60 Mindful Minutes

Jovanka Ciares, author of Reclaiming Wellness: Ancient Wisdom For Your Healthy, Happy, And Beautiful Life, sees wellness as a birthright we reclaim, versus something we pursue or struggle for. There are so many tools we can integrate as we travel along our own wellness path, including ancient tools like plant medicine, hypnosis, meditation and tai-chi. The key is opening up our awareness and incre...

We tend to think of gratitude as something we practice once in a while. But Kristi Nelson, author of Wake Up Grateful and executive director of A Network for Grateful Living, sees it differently. To her, gratitude is about living a grateful way of life and cultivating a perspective of gratefulness that influences our entire approach to how we show up in life. With a 'take nothing for granted' comm...

Not all relationships end because of one traumatic event, such as one person cheating. For author Matthew Fray, divorce is more like death by a thousand cuts. In his new book, This Is How Your Marriage Ends: A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships , Matthew looks at his personal experience in his divorce, as well as the experience he's gleaned as a relationship coach, to identify and address re...

Self-development has many benefits but it's interesting to notice that it's focused on the self. That's an insight author Gavin Seah explores in his book, True Humility: Finding Peace and Balance in Today's Modern Society . Could it be that our growth is stunted when it's not shared with others? Are we missing out on true happiness by keeping our growth to ourselves and not using it to impact othe...

When we look at the landscape of our lives and notice that most of our time is given to others, it can provoke feelings of unfairness, resentment or grief. In the midst of all of your commitments, obligations and relationships, there's a "you" in there that would like his or her fair share of the pie. Being intentional about creating more time for ourselves is less about having a "me first" mental...

As the saying goes, we need to look before we leap. But when we feel the nudge (or the shove) of change, how do we see clearly what's ahead and how to navigate it? For Becca Ribbing, it's all about go inward for the answers for moving forward. Becca is the author of The Clarity Journal, which is filled with over 100 thought-provoking writing prompts and quotes designed to create the clarity and mo...

Social media is an incredible tool… if we use it the right way. In his book, You Are What You Click , internationally acclaimed behavioral scientist and social media expert Brian Primack writes that we do not need to swear off social media, delete all our online accounts, or give up our phones to live healthier, happier lives. Instead, he empowers us to take back control with a simple approach: be...

Beyond the emotional experience of loss, researchers are now discovering what happens in our brain when we grieve. In her new book, The Grieving Brain , neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, shares a fascinating scientific perspective on the universal experience of grief, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning. O'Connor has devoted decades to rese...

Here's a thought to consider: Challenges in life are constant, but struggle is optional. In her new book, The Awesome Human Project: Break Free from Daily Burnout, Struggle Less, and Thrive More in Work and Life, entrepreneur, speaker, and author Nataly Kogan explores the idea that while life certainly has its ups and downs, we can learn to move through it with more ease when we use the right tool...

When Harvard-trained physician Dr. Annie Brewster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, she realized firsthand that the medical system was failing her in one critical way: she didn't feel seen or heard. Her doctors weren't listening. This experience launched her onto a path to discover how exploring and sharing her healing journey, and becoming the author of her own story, taught her to i...

During a difficult time in her life, author Sheila Darcey found that the act of sketching and freestyle drawing—of giving a physical form to her thoughts, emotions and ideas—was an impactful way to process what she was feeling. Expression through the pen, she came to discover, can heal. In this episode, Sheila shares her journey and the process she calls SketchPoetic, a daily sketching practice wi...

Friends are not just nice to have; they make us mentally and physiologically healthy, and they add contentment, meaning and joy to our lives. But not all friendships are created equally. In her new book, How to Break Up with Your Friends: Finding Meaning, Connection, and Boundaries in Modern Friendships , author Erin Falconer invites us to take stock of the friendships in our lives, not only to se...

Have you ever noticed that life can be going well—we're feeling happy and successful—and then it slowly starts to slide? Could it be that we self-sabotage our progress whenever we start to expand beyond the level of contentment and achievement we're used to having in the past? Gay Hendricks, author of several books, including The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level,...

We've got a brand-new year ahead of us. Forget New Year's resolutions. Instead, consider what the year ahead would look if it was filled with everything that makes you happy, or as John Strelecky calls it, adding the most minutes of your life into your happy bank. The author of several books, including The Cafe on the Edge of the World, John shares his thoughts on how we can look ahead to 2022 wit...

According to author Ian Morgan Cron, we each create a strategy in order to navigate our early years of life. However, at some point this strategy (or story) stops being helpful in our lives. Using the Enneagram, an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, Ian encourages us to rethink and rewrite our negative, outdated stories to ultimatel...

We all will experience challenging people in our lives. Author Mark Westmoquette calls them troublesome Buddhas because we can see them as teachers or opportunities to grow. Using the teachings of mindfulness and Zen, we can begin to see ways to break free from knee-jerk response patterns and see if these people may prove to be useful teachers in life.    For episode homepage, resources and links,...

Hustle culture, this idea that we ought to make working, striving and achieving the centerpiece of our lives, might have deep roots these days but so too does the anti-hustle movement, which serves to value balance and rest as part of accomplishment. Author Matthew Turner sees the hustle has being deeply ingrained in modern society, exasperated like never before by technology and social media. But...

Live deliberately. Actively engage in your personal evolution. Bring attention and intention to growing and becoming the best version of yourself. Be on your journey like it matters. This is what thriving looks like. We need thrive tribes so that we're not growing in silos; we're growing together. And that togetherness makes us feel nourished, challenged and, honestly, more alive. For episode home...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode157/     Description When it comes to creating the lives we want, we're often told that we need to focus on things like commitment, willpower, positive thinking or goal-setting. But Adele Spraggon, author of the book, SHIFT: 4 Steps to Personal Empowerment , thinks there's actually somewhere else we should be payin...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode156/     Description If you want to feel more joy and aliveness in your life, cultivate wonder. Our ability to place our attention on all the beauty and magic around us is directly connected to how joyful, grateful and happy we feel. According to writer and artist Andrea Scher, author of Wonder Seeker: 52 Ways to W...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode155/     Description You are not your thoughts! This is the fundamental insight that weaves its way through Just a Thought: A No-Willpower Approach to Overcome Self-Doubt and Make Peace with Your Mind, a new book by life coach and psychologist Amy Johnson, PhD. Imagine we can learn to transcend unhelpful and noisy...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/wednesday-workshops/   Description We carry a lot. Sometimes it's worry or regret. Maybe we have unfinished projects or unresolved conflict weighing us down. Maybe it's just clutter. Regardless, our thoughts take up space, especially when they seem to go unresolved, feel unsettled or cause us to ruminate for long periods...

  For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode153/   Description We are each born with a sense of agency and the ability to rise up and become a force for good. But unless we're effectively resourced, in part through self-care, we limit what we have to give to the world. In her new book, Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World, Shelly...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode152/     Description Is the life you are living based on logical reason and society's expectations, or are you doing exactly what makes your heart beat a little faster with passion and enthusiasm? If you listened more intently to what your heart wants, what would you be doing? What are your dreams, and why aren't y...

For episode homepage, resources and links, visit: https://kristenmanieri.com/episode151/   Description There is an inner wisdom in each of us when we take the time to look inside. Not only do we have the capacity to know and understand ourselves, but we can also steer ourselves, evolve, grow and change. This process all happens through self-awareness, which is a consciousness of self: our feelings...