What can you learn from the practice of mindfulness? Why has this ancient practice exploded into the mainstream? You may have noticed the long-time meditators among us looking bewildered but happy about this geek-to-chic transition.

One definition of mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment with nonjudgmental awareness. That sounds simple, but it’s endlessly subtle. The truth is, mindfulness can alter your relationship to your self, others, and the world around you in dramatic fashion.

And now, as you’ve probably heard, there are a host of scientific studies confirming the benefits of this practice.

If you spend consistent time practicing mindful awareness, you start to notice things that you missed before. At first, you become aware of what you think and feel. But then how you think and feel starts to become apparent.

You notice how your relationship to your mental and physical state affects you moods, feelings, and emotions. In turn, you realize how much your choices are guided by habitual thought patterns.

Slowly but surely, mindfulness yields to insight, empowering you to respond to life in new ways. Situations that felt stagnant become fluid again. Your relationships evolve because you are changing.

In the end, mindfulness is training for your attention. Because awareness is the backdrop for all of our experience, refining your attention through meditative practices can lead to breathtaking transformation.

In this episode of The OneMind Meditation Podcast, we explore Basic Mindfulness training with meditation teacher Julianna Raye. For Julianna, mindfulness is more than a practice, it’s a way of life.

Julianna has an amazing story. She’s a long-time singer songwriter, and in her early career she received critical acclaim for her first album on Warner Bros Records. Then her life took some unexpected turns, and she found herself waiting tables just two years later. She was drawn to mindfulness to manage debilitating anxiety.

Today, having attended over 70 retreats and racked up 12,000 hours of formal practice time, Julianna has rewired her brain. In fact, in a recent study at UCLA comparing long-term meditators' brains with non-meditators, the results of Julianna's MRI led to interviews on media outlets like ABC and GLOBO news.

Julianna currently teaches a form of mindfulness called Basic Mindfulness to executives, performance professionals, TV personalities, entrepreneurs, executives, and corporate groups.

Basic Mindfulness was developed by meditation teacher and scholar Shinzen Young, and it is the subject of studies at Harvard University, the University of Vermont, and other research institutions.

In this episode, we explore Julianna's journey from musician to meditation teacher and then we delve into the nuts and bolts of how to practice Basic Mindfulness.

The post OM028: How To Practice Basic Mindfulness with Julianna Raye appeared first on About Meditation.