If your days are filled with emotional perpetrators such as stress or anxiety, depression or low self-esteem, worry or other such suffering, then blame your thoughts. It’s never the situation we are in nor can we blame others for our state of mind.

Once upon a long, long time ago when I was a college student, a few friends and I went to visit a Fortune Teller/Psychic who lived in a trailer just outside Hagerstown, Maryland.  As I curiously looked into her froglike bulging eyes, she told me 3 things that affected my future reactions…

This is flu and cold season. Lately I have observed how individuals respond when they are asked how they are feeling.  

Take a jar. Fill it with water. Add a scoop of dirt.  Fasten the lid.  Shake the bottle. After a few shakes, place the jar on a table.  Allow it to sit in stillness.  What happens?  The mud settles to the bottom and clarity rises to the top.

Neuroscience has also established that these thoughts (messages) we send to our brains are then delivered to our whole body. What the mind does, the body does!

When  I am asked about it or when we read about the many benefits of a daily Mindfulness practice we will learn most frequently that Mindfulness is a tool we can use to relieve ourselves of  anxiety, stress, worry, self-doubt, depressed moods, chronic pain and emotional suffering….to name just a few.

When we refer to pests, more often than not, we think of mosquitoes, flies, ants, roaches, wasps, and other assorted creatures that invade our homes. And, of course, they do cause us a degree of uneasiness and sometimes some pain. (in the you-know-where and elsewhere)

A daily routine of establishing a Mindfulness Meditation practice can be fraught with self-created hindrances. Here are just a few tips and suggestions that may aid you with such a challenge.

The advantages of a meditation practice can vary depending upon their personal objective. They can include physical, psychological and spiritual well-being depending upon your personal goal.

Regardless of where you live…Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Thousand Oaks, Santa Clarita, etc., you can’t escape the tricks your brain can play on you!

An illusionist will tell you…you can’t believe everything you see!

How many times have you thought, “I need to make some changes in my life”?  Yet, the recognition of that thought is all there is. We think it over and over again: and there, in our thoughts, it remains.

A daily practice of Mindfulness Meditation brings countless benefits.  The most significant change is an increased sense of AWARENESS.  Awareness is the root of opportunity; for without it, change, personal self- discovery and improvement is stifled.

If you are revolving, then you may be going in circles, repeating the same patterns of behavior and thinking, creating feelings of stagnation or a lack of motivation, leading to feelings of anxiety, stress, worry or depression.

I can always predict the answer by the look on their faces when I ask students; “how’s your practice” going?

This is a question I am often asked.  Although there are many forms of meditation that result in feelings of peace, calmness or stillness of the mind, a daily practice of Mindfulness goes a step further.

There is social turmoil in this country right now over racial, ethnic, religious, or socio-economic differences. There is political turmoil with a threat to our country’s democracy and our relationship with other world leaders and their respective governments. 

The “Big C” is used most often as a euphemism for cancer. But there is another “big C” I wish to explore. It’s called “CHANGE”.   Specifically I am referring to change of self…a change of self that begins with embracing our fears, anxieties, doubts and other aversions that may prevent us from achieving personal fulfillment and the ability to experience the present joys of life as we move forward on our path.

The “me, too” movement is a grand gesture that illuminates our awareness of sexual objectification in our culture and alerts us to how personal cravings, desires and the gratification of sexual pleasure empowers us to abuse our treatment of others. However, it only scratches the surface.

When we travel concrete, asphalt-paved roads and highways, we often encounter a sign that tells us to yield. I sometimes wonder if perhaps this is a sign we need to encounter more frequently on our own personal highway or path as we travel through life.