“Mindfulness” derives from Buddhism and is a meditation practice that allows you to generate greater awareness of your emotions and physical sensations.

When applied to one’s dietary practices, “mindful eating” can help manage various conditions, such as eating disorders, mental health problems and poor eating habits.

At its core, mindful eating may comprise slowing down while eating, reducing distractions during meals, paying closer attention to hunger cues and engaging all senses. You might also foster a deeper appreciation for your food and better understand how food impacts your feelings, anxiety and overall well-being.

Studies have shown how powerful of a tool mindful eating is and recommends it to regain better control of your eating — here’s why.

Biohacking wellness makes it increasingly possible for one to take charge of their physical, mental, and emotional conditions. Today, individuals, companies, and the scientific and medical communities see the potential of working with our bodies in reshaping treatments and optimizing health. Many biohacks can relieve stress, boost your sex life, and even allow you to get comfortable on your period.

Embracing spiritualism can make life better in more than one way. It promotes inner peace, gratitude, and well-being, making you a happier and healthier person. The best part is that you need not make humongous efforts to become a spiritually strong individual. Small daily rituals can bring comfort to your soul and set positive intentions for the long haul. They can also help you move toward a deeper purpose of spiritual fulfillment. Surprisingly, embracing these practices in daily life is simpler than you imagine. Here are the ones you can integrate into your routine.

Before I had my first child, I was a very sound sleeper. The phone could ring without waking me up. However, from the moment I came home from the hospital with my first son, that changed. I now heard every little whimper from the bassinet that was next to our bed. My mothering instincts had seemingly automatically clicked on, and I became totally tuned into my baby's feelings and needs.

On the inner level, it was a completely different story. Since my feelings and needs were unimportant to my parents, I had learned to make my own feelings and needs unimportant to me as well. I had learned to tune them out and instead be very tuned into others’ feelings and needs.
 

Try This Practice for More Calm, Less Stress in 2022

---

Practicing mindfulness in everyday life can help us feel less distracted, reduce anxiety, improve memory and concentration, and better manage crises like dealing with the pandemic, research shows. Could it even help us keep New Year’s resolutions?

I believe the answer is yes, when we make self-compassion part of our mindfulness practice.

Studies show that people who are compassionate toward themselves are more likely to try again when they fail to achieve a goal. They don’t see failure as a blow to their self-concept. They recognize that everyone fails, and view failure is an opportunity to grow.

Meditation offers an array of benefits for your body, mind and spirit. Enthusiasts claim the practice can do anything from easing chronic pain to helping you touch divinity.

However, you need an appropriate location to spread out your mat. Here are five steps to creating a peaceful place for meditation.

1. Find a Quiet Place

It isn’t always easy to carve out a space to hear yourself think. The problem compounds if you share an apartment with noisy roommates or have several littles making nonstop pitter-patter with their little feet. However, you can get creative even in a studio by insulating an area to find your zen.

Mindful methods to calm stress, strain, and worry

---

Have you found yourself posting funny memes, silly videos or amusing clips from TV or movies to share a laugh with your friends? Or have you made a habit of searching YouTube or TikTok for funny cat videos? Laughter is a great way to relieve some of the sadness and seriousness of these times, and reset your nervous system from stressed to calm. So is mindfulness.

Research shows that mindfulness meditation is a powerful tool that can help us:

• Reduce anxiety, depression and stress.

• Increase emotional well-being.

• Build more satisfying relationships.

• Maintain healthy habits such as diet and exercise.

Studies even suggest that mindfulness may reduce inflammation and improve immune system function — and reduce the harmful effects stress has on your heart and mental health.

Do you ever wish that you could talk directly to your higher power – asking for guidance and receiving clear signs and signals to keep you on track along your journey? 

Whether or not we are aware of it, Spirit (the Universe, God, the Divine, or whatever you choose to call it) is always looking out for us and keeping us on track for our highest good. Even in our most challenging times, Spirit is there for us. 

But so much of the time, we miss the communication that is available to us every single day through the conscious Universe. Whether or not we choose to pay attention or listen, Spirit is always communicating with us and is there as our partner to protect and guide us. 

We just have to learn to slow down, tune in, and receive the guidance and the messages that are all around.

If you’ve ever found yourself craving messages from spirit or signs from the Universe, you will find immense value, meaning, and peace in learning to understand and recognize everyday Oracles. 

Recognizing the presence of everyday Oracles 

There are countless ways the Universe sends you messages. It could be a series of repeating numbers, a song on the radio that catches your attention, a symbol you ask for and recognize, a dream, a meaningful coincidence, or even a message in your soup bowl… 

In fact, these communications from the Divine are so common and so meaningful that I wrote an entire book about them! My book, Messages From Spirit is all about the many ways in which we can communicate with our higher power through the world around us.  

In the book, I share a story about Tasseography, a type of divination that my father shared with me as a young girl. He taught me to read messages in leftover coffee grounds, an ancient practice found in Slavic and Baltic nations as well as the middle east. It’s closely related to tea-leaf reading, which actually had its known beginnings in China although no one knows 100% of its origin.

The story goes that a close friend of mine was visiting and we had discussed the idea of going out to dinner, and then going home afterward to share some Turkish coffee and read the messages in the leftover grinds. 

At dinner, we both ordered a thick squash soup. As I ate my soup, I kept seeing images popping up in the bowl! I saw a swan, a pumpkin, and a baby. 

While attending a well-known garden in California and viewing and experiencing all the beauty around him, he came upon a struggling little plant. Ernest went up to the grounds keeper and said, “Hi, I am Ernest Holmes, where are the people in charge?”

The young man looked somewhat puzzled as he pointed to the offices on the second floor of a large building. Ernest instructed him to get the individuals in management to come and see him. In a few minutes, a few men came walking towards Ernest in their suits and ties and Ernest said, “Hi, I am Dr. Ernest Holmes and I would like to know what you are doing about this little plant?” The men looked somewhat baffled, but suddenly located a water hose and some fertilizer and began to take care of the little plant.

When the efforts were completed and the men had left, Ernest went over to the little plant and knelt down. He said, “I told you I would take care of you, didn’t I?”

The power of life is everywhere and in everything like plants and all living creatures. Ernest knew the intelligence of life is all around us, and as a Sacred Warrior he changed people and circumstances at depth. A Sacred Warrior is called to service in day-to-day life. More often than not the Sacred Warrior is willing to speak what very few are willing to say.

The Sacred Warrior possesses a willingness to honor the deep connection to the Divine, while at the same time no longer driven by an energy or desire to fit in with what is the norm or maintain the status quo.

This article is an excerpt from my new book: Being A Difference Maker: A Guide For Living Life Out Loud. 

Loving Life,

 

The nonstop noise of the external world often keeps us from experiencing the quiet at the core of our being. There, a timeless eternal presence without sound or language awaits us, a connection to something greater than our individual, seemingly short lives. Outer distractions, both audio and visual, continuously surround us from our TVs, laptops, and cell phones and prevent a deeper relationship to all of life. Traffic sounds, machinery, and loud voices in nonstop conversation interrupt our peace of mind, even if we don’t consciously recognize the dissonance. Yet, something within each of us does know something is amiss and longs for an absence of sound within which we can feel calmer, more centered. How do we get there?

Most of us wish we had more time in the day for the things that make us feel healthier and happier. It can be challenging to figure out where to squeeze in these things that we treat as “extras” — as wants more than needs. Consider this your official invitation to move anything that makes your experience of life better (aka self-care!) into the “needs” column. And while you ponder how to make that work globally in your life, I have an incredibly simple way for you to get started.

If you have 60 seconds, you have time to squeeze a mindfulness meditation into your day. Practicing mindfulness helps us go through our days with more calm, grounded energy and less reactivity when things get chaotic. It’s a beautiful, simple practice, and here’s the great thing: You can do this anytime, anywhere. 

Being out in nature might be most relaxing — and I highly recommend you make time in your life for that on a regular basis — but you can also do a mindfulness meditation at your desk in the middle of your workday, in traffic on the highway, or while making yourself dinner, just for example. 

We all lead busy lives, even in a pandemic (or for some, especially in a pandemic!). So when it comes to wellness practices we want to add to our lives, it can sometimes feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to add one more thing. Well, I’ve got some good news: Adding mindfulness to your day is much easier than you might imagine. It’s as simple as adding it to your morning routine.

5 Ways to Bring Mindfulness to Your Morning Routine

Mindfulness is a simple, accessible practice that can help you stay calm and grounded throughout the day. The more you practice, the easier it gets to tap into mindfulness instead of reactivity when things get stressful. Here are five ways to build mindfulness into your morning routine without skipping a beat.

Caretakers the world over are all too familiar with feelings of being stretched too thin from time to time as they nurture, support, and protect those they care for. Many others, though, are experiencing similar feelings for the first time during the pandemic. Whether you’ve been stuck at home caring for children 24/7, caring for an elderly or disabled loved one, or even “caretaking” your colleagues and your business as we all navigate this unusual time, you may have hit a wall of empathy fatigue.

What Is Empathy Fatigue?

Your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs create the landscape in your mind that you call “here.” The challenging element is that it’s not fixed. Even while you inhabit it, it is changing based on your perception. 

Your inner landscape reflects your feelings and the thoughts that are connected to them. 

Two people can encounter the same situation and have completely different reactions based on their own history and stories. For instance, one person sees a picture of the Eiffel Tower and feels excitement and romance because it’s where their partner proposed. Another sees the same picture and feels sick to their stomach because it reminds them of the trip to France that led to a romantic breakup. Same photo, two very different responses rooted in their own individual experiences. 

The ground beneath you, the atmosphere around you, and the energy within you can all shift in an instant as you react to what you perceive as happening in your life. 

Past or Present? It’s Hard to Tell…

The capacity to witness what is happening inside us with a non-judging attention allows us to respond to life from our full intelligence and heart. This talk looks at the role of witnessing in spiritual practice, and how we can cultivate this superpower in a way that reveals the light or spirit that lives through all beings.

“Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—
that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and falling. And I do.”

Mary Oliver

Our job while here is threefold. First, like a mountain that is steadfast in meeting the elements, we are called to face the wear of time, so we can reflect and endure the truth revealed. Some say this is doing nothing. If so, it is a noble nothing that in time reveals everything.

Second, like a river that is relentless in how it carves its path to the sea, we are called to bring what is true into the world. Some say this is our vigilance for justice. If so, this is a noble doing that in time honors everything.

And third, like a tireless seeker who finds God in the smallest pebble, we are called to care for everything in our way. Some say this is impossible. If so, this is the noblest errand of all—to go nowhere like a mountain and everywhere like a river until we turn nothing into everything with the small lift that some call love.

I had to laugh when I saw a cartoon some months ago. (If you haven’t seen it, I shared it on my Facebook page: It showed three booths at a Spiritual Fair. One of the booths offered “Past-Life Reading” and another touted “Future Telling.” Both booths had crowds of people in line clamoring to get their turn.

The middle booth, however, had no customers whatsoever. The sign above it read: “Meditation” and the lonely person manning this booth kept desperately trying to wave people over, saying “Present Moment anyone?”

How true is this? We yearn to discover more about how our past has shaped us and we can’t wait to find out what’s in store for our future. But for right now, we’re more inclined to shake our heads and say: “Uh-uh. No thanks. I’ll pass.”

Wishing well?

The Practice:
Bless.

Why?

Lately, I’ve been wondering what would be on my personal list of top five practices (all tied for first place). You might ask yourself the same question, knowing that you can cluster related practices under a single umbrella, your list may differ from mine, and your practices may change over time.

In stressful times many more people feel fear than in normal times. What this means is that an ability to be fearless becomes more essential than in normal times. How is that accomplished? Being fearful is a skill you can master. It doesn’t require any of the things society falls back on. You don’t have to be tougher, stronger, more of a man (if you happen to be a male) or call upon a strong man for help (if you happen to be female).

In reality you only have to be present, because in the present there is no fear. At first this sounds wrong, because when you experience worry and anxiety, the most common types of fear, they hit you here and now. But here and now isn’t the same as the Present. Here and now describes clock time. If you are waiting for a bus and it is five minutes late, once it arrives, it is here now. The present moment, however, has nothing to do with clock time. The present is a state of mind, and in fact is the most natural state of mind, the state your mind wants to be in.

One of the key concepts in my new book, Total Meditation, is that the mind will return to the present effortlessly if given a chance. Even though “living in the present” has become a popular phrase, most people still approach it as a kind of spiritual challenge that requires them to intensely focus to make sure they stay mindful and present. This is the mental equivalent of balancing a penny on the end of your finger. The penny naturally wants to topple over unless you exert an effort to keep it balanced.

The active mind can feel like that. When fear and anxiety are roaming the mind. Balance seems difficult. In reality it’s not. Fear, despite its unique power, is just another mental distraction. Distractions can also be pleasant, as we all know watching a movie, and the active mind finds them very useful, because when you are distracted, you get a vacation from the endless stream of thoughts and feelings that the active mind must deal with.

Ups and downs are a natural part of life, but the roller coaster of emotional realities we’ve been riding lately calls for us to pay special attention to our well-being. If you don’t have a self-care routine in place, or you’re looking to refine or refresh the one you’ve got, allow me to recommend the simple yet powerful practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness can help us offer ourselves some much-needed love, compassion, and peace of mind as we continue to navigate the realities of the ongoing pandemic. Here are five ways you can use mindfulness to comfort yourself, even amidst chaos.