Mindful Moments with Thai Mama

Many of you have reached out to me sharing your experiences with trauma over the past year and a half. Try this Body + Mind autogenic practice which has the power to calm a dysregulated nervous system.

As we all worry about what a “Delta Variant Winter” will look like, our minds can become distracted, reactive and anxious. Bringing attention to parts of our body, called “interoception”, is a powerful way to train the brain to relax into the present moment’s experience.

When we’re stressed, it can feel like we are experiencing decision overload. Try this meditation that shows us that a simple, gentle acknowledgement of “thinking” when a thought is swirling can be a gentle way to decrease its power.

You have a simple mindfulness superpower at your disposal- new knowledge of your vagus nerve, and its role in modulating stress. Use this mindfulness practice to capitalize on your feet, hands and belly to kickstart the vagal nerve!

Hundreds of athletes are gathered in Tokyo for the 2021 Olympics, with many employing a specialized breathing technique that helps maximize performance. Recent research confirms that a longer exhale can not only improve physical performance and calm the mind, but this simple breathing hack can also improve decision making capabilities.

Did you know that opening your “sense doors” can bring you quickly to the present moment?

It’s far too easy for the human mind, with its bias towards negative stories, to get stuck in a cycle of rumination. This meditation allows us to practice the art of letting go. As Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah reminds us, “If you let go a little, you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of happiness. And if you let go completely, you will be free.”

The Buddha said that the quality of one's breath dictates the quality of one's life. While the mind-body-breath connection remains an enigma to many medical practitioners, what we DO know is that savoring each inhale and exhale, with a sense of curiosity, can alleviate stress and invite a sense of ease into one’s experience.

It’s helpful to have some sort of anchor for your attention so your wandering mind has something to focus on. This way, you can keep your mind busy with the business of meditation. It then becomes easier for you to cultivate what Thai people call the “mai pen rai” mindset- a ubiquitous phrase that conveys, “it’s okay, no worries, be simple & easy.”

Thai buddhists believe that everything consists of the four primary elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Observing the presence of all four of these elements within us can be an important way of recognizing how our individual composition is the same as the composition of the rest of the universe. Plus, it can be wonderfully soothing to remember this fact: you are nature.

We are always breathing yet we are rarely aware of it. Let’s revisit this classic anchor of mindfulness- its beauty is that it is always available to us. As Buddhist scholar and activist Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “Our breathing is a stable solid ground that we can take refuge in... No matter what is going on, our breath is always with us, like a faithful friend.”

Use this informal “S.T.O.P” practice in the heat of the moment, to mindfully shift from a state of defensive distraction, to a place of calm, intentional presence. It’s like jujitsu for the mind!

Microsoft just released neuroscience-based research showing back-to-back virtual meetings are bad for our brains. Now we have proof of what many of us have intuitively felt over the course of the pandemic- a sense of overwhelm when rushing from one virtual meeting to another. It’s time to inject strategic “reset & recharge” time between meetings to protect our precious cognitive resources.

It’s common belief that stress starts in our mind, which then sends signals down to the rest of our body to tense up, with shoulders tight, jaw clenched, tummy unsettled. Modern neuroscience- and the Buddha- tell us that training our body to instead send messages upwards to our mind is a powerful yet underused approach to alleviating stress. Give this meditation, which encourages the body to send...

Neuroscience tells us that naming your thoughts deactivates that “fight of flight” feeling sparked by the amygdala, and activates the more rational, calm, executive level prefrontal cortex. Here’s a simple practice that provides several ways to note, or NAME those thoughts that tend to reoccur as our “Top 10 Most Played”.

Try the classic body scan, a practice that involves mindfully scanning your body for sensations of tension, tightness, or... temperature. Developing greater awareness of bodily sensations is one way to become more aware of how your body is connected to, and reflects, your state of mind.

I love using the snow globe as a metaphor for your swirling thoughts, In this meditation, you’ll use your breath an an anchor to settle those swirling flakes (thoughts) in the snow globe (your mind).

So often meditations focus on either relaxation OR gratitude. Why not combine both? In this guided meditation, we prime our bodies with the classic “soft belly” meditation before sending thanks to the simple things. “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is “thank you”, it will be enough.” - Meister Eckhart

Paying attention to the breath is a common way to anchor our attention to the present moment. But did you know another handy tool to mindfulness is... your body? Use this simple, five step exercise to focus on the 5 senses to unhook from anxiety that invariably results from the worries about our past and future, to anchor attention in the present moment.

Election anxiety is palpable. All eyes are on Philadelphia (where this podcast is recorded) as the vote count continues. Why don’t we take a few minutes for some mindful breathing to anchor ourselves into the present moment and activate our parasympathetic nervous system (aka our relaxation response)?

Nine months into a global pandemic, mentally buffeted by bad news, infection spikes and an acrimonious national election, it’s easy to feel like our emotions are jerking us around. In this classic visualization meditation, you’re invited to emulate a mountain to become more grounded. Through your mountain-esque strength, you’re better able to weather the daily storm what life in 2020 has to offer.

There is a subtle yet powerful difference between “noticing” your thoughts and feelings, and being distracted by them. This meditation helps with the practice of noticing them. The more you notice a thought or a feeling, the less likely you are to be “owned” by it.

When stressed, that voice in your head, that inner narrator can say some pretty negative things. Try Kristin Neff’s “Affectionate Breathing” meditation to remind that voice to be kind, be gentle.

Spend some time simply noticing your breath, and how each inhale and exhale moves through you. And those pesky thoughts that tend to distract you? Remember that they are like your breath, coming and going. NOTE: My introduction indicates this will be a 5-minute meditation- turns out I was so relaxed, it turned into 11 minutes! Please allow for, and enjoy those extra minutes of mindfulness.

If you find yourself ruminating with your anxious thoughts, imagine your thoughts are clouds in the sky of your mind. This is my go-to meditation when I need to take a step back from my “top 10 most played” list of worries.