Mindtools & inspirations

In this 1-minute practice you focus your attention on breath and gentle shoulder shrugs.

Engaging in skillful shrugs gives your mind something to do. This can help you interrupt self-talk, release tension, and get a little distance and perspective.

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This 2-minute experience guides you to visually appreciate objects in the room around you. You shift your attention to perceiving the world around you.​

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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.

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“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

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Remembering those who came before—who have faced what we are facing—can feel comforting and inspiring.

This 3-minute experience helps you to do that.​

This 3-minute experience can help you begin to deepen your appreciation or understanding of a person in your life.​

 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.

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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.

Yes, simple can be powerful. In this 3-minute practice you connect with something beautiful.

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Where you place your attention throughout the day influences your human system—your body, emotions, thoughts, and behavior.

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Focusing your attention on a beautiful thing can influence how you feel, how you think, and how you behave.

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.”

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Connecting with pleasant memories from childhood in this 3-minute experience can remind your body and mind of being that age.

Sunflowers are so amazing I just let them work their magic.

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Imagining a field full of sunflowers in this 3-minute experience can help you connect with the qualities of a sunflower.

Even if today is Monday you can reconnect with the feeling of a day off by doing this 3-minute experience.

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Time off feels special—because of what you don’t have to do and because of what you might do.

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Imagining is not just in your mind. Your body changes to resemble how it reacts when it experiences what you are imagining.

In this 3-minute experience you take time to remember fun memories of summer when you were a kid.

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We go back to childhood because you and your life were so different then. And the memories are deep, probably not activated in a long time.

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In remembering your body and mind take on some of the qualities of that experience.

Perhaps you were able to remember a sense of fun. Perhaps for a little while you embodied feelings of childhood fun.

You return to daily life with a slightly different perspective.

Perhaps something in the world is bothering you. Even then, it’s OK to feel a little bit better.

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In this 4-minute experience I guide you to use breath and attention to release tension or tightness.

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Like raindrops on a window how you feel colors and shapes what you see.

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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”.

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Noticing how you feel lets you recognize and consider the messages your body is sending.

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This 1-minute practice can help you bring more of the quality of kindness into your actions and decisions.

Imagine your hands are holding a warm cup filled with kindness...

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Like a runner lining up at the starting block ready to run the instant the race begins, your body gets ready for things you are going to do.

This 3-minute experience helps you reduce the strain of chronic ready-ness.

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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.

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This 3-minute practice can help you be more present to everyday experiences.

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Perhaps you will discover your own chocolate test.

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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1. There can also be a delicious feeling of rightness when you feel aligned with a core value, such as by doing this short practice.

2. Doing this can remind you of who you are or who you want to be.

3. Doing this might help you bring more of that value into your life.

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.

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Imagine having your inner clam always with you. Imagine being able to close your shell to feel safe and protected.

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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.

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.

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.

In this 3-minute experience you connect with your inner light.

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Inner light is a metaphor for your essence, your life force, your spirit.

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Your inner light is separate from the goings on of the outside world.

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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.