Mindtools & inspirations
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Mind Tools & Inspirations are experiences to help you operate your human system, drawn from yoga, science, and game design
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Made for busy, smart, curious people trying to survive and thrive in challenging times.
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I offer short and super-short experiences (try this), audio narration if you can take time to be guided, and explanations (why do this?).
Subscribe below to receive these free weekly experiences via email.
Welcome to the Mindtools Library
The experiences are grouped into 3 categories.
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UPLIFTING AND NOURISHING
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CALMING AND SUPPORTIVE
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DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
Uplifting and Nourishing
Home - April 6, 2026
Planet earth is home for you and 8 billion other humans and all other life. In this 3-minute practice you have a sense of earth as your home.
The photo of the dark side of the earth lit by the moon was taken by Artemis II astronauts. Remembering we share this home with each other and all living things may evoke a sense of wonder and appreciation.
Gratitude Arising - November 24, 2025
In this 3-minute practice you invite things are you grateful for to arise. I love the mystery of what appears when I just wait and allow something to show up.
To “allow” something you are grateful for to arise, quiet the part of your mind that talks to yourself.
You listen to yourself instead of talking to yourself.
It may be strangely quiet for a while and then something shows up from a deeper or at least different part of you.
Opening from Inside Out, September 8, 2025
In this 3-minute practice subtle movements and breath help open up space inside of you.
Sitting for hours causes your body to get stuck. When you get up moving feels stiff instead of fluid.
Opening from the inside out, like you did in this practice, is one way to begin to get unstuck. You can do these movements periodically while sitting at your desk, in a meeting or on a bus.
Wonderful Blue Sky, September 29, 2025
Spending time in nature changes how your human system operates (and how you feel).
In this 3-minute practice you connect with your sense of a wonderful blue sky.
If you repeat this practice on different days, your experience will be different. (It’s so interesting!) And you will deepen your connection with the feeling of a wonderful blue sky.
Core Value - June 16, 2025
In this 3-minute practice you invite one of your core values to come to mind. Connecting with a core value can remind you how it feels when you are aligned with what matters to you.
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There can also be a delicious feeling of rightness when you feel aligned with a core value, such as by doing this short practice.
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Doing this can remind you of who you are or who you want to be.
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Doing this might help you bring more of that value into your life.
Awakening - March 30, 2026
Daylight in spring entices the living world (including you!) to awaken. In this 3-minute practice you imagine or have a sense of daylight in spring.
The change of seasons influences you and the living world. Spring is momentous. It’s planetary.
Doing this practice helps you pause and bring your attention to the gradual changes that nurture the awakenings of spring. Perhaps something in you is ready to awaken. Or perhaps you just enjoy your connection to the natural living world.
A New Day - December 29, 2025
Sunrise gifts you with a fresh start, a new day. In this 3-minute practice you connect with the feeling of a new day.
Isn’t it amazing to get to start again so many times. To be reminded of possibilities. To renew hope and to try again or to do differently or to simply appreciate being here now.
Beautiful - June 23, 2025
Yes, simple can be powerful. In this 3-minute practice you connect with something beautiful.
Where you place your attention throughout the day influences your human system—your body, emotions, thoughts, and behavior.
Focusing your attention on a beautiful thing can influence how you feel, how you think, and how you behave.
Inner Light - August 11, 2025
In this 3-minute experience you connect with your inner light.
Inner light is a metaphor for your essence, your life force, your spirit.
Your inner light is separate from the goings on of the outside world.
Connecting with and nourishing your inner light helps you be more you. Connecting with and nourishing your inner light helps you keep external events in perspective.
A Day Off - August 4, 2025
Even if today is Monday you can reconnect with the feeling of a day off by doing this 3-minute experience.
Time off feels special—because of what you don’t have to do and because of what you might do.
Imagining is not just in your mind. Your body changes to resemble how it reacts when it experiences what you are imagining.
Calming and Supportive
Cultivate Peace, April 13, 2026
In this 3-minute practice you invite a sense of peace to arise and grow within you.
How you feel is a response to what is happening within and outside of you. Feelings are reactions. But you also can influence how you feel. In this practice you invited a sense of peace to show up. Perhaps it did. Isn’t that amazing?
Solid Ground-- May 5, 2025
A good way to feel like you are on solid ground is to embody the feeling. This 3-minute experience helps you to do that.
“Being on solid ground” is a metaphor grounded in a physical experience that can imply coming from a stable foundation, having a secure base, being well-supported, or coming from strength and confidence
Safe as a Giant Clam - June 30, 2025
Most of the day a giant clam’s shell is open, allowing it to feed on tiny plankton in the water. When clams sense a threat, they close their shell to be safe and protected.
Imagine having your inner clam always with you. Imagine being able to close your shell to feel safe and protected.
Doing this practice over time can help you access that part of you that is always safe, regardless of what is happening in the world around you.
Feeling at Home, December 22, 2025
Feeling at home can be a sense of belonging, a special flavor of just-right in your body, in your life, in the moment. In this 3-minute practice you remember a time when you felt at home.
Feeling at home arises when you notice a sense of things being right. You might notice that feeling in a place, or with a person or group, or while doing an activity, or you might just notice you feel at home in your body or in your life.
Large Vibrant Tree, March 2, 2026
In this 3-minute practice you imagine or have a sense of a large, vibrant tree. See what arises in you when you wait and allow an experience to show up.
A large vibrant tree sounds pretty straightforward. But actually, every person’s experience is unique to them. You’ve encountered A LOT of trees over your lifetime.
What tree shows up during the practice? What do you notice about that tree? What feelings show up when you sensed how it feels to be a large, vibrant tree?
Trees are still. They are strong. They connect with the earth and the sky. Big trees are ancient.
Wave Vacation, December 8, 2025
In this 3-minute practice you invite your brain to take a vacation as you focus your attention on waves gently washing onto the shore, then receding.
Quieting your thoughts by giving your mind something restful and engaging to do can change how you feel.
After I give my mind a short break like this I have more energy and my thinking feels clearer.
Handle with Care - July 28 2025
Listening to and acting on what you need is a big deal.
It can be something as small as making time to do this short practice even though you’re really busy.
Acting on what you need usually involves doing something a little bit differently—making a conscious choice rather than just operating on autopilot.
Noticing and appreciating what you just did by doing this 3-minute practice amplifies the benefits.
Brain Cooling, September 22, 2025
In this 3-minute practice you use breath and attention to cool your human system. Lowering the temperature, gently slowing the activities of your mind, can help you see more clearly.
This practice teaches a cooling breath technique that you can do for a few minutes on your own, whenever it might be helpful.
It takes a lot of attention to alternate long slow exhales with natural rest breaths. And that’s a good thing. It gives your mind something to do.
Long slow exhales through the mouth are associated with cooling, clearing, and releasing.
Discovery and Exploration
Seeing with eyes closed - February 16, 2026
In this 3-minute practice you explore what you perceive when your eyes are open and when your eyes are closed. Like flipping a light switch on and off, closing your eyes changes what your mind can see.
Closing your eyes activates your “interoceptive neural network” — your brain pathways that sense internal bodily sensations. When your eyes are open, visual perception and a focus on the external world dominate.
Closing your eyes can be very helpful when you want to check in with how you are doing. Closing your eyes can also be a useful tool in daily life to help shift your perspective, to perhaps think differently.
Chocolate Test - June 2, 2025
I deliciously anticipate my daily square(s) of dark chocolate. But as soon as I put one in my mouth my mind moves on to whatever is next unless I remind myself to stay with the feeling and taste of melting chocolate.
My “chocolate test” reveals how present I am.
This 3-minute practice can help you be more present to everyday experiences.
Perhaps you will discover your own chocolate test.
Pond Scribbles: — February 2, 2026
Pond scribbling is a playful technique to heighten your attention to present moment sensations, thoughts, and feelings.
Part of you becomes an observer noticing what arises and scribbling, placing each passing experience onto the surface of your pond.
Connecting then with the quiet water beneath your surface helps you shift between present moment scribbles and quiet depths.
Thanksgiving Dish - November 17, 2025
Thanksgiving serves up a feast of memories unique to you. Regional, cultural, and family traditions come together on the dining room table. In this 3-minute practice you call to mind a favorite Thanksgiving dish.
Spending 3 minutes connecting with a favorite Thanksgiving dish gives you a little time to relive a nourishing experience.
Curious- August 25, 2025
Feeling curious can motivate you to understand or to try or to learn something.
In this 3-minute practice you connect with experiences of curiosity in your life.
The surprise of what shows up is one of the things I love about Mind Tools. You wait and allow a time you felt curious to show up.
Childhood Cupcake - July 7, 2025
My baker friend gave me what he referred to as a CHILDHOOD CUPCAKE. It had lots of sprinkles. He said “when you eat it you will feel like you are four years old again.”
Connecting with pleasant memories from childhood in this 3-minute experience can remind your body and mind of being that age.
Spice - March 16, 2026
Spices influence the taste of food. Their effect can be subtle or intense, cooling or heating, bitter or sweet. In this 3-minute practice you call to mind a spice or flavor you enjoy and explore your experience of it.
Spices are ingredients added to enhance, not meant to stand alone. In this practice you focus on your experience of a spice you like. You amplify your awareness of its qualities.
Do the qualities of your spice match your personality, giving you more of what you already have? Or do the qualities contrast with your personality, offering balance?
A small quantity of spice can change the experience of food. Are there metaphoric spices that you do or could do to enhance life experiences?
Declutter- March 9, 2026
Decluttering involves getting rid of unnecessary things. In this 3-minute practice you invite something in your life that would benefit from decluttering to come to mind
Connecting with a sense of letting go of unnecessary things may open a little space inside and can also motivate decluttering.
Your Center - March 23, 2026
The center of your being is not a place, it is an experience— a feeling. In this 3-minute practice you begin to explore your experience of your center.
According to neuroscience your human system continuously constructs a core felt sense of self that you experience as “me”.
Philosophical and religious traditions elaborately explain particular ideas of the center of consciousness, life force, connection to the divine, and much more.
Our brief practice helps you slow down and focus attention on your personal experience of the center of your self. It’s a tiny beginning of a limitless exploration.
Going Deeper - October 20 2025
In this 3-minute practice you bring your attention inward, to parts of yourself that are less affected by external events.
This practice can provide a reset, helping you briefly detach from external concerns. You re-enter with a refreshed perspective.
This practice might also pique your interest in going deeper.
Irritation is Information - July 14, 2025
You feel irritated when your Anterior Insula Cortex (your AIC) detects that something may not be going the way you want it to go. Your AIC creates vivid feelings in your body to get your attention and motivate you to act.
In this 3-minute experience you practice observing and releasing irritation.
Checking the Weather - April 21, 2025
Like raindrops on a window how you feel colors and shapes what you see.
Becoming aware of how you feel gives you information. In this 3-minute experience you bring your awareness to how you feel—to your internal “weather”.
Noticing how you feel lets you recognize and consider the messages your body is sending.
Let Go of Going to Do - February 23, 2026
Something you are going to be doing can color your current experience. In this 3-minute practice you explore the idea of letting go of something you are going to be doing.
Excitement or concern about things you are going to be doing reside in your mind and body. They take up space. When you intentionally let something you are going to be doing go, even just for a little while, more of you is available to experience what you are doing now.
Brain Pulse - June 9, 2025
In this 3-minute practice you check in with what your mind is up to. Taking your “brain pulse” by counting your thoughts is a way observe your thoughts without getting lost in them.
You can use this brain pulse practice to get to know more about the ways your mind works—such as on different days, at different times, in different moods, in different situations.
