Daily life is full of irritations: moments of inconvenience, situations where we don't get what we were hoping for, delays, disappointments, prickly interactions that can leave us confused and exasperated.

If we're honest, we can probably admit that sometimes our reactions in those moments tend to be reflexive rather than intentional. We feel our anger or annoyance rise, and we react almost as though we're reading a script.

Can we explore these habitual reactions in a way that gives us enough space to respond differently? In today's practice, teacher Patricia Rockman guides us through a meditation to help us meet whatever is arising, so that we have more agency when the next moment arises.

Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is a family physician with a focused practice in mental health. She is the senior director of Education and Clinical Services at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, Toronto. Rockman is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Family Medicine, cross appointed to Psychiatry. She has extensive experience practicing individual psychotherapy, leading therapy groups, and training healthcare providers in mindfulness-based interventions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and change management for stress reduction. She is a freelance writer, yoga teacher, and meditation practitioner.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.

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Show Notes

Find more from Patricia Rockman here.

Go Deeper

For more resources to explore reactivity and choice, check out these resources from Mindful.org:

• The "About To" Moment: Teaching and Modeling Response vs. Reaction

• Emotional Rescue: Using Mindfulness to Reset Your Reactions

• You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them

• Tame Reactive Emotions by Naming Them

For more practice with compassionately looking at and interrupting unconscious reactivity, try The S.T.O.P. Practice: Creating Space Around Automatic Reactions.

And more from Mindful here:

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