Editor, Amber Tucker.

    I read a quote recently that spoke to me, and to a key idea in this edition of Mindful: “We do not have to live as if we are alone.” (That’s writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry, quoted in writer and teacher Sebene Selassie’s Substack newsletter, Remind Me to Love.) I know I’m not the only person who feels alone, sometimes, in long hours hunkered over a desk, grasping for a sense of gosh-darn interconnectedness.

    At the same time, making a magazine is an inherently (and at the best of times, a joyfully) collaborative endeavor. Countless tiny yet critical steps involving dozens, even hundreds of people around the world, all counting on one another’s skills, knowledge, and dedication. Having worked at Mindful for more than seven years, I remain in awe of the ecosystem that brought into being the Trust Yourself issue you’re reading now.

    Like a healthy relationship, a meaningful project requires trust in others, and trust in ourselves. There’s a generative power in that. Trust that we’re more resilient than the sore back or disgruntled thoughts or horrific headlines or aching heart that may, right now, be overwhelming. Remember that we’re in this together, our feet planted firmly. As meditation teacher and author Kimberly Brown says, in Stephanie Domet’s article: “It does take time to become intimate with your body and your mind and become friendly with it. But when you can let yourself become familiar, then you can also start to trust.”

    The stories in these pages explore trust from numerous angles. Sue Hutton shares science-backed strategies to honor your unique brain wiring, while Misty Pratt investigates why the brain craves certainty and how to lessen anxiety about the unknown. Mara Gulens reckons with the grief of a changing body—maybe an unexpected path to wholeness. Sharon Ross extols the art of a simple invitation to help us break through loneliness and nurture community. And if you’re ready for a fresh start with mindfulness (at any age or experience level), turn to page 12 for a week’s worth of audio meditations, and to page 75 for a guide to your own daily practice: essential to becoming more familiar and friendly with you.

    I hope this issue of Mindful adds tools to your kit for this lifelong adventure of returning to ourselves and to one another. Amidst the chaos and pain and love of being alive, we are all we truly have. May we all find our way to trust in that.



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  • 2026 Annual Issue: Bonus Material

    2026 Annual Issue: Bonus Material

    Retreat Guide 2026

    Find space to pause, reflect, and reconnect

    Step away from the noise and return to what matters. The 2026 Mindful Retreat Guide curates a thoughtful selection of mindfulness retreats from around the world, chosen for their depth, integrity, and respect for both inner practice and place. Whether you’re seeking silence, nature, community, or renewal, this guide is designed to help you find a retreat experience that truly supports reflection, restoration, and meaningful time offline.



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  • Busy Times, or Anytime: Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    Busy Times, or Anytime: Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    You’ve probably heard that mindfulness reduces stress levels. But how does it help? Shamash Alidina shares the research—plus, a meditation you can turn to anytime.

    You’ve probably heard that mindfulness reduces stress. But how does it actually help you do that?

    Mounting scientific evidence from hundreds of universities—including dedicated centers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the United States and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom—strongly suggests that mindfulness gently builds an inner strength, so that future stressors have less impact on our happiness and physical well-being.

    Here are nine ways mindfulness can help you manage stress, plus a guided meditation to start experiencing the natural calm that mindfulness can bring:

    Nine Ways Mindfulness Reduces Stress

    1. You become more aware of your thoughts. You can then step back from them and not take them so literally. That way, your stress response is not initiated in the first place.
    2. You don’t immediately react to a situation. Instead, you have a moment to pause and then use your “wise mind” to come up with the best solution. Mindfulness helps you do this through the mindful exercises.
    3. Mindfulness switches on your “being” mode of mind, which is associated with relaxation. Your “doing” mode of mind is associated with action and the stress response.
    4. You are more aware and sensitive to the needs of your body. You may notice pains earlier and can then take appropriate action.
    5. You are more aware of the emotions of others. As your emotional intelligence rises, you are less likely to get into conflict.
    6. Your level of care and compassion for yourself and others rises. This compassionate mind soothes you and inhibits your stress response.
    7. Mindfulness practice reduces activity in the part of your brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is central to switching on your stress response, so effectively, your background level of stress is reduced.
    8. You are better able to focus. So you complete your work more efficiently, you have a greater sense of well-being, and this reduces the stress response. You are more likely to get into “the zone” or “flow,” as it’s termed in psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
    9. You can switch your attitude to the stress. Rather than just seeing the negative consequences of feeling stressed, mindfulness offers you the space to think differently about the stress itself. Observing how the increased pressure helps energize you has a positive effect on your body and mind.

    Try It Yourself—Stress SOS: A Quick Practice When You Need It Most

    1. Bring to mind a current challenge in your life that is the cause of some stress. A situation that you’re willing to work with at the moment. Not your biggest challenge but not so small that it causes no stress at all. A 3 on a scale of 1–10 is a good guide.
    2. Bring the situation vividly to mind. Imagine being in the situation and all the difficulties associated with it.
    3. Notice whether you can feel the stress in your body. Physical tension, faster heart rate, a little bit of sweating, butterflies in your stomach, tightness in the back or shoulders or jaw, perhaps. Look out for your stress signals.
    4. Tune in to your emotions. Notice how you feel. Label that emotion if you can, and be aware of where you feel the emotion, exactly, in your body. Just try to spot it as best you can. The more precisely you can locate the emotion and the more you notice about the sensation, the better. With time and experience, you’ll keep getting better at this.
    5. Bring mindful attitudes to the emotion. These include curiosity, friendliness, and acceptance.
    6. Try placing your hand on the location of the sensation—a friendly hand representing kindness. Do it the way you would place your hand on the injured knee of a child, with care and affection.
    7. Feel the sensation together with your breathing. This can promote a present-moment awareness and mindful attitudes to your experience.
    8. When you’re ready, bring this meditation to a close.
    This article was adapted from Shamash Alidina’s book The Mindful Way Through Stress



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