It's been a year since I started this podcast and I'm amazed at how the time has flown by and by all that has happened in the last twelve months. In the spirit of mindfulness, I am listening to myself and recognizing that it's time to take a break. Today I'll talk about the what I've gained through creating the podcast and what I hope you'll take with you.

Sit down and shut down. On a bad day, that's my strategy for retreating from difficult feelings. What about you? Withdrawing into a fog, claiming we don't understand, getting lost in habits that undermine us--these are all ways that we retreat from clarity and insight. How can a mindfulness practice help us to be brave enough to face our fears?

What's the place in your life--your heart, your mind, you body where you experience an emptiness that you cannot seem to fill? Or is there an experience you're chasing, or a particular set of feelings you're trying to hold on to? What are you greedy for? What are you grasping at? How can mindfulness practices help you let go and allow who you are right now to be enough?

It might be anger. It might be shame. It might be fear. What's the feeling that for you is like a match being struck? It arises so quickly and with such intensity that the idea of pausing long enough to become an observer of that feeling seems like an impossible task. But is it? Are we really at the mercy of our feelings?

My work as a life coach and this podcast encourage mindfulness so it might seem odd that my goal today is to explain the case against mindfulness. But being mindful does not mean giving up our critical thinking skills so let's look at this issue from more than one perspective.

No matter how focused we are on the present moment, we all have a past. Friends, relatives, photographs, songs, even smells can suddenly, unexpectedly, sometimes, unwillingly, take us on a journey into our past. Happy memories sustain us but difficult ones may overwhelm us. I can't avoid the fact that I have a past so I want to understand how I can stay present while I visit it. What does that mean for my body, heart, and mind?

As I enter the next decade of my life I am awake to the opportunity, present in each moment. Who do I want to be in relationship to myself, others, and the world? How can mindfulness practices support me in this journey?

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." That quote's been attributed to more than one person but the important question is: is it true? Focusing on the topics my clients bring to me in my life coaching practice, I discuss the daily dynamics of suffering and what we can do to reduce it.

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We all have them in our life. And we all probably are a difficult person to someone else! How can mindfulness help us understand what's happening when we are with, and when we are, a difficult person?

I make a list every day, well almost every day. I sometimes add items I've already done just so I can cross them off. Is my identity, my sense of having a self dependent on what I get done each day? It sometimes feels that way. What would it mean to understand self differently, mindfully?