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4-7-8 Breath by Dr. Andrew Weil

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How To Perform the 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise | Andrew Weil, M.D.

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https://www.eventbrite.com/d/pa--pittsburgh/free--events/meditation/?page=1

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Free Pittsburgh, PA Meditation Events | Eventbrite

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Looking for meditation events in Pittsburgh? Whether you're a local, new in town, or just passing through, you'll be sure to find something on Eventbrite that piques your interest.

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Article with Nature Sounds from Mindtastik app

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Article with Nature Sounds from Mindtastik app

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https://mindtastik.com/relaxing-nature-sounds/

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12 Relaxing Sounds from Nature

Are you ready to relax and listen to one of the 12 audio relaxing nature sounds we are sharing with you? Each audio track has around 1 hour and it includes nature sounds like tropical waves, torrential rain & tranquil waterfall. You can listen to these whenever you feel like pausing and refreshing. These nature soundscapes can help you relax and get into a meditative state, where you can let go of fears & worries and just observe what feelings arise when you simply stay still.

Are nature sounds considered meditation?

Yes, these relaxing nature sounds will help you get relaxed and be more present, in the moment. You can simply close your eyes and listen to this nature meditation tracks, and let your imagination drift. If any emotions arise just let them be there and be an observer (don't judge the emotions). By listening to nature sounds you will be able to relax more after an agitated day. In this post, you will find out the best nature sounds to sleep to for free.

What is the best place to listen to these beautiful natural sounds collection?

You can either listen to these unguided meditation nature sounds to clear your mind, during your busy schedule, or you can listen to them fully focused with eyes closed. It is up to you.

You can listen any time you want to take a little break: in the car, in the office, while you jog, etc. However, if you want to get more than just daily relaxation, I think you should listen to this meditation tracks in a peaceful and quiet place, with your eyes closed. These soundscapes are good if you want to fall asleep faster & easier. Just put them on when you go to bed, and instead of watching TV or any other distraction, simply play these and let yourself drift to sleep. Find the top 12 nature sounds to relax and sleep.

How can i listen to nature sounds on my phone? Is there an app?

We have developed an app which is called MindTastik which contains: guided meditations, sleep meditations, mindfulness practice, and self-help meditations. At this moment you can download the app for free and get access to over 300 guided & unguided meditations. So it will be easier for you to listen to them directly from your phone. Start relaxing today! Feel better, sleep better, and be more mindful about your life with our app. Download MindTastik - Meditation, Mindfulness, Sleep & Relaxation app below:

Here are the individual audio tracks of nature sounds. Happy relaxation!

Relax while you imagine you are on a tropical beach. Feel the warm sand, the sun gently beating down on your body and hear the waves lapping at the shore. Imagine your happy place with this tropical wave meditation track and stay in it. For 1 hour you can imagine anything that helps you relax on that beach.

Feel the drops of the rain falling on your face. Imagine that this rain washes out all tension in your body, all daily stress & anxiety. The nature of this soundscape is very powerful. Feel the strong wind, the rain, the sound of thunder but don't be afraid! You are safe and grounded and you can run in the rain or do whatever you imagine it helps you relax more.

The birds are singing... Animals are there aswell. You can hear the trees rustling. It's time to take a relaxing journey on this peaceful & tranquil woodland bridleway. Leave your worries behind, in this scene, there is no stress and no deadline. Let your imagination play while you relax and block the outside world.

1. Tropical Waves relaxation music

The tropical storm is here to relax you. Even though it is not still, you can hear the sound of the thunder and see the lightning. You are either outside and happy that the rain pours over your body, or you are inside a shelter watching peacefully the beautiful nature.

Rest at the oasis after a dusty day in the desert. This may be the trip you imagined in the desert. Imagine being with someone dear to you. The wind relaxes you more and more.

The leaves are falling and summer has just left. Gusts whistle through the trees. Feel the wind, feel the leaves, what kind of memories does it bring? Relax and let your imagination help you to find good or bad memories, and start processing them right away.

This meditation/hypnosis soundscape has it all. Birds singing, water, and all aspects of a complex nature.

Peace and tranquility are the keys in this soundscape. The sun is down and the creatures of the night start a symphony. The combination of nature sounds from this track makes it a gentle relaxation scenery.

You can listen to the sound of the bee in the air. It's really hot outside, a heated summer day. Imagine being on beach and while the sun gently touches you, you sip your favorite cold drink. Enjoy and relax 1 hour of peace & tranquility.

Relax with tropical sounds of the jungle. Befriend the animals. Feel like the jungle is there to relax you from your busy day at work. The wonderful complexity of nature sounds makes you feel present in the jungle.

Hear the water falling. Feel it cleansing your body of stress, anxiety, worries. Enjoy the natural sounds while you get to sleep.

Hear The Sound of the Logs Crackle and Spit as They Burn. Stare at the fire as the flames warm you. Let your imagination do the magic and turn this fire sounds into a relaxation source.

2. Torrential Rain - Nature Sounds Rain

3. Woodland Bridleway

4. The tropical storm natural sound

5. Dusk at The Oasis

6. Autumn in The Forest soundtrack

7. Babbling Brook - Hypnotic sounds of the water falling off the rocks

8. Tropical Beach at Sunset - Nature Sounds

9. Lazy Summer Day - Meditation Nature Sounds

10. Hot Jungle Day - Relaxing Sounds

11. Tranquil Waterfall Relaxation - Rain Nature Sounds

12. Log Cabin Fire sounds

Did you enjoy the relaxation of nature sounds?

I hope these soundtracks helped you achieve some peace of mind. You can come back any time to listen as they will be available for FREE on our website.

Don't forget to download our meditation app

Like our Facebook page & share this on your facebook page to reach as many users possible. We all need a little relaxation now and then and you may be helping out your friends relax a bit.

Your feedback on nature sounds relaxation, please!

We would like to hear from you. Please share your experience. Did you enjoy these relaxing nature sounds? What other related content should we add to our website in order to help you: relax, sleep better, feel better? Please leave a comment below! Thank you!

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12 Relaxing Nature Sounds to get into a meditative state | MindTastik

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Are you ready to relax and listen to one of the 12 audio relaxing nature sounds we are sharing with you? Each audio track has around 1 hour and it includes nature sounds like tropical waves, torrential rain & tranquil waterfall. You can listen to these whenever you feel like pausing and refreshing.

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Mindful Music

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The Breathing Space by Jon Kabat-Zinn

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https://www.upmc.com/services/integrative-medicine/classes/meditation

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The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program was originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the late 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. It is an eight-week, evidence-based, highly experiential course that is currently offered at more than 250 hospitals, universities, and clinical settings in the United States and around the world.

MBSR's primary aim is to develop skills that can be flexibly applied in everyday life to stress, pain, and illness. Through experiential learning and discussion during class, as well as through daily mindfulness practice at home, participants learn and refine a range of self-regulatory skills that involve finely tuned attention to thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.

The MBSR Program Involves:

A group Orientation session. Orientations are offered free of charge. The Orientation is required so that you can determine if the MBSR program is a good fit for you. At this time, orientations are all virtual (on Zoom).

An eight-week program that meets once per week for 2.5-3 hours, consisting of:

Instruction and group practice of several formal mindfulness meditation practices: sitting meditation, body scanning, and mindful movement

Instruction and group practice of mindful hatha yoga, a series of gentle stretches and postures. Modifications and chair yoga are offered.

Discussion of the roles of stress, thoughts, and emotions as they may contribute to anxiety and distress, and chronic pain and illness.

Daily Home Practice: meditation practice at home with the guidance of audio recordings (mp3)

A Retreat Day in the second half of the course.

Who Can Benefit From MBSR?

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, up to two-thirds of all office visits to family doctors are for stress-related symptoms. Depression and anxiety symptoms are often associated with chronic illness and chronic pain and should be addressed as part of the overall management of health problems. MBSR may help reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress as well as the need for clinical services.

Health Benefits of MBSR

Reduced pain

Reduced medical symptoms

Improved immune system function

Improved mental health

Decreased stress hormones

Improved sleep

MBSR Research

Mindfulness meditation has been researched in conjunction with:

Chronic pain

Anxiety

Depression

Cancer quality of life

Heart disease and risks

Stress

MBSR Continuing Education

MBSR courses are typically offered in the winter/early spring, summer, and fall.

Upcoming 8-week MBSR Courses

Winter 2022
This 8-week MBSR course will be held online (via Zoom) on Wednesday evenings.
Wednesday, February 2nd, through Wednesday March 23rd 6:00pm to 8:30pm.
Retreat day (all day session) is Sunday, March 13th, 9:30am to 4:30pm.
It will be taught by Barbara Ivanko, LCSW.

MBSR Registration

You may register at an orientation session. Payment is collected at orientation or prior to the first MBSR class.
Cost of MBSR course: $325

Orientation Schedule

Attendance at an orientation session is required for MBSR course registration.
Orientations are free of charge and held from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. ET via Zoom.
Orientation attendance can be applied to registration in any future MBSR course at the Center for Integrative Medicine.

Orientation dates

We will be holding the following MBSR Orientation online:

Tuesday December 14, 6:30pm held by Barbara Ivanko.

Wednesday January 5, 6:30pm held by Barbara Ivanko.

Tuesday January 18, 6:30pm held by Barbara Ivanko.

Tuesday January 25, 6:30pm held by Barbara Ivanko.

To sign up for an orientation session, please email mindfulness@upmc.edu. Provide your full name, phone number, and indicate which orientation date you plan to attend. You will receive the Zoom link by email.

Continuing Education

Continuing education (CEU) credits (up to 20 Credits or 2.0 General CEUs) will be offered for nurses, psychologists, social workers, and licensed counselors through UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. There is a small fee for CEU credits.

MBSR Teachers

Orientation Sessions and MBSR Courses are led by Carol M. Greco, PhD, Barbara Ivanko, LCSW, and/or Kelly Beck, PhD.

Carol Greco, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Greco has practiced meditation for 26 years and is certified as an MBSR teacher by the UMass Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and Brown University Center for Mindfulness. She has taught MBSR courses at the Center for Integrative Medicine at UPMC Shadyside since 2005. Dr. Greco is a member of the Mindfulness Teacher Training Alliance and the Global Mindfulness Collaborative, and is certified to provide the following professional training courses: MBSR Foundations, MBSR Teacher Advancement Intensive.

Barbara Ivanko has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) for more than 20 years, and has been teaching MBSR since 2012. She received her Master's degree in Social Work from Stony Brook University in 1994 and has a post-graduate certificate in East/West Psychology.

Kelly Beck, PhD, has practiced meditation for 10 years and is a qualified MBSR teacher who has completed all teacher-trainings at the UMass Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. She has taught MBSR courses at the Center for Integrative Medicine since 2017.

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/MBSR Clasees | UPMC

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The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program was originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the late 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. It is an eight-week, evidence-based, highly experiential course that is currently offered at more than 250 hospitals, universities, and clinical settings in the United States and around the world.

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Liberate

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Mindful Movement

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Gentle Chair Yoga for Beginners and Seniors

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Doodling at work increases productivity

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Research has shown the many ways that doodling can boost your brain power. Learn how to make the most of it with these top tips.

Whether you're an amateur artist, a professional painter or a total art novice, chances are you've taken your pen to paper to doodle at some time or another.

Doodling while you're in the office or classroom can be viewed negatively. Sometimes taken as a signal of procrastination, boredom or disinterest, the doodle has traditionally gotten a pretty bad rap.

But, as outlined by Fast Company, research shows that doodling can actually help boost memory and cognition, inspire creativity and remind us to relax.

Brain benefits

It's becoming more and more clear that we all learn in different ways. At one time, it was widely believed that listening was the only effective way to distil and apply information. Yet many of us work better with visuals, drawing, writing and a whole host of other forms.

Drawing those random shapes in your notepad can even contribute to maintaining your mental wellbeing. As shown in a research study, blood flow to the brain's prefrontal cortex, an important part of the brain's reward pathway, increased during three different artistic activities: doodling, colouring and free drawing.

As well as activating feelings of reward, doodling engages more of our senses, stimulating more parts of the brain, which, ultimately, allows us to be present in the moment and opens our mind to new ideas.

Tips for aspiring doodlers

Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, said: "It's such a simple tool, but it has so many implications and so many areas where it makes a real difference for people."

Brown began to acknowledge the power of doodling as she travelled for work. "I noticed this universal thing happening that seemed to be very useful, powerful, helpful and natural, but it had no place in any of our institutions. There was a disconnect there," she added.

Brown has since published her top tips for doodling your way to success:

1 Listen for the main points

In meetings or classes, speakers often repeat their main point multiple times. Capture that and then start doodling around it.

"Even if you took your pen and made one gigantic circle around it and repeated that circle over and over, that in itself is an act of cementing memory," Brown said.

2 Be mindful

Even just drawing a continuous line that curves and twists across a piece of paper can be enough to relax us.

Brown said: "There's all these other meditative and mindfulness aspects of it. When you're playing in that space, then it's really about settling the mind down ... that is very useful for the learning process.

"When we are trying to take in information and our mind is really busy, then it makes it difficult to absorb content."

3 Don't aim for perfection

The pictures on the page don't have to be sophisticated or elegant.

"When you write a word, also draw a picture or draw a shape or put it in a structure," Brown said.

"Just start to give whatever it is that you're creating another expression, another form, and not just words and numbers. Give it shapes and images and symbols and colour and structure, and just see what happens."

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Doodle your way to success: 3 tips to power productivity through drawing

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Research has shown the many ways that doodling can boost your brain power. Learn how to make the most of it with these top tips. Whether you're an amateur artist, a professional painter or a total art novice, chances are you've taken your pen to paper to doodle at some time or another.

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Mindful Movement

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5 Minute Qigong For Energy ( Better Than Coffee) - Increase Energy Naturally

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Guided Meditation

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2 Minute Guided Mindful Meditation for Winter

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Mindfulness @ Work: How to Avoid Stress, Achieve More...

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Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1
What Mindfulness Is and Isn't The practice of mindfulness, of bringing the scattered mind home, and so bringing the different aspects of our being into focus, is called "Peacefully Remaining," or "Calmly Abiding". ... In that setting, we begin to understand ourselves more, and sometimes even have glimpses of the radiance of our fundamental nature.
- Sogyal Rinpoche

Mindfulness isn't what we think it is. Mindfulness isn't anything that we think; it's what we don't think. Mindfulness isn't something that other people do; it's something that we all do. If the only mindful people were the ones doing courses in it or reading books about it or writing books about it, or all three, then humanity wouldn't last very long. We all need to be at least a little bit mindful to get through our days without being hit by the first bus that we mindlessly wander out in front of, or getting hit by the first other totally mindless person whose toes we mindlessly tread on. On a more subtle survival level, being continuously - rather than just occasionally - mindful can help us to get through a day - or even longer - without getting upset by life.
What is mindfulness?
Simply defined, mindfulness is an ancient life-enhancing and healing technique that can help us to remember our natural state of happiness and health, even if we think we are too modern and too busy to prioritize what's really important: being fully alive and fully alive to our full life potential.

However, the essence of mindfulness is, like the essence of everything else, beyond words. Words are just symbols - models - and sometimes they can get in the way of our understanding, rather than help it, so let's just use the word "mindfulness" as a working construct, a sign-post to a fullness that's beyond words.

Mindfulness can be simmered down (perhaps a better mindfulness metaphor than "boiled"!) into just two active ingredients: awareness and acceptance. These two basic elements of mindfulness can be seen as two wings of a single bird that can fly us higher than we could ever have thought possible, as long as we recognize and use both our wings together. Without acceptance, awareness could be scary; without awareness, acceptance could be tranquilizing. When we are aware and when we accept what we are aware of - what's actually happening to us here and now - we are not slaves to our minds and not at war with our lives, and our life circumstances tend to improve.

Being mindful simply means being fully aware, fully able to consciously direct our awareness to what is - right here, right now - and fully accepting of what we are aware of. Living and working mindfully is possible for all of us if we can simply let go of our ideas about what we can and can't be. This is our natural state of peace and happiness, and it happens all by itself when we stop getting distracted by what isn't - our imaginings of times past and future. The trick to mindfulness, if we believe in the power of tricks, is that it's a lot easier than we think it is.

Most phenomena can be divided into two basic types: man and woman, good cop and bad cop, etc. Mindfulness can also be divided into two types: formal and informal.

Formal mindfulness is the regular practice of a formal mindfulness exercise, which can be described as "meditation," if you're comfortable with this term, or as "the systematic focusing of attention on a particular aspect of sensory reality," if you aren't. We can practice formal mindfulness in a suit and tie, or a long dress and tiara, depending on our preferences, or we can practice formal mindfulness in any clothes and at any time.

Informal mindfulness just means giving our complete attention to what we are doing and observing our thoughts about it, no matter how we are dressed and no matter how much our mind resists it. Our thoughts can be hard to resist at first, and they can include such sneakily seductive ones as "I have something much better I should be doing!" (than being happy and at peace?), "This isn't working!", or even Bart Simpson's famous "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" A valuable practice of informal mindfulness is simply being fully aware of an activity that our minds habitually don't accept, such as washing the dishes, and just doing it, without indulging in the potential mental and physical destructiveness of resisting doing it. If this applied mindfulness exercise seems a bit too strenuous, then you could try the classic mindfulness experiment of eating a raisin while giving your full attention to each of your senses, one by one. If even this seems a bit too challenging, then try it with chocolate!

The good news then is that we can all spend more of our time mindfully happy, peaceful, and healthy, and less of our time, as we habitually and unnecessarily do, being miserably mindless. But practicing mindfulness doesn't mean being mindful all the time. If it did, we would probably all give up on it before it did us any good. Practicing mindfulness actually often involves, especially at first, simply being more frequently mindful of our mindlessness, more aware of our lack of awareness, and more accepting of our non-acceptance, and less frequently judging our judging. If we can even occasionally be conscious of our unconsciousness, then we are making huge progress on our journey to greater happiness and usefulness.
What isn't mindfulness?
Despite what some of us might think about mindfulness, it isn't esoteric or weird or impractical, or something that we need to take on faith or practice in a dark room, or only practice within a religious or philosophical tradition, or need a license for. Perfectly sensible, respectable, and ordinary people formally and informally practice mindfulness (as well as some possibly not quite so sensible, respectable, or ordinary people), and it can help all of us. Hugh Jackman is an internationally successful actor who is based in New York. He is also an extraordinarily ordinary person who practices mindfulness and admits to it on talk shows. Hugh Jackman once gave a plug on Oprah for a simple formal mindfulness practice that he does regularly, and which simply consists of giving full awareness to each of our senses, starting with touch and ending with hearing. Hugh described this practice as being simple and natural, and resulting in an increased awareness, which results in him being a better actor and a better parent because he is more connected with his audience and his children.

Unlike some techniques that people sometimes mistake mindfulness for, mindfulness doesn't involve attempting to change how we think. Mindfulness actually helps us transcend our thinking, especially the thinking that goes around in circles and worries us, by enabling us to focus on and accept what's taking place in our bodies and minds without trying to stop or improve what's happening. Paradoxically, this process often does improve our bodies and minds, but this is a fringe benefit rather than a deliberate aim. The aim of mindfulness is to make us more aware of and accepting of our life responses, and to help us observe, rather than be controlled by, our thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings are a natural and positive part of our human lives, but thoughts and feelings that consume and upset us aren't; mindfulness helps us to notice the difference and choose what is useful and beneficial.

Mindfulness isn't a life- and wellness-enhancing practice that we have to accept on faith, or even on the basis of our experience. There's a growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates that mindfulness can help to treat or manage a wide variety of psychological and physical conditions - such as anxiety, depression, pain, and even cancer - as well as make well people more well. There's also considerable evidence that practicing mindfulness can reduce our chances of developing unwanted subtle psychological or physical manifestations of mindlessness, such as insomnia and unhappiness. Mindfulness is an effective and harmless way of helping us to live our ordinary lives by helping us to learn, make decisions, and communicate optimally. And success in each of these aspects of our lives often results in success in others.

Mindfulness is even being introduced into medical courses, such as the course devised by Dr. Craig Hassed that is now being taught at Monash and Deakin universities in Australia, Auckland University in New Zealand, and Harvard University in the United States. Medical students and their lecturers are increasingly recognizing and valuing the vast potential health benefits of the formal and informal practice of mindfulness - for themselves and for their patients. Once doctors take the health benefits of a wellness-enhancing practice seriously, then it can be seen as being mainstream, because these leaders of public opinion often lead from behind!

Ultimately, mindfulness will either help or not help us to live our lives, and acceptance of its benefits doesn't require us to believe in anything other than our own experience. To be mindful, we simply need to have an open mind and heart.
Origins of mindfulness
Mindfulness has been around a long time, probably for as long as there have been people. Ironically, despite its current resurgence, modern mindfulness practices are probably not yet as popularly well-accepted as they were in the ancient cultures where they originated thousands of years ago. (In ancient Indian, Chinese, and other cultures, mindfulness was probably seen as a natural part of people's lives that didn't need to be justified.) It's not known exactly when mindfulness as a formal practice emerged, but there are records of meditation being practiced in China more than 7,000 years ago. Although mindfulness is often associated with Buddhist meditation practices such as Vipassana - to see things as they really are - it's an integral aspect of many formal and informal practices that are vital parts of many Eastern and also Western life-knowledge traditions. Eastern mindfulness traditions include Chinese and Indian philosophies/religions such as Taoism, Vedanta, and Buddhism. Western mindfulness-related traditions include ancient Greek philosophy, as described by Pythagoras, Plato, and others, and also the contemplative traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Sufism (the mystical aspect of Islam).

The sleeping giant of mindfulness practice (and preaching!) has recently awoken in many Western countries after a slumbering consciousness dark age, or at least a dim age. To quote from Mindfulness for Life by Doctors McKenzie and Hassed, "This is an overnight lifestyle and clinical sensation that is thousands of years old."
The benefits of mindfulness
William James is regarded as the world's first scientific psychologist, and he was well ahead of this modern time (and well behind an ancient time!) when he said in 1890:

The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui [mentally competent] if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about.

Mindfulness can bring home the prodigal son of our wandering attention and give us back our missing-in-action mental competence. Mindfulness can also restore our life essence, something that all too many of us these days can think we've lost!

Mindfulness offers enormous potential benefits for everyone. It can help to restore the mental, physical, and spiritual health and happiness of those of us who are physically, psychologically, or spiritually unwell or unhappy, and also enhance and expand the health and happiness of those of us who are well, more or less. Mindfulness can even help people who have never heard of it (mindfulness pagans) and people who know what it is but who don't believe in it (mindfulness heathens), in the same way that life knowledge and also vitamins can help everyone, not just those of us who believe in them. There are advantages, however, in knowing what mindfulness is, even for those of us who already practice it at least sometimes (and that's all of us) and those of us who benefit from it at least sometimes (and that's also all of us). It's a lot easier to work mindfulness into our life acts if we know what it is at the level of our minds, as well as at the level of our experience.

Have you ever been stressed? If you have, then please read on without delay. If you haven't, then please send us some tips! Stress is the root cause of most human unhappiness - and stress is basically being out of our comfort zone for extended periods. Mindfulness can help us to live our lives more healthily and happily by reducing our stress, and therefore reducing our chances of being sick, miserable, unfulfilled, or all three. Mindfulness can help us to prevent, heal, or learn to live with just about every physical, mental, and psychological malady that can cause us to mislay (never to completely lose) the paradise of our natural human condition, while also making our life a generally richer experience.

We think that stress is caused by events that happen to us out there, but actually stress is caused by our minds - and it often ends up in our bodies, and societies of minds and bodies. Stress really comes from how we perceive events, rather than from the events themselves. The same event - losing our job or a relationship - might make us miserable or even happy, depending on how we perceive it:
This is a catastrophe! How can I live without her/him/it?
or
This is terrific! Now that I don't have to live with him/her/it, I'm free!
Actually, we are always free. Free to perceive whatever level of reality we are mindful enough to perceive, and free to realize that our thoughts - even our happiness- and health-destroying ones - are just thoughts. Stress is the root cause of a wide range of psychological, physical, and general life problems such as anxiety, depression, heart disease, and job burnout. Being more mindful can help to prevent and heal many of these problems at their roots by enabling us to step back from uncontrolled and controlling thoughts. Being mindful means simply letting our thoughts come and then go, without reacting to them, without allowing the circus of meaningless mental activity to persuade us that it's more real than we are. We are no longer distracted by the unrealities of what might come to be or what might have been. Instead, we are focused on the reality of what is, here and now.

Mindfulness helps us to be aware of and accept our true self, our universal self that's universally connected and eternal, and not our miserable little idea of our self as cut off and alone. It does this by helping us to be aware of what's actually going on in our bodies and minds, here and now. Unhappiness comes from our thinking that we are unhappy, which basically comes from our thinking too much. When we are mindful, we transcend unhappiness in every area of our lives, because when we are mindful, we transcend our incessant circling, meaningless and destructive thinking processes. All we need to do in any situation to be fully happy, fully fulfilled, and fully alive is to forget what we are not - separate, miserable, obsessed - and remember what we are - mindful, connected, happy, and alive.

Now that we understand what mindfulness is and isn't, the rest of this book will explore and explain how mindfulness works at work by presenting mindfulness's working principles, some key aspects of work that mindfulness can help us do better and more happily, and some working examples.
Take-to-work tips for how mindfulness can help
* We can work at making mindfulness work by being fully aware of the reality of what is - what we can see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and enjoy.

* We can work at accepting the reality of what is, rather than wishing for what isn't, or worrying about what isn't.

* We can work at not worrying about not being mindful. Mindfulness often begins with our recognising our mindlessness.

* We can work at going with our mindful flow - we are naturally mindful when we are not trying to be something else.

* We can work at letting go of what our mind thinks is important, and connecting with what's really important - peace, happiness, and productivity.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from "Mindfulness At Work"
by .
Copyright &copy 2015 Dr. Stephen McKenzie.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Mindfulness at Work: How to Avoid Stress, Achieve More, and Enjoy Life!|Paperback

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Mindfulness isn't anything that we think; it's what we don't think. Mindfulness isn't something that other people do; it's something that we all do. Mindfulness is an ancient, life-enhancing, healing technique that can help us remember our natural state of happiness and health, even if we...

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Cultural Considerations

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When you envision a person practicing mindful meditation, what do you see? A quick Google image search tells us to expect a thin, (usually) white woman sporting athleisure, sitting cross-legged, breathing deeply by the ocean.

Meditation is just one component of the broader spectrum of mindfulness. Mindfulness is based on the principles of present-centered, non-judgmental awareness and, as presented by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is deeply rooted in eastern philosophy. Mindfulness practices popularly include meditation, yoga, tai-chi, deep breathing, and a host of other interventions. Mindfulness has skyrocketed over the past 30 years with the development and emergence of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an evidence-based therapy that can help manage stress and promote a sense of well-being for participants.

Research has shown that stress is linked to depression, anxiety, chronic pain syndromes, and a host of other conditions. Black people are more likely than their white counterparts to experience stressors such as trauma, perceived discrimination, and socioeconomic and environmental stress. Subsequently, they have a higher rate of stress related illnesses.

It would seem that a mindfulness practice, in some form, would be clinically relevant for black people, however most mindfulness research has focused on whites, with the presumption that the resulting data can be directly applied to the experiences of black people.

Several challenges can arise from this model, the first being the relevancy for a black person to engage in a process which was not designed to be culturally inclusive. Homogeneity in advertisements, social media campaigns, and even clinical brochures for programs can subtly send the message that mindfulness is not a practice meant for everyone.

In addition, participating in a mindfulness program in which the language or references used within the program are not sensitive to the differences of the participants presents another challenge. Imagine a "Grow Your Business" lecture, being given to a group of physicians, that consistently uses references and metaphors directly applicable to lawyers. One study, which discusses culturally relevant mindfulness training, posits that "mindfulness programs to American minority communities may be troublesome as white culture, experiences and social references are embedded in American mindfulness programs". If the references being made are not easily applicable to one's own culture, it may be difficult to participate and feel included in the practice.

Lastly, lack of cultural sensitivity may make the practice of mindfulness itself arduous. "On a micro-level, American minority communities must remain in a constant state of reinterpretation in order to fit the mindfulness instructions they are receiving into their framework...any level of reinterpretation is extra work...and extra work on some level is stress."

It is important for the healthcare community to consider ways to address this disparity. One study, which surveyed a small group of African Americans who had participated in mindfulness based programs, gave some insight into ways to begin addressing the cultural needs of African Americans in a mindfulness group. One suggestion was to clarify the religious separation of mindfulness from Buddhist teachings, and to minimize references to "the universe" or "Buddha," as the perceived connection between mindfulness and Buddhism can serve as a deterrent. Linking mindfulness to culturally accepted practices such as knitting and quilting, was also suggested. Participants highlighted how elders often discussed the value of "being still" and noted how this directly applied to their mindfulness practice.

The task is not only to include black people in the current mindfulness movement, but to expand the movement in a way that is naturally inclusive. This can include highlighting mindfulness in African practices including drumming, meditation, and ensuring black facilitators are available to teach and that black people who are seasoned in mindfulness training are encouraged to participate in classes with beginners.

If part of mindfulness is awareness, a call to action may be to intentionally bring our own awareness to the mindful traditions already present in black culture as a way to engage black people in an intentional mindfulness practice.

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Expanding Awareness for Mindfulness Programs

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When you envision a person practicing mindful meditation, what do you see? A quick Google image search tells us to expect a thin, (usually) white woman sporting athleisure, sitting cross-legged, breathing deeply by the ocean. Meditation is just one component of the broader spectrum of mindfulness.

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https://www.mindful.org/the-science-of-trauma-mindfulness-ptsd/

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If we were able to prove that individuals suffering from PTSD are experiencing reversible neurological changes, would that help to alleviate any taboo associated with trauma, so sufferers are able to get the treatment they need? New treatment protocols for PTSD that integrate mindfulness techniques may make that a possibility in the near future.

Mindfulness based techniques in this context have recently gained traction with the support of more empirical findings. Overall, there is a lot of evidence supporting mindfulness as a treatment approach for adults with PTSD, and a recent burgeoning literature corroborating positive neurological changes is following suit.

First, I want to define trauma and PTSD.
Trauma Defined:
Trauma is a broad term, and according to the American Psychological Association (APA), it is an emotional response to a terrible event. Unfortunately, said terrible event can constitute a plethora of possibilities, including combat, rape, natural disasters, and assaults. There are other potentially traumatic events, and though less talked about, are no less palpable. Ultimately, any event might be considered traumatic if you have experienced and/or witnessed a threat to your life, your body, your moral integrity, or had a close encounter with violence or death.

Usually, when we are faced with danger, we go into fight-or-flight mode, during which our bodies release hormones to help us act faster, to either fight or flee. Trauma inhibits this very normal and evolutionary response to danger. What trauma does, instead, is elicit a profound sense of helplessness, during which one feels paralyzed from doing anything to be relieved from the circumstance.
PTSD Defined:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, is described as a severe response to trauma, and it is most powerfully characterized by three prominent symptoms, which include:

1. Re-experiencing the event

2. Avoiding any reminders of the event, or feeling emotionally numb

3. Hyper-arousal, which consists of a very sensitive startle response

In addition to these three expressions of symptoms, PTSD causes a huge deal of distress and severely limits functioning in many different domains of life. As its name implies, PTSD is technically a "disorder", and it is listed in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

I respect the need to classify something as a disorder in order for rigorous assessment of specific symptoms that can lead to a comprehensive and individually-tailored treatment plan. Yet, I believe, that there's nothing truly disordered about having a reaction to seeing atrocities and tragedies beyond our mind's ability to fathom. To hear more about this point of view, listen to this poignant, sensitive and informative interview with Barry Boyce, editor-in-chief of Mindful magazine.

There's nothing truly disordered about having a reaction to seeing atrocities and tragedies beyond our mind's ability to fathom.

The Brain and PTSD

In order to understand the neurological implications of PTSD, it is important to quickly parse the concept of neuroplasticity. For many hundreds of years scientists thought that, like physical development, once the brain reached maturity, it ceased to grow and develop in any way.

The modern view is antithetical to this, given research that continues to show ways in which the human brain is in a constant state of change. In this way, it is believed, new experiences actually impact our neural circuitry; that over the course of a life, our brain map reflects new and changing pathways. This idea is expressed eloquently and through case example in one of my favorite books, The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, MD.

Most of us view this notion of a neuroplastic brain through a rose-colored lens. Yes, neuroplasticity affords the brain an opportunity to heal from injury. Let's not forget, though, that experience can also negatively change someone's neuro-profile. So, in sync with neuroplastic principles, when trauma is encountered, the brain changes in response to the event in order to cope and adapt to the situation. These brain changes often don't serve us going forward. While our brain adapts to develop a psychological defense against further trauma, it is not a brain that thrives long-term.

Neurological Components of PTSD

Neuro-imaging techniques, such as MRI and FMRI, have allowed scientists to examine brains of patients suffering from PTSD. Three of the areas impacted by trauma include the

The amygdala is a structure in the brain's limbic system (known as the emotional seat of the brain) that helps determine whether or not a threat is approaching, and if so, sends out a danger signal, initiates the fight-or-flight response, and then helps indicate when the threat is gone. When one has experienced trauma, the amygdala remains hyper-alert to even non-threatening stimuli, and activates the fight-or-flight response system despite being safe. While experiencing PTSD, the brain can get caught up in a highly alert and activated loop during which it looks for and perceives threat everywhere.

While experiencing PTSD, the brain can get caught up in a highly alert and activated loop during which it looks for and perceives threat everywhere.

The hyperactive amygdala is constantly interacting with the hippocampus, the area of brain that plays a role in memory function. Brain scans have found smaller hippocampi in those with PTSD, perhaps reflecting the impaired memory experienced post trauma. Usually, the hippocampus works to connect and organize different aspects of memory, and is responsible for locating the memory of an event in its proper time, place and context. When experiencing PTSD, memory becomes fragmented, and the hippocampus has trouble coherently piecing together memory, from discriminating from past or present, and from integrating memory of experiences with feelings and factual knowledge. This is an extraordinarily distressing component of PTSD and manifests in the form of intrusive memories and flashbacks. Triggering memories provoke the amygdala, maintaining its hyper-activity.

The third area of the brain affected by trauma is the frontal lobe; specifically, the PFC. This area of the brain is involved in regulating behaviors, impulses, emotions, and fear responses. In those with PTSD, the PFC is notably less active and less able to override the hippocampus as it flashes fragments of memory, nor to signal the amygdala that the danger is not real.

As the above research suggests, the neuroplastic brain indeed responds to trauma. As certain areas of the brain become hyperactive, and others deregulated, throwing off the fine-tuned and exquisite orchestration that usually works to keep someone safe from real threats-PTSD is cultivated.

Mindfulness and the Brain:

There is a significant amount of data supporting mindfulness as a treatment approach for patients with PTSD. Much of the literature, however, doesn't speak to the neurological changes that occur during the mindfulness process. Research regarding mindfulness mediation's impact upon the brain in general points to changes in brain structure and function that could account for the reduction of symptoms of PTSD.

Changes in Brain Structure:

As I mentioned earlier, deregulation of the brain areas associated with emotional regulation and memory are key contributors to the symptoms associated with PTSD in addition to the over activity of the fear center, the amygdala. Mindfulness reverses these patterns by increasing prefrontal and hippocampal activity, and toning down the amygdala.

In fact, brain scans confirm that mindfulness meditation is correlated with an increase in gray matter in the hippocampus, a decrease of gray matter in the amygdala, and neuroimaging studies have found that mindfulness meditation also helps to activate the PFC.

Impact on Brain Function:

A recent study looking at the neural functional impact of mindfulness meditation on those with PTSD implicates the interaction of two "opposing" brain networks in mediating beneficial outcomes.

In this study, 23 male veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq were divided into different treatment groups, one of which included mindfulness-based exposure treatment (MBET).

Results indicated that while each treatment group showed promise, the men in the group receiving Mindfulness-Based Exposure Therapy (MBET) experienced actual post-treatment brain changes that indicate mechanisms by which mindfulness could potentially help in the treatment of PTSD.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) indicated that at the start of the study, the veterans showed increased activity in regions associated with perceived external threats. After receiving MBET, fMRI showed increased activity in what is known as the brain's default mode network (DMN). The DMN consists of interacting brain regions associated with internally focused meandering and wandering thought. Additionally, fMRI also showed that the DMN increased its connections with what's known as the Executive Network, associated with the purposeful shifting of attention.

Both these networks were working in sync, providing insight into how mindfulness can help people train themselves to get unstuck from a vicious cycle of negative thinking, often a cornerstone of trauma.

...Mindfulness can help people train themselves to get unstuck from a vicious cycle of negative thinking, often a cornerstone of trauma.

The small sample size, the gender bias of the group, and the inclusion of only veterans means that there is room for much more extensive empirical exploration with regards to mindfulness as applied specifically to those with PTSD.

Mindfulness and PTSD:

Overall, these neural correlates of symptom reduction can potentially shed light on the therapeutic possibility of mindfulness-based treatments going forward. There is, without a doubt, great potential for these treatments in helping people better process trauma, and hopefully decrease a lot of potential suffering.

Yet, a caveat worth heeding: Given the precarious nature of the symptoms of PTSD, the most efficient and safe treatment should only be obtained by a professional. It is my opinion that mindfulness, as an integrative approach under professional supervision, is the most prudent.

In honor of PTSD awareness month, I invite you to learn more about the various aspects of PTSD as it relates to gender, relationships with others, chronic pain, heart health, and brain injury.

Please click here to download my free resource packet on PTSD. Inside you will also find helpful quotes and resources related to trauma and PTSD, and NEW this year, I have included an additional post on an oft forgotten element of trauma: Post Traumatic Growth.
Download Dr. Wolkin's BrainCurves: PTSD Reference Packet here.

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The Science of Trauma, Mindfulness, and PTSD - Mindful

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If we were able to prove that individuals suffering from PTSD are experiencing reversible neurological changes, would that help to alleviate any taboo associated with trauma, so sufferers are able to get the treatment they need? New treatment protocols for PTSD that integrate mindfulness techniques may make that a possibility in the near future.

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Sharon Salzberg

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How Mindfulness Empowers Us: An Animation Narrated by Sharon Salzberg

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Even more breathing techniques

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Breathing is the key to achieving mindfulness. It's essentially why you feel significantly more amazing doing yoga than you do during aerobics; you're controlling your breathing while treating yourself to all the benefits that follow a calm, steady stream of fresh air.

Oxygen revitalizes you, resets your mind, body and spirit and allows you to feel better. Combine that with meditation and mala beads, and you'll feel reborn.

However, not all breathing is created equally. You likely learned this in your yoga classes. You have to teach yourself how to breathe properly in order to maximize the benefits, and there are several breathing techniques you can use, in particular, when meditating.

Here are some of our favourite breathing techniques we like to use when meditating with our mala beads.

The Common Yoga Breathing Technique

If you do yoga on the regular, you likely already know this technique as its most commonly used throughout different styles of yoga. It's often used to calm your breathing, so you can relish the benefits of fresh oxygen. To do this breathing technique, follow these steps:

1. Take a slow, deep breath in

2. Pause

3. Slowly let your breath out

4. Pause

Equal Breathing

A breathing technique that's certain to help calm the mind, body and soul is called equal breathing. It's perfect for reducing stress, calming your nerves and increasing focus, and can be done anywhere and at any time. Here are the steps for this breathing technique:

1. Take a slow inhale through your nose for a count of four

2. Slowly exhale through your nose for a count of four

Count for Four

A common breathing technique for meditation is to simply count to four, then count backward from four, all timed with your breath. You can also use different numbers, depending on your preferences but as you'll see in this post, a count of four seems to be the common denominator. Here are the steps:

1. Breath in - count one

2. Breath out - count two

3. Breath in - count three

4. Breath out - count forth

5. Breath in - count three

6. Breath out - count two

7. Breath in - count one

8. Breath out - count two

9. Repeat

Abdominal Breathing

Abdominal breathing is one of the easiest breathing techniques, so it's commonly recommended for beginners starting to meditate. However, it works for everyone and can be used in and outside of meditation, as it's a powerful way to reduce stress at any given time. It also only takes a couple of minutes to do, making it perfect for any type of situation where you need to recollect yourself. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Place one hand on your chest

2. Place the other hand on your stomach

3. Take a deep breath in through the nose

4. Feel your hand on your stomach move as you inflate your diaphragm with air

5. Slowly release your breath

The Stimulating Breath

The Stimulating Breath is also called the Bellows Breath and it's great for increasing alertness and energy. It can take some practice to perfect but once you do, you'll feel invigorated and will become completed addicted to the way it makes you feel. Here are the steps:

1. Quickly inhale and exhale through your nose, as short as possible, ensuring the duration is equal for both
Aim to get three inhales and exhales per second

2. Continue for five seconds

3. Slowly increase your time throughout your practice until you reach one full minute

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Another common breathing technique used during meditation and yoga is the alternate nostril breathing - and yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Doing this technique allows you reenergize your mind, body and spirit. Here are the steps:

1. Plug your right nostril with your right thumb

2. Take a deep breath through the left nostril

3. Remove your thumb from your right nostril and plug your left nostril with your ring finger

4. Slowly exhale

5. Repeat

The 4-7-8 Count

The 4-7-8 count, also known as the relaxing breath technique, is one of the easiest to do and as a bonus, the benefits are exponential. This exercise can quickly calm the nervous system, so much so that it can feel like your nerves have been tranquilized. So, it's amazing for anyone looking to calm their mind or who suffers from anxiety or sleep insomnia. Here's how you do it:

1. Rest the tip of your tongue at the top back of your teeth

2. Let out a deep exhale, along with a big sigh or whooshing sound

3. Close your mouth and slowly inhale through your nose for a count of four

4. Hold your breath for a count of seven

5. Exhale deeply and completely for a count of eight, being sure to let out a big sigh or whooshing sound

6. Repeat

Skull Shining Breath

This breathing technique, also known as Kapalabhati, is a great way to shake off negative energy and warm up your mind, body and spirit. It can be used in the morning, prior to an exam, before your next yoga class or during meditation. Here's how to do it:

1. Take a long, slow breath in

2. Quickly let out a powerful exhale from your diaphragm out

3. Repeat

If counting isn't your thing or you're simply too overwhelmed, distracted or stressed to keep count, mala beads are the perfect solution. Traditionally, these meditation devices were used to track your breath, sans any counting. You simply move your fingers along the mala beads, one for each breath. The key is to choose the right mala bead for your intention, as the energy from the natural stone can further your meditation and relaxation. Here are the steps:

1. Choose a mala bead specific to your intention (reason for doing the breathing technique)

2. Hold the mala bead in your right hand

3. Drape it between your middle and index finger

4. Starting at the guru bead, move your thumb along each smaller bead, breathing in for each

5. Do this 108 times, until you're back at your guru bead

Mala beads can also be used for every breathing technique mentioned.

Breathing is the easiest, most affordable and inarguably, the most powerful form of therapy. So, choose a breathing technique and some mala beads that suits your needs, and reap the benefits of proper breathing.

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TOP 9 Best Breathing Techniques For Meditation and Mindfulness

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Breathing is the key to achieving mindfulness. It's essentially why you feel significantly more amazing doing yoga than you do during aerobics; you're controlling your breathing while treating yourself to all the benefits that follow a calm, steady stream of fresh air. Oxygen revitalizes you, resets your mind, body and spirit and allows you to feel better.

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Zentangle Method

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Zentangle® Project Pack #01 - Crescent Moon

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Mindful @ Work

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Most of us will spend about 30 per cent of our lives - about 25-30 years - working. That's a lot of time. Whether you love your job or dread heading to the office each day, work is an unavoidable part of life for most of us. And, like most inevitable parts of life, it does us a great deal of good to strive to make the most of them.

One of the best ways to make the most of any moment - good or bad - is to strive to be more mindful. This isn't too difficult when you're enjoying the moment, but it can be a challenge if you're in the midst of a busy workweek. Here are some of the best ways to embrace the moment while at work:

1. Plan your time calmly and carefully.
One of the best ways to prevent feelings of overwhelm while at work is to have a plan. At the end of each day, take a few moments to plan how you'll spend the following day. Not only will this help you get started tomorrow, but feeling prepared will help reduce your stress today, making it easier to stay in the moment.

2. Do only one task at a time.
Multitasking sounds great - get more things done in less time! - but attempting to do more than one task at a time actually results in more stress and fewer positive results. Instead, choose one task and focus your attention on it completely. You'll accomplish it faster - and you're less likely to make mistakes, which will cut down on stress.

5.Take breaks from your work. Since many of us are sitting for the majority of the day, it's important to actively take breaks from your work when you can. A short walk around the office is not only good for your body, but it can be a nice reset button for your mind, giving you a chance to be mindful of your office environment - and possibly inspiring new ideas!

7. Schedule email-free time.
Emails are part of life, but they don't have to dominate your workday. To prevent email overwhelm, schedule a time - as long as you can manage - each day to work without any email interruptions. Doing this will allow you to focus your attention on whatever task you're working on with true mindfulness.

Mindfulness at work is a challenge, but it's so important to make the effort to strive for awareness at the office. The mindful you are, the less stress you'll have, the better your connections with coworkers will be, and the more engaged you'll be in your work. It might not come easily, but the more you practice awareness, the easier it becomes - and the more you'll reap the positive benefits of mindful living!

About the Author: Dani DiPirro is founder of PositivelyPresent.com, designed to help others live positively - it now attracts more than 90,000 page views per month. Her work has been featured on sites such as The Happiness Project, Psychology Today and Forbes.

Dani DiPirro
Living in the Moment
£5.99, available from Watkins Publishing

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10 Ways to Be Mindful at Work - Watkins Publishing

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Most of us will spend about 30 per cent of our lives - about 25-30 years - working. That's a lot of time. Whether you love your job or dread heading to the office each day, work is an unavoidable part of life for most of us.

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Deepak Chopra

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BIG IMPACT IN SMALL DOSES

Find self-care quick hits for busy schedules with 5, 10, 20, and 30-minute sessions to find calm and relieve anxiety wherever you are.

Over 75% of people using Chopra meditations report decreased stress, improved mood, and increased connectivity to themselves and others.

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The Chopra App puts personalized support in the palm of your hand. Relax with our best meditations, well-being tools, tips, and practices based on Deepak's Chopra's wisdom and scientific research.

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Alternate Nostril Breathing by Crystal @ Puzzle Fit

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Yoga Breathing | Ujjayi | Alternate Nostril | Meditation Breathing

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Black Girls Breathing

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our work

black girls breathing™ creates a safe space for black womxn to actively nurture their mental, emotional and spiritual health via meditational breathwork in an environment curated just for us. Deepening our inhales, lessening our stress.

black girls breathing™ (bgb) has hosted sessions in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, NYC and DC. we launched our first 6-city tour, the expansion tour, with multiple sold out sessions in the summer of 2019.

testimonials

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black girls breathing ™ creates a safe space for black womxn to actively nurture their mental, emotional and spiritual health via meditational breathwork in an environment curated just for us. Deepening our inhales, lessening our stress. black girls breathing ™ (bgb) has hosted sessions in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, NYC and DC.

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Mindful Work

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"Intriguing, timely, and enjoyable . . . A fascinating account of the increasing adoption of these ancient disciplines by Western businesses." - Financial Times

"[An] adroit exploration. [Gelles] deftly describes what mindfulness is and what it isn't, presents the science behind it, and handily succeeds in convincing readers that the practice is worth exploring." - Business leaders around the country are discovering that meditation may be the key to fostering a happier, more productive workplace. Success "Brimming with insights and backed up with solid research, Mindful Work takes us to the front lines of a revolution that is transforming the business world." - Arianna Huffington
Many American companies, including some of our largest - such as General Mills, Ford, Target, and Google - have built extensive programs to foster mindful practices among their workers. Mindful Work is the first book to explain how all sorts of businesses and any kind of worker can benefit from meditation, yoga, and other mindful techniques. Mindfulness lowers stress, increases mental focus, and alleviates depression among workers. It has also benefited companies that have adopted it - from the millions of dollars Aetna has saved in health-care costs to the ways Patagonia has combined leadership in its market with a pervasively mindful outlook. Mindful Work offers an eye-opening tour through this new landscape, and goes beyond other books on the subject by providing evidence for the practical benefits of mindfulness and showing readers how to become more mindful themselves.

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mindful work: how meditation is changing business from the inside out (eamon dolan)

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mind & spirit / mindfulness & meditation

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business & economics / workplace culture

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meditation; fortune 100; green mountain coffee; general mills; mindfulness; flow; steve jobs; mindful moment; science of sitting; less stressed; more focused; socially responsible; productive workplace; positive work environment; yoga; mindful techniques; lower stress; mental focus; leadership; practical benefits; backed up by research; business culture; clear focus; authoritative; guide book; practical tips; corporate world; corporate efficiency; transformed western workplace; boost the bottom line; life changes; engaging; human condition meditation; mental health meditation; mental health business; business books; money; economy; economics books; economics; strategy; business culture books; culture; entrepreneur; entrepreneur books; entrepreneur gifts

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mind & spirit / mindfulness & meditation

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business & economics / workplace culture

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Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out (Eamon Dolan)

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Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out (Eamon Dolan) [Gelles, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out (Eamon Dolan)

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Happify

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Happify: Science-Based Activities and Games

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Build skills for lasting happiness: Happify turns the latest innovations in positive psychology, CBT, and mindfulness into activities and games that help you lead a more fulfilling life.

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Doodle Drawing

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Drawing as a fun and quick mindfulness exercise

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Insight Timer

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Insight Timer - #1 Free Meditation App for Sleep, Relax & More

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The best meditation app with the world’s largest FREE library of more than 190k guided meditations, 17k teachers & the world’s most loved meditation Timer.

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Smiling Mind

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Practice your daily meditation and mindfulness exercises from any device.

Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life.

We suggest 10 minutes a day.

What are you waiting for?

DOWNLOAD THE APP NOW AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

Our App

A daily mindfulness and meditation guide at your fingertips

#1 Apple Health & Wellbeing App 2018 - Australia

Trusted by over 6.1M people

100% evidence based

FREE Programs for children and adults

We suggest 10 minutes a day

What are you waiting for?

DOWNLOAD THE APP NOW AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

THE PERFECT APP FOR BEGINNERS

There are dozens if not hundreds of exercises tailored to different demographics and desires, more content than most other mindfulness apps. All the content is free, making it the perfect app for beginners to see if mindfulness is for them.

TRY SAYING:

"Hey Google, talk to Smiling Mind"

"Hey Google, do a sleep meditation with Smiling Mind"

"Hey Google, use Smiling Mind to do a relax meditation"

"Hey Google, help me focus with Smiling Mind"

Indigenous Languages Program

We worked with NPY Women's Council to develop a mindfulness program aimed at providing accessible and engaging mental health tools for Aboriginal people of the NPY region. These meditations have been scripted and recorded by senior Anangu women in Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. Thanks to nib foundation for funding this work.

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Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. We suggest 10 minutes a day. What are you waiting for?

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Headspace

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Rhonda V MaGee - Training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction offers a guided  mindful moment.

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Rhonda V. Magee, professor of law at the University of San Francisco trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, offers a guided meditation as part of the [email protected] series.

[email protected] is a series of free guided meditations from some of our favorite mindfulness teachers. As they hunker down in their homes, they will be sending peace, calm, and love to you in your home. Tune in to our Facebook page every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3 p.m. ET for live guided meditations.

In this guided meditation, Rhonda Magee leads us through the S.T.O.P. practice to gently bring focused awareness to what we're experiencing in this moment.

The acronym S.T.O.P. encapsulates how mindfulness practice can support us in making the most of opportunities for engagement in the world. Like all mindfulness practices, it has many different applications. It is a simple tool that can support us in being here in a much more lively way with ourselves, opening up to what is coming up for us, right here, right now.

S stands for Stop

Stop what you are doing and if possible, perhaps take a seat. If standing, just pause where you are standing. It's really about standing in your dignity or sitting in your dignity, to support bringing mindfulness to this moment. As you settle in, breathe in and out, allowing attention to rest on the feeling of the breath as it flows into the body, and out. Feel the nourishment of taking a moment to pause. This first step can be as short as just an instant, or as long as you like.

T stands for Take a conscious breath

Now, taking one, very slow and conscious breath in, and a full complete breath out, really notice what it's like to allow your attention to rest on these sensations of breathing. Continuing to take a few very conscious, very intentional breaths. Simply allow yourself to feature the breathing aspect of the experience of this moment, one breath at a time.

O stands for Observe

What is coming up for you in this moment? The shorthand T.E.S.-thoughts, emotions, sensations-can remind you of what you might gently scan for as you observe your experience.

What kind of thoughts might be arising? Imagine thoughts as being like clouds, moving through the sky of your consciousness, and just note the thoughts as they come up for you.

Then, what emotions or feelings are present? Is there some discomfort? Some feeling of opening to joy? Whatever is arising is perfectly OK. There is no right or wrong way to feel. Mindfulness is about rolling out this welcome mat, allowing yourself to feel what's here right now.

Then, notice sensations: You might feel a tightness around the shoulders, or a sinking feeling in the belly. Whatever is prominent, invite a reflection on the sensations that are coming up for you. The intention is just to create a spacious way of holding the sensations. Yes, these sensations are here right now.

P stands for Proceed

Finally, when you're ready, notice the opportunity presented in this moment to proceed, to choose how to move from this place of reflective awareness into engagement. Proceed with presence, all the while holding your experience with kindness, friendliness, and self-compassionate for your experience in this moment.

When you are ready, transition out of this practice. Feel what it was like, and any way in which that moment of practice may have shifted your experience. Bring awareness to that shift, to help you see just how mindfulness practice is for you. Many teachers use the term "YOU-ru" as opposed to "guru," which means you can take full ownership of the great opportunity that being alive presents: to deepen your ability to meet whatever is coming up, with more steadfastness, more stamina, more resilience, and more intentionality about how you want to be in the world.

Law professor Rhonda Magee applies her deep meditation practice to the difficult waters of racially-charged interactions. Read More

Join us for connection and community through live guided meditations from today's mindful leaders. Read More

Rhonda Magee takes us through this simple portable mindfulness practice she uses to find calm when difficult moments arise. Read More

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A Guided S.T.O.P. Practice for Focused Awareness - Mindful

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Rhonda V. Magee, professor of law at the University of San Francisco trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, offers a guided meditation as part of the [email protected] series. [email protected] is a series of free guided meditations from some of our favorite mindfulness teachers.

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Mindful @ Work - How practicing mindfulness helps reduce multitasking at work

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During a conference call with the executive committee of a nonprofit board on which I sit, I decided to send an email to a client.

I know, I know. You'd think I'd have learned.

Last week I wrote about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. Multitasking is dangerous. And so I proposed a way to stop.

But when I sent that email, I wasn't in a car. I was safe at my desk. What could go wrong?

Well, I sent the client the message. Then I had to send him another one, this time with the attachment I had forgotten to append. Finally, my third email to him explained why that attachment wasn't what he was expecting. When I eventually refocused on the call, I realized I hadn't heard a question the Chair of the Board had asked me.

I swear I wasn't smoking anything. But I might as well have been. A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs. What's the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep. More than twice the effect of smoking marijuana.

Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.

You might think you're different, that you've done it so much you've become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that.

But you'd be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you.

I decided to do an experiment. For one week I would do no multitasking and see what happened. What techniques would help? Could I sustain a focus on one thing at a time for that long?

For the most part, I succeeded. If I was on the phone, all I did was talk or listen on the phone. In a meeting I did nothing but focus on the meeting. Any interruptions - email, a knock on the door - I held off until I finished what I was working on.

During the week I discovered six things:

First, it was delightful. I noticed this most dramatically when I was with my children. I shut my cell phone off and found myself much more deeply engaged and present with them. I never realized how significantly a short moment of checking my email disengaged me from the people and things right there in front of me. Don't laugh, but I actually - for the first time in a while - noticed the beauty of leaves blowing in the wind.

Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects, the kind that - like writing or strategizing - require thought and persistence. The kind I usually try to distract myself from. I stayed with each project when it got hard, and experienced a number of breakthroughs.

Third, my stress dropped dramatically. Research shows that multitasking isn't just inefficient, it's stressful. And I found that to be true. It was a relief to do only one thing at a time. I felt liberated from the strain of keeping so many balls in the air at each moment. It felt reassuring to finish one thing before going to the next.

Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time. An hour-long meeting seemed interminably long. A meandering pointless conversation was excruciating. II became laser-focused on getting things done. Since I wasn't doing anything else, I got bored much more quickly. I had no tolerance for wasted time.

Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable. When I listened to my wife Eleanor, I was in no rush. When I was brainstorming about a difficult problem, I stuck with it. Nothing else was competing for my attention so I was able to settle into the one thing I was doing.

Sixth, there was no downside. I lost nothing by not multitasking. No projects were left unfinished. No one became frustrated with me for not answering a call or failing to return an email the second I received it.

That's why it's so surprising that multitasking is so hard to resist. If there's no downside to stopping, why don't we all just stop?

I think it's because our minds move considerably faster than the outside world. You can hear far more words a minute than someone else can speak. We have so much to do, why waste any time? So, while you're on the phone listening to someone, why not use that extra brain power to book a trip to Florence?

What we neglect to realize is that we're already using that brain power to pick up nuance, think about what we're hearing, access our creativity, and stay connected to what's happening around us. It's not really extra brain power. And diverting it has negative consequences.

So how do we resist the temptation?

First, the obvious: the best way to avoid interruptions is to turn them off. Often I write at 6 am when there's nothing to distract me, I disconnect my computer from its wireless connection and turn my phone off. In my car, I leave my phone in the trunk. Drastic? Maybe. But most of us shouldn't trust ourselves.

Second, the less obvious: Use your loss of patience to your advantage. Create unrealistically short deadlines. Cut all meetings in half. Give yourself a third of the time you think you need to accomplish something.

There's nothing like a deadline to keep things moving. And when things are moving fast, we can't help but focus on them. How many people run a race while texting? If you really only have 30 minutes to finish a presentation you thought would take an hour, are you really going to answer an interrupting call?

Interestingly, because multitasking is so stressful, single-tasking to meet a tight deadline will actually reduce your stress. In other words, giving yourself less time to do things could make you more productive and relaxed.

Finally, it's good to remember that we're not perfect. Every once in a while it might be OK to allow for a little multitasking. As I was writing this, Daniel, my two-year-old son, walked into my office, climbed on my lap, and said " Monsters, Inc. movie please."

So, here we are, I'm finishing this piece on the left side of my computer screen while Daniel is on my lap watching a movie on the right side of my computer screen.

Sometimes, it is simply impossible to resist a little multitasking.
(Editor's note: Fellow HBR blogger David Silverman has some different thoughts on multi-tasking in his post, "In Defense of Multitasking")

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During a conference call with the executive committee of a nonprofit board on which I sit, I decided to send an email to a client. I know, I know. You'd think I'd have learned. Last week I wrote about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. Multitasking is dangerous.

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The Power of Meditation

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Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings and challenges our habits of self-judgment. Meditation helps protect the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things. Meditation opens the door to real and accessible happiness.

There is no better person to show a beginner how to harness the power of meditation than Sharon Salzberg, one of the world's foremost meditation teachers and spiritual authors. Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, author of Loving kindness, Faith, and other books, Ms. Salzberg distills 30 years of teaching meditation into a 28-day program that will change lives. It is not about Buddhism, it's not esoteric - it is closer to an exercise, like running or riding a bike. From the basics of posture, breathing, and the daily schedule to the finer points of calming the mind, distraction, dealing with specific problem areas (pain in the legs? falling asleep?) to the larger issues of compassion and awareness, Real Happiness is a complete guide. It explains how meditation works; why a daily meditation practice results in more resiliency, creativity, peace, clarity, and balance; and gives twelve meditation practices, including mindfulness meditation and walking meditation. An extensive selection of FAQs cover the most frequent concerns of beginners who meditate - "Is meditation selfish?" "How do I know if I'm doing it right?" "Can I use meditation to manage weight?"

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Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings ...

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Warrior Breath-Turn Stress into Positive Energy

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Turn stress into positive energy through warrior breathing with Mark Divine

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Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent

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Mindful.org

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Current Issue Discover the latest issue of Mindful magazine read our newsletter Get the latest in mindfulness, delivered to your inbox

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Reduce Anxiety with Music

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It may seem like we are living in an age of anxiety, where feeling worried, upset and stressed has become the norm. But we should remember that anxiety is a natural human response to situations.

It comes when we are not sure what is going to happen, or when we feel under threat. And even mild anxiety can have a negative effect on our ability to lead a productive life. It can interfere with being able to enjoy the simple things in life.

When we experience anxiety, our heart and breathing rates increase and many other systems in our bodies experience overload. Anxiety affects our general physical health as well as our emotions.

In my work as a music therapist, I've noticed the impact music can have on anxiety. For example, in guided imagery sessions, the therapist uses specially selected music and the client is invited to describe what they are feeling and what images the music conjures up. It's amazing what insights can be gained from simply allowing yourself time to listen and talk about what you see in your mind's eye.

These may be as simple as becoming more aware of how music can affect emotions, or be used to explore past experiences or future dilemmas. It can also be used to find a place of comfort and a secure base where physical and emotional balance can be found.

A recent experiment explored whether certain kinds of music can reduce anxiety during a complex task and concluded that some music is better at doing this than others.

Read more: Surprising ways to beat anxiety and become mentally strong - according to science

Also, a study based on measuring physiological and emotional responses suggests there are certain qualities in music that are better at helping people relax.

The speed of the music should be relatively slow, the melody should be simple, and the beat and harmony should not hold too many surprises. Other factors, such as the complexity of the music and - surprisingly - familiarity with the piece, were not so important.

In fact, knowing a piece too well was found in some cases to be counterproductive. The genres most likely to support relaxation are classical, soft pop and certain types of world music. These are found to largely contain the musical elements necessary to help a person relax.

Press play

With these musical elements in mind, here are eight suggested pieces of music that meet these criteria:

1 Ambient 1: Music For Airports by Brian Eno. This soundscape provides a wash of musical effects that echo the rhythm of our physiological functions, leaving space for us to attune to the slow tempo of the music. The album is described in one review as "the kind of music one might hear in heaven".

2 Pieds-en-L'Air, from Capriol Suite, by Peter Warlock, a composer and former music critic. Known for his unconventional lifestyle, he died in 1930, aged 36. His musical legacy includes this soft and slow classical piece with a melody reminiscent of songs we may have heard as children.

3 Om Namah Shivaya by Deva Premal. The vocals of Premal and supporting music made by her partner Mital hark back to evocative chants from times past. The slow pace and almost hypnotic music combined with her clear vocals feel very supportive.

4 Someone Like You by Adele. While this hugely successful song explores the issue of loss, the slow tempo and cool accompaniment is found by many to offer a sense of calm and reflection. It has been claimed that the piece's emotional strength is due to small, unexpected changes in the melody or "ornamental notes", which create a melancholic tension.

5 I Giorni, by Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian pianist and composer who has written numerous film soundtracks. This piano piece, with its repetitive motifs and steady tempo, evokes a dreamlike state with moments of light and brightness.

6 In Paradisum, by Gabriel Fauré, a French composer who gained great popularity in his lifetime, but suffered from deafness in his later years. In this piece, from his Requiem, the choir and organ accompaniment provide a feeling of serenity.

7 Stopover at Djibouti by Anouar Ibrahem, a Tunisian oud player and composer. He is widely acclaimed as an innovator in his field, fusing Arab classical music, folk music and jazz. This world jazz piece has hypnotic motifs that can seem almost meditative.

8 Wilma's Theme by Stefan Nilsson, a Swedish composer and pianist who is well known in is home country. This piece, which seems somehow familiar, has a simple melody and harmonies that provide a safe landing place.

This list offers some suggestions of music that could be used to help people relax. A favourite of mine, which I haven't included, is the slow movement from JS Bach's Double Violin Concerto. It never fails to give me a sense of feeling safe and grounded, something that can be so important when we may be feeling anxious.

It should be said, though, that many studies emphasise the importance of finding your own selection of music that works for you. Whatever your musical taste is, you have the edge on any prescribed playlist in finding what is best for you.

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Anxiety: a playlist to calm the mind from a music therapist

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It may seem like we are living in an age of anxiety, where feeling worried, upset and stressed has become the norm. But we should remember that anxiety is a natural human response to situations. It comes when we are not sure what is going to happen, or when we feel under threat.

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Feelings Wheel

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Learn how to understand and process your emotions, increase self-awareness, enhance emotional communication, and boost your wellbeing with the Feelings Wheel.

Sometimes feelings can be big and intense, and other times they're quiet, buried away, and harder to recognize. If you're feeling frustrated and angry, it might be difficult to point to just one feeling, but having several to choose from may help you to zero in on exactly what's going on inside.

Enter: The Feelings Wheel. The brainchild of Dr. Gloria Willcox, the Feelings Wheel can help us put words to our emotions and to care for our mental health.

What is the Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel offers a unique and nuanced approach to identifying and comprehending emotions. It's a tool that allows individuals to better navigate their inner emotional landscapes and foster healthier emotional intelligence.

Dr. Gloria Wilcox's Feelings Wheel draws from a diverse range of disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics.

How does the Feelings Wheel work?

The Feelings Wheel organizes the different dimensions of feelings we may have into several categories and subcategories to help you pinpoint exactly how you're feeling, which can be helpful, especially if you're overwhelmed by your emotions or in a heated communication.

At first glance, the Feelings Wheel resembles a color wheel, with concentric circles representing different layers of emotions. The Wheel is divided into primary emotions, secondary emotions, and tertiary emotions. Each layer delves deeper into the nuances of emotional experiences, allowing individuals to pinpoint their feelings with remarkable precision.

Primary emotions: The innermost circle of the wheel consists of broad primary emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. These emotions serve as the fundamental building blocks of our emotional experiences. They provide a general sense of how we are feeling, acting as a starting point for further exploration.

Secondary emotions: As we move outward, the wheel introduces secondary emotions that stem from the primary emotions. These emotions offer a more nuanced understanding of our feelings. For example, under the primary emotion of anger, secondary emotions like frustration, annoyance, and resentment can be found. This layer acknowledges that emotions are rarely singular; they often manifest as a complex blend of various feelings.

Tertiary emotions: The outermost layer of the Feelings Wheel unveils tertiary emotions, which are the most specific and detailed emotions one can experience. These emotions capture the subtle distinctions that make each emotional experience unique. Under frustration, for instance, tertiary emotions might include impatience, exasperation, or agitation.

Why use the Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel can serve as a guide to understand the intricate web of emotions we all feel and their interconnectedness with other emotions. It's a powerful tool that can help you explore your feelings more deeply and also express them more accurately so you can get the support you need, or simply process whatever emotions you're navigating.

Here are some of the benefits of using the Feelings Wheel.

The Feelings Wheel facilitates effective communication

Clear and accurate communication of emotions is pivotal in maintaining healthy connections with others. With the Feelings Wheel, you can effectively communicate your emotional states, enabling your loved ones or colleagues to respond to you with empathy and support. This tool helps break down barriers in conversations and fosters open dialogue about feelings.

The Feelings Wheel encourages mindful reflection

Being able to reflect on our emotions can benefit our emotional growth and wellbeing. The Feelings Wheel serves as a mirror that reflects the intricate tapestry of emotions within us. As you explore the various segments of the Wheel, you may discover emotions they hadn't previously recognized or considered.

This exploration cultivates increased self-awareness, allowing you gain insight into your thoughts and behaviors.

The Feelings Wheel can support emotional regulation

Emotionally regulating oneself is a fundamental aspect of mental wellbeing. The Feelings Wheel aids in this process by helping you to identify and label your emotions, which is the first step towards managing them.

When we can pinpoint our emotions, we are better equipped to implement strategies for emotional regulation. This might involve techniques like mindfulness, deep breathing, or engaging in activities that align with the corresponding emotional needs.

💙 If you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, try this Sign of Relief guided meditation with Jay Shetty.

The Feelings Wheel can help you identify emotional patterns and triggers

The Feelings Wheel validates the diverse range of emotions we experience and can help us better pinpoint our triggers. It helps us understand that our emotional responses are valid and normal, which is especially important in cultures or environments that might stigmatize certain emotions.

This validation fosters a sense of empowerment, encouraging individuals to embrace their feelings without judgment and also to better learn how to manage them when they come up.

Support for mental health:

The Feelings Wheel has found a valuable place in therapy and mental health treatment. Therapists often use it as a tool to facilitate discussions about emotions, allowing clients to delve deeper into their experiences. Moreover, it aids therapists in teaching clients about emotional intelligence and coping strategies. As a result, the Feelings Wheel contributes to more effective therapeutic outcomes.

The Feelings Wheel helps to enhance emotional awareness

Empathy and emotional awareness are key in understanding and sharing our feelings with others. These are cornerstones of healthy relationships and effective communication.

The Feelings Wheel can help individuals cultivate empathy by encouraging them to explore emotions beyond their own experiences. By engaging with the wheel, people develop a broader perspective on emotions, enabling them to relate to and support others more effectively.
Using a tool like The Feelings Wheel can help you to get better in tune with yourself and your feelings. It can be a great tool for communication, or even when journaling your feelings. 💙 For more resources like this, check out Calm's Feelings Journal

How to use the Feelings Wheel

The Feelings Wheel serves as more than just a visual representation of emotions; it's a practical tool that empowers individuals to develop their emotional intelligence. Here's how the Feelings Wheel can be effectively utilized:

1. Download the Feelings Wheel

We recommend downloading this handy tool for the next time you can't quite name what's arising within.

We also included a black and white version of the feelings wheel so that you can color it in yourself. Coloring the wheel is an opportunity to get to know and contemplate each word.
Download the Feelings Wheel
2. Check-in with yourself

The first step in using the Feelings Wheel is to take a moment to check in with how you feel in the moment.

Take a few breaths and notice how your body feels. Do you have tension anywhere? Then check in with your emotions. Do you feel like you want to cry, hide, yell? Scan the wheel to discover what adjective best describes your state and then allow that understanding to empower how you want to meet the moment.

Figuring out the basic category of feelings you're in can help you to pinpoint exactly what's going on. Sometimes we struggle to accurately identify our emotions beyond the basic ones. The Feelings Wheel helps us delve deeper into our emotional states, allowing us to differentiate between, for instance, sadness and melancholy. This heightened emotional awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, fostering healthier self-expression and communication.

3. Communicate your emotions

Once you know exactly what you're feeling then you can start communicating it either to yourself, your partner, or someone else in your support system.

Expressing emotions can be a challenging task, especially when words fall short of capturing the complexity of feelings we're having. The Feelings Wheel offers a common language for describing emotions, enhancing communication between individuals. This can be particularly helpful in personal relationships, workplace settings, and therapy sessions, where understanding and articulating emotions is crucial.

4. Take appropriate action

Once you've expressed your feelings you can take action. By accurately identifying our emotions, we can better understand the triggers and underlying causes of our feelings. This insight empowers them to manage their emotional responses more effectively, reducing impulsive reactions and promoting thoughtful, measured responses.

💙 Feeling stressed? Try SOS Breath Work with Chibs Okereke.

Taking action with your feelings enables you to better understand and explore them. Learning about your feelings encourages you to engage in introspection, reflecting on the subtleties of our emotions and the deeper meanings behind them.

The Feelings Wheel FAQs

What is The Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel, created by Dr. Gloria Willcox can help us put words to our emotions which inturn can help us care for our mental health. Sometimes feelings can be big and intense and other times they are quiet, buried away, and harder to recognize. If you're feeling frustrated and angry, it might be difficult to point to just one feeling, but having several to choose from may help you to zero in on exactly what's going on inside.

How can I use it?

The Feelings Wheel serves as more than just a visual representation of emotions; it's a practical tool that empowers individuals to develop their emotional intelligence. The wheel made of concentric circles shows primary emotions and then breaks them down further into secondary and tertiary emotions to help you pinpoint exactly how you're feeling. It's a great tool for communication, or even journaling exactly how you're feeling. Download here.

What is it best used for?

The Feelings Wheel is best used for communication, but it also enhances emotional intelligence, empathy, reflection and emotional regulation.

Are there any downsides?

There are very few downsides to expressing your emotions when you're able to do it in a mindful manner. If you feel nervous about expressing how you feel, you can use The Feelings Wheel with a mental health professional. That way if expressing the feelings triggers anything big and scary, you have an advocate there to help you process it.

Where can I find The Feelings Wheel?

You can download it for free right here.

READ NEXT: 5 Benefits of Tracking Your Mood How are you feeling? A 31 Day Challenge

Calm your mind. Change your life.
Mental health is hard. Getting support doesn't have to be. The Calm puts the tools to feel better in your back pocket, with personalized content to manage stress and anxiety, get better sleep, and feel more present in your life. Calm your mind. Change the world.

Learn how to understand and process your emotions, increase self-awareness, enhance emotional communication, and boost your wellbeing with the Feelings Wheel.

Sometimes feelings can be big and intense, and other times they're quiet, buried away, and harder to recognize. If you're feeling frustrated and angry, it might be difficult to point to just one feeling, but having several to choose from may help you to zero in on exactly what's going on inside.

Enter: The Feelings Wheel. The brainchild of Dr. Gloria Willcox, the Feelings Wheel can help us put words to our emotions and to care for our mental health.

What is the Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel offers a unique and nuanced approach to identifying and comprehending emotions. It's a tool that allows individuals to better navigate their inner emotional landscapes and foster healthier emotional intelligence.

Dr. Gloria Wilcox's Feelings Wheel draws from a diverse range of disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics.

How does the Feelings Wheel work?

The Feelings Wheel organizes the different dimensions of feelings we may have into several categories and subcategories to help you pinpoint exactly how you're feeling, which can be helpful, especially if you're overwhelmed by your emotions or in a heated communication.

At first glance, the Feelings Wheel resembles a color wheel, with concentric circles representing different layers of emotions. The Wheel is divided into primary emotions, secondary emotions, and tertiary emotions. Each layer delves deeper into the nuances of emotional experiences, allowing individuals to pinpoint their feelings with remarkable precision.

Primary emotions: The innermost circle of the wheel consists of broad primary emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. These emotions serve as the fundamental building blocks of our emotional experiences. They provide a general sense of how we are feeling, acting as a starting point for further exploration.

Secondary emotions: As we move outward, the wheel introduces secondary emotions that stem from the primary emotions. These emotions offer a more nuanced understanding of our feelings. For example, under the primary emotion of anger, secondary emotions like frustration, annoyance, and resentment can be found. This layer acknowledges that emotions are rarely singular; they often manifest as a complex blend of various feelings.

Tertiary emotions: The outermost layer of the Feelings Wheel unveils tertiary emotions, which are the most specific and detailed emotions one can experience. These emotions capture the subtle distinctions that make each emotional experience unique. Under frustration, for instance, tertiary emotions might include impatience, exasperation, or agitation.

Why use the Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel can serve as a guide to understand the intricate web of emotions we all feel and their interconnectedness with other emotions. It's a powerful tool that can help you explore your feelings more deeply and also express them more accurately so you can get the support you need, or simply process whatever emotions you're navigating.

Here are some of the benefits of using the Feelings Wheel.

The Feelings Wheel facilitates effective communication

Clear and accurate communication of emotions is pivotal in maintaining healthy connections with others. With the Feelings Wheel, you can effectively communicate your emotional states, enabling your loved ones or colleagues to respond to you with empathy and support. This tool helps break down barriers in conversations and fosters open dialogue about feelings.

The Feelings Wheel encourages mindful reflection

Being able to reflect on our emotions can benefit our emotional growth and wellbeing. The Feelings Wheel serves as a mirror that reflects the intricate tapestry of emotions within us. As you explore the various segments of the Wheel, you may discover emotions they hadn't previously recognized or considered.

This exploration cultivates increased self-awareness, allowing you gain insight into your thoughts and behaviors.

The Feelings Wheel can support emotional regulation

Emotionally regulating oneself is a fundamental aspect of mental wellbeing. The Feelings Wheel aids in this process by helping you to identify and label your emotions, which is the first step towards managing them.

When we can pinpoint our emotions, we are better equipped to implement strategies for emotional regulation. This might involve techniques like mindfulness, deep breathing, or engaging in activities that align with the corresponding emotional needs.

💙 If you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, try this Sign of Relief guided meditation with Jay Shetty.

The Feelings Wheel can help you identify emotional patterns and triggers

The Feelings Wheel validates the diverse range of emotions we experience and can help us better pinpoint our triggers. It helps us understand that our emotional responses are valid and normal, which is especially important in cultures or environments that might stigmatize certain emotions.

This validation fosters a sense of empowerment, encouraging individuals to embrace their feelings without judgment and also to better learn how to manage them when they come up.

Support for mental health:

The Feelings Wheel has found a valuable place in therapy and mental health treatment. Therapists often use it as a tool to facilitate discussions about emotions, allowing clients to delve deeper into their experiences. Moreover, it aids therapists in teaching clients about emotional intelligence and coping strategies. As a result, the Feelings Wheel contributes to more effective therapeutic outcomes.

The Feelings Wheel helps to enhance emotional awareness

Empathy and emotional awareness are key in understanding and sharing our feelings with others. These are cornerstones of healthy relationships and effective communication.

The Feelings Wheel can help individuals cultivate empathy by encouraging them to explore emotions beyond their own experiences. By engaging with the wheel, people develop a broader perspective on emotions, enabling them to relate to and support others more effectively.
Using a tool like The Feelings Wheel can help you to get better in tune with yourself and your feelings. It can be a great tool for communication, or even when journaling your feelings. 💙 For more resources like this, check out Calm's Feelings Journal

How to use the Feelings Wheel

The Feelings Wheel serves as more than just a visual representation of emotions; it's a practical tool that empowers individuals to develop their emotional intelligence. Here's how the Feelings Wheel can be effectively utilized:

1. Download the Feelings Wheel

We recommend downloading this handy tool for the next time you can't quite name what's arising within.

We also included a black and white version of the feelings wheel so that you can color it in yourself. Coloring the wheel is an opportunity to get to know and contemplate each word.
Download the Feelings Wheel
2. Check-in with yourself

The first step in using the Feelings Wheel is to take a moment to check in with how you feel in the moment.

Take a few breaths and notice how your body feels. Do you have tension anywhere? Then check in with your emotions. Do you feel like you want to cry, hide, yell? Scan the wheel to discover what adjective best describes your state and then allow that understanding to empower how you want to meet the moment.

Figuring out the basic category of feelings you're in can help you to pinpoint exactly what's going on. Sometimes we struggle to accurately identify our emotions beyond the basic ones. The Feelings Wheel helps us delve deeper into our emotional states, allowing us to differentiate between, for instance, sadness and melancholy. This heightened emotional awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, fostering healthier self-expression and communication.

3. Communicate your emotions

Once you know exactly what you're feeling then you can start communicating it either to yourself, your partner, or someone else in your support system.

Expressing emotions can be a challenging task, especially when words fall short of capturing the complexity of feelings we're having. The Feelings Wheel offers a common language for describing emotions, enhancing communication between individuals. This can be particularly helpful in personal relationships, workplace settings, and therapy sessions, where understanding and articulating emotions is crucial.

4. Take appropriate action

Once you've expressed your feelings you can take action. By accurately identifying our emotions, we can better understand the triggers and underlying causes of our feelings. This insight empowers them to manage their emotional responses more effectively, reducing impulsive reactions and promoting thoughtful, measured responses.

💙 Feeling stressed? Try SOS Breath Work with Chibs Okereke.

Taking action with your feelings enables you to better understand and explore them. Learning about your feelings encourages you to engage in introspection, reflecting on the subtleties of our emotions and the deeper meanings behind them.

The Feelings Wheel FAQs

What is The Feelings Wheel?

The Feelings Wheel, created by Dr. Gloria Willcox can help us put words to our emotions which inturn can help us care for our mental health. Sometimes feelings can be big and intense and other times they are quiet, buried away, and harder to recognize. If you're feeling frustrated and angry, it might be difficult to point to just one feeling, but having several to choose from may help you to zero in on exactly what's going on inside.

How can I use it?

The Feelings Wheel serves as more than just a visual representation of emotions; it's a practical tool that empowers individuals to develop their emotional intelligence. The wheel made of concentric circles shows primary emotions and then breaks them down further into secondary and tertiary emotions to help you pinpoint exactly how you're feeling. It's a great tool for communication, or even journaling exactly how you're feeling. Download here.

What is it best used for?

The Feelings Wheel is best used for communication, but it also enhances emotional intelligence, empathy, reflection and emotional regulation.

Are there any downsides?

There are very few downsides to expressing your emotions when you're able to do it in a mindful manner. If you feel nervous about expressing how you feel, you can use The Feelings Wheel with a mental health professional. That way if expressing the feelings triggers anything big and scary, you have an advocate there to help you process it.

Where can I find The Feelings Wheel?

You can download it for free right here.

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The Feelings Wheel: unlock the power of your emotions - Calm Blog

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Learn how to understand and process your emotions, increase self-awareness, enhance emotional communication, and boost your wellbeing with the Feelings Wheel.