Jane Lodato: Pause

What's going on inside of you and around you right now?  Can you simply acknowledge what is there and accept that this is how you feel? This short guided practice will help you to become familiar with and recognize when certain thoughts, feelings or situations are getting to you.  Learning to systematically check in can provide helpful intel into your own state of mind and how it may be impac...

Do you feel like one of those mice on the wheel treadmill?  Spinning, running?  Taking a short break, getting off of the treadmill, has been shown to decrease stress and increase the ability to focus.  This practice can be done anytime.

Has it been one of those days or weeks?   Is your mind churning? This 14 minute practice will help you to find ease,  to rest, to come out of a mind that is working overtime and into a place of rest.  If you cannot sleep in the middle of the night it is one to try.  

In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn:  "Acceptance is a very active process, there is nothing passive about it, it’s not passive resignation but an act of recognition that things are the way they are… Acceptance doesn’t mean we cant work to change the world, or circumstances, but it means that unless we accept things as they are, we will try to force things to be as they are not and that can create...

When we can relax our body we relax the mind.  Becoming familiar with where you habitually carry tension and learning to create space there will prevent the tension from compounding.  This practice is foundational to well being and can be done daily.   

There is a wise being inside of you.  When life throws you for a loop accessing this wisdom can remind you of who you are.  This practice can help to build resilience and strength during challenging times.  

Feeling overwhelmed, like things are out of control or just too much?  This practice is designed to bring you to a place of feeling steady, deeply rooted and grounded.  The branches of a tree can bend and sway with the weather and seasons because their roots go deep, keeping the tree trunk steady.  We too can bend with the weather fronts if we are deeply rooted.  

Neuroscientists describe the brain's "negativity bias":  we cannot let go of what we perceive as negative, criticism or something "bad".    Given that we are wired that way, it behooves us to make a practice of taking in the good, noting what is going well.  Make a point of taking in the moments of gratitude, accomplishment and joy.  By focusing on the "good" for...

What we resist, persists, or so it goes.  When we wrestle to control or become frustrated by circumstances or people we cannot necessarily impact, we are the ones who suffer.  This practice helps us to acknowledge what is happening and works with trying to allow it, to tolerate it without becoming reactive and increasing our own stress.  Saying "yes, and this too, this is part of life" d...

Take a few minutes to let frustrations, the worries, the "shoulds", thoughts and situations that are challenging, come and go, like waves in a much bigger ocean. You are not defined by any one of these things unless you choose to be.  Practice letting life come and letting it go, ride the waves instead of becoming toppled over by them. 

We are living in very challenging times.   Focusing on developing comfort and what makes us feel good is a skill that can keep us balanced.  Try this practice to insert the positive into your day and your heart.  

Are you tough on yourself?  If you are like the rest of us, self-judgment can become a limiting habit.  The grip of feeling we need to be more than we are, in control, or need to be perfect is a burden, after all we are all human.  Self compassion is key to resilience.  Try kindness:  start with yourself. 

What one thing is key to your well being?  Can you commit to doing that, to nourishing the thing that fuels you?  Take a moment to reflect, asking yourself a few key questions in this guided practice.   Your well being will blossom if you tend to your "garden."  

We all get stuck at times.  We can beat ourselves up, judge ourselves harshly and get a story about what is wrong that becomes a repetitive loop in our brain.  See if you notice when you have one of those stories going through your mind, and try this practice.  Self compassion is essential to rebounding and building resilience.  With practice, you can help yourself.  

Negative thoughts can be imprinted as a habit we would like to shake free from.   There are steps one can take to start to free oneself from the patterns we have developed.   The first and biggest step in in simply recognizing you are having them, noticing that they are there.  Over time, by noticing and naming them , we see them for what they really are:  a habit.  You can shift your mental playi...

Resilience requires being rooted and grounded.  When we are centered, we can stretch, reach, bend and go on.  During turbulent times it can be helpful to reflect on what it take for grass to push up through the cracks in the sidewalk.   This reflection is one you can conjure up again and again.

When was the last time someone was kind to you simply to make your life easier or to make you feel good?  How did it feel?  Notice what a big difference a small gesture makes.  This is a practice that we can all develop if we decide to.  Try it, it will make your day a better day, along with that of the recipient of your thoughtfulness. 

Reset your mind and body, give yourself a  healthy break, preventing the stress from compounding.   Some days we go go go, running like rats on those spinning wheels.  That takes a toll mentally, physically and emotionally.  Choose to insert a few minutes into your day to reset, you will thank yourself.  

 How can you stand steady and grounded through all the weather fronts that come at you daily?   This reflection will provide you with perspective and imagery to help get through the day, the week.  

We all feel the need to be in control, thought there are times we must take responsibility and oversee the situation, there are also times we take control sometimes because of what we assume will happen if we do not.  Loosening the grip might surprise you- the outcome can present new possibilities that turn out even better than what we'd planned or thought must happen.  

We can miss out on our own lives when we are constantly mindlessly on autopilot.  We are not present when we are lost in thought, rehashing the past, worrying about or assuming what might happen in the future.  The benefit of being mindful is that we are present for each moment in our lives.  We don't want to miss out on the precious little or big moments that add up to a lifetime.   You can...

Do you limit yourself by becoming attached to a certain way of thinking about yourself?  We can all get caught up in altering our authentic selves to try to be what we think we should be.  It is a gift to live authentically, to simply be.

Each time we get angry, anxious or cocky, we get better at becoming angry, anxious or cocky.  These become mental habits, like roads we drive down again and again.  We can look for these "ruts in the road" and choose to create a new road, a new neural pathway, freeing ourselves from these habits.  The first step is simply noticing what is on your mental "playlist" each day.

Our minds can be relentless, there are some thoughts that we cannot let go of.  Our thoughts can take us away, create a mood, influence behavior and wear us out.  One of the most liberating realizations in a Mindfulness Practice is that while thoughts are very real (we are having them), they may or may not be true.  When we can notice we are having a thought, we can intercept it, insert a pause an...

"Beginner's Mind" is a Mindfulness practice that can help us to see things anew.  Often, by practicing this, we can reframe something that is upsetting us to see it, or another person, differently, with an open mind.  This practice can reveal "auto pilot preconceived notions" that do not serve us.  Give it a try.