I get to talk to a lot of people about stress.

As we become more aware of the cycle of thoughts>emotions>sensations that cause (or relieve) the stress response in our bodies, we gain the power to break the cycle.

Everything we experience - internal concerns, memories, and reactions, AND external events - will be experienced in three ways:

In our bodies.

In our emotions.

In our thoughts.

And bringing awareness to these aspects of our experiences is to practice mindfulness.

Of course, practicing mindfulness has been shown, unambiguously, to benefit many areas of our physical, emotional, and mental well being.

Check out the audio for a really simple practice you can do to develop the skills of mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and emotional regulation.

As we step back from the flow of our thoughts and emotions, we give ourselves a little space in which we can choose the response that benefits ourselves and those around us.

This is in contrast to the ‘usual’ way we react to the experiences of our lives.

Formal meditation - stopping what we’re doing and allowing ourselves to adopt a stillness in which we can develop a gentle, non-judging awareness of our internal experiences - is enormously helpful in developing this skill.

But many of us feel we don’t have the time for this kind of practice.

And if this applies to you, I have some good news for you!

In this audio, I review a very simple informal practice that will develop this amazing skill.

And you don’t even have to sit down to do it!

For more information or other really simple informal practices like this one, please send me an email to set up some time to chat.

As we learn to dwell in the present and pay attention to what IS, as opposed to what MIGHT BE or what COULD HAVE BEEN, we develop a very important skill.

Because most of us live in relative safety, without constant physical threats, our stress is mostly misguided, if you will.

Since I was all about apologies yesterday - bringing mindfulness to the act of apologizing and holding in empathic awareness to the emotions of the person receiving the apology - I thought it would make sense to talk today about forgiveness.

Today’s post comes from another request, and I’m thrilled about it!!!

As a teacher and practitioner of mindfulness AND heartfulness, compassion is very important to me.

As we gain a vivid image of our emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations, as happens through meditation practice, we get to see the most important thing of all: emotional triggers.