In our turbo-charged, stress filled world, so many times our minds are full but we are not mindful.

One of the key reasons that mindfulness continues to gain popularity is that in our turbo-charged, demanding and stress filled world, so many times we are living the opposite of mindfulness which is, can you guess? Mindlessness.  Our minds are full but we are not mindful.

So how do we find the path to mindfulness. We have many tools to help us wake up from being on auto-pilot.  First is the breath. The simplest is to sit in a chair, with your spine erect and hands gently resting on your lap, and closing your eyes either fully or slightly and just noticing the rise and fall of your breath. Doing that for 3-5 minutes in the morning would be a good start.  Sometimes the brain is chattering so much, it helps to count each breath and try to focus on that in the beginning.

The more you practice, the more you can bring mindfulness and the state of being into your everyday activities such as eating, walking, talking and whatever you are engaged in at the moment. MRI studies of people who practice show increases in areas of the brain that are associated with learning, memory, self-awareness, compassion and self-regulation.

Mindfulness is also a perfect complement to helping people change behaviors. By de-stressing the body and brain, we can often times find new choices and solutions and thus opens us up to more growth and opportunity.