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Unleash the Power of Mindful Living: A Guide
00:14:18 Reading, Writing, and Listening Mindfully
00:16:09 Mindful Reading
00:18:38 Mindful Writing
00:23:03 Mindful Listening
00:28:09 Keeping a Mindfulness Journal
00:32:16 Takeaways
Mindful Master: 10 Minutes a Day to Less Stress, Less Worry, More Peace, and More Resilience (Mental and Emotional Abundance Book 3) By Nick Trenton
Hear it Here - https://MindfulMaster
www.audible.com.au/pd/B08JH8NDFD/?source_code=AUDORWS022318009D-BK-ACX0-216537&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_216537_pd_au
Discover the art of mindful living with Nick Trenton's latest book, "Mindful Master 10 Minutes a Day." In this episode, we dive into Chapter 2, where you'll learn practical ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routines.
Reading, writing, and listening mindfully can transform your life, and today we explore how. Find out how to keep a mindfulness journal and cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Transcript
Hello listeners, and welcome back to The Path to Calm.
Speaker:Stop overthinking, become present, find peace.
Speaker:Today is the 30th of June, 2025.
Speaker:Our featured book for today is Mindful Master, 10 Minutes a Day to Less Stress, Less Worry, More Peace, and More Resilience by Nick Trenton.
Speaker:This is book 3 in Nick Trenton's Mental and Emotional Abundance book series.
Speaker:Today's episode specifically draws chapter 2, Everyday Mindfulness for Mental Calm.
Speaker:This episode delves into the world of mindfulness and makes a careful distinction between it and meditation.
Speaker:We are going to try to unravel some common misconceptions with these practices and empower you with some practical insights.
Speaker:We're going to discover how mindfulness is an accessible state of heightened awareness that can be integrated into your daily routine.
Speaker:Regardless of the activity at hand, from commuting to interacting with others, we're going to look at some specific techniques to anchor yourself in the present moment.
Speaker:With the author's guidance, we're going to highlight the role of breathing and sensory perception as anchors for mindfulness and allow you to tap into direct experience rather than narrative thinking.
Speaker:And additionally, we'll discuss how mindfulness can enhance various aspects of communication, reading, writing, and listening, and it will foster deeper connections and a heightened awareness.
Speaker:So join us on this enlightening journey as we unveil the transformative power of mindfulness in everyday life.
Speaker:And as always, if you need a quick summary, recap of the main points, check out the show notes for a time code for the major takeaways from the episode.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker:As we’ve already seen, mindfulness is not the same thing as meditation, although meditation is a practice that can facilitate and support mindfulness.
Speaker:We’ll be looking at deliberate meditation exercises in a later chapter, but here, we’ll consider a range of other techniques and practices that can help us experience more mindful states of awareness.
Speaker:We don’t need anything fancy to start—we start exactly where we are.
Speaker:In the now.
Speaker:The ordinary activities of everyday life constitute the perfect arena on which to begin practicing mindfulness.
Speaker:Theoretically, as long as you have a brain and are alive, you can access a mindful state whenever, wherever.
Speaker:Realistically, it can be a challenge at first to train yourself to hold a state of awareness that you might not be familiar with.
Speaker:The prospect of sitting down to “think of nothing” on a special cushion in the middle of your room may seem a little bizarre and daunting, but you don’t have to begin with sitting meditation, or even use that method at all.
Speaker:From the moment you wake up, your life is a parade of back-to-back invitations and opportunities to enter in a moment of conscious, heightened awareness.
Speaker:As you wash your face, slow down and really feel the sensation of the water against your skin, and the smell of the soap.
Speaker:Eat your breakfast more slowly and notice not just the textures and tastes, but yourself, and how you feel.
Speaker:Completely relish the experience of having the chair support your weight underneath you.
Speaker:There are many myths and misconceptions out there about what it means to be mindful.
Speaker:One of the most common is that you should be empty-minded, completely calm and serene, not allowing a single thought to puncture your flawless Zen perfection.
Speaker:Actually, this is a total fiction.
Speaker:Striving to reach this goal will likely only distract you further—and have you feeling bad for doing it wrong.
Speaker:In truth, your mind will wander.
Speaker:Constantly.
Speaker:Your job is not to rein your mind in like a naughty dog on a leash, but to simply watch it go.
Speaker:It doesn’t matter that you get distracted or follow a narrative tunnel and temporarily forget that you were trying to stay in the moment.
Speaker:Simply notice what you are doing, and gently come back to the present.
Speaker:Again and again.
Speaker:Ah, but maybe you notice yourself really messing up; you keep thinking of stuff you’re not “supposed to,” or your attention is split on all the millions of distracting sensations both internal and external.
Speaker:Maybe you think, “I suck at mindfulness, I have no self-discipline at all, I’m doing this really badly…”
Speaker:That’s fine too!
Speaker:Notice these judgmental and critical thoughts as you would any other sensation.
Speaker:See them, and remind yourself not to be critical of yourself being critical!
Speaker:Relax, and accept the moment—all of it.
Speaker:Even if in the moment you simply find yourself bored, distracted, or irritated with something or other.
Speaker:If that is your experience in the moment, then that’s what it is.
Speaker:Stay with it.
Speaker:An interesting trick is to actively allow your mind to wander.
Speaker:What happens when you don’t condemn yourself for not paying better attention?
Speaker:Try to bring yourself back again anyway.
Speaker:Observe that even a really strong and overwhelming emotion does something interesting after a while – it moves on.
Speaker:The truth is that “perfect practice” is not sitting serenely, with nothing happening.
Speaker:Rather, it’s being able to watch the near constant stream of thought traffic and understand it for what it is: transient and insubstantial.
Speaker:The secret is that these thoughts and sensations never stop—they are a part of being alive.
Speaker:Rather, by practicing mindfulness you become better at being aware of them, and choosing whether you want to stumble along with them or stand to the side as they thrash around before giving way to the next sensation.
Speaker:Notice judgment and boredom.
Speaker:Notice elation and peace.
Speaker:Notice stillness.
Speaker:Notice yourself coming back to the breath.
Speaker:Notice yourself wandering away from it again.
Speaker:Notice anger and fear, but also contentment.
Speaker:Relax and let it all be.
Speaker:Open up to the texture and tone of the present moment as it parades by without trying to change it, reject it, hold on to it, identify with it, analyze it or pass judgment on it.
Speaker:Just allow your conscious awareness to shine a light on it, then let it pass.
Speaker:Another persistent myth is that increased mindfulness is a sort of cheat code—a way to escape suffering and spare yourself getting affected by life’s less pleasant aspects.
Speaker:But you may find, in practicing more mindfulness, that you are (obviously) aware of so much more in life—including the negative parts!
Speaker:You might discover some previously hidden thoughts and feelings that are quite distressing.
Speaker:You may notice things that you previously avoided or ignored.
Speaker:Often, it’s when the mind is still that things you have long kept deep in the ocean of your subconsciousness bubble up to the surface.
Speaker:But here, too, we need to be kind and compassionate, with ourselves and the very reality we inhabit.
Speaker:Try to see that your consciousness is not actually damaged or destroyed by the experience of pain—that you can hold pain, fear, and unpleasantness just as you can hold joy and ease and contentment.
Speaker:What can help is to remind yourself that you are not actually striving for a goal.
Speaker:Just being aware.
Speaker:And if you discover you are not being aware, well, congratulations, your discovery shows that you have suddenly become aware.
Speaker:So, there’s no problem.
Speaker:Just remain in that state of awareness.
Speaker:There is no need to strive, to force or to try extra hard to perform correctly.
Speaker:So, you can be mindful as you wash dishes in the evening.
Speaker:You feel the soap suds.
Speaker:You are aware of a tightness in your lower back and a feeling of irritation.
Speaker:You watch the story you tell yourself, a story of being wronged at work that day, replete with good guys and bad guys, with plenty of anger and resentment and a sense of injustice.
Speaker:You watch as the story fades away again.
Speaker:You come back to the soap suds and the glossy reflection of the window that each and every one has on its surface…
Speaker:A meditation bell is something that reminds you to stay aware in the present—and if you like, you can program any activity in your day as a meditation bell of sorts, a reminder to stop, take a few deep breaths, and find a center within yourself.
Speaker:You can make a habit of observing a few minutes of mindful silence before you switch activities, for example before you start the work day or when you end it, before you begin a meal, or after you complete a workout.
Speaker:This technique fits mindfulness practice around the natural ebbs and flows of your day, and reminds you that it’s not something special you do for an hour a day in a cloud of incense, but is instead a part of the fabric of your lived, conscious experience.
Speaker:It touches everything because it is everything.
Speaker:You can maintain a sense of awareness in the middle of an activity, too.
Speaker:Do this by reminding yourself as often as you can to “check in” with the present moment.
Speaker:This may be nothing more than closing your eyes, taking a breath, and doing a scan of your body and mind.
Speaker:Remember, you’re not trying to catch yourself out or make sure that you’re having the “right” thoughts—you are simply waking up to the present, and reminding yourself that you can be here, now, in the moment, directly experiencing it.
Speaker:Be mindful as you cook and eat, as you chat or listen, as you walk the dog or wait in line at the supermarket.
Speaker:There’s a reason that so many meditation and mindfulness teachers focus on the breath—it’s because it’s always there as an “anchor” into the present moment.
Speaker:Your breath is the exchange between you and the outside world.
Speaker:It’s your life, and it’s constantly moving, flowing in and out.
Speaker:Don’t control it, just become aware of it as it moves through you.
Speaker:If you can do nothing but become more aware of your breath and how it enters and leaves your body, you will have mastered an incredibly profound practice that some masters devote their lives to.
Speaker:Your body is also an anchor, because it can never be anywhere else except the present.
Speaker:As long as your awareness is hooked into sensory perception (from your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin), then you are in the direct experience circuit and not the narrative circuit.
Speaker:As you practice more and more, every day, you will notice that you are at liberty to expand and contract your awareness at will.
Speaker:You can narrow it right down and zoom in on the texture of the ink of a single letter on a page, for example, or you could open up wider to allow in sensations from all your senses, as well as internal feelings and thoughts.
Speaker:You may notice that you can shift your conscious attention, placing it on the external one moment and the internal the next.
Speaker:A great way to be more mindful is to do so in interactions with others.
Speaker:When you talk to another person, really be present with them, completely.
Speaker:Listen with all of yourself, without thinking of what you’ll say next, without jumping in to offer an opinion, to decide if you agree or disagree, and so on.
Speaker:Just immerse yourself in their world for a moment.
Speaker:Pause, take a breath, and then respond.
Speaker:As you express yourself, be fully present, too.
Speaker:Take your time to inhabit each and every moment to its fullest, without distraction.
Speaker:Can you just see the person in front of you as they are, without telling yourself a story about the purpose or meaning behind the moment you are sharing?
Speaker:Can you both be together, in this unfolding present, without force or analysis or rushing onto the next thing?
Speaker:If you can bring more mindfulness to your social interactions, you may notice an incredible boost in your own intuition and powers of perception—and you may suddenly find people far more interesting that you thought they were!
Speaker:Bring mindfulness to your commute.
Speaker:You don’t have to do yoga to be mindful during exercise—stay present and aware during any exercise, including simple stretching or just going for a walk.
Speaker:Notice the world around you or the sensation of the millions of tiny motions your body makes to move you smoothly from this moment to the next.
Speaker:Bring mindfulness to the table—eat slowly and with full awareness of the tastes, textures, and aromas of your meals.
Speaker:Allow your mind to immerse in the experience.
Speaker:If you eat more slowly, you may also discover that you are satisfied with so much less food, yet enjoy it more.
Speaker:It will be easier to naturally stop overeating or mindlessly guzzling junk food that you don’t even really enjoy.
Speaker:No matter what you do throughout the day, inject a little bubble of conscious awareness into it.
Speaker:Notice that, when you more consciously attempt to be present, even ordinary days can seem so much fuller and richer.
Speaker:In a way, they are, because you’re finally there and present to actually experience it all.
Speaker:You may find so much joy and peace in the simplest of things, and find your stress levels drop as you move away from rumination and distraction.
Speaker:Reading, Writing, and Listening Mindfully
Speaker:125 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:32,400 Like most people in the world today, you probably spend a lot of your time taking in or processing information in the form of reading or listening.
Speaker:Whether you’re a student at school, an entrepreneur or employed full time, you likely spend much of your day learning.
Speaker:Even when we’re not working or studying, we read and browse the internet, or watch TV, or learn a new skill or hobby.
Speaker:Mindfulness can be brought to all these activities.
Speaker:It’s no exaggeration to say that the world is flooded with information, which basically rushes at us at full speed from the moment we wake up.
Speaker:If we use our brains mindlessly and without awareness, we are missing out on an opportunity to synthesize, store and integrate this information more efficiently.
Speaker:If we are mindful, however, we give ourselves a crucial window in which our brains can actually learn—not just be bombarded with data, but properly digest it.
Speaker:When we are not mindful in our learning process, we risk getting carried away unawares, never truly practicing proactive discernment for the material we take in, or why, or what we do with it.
Speaker:When we can stand aside and clearly see how our brains are working, we are always better positioned than if we were just passively going along with the next thought or sensation.
Speaker:By being mindful, we take ownership of our mental faculties.
Speaker:While we’ve focused somewhat in this book on how mindfulness can improve emotional self-regulation, it can also improve our intellectual and cognitive functions.
Speaker:Any time we employ our mental faculties to write, read or listen to new information, we can practice being mindful and present.
Speaker:Mindful Reading
Speaker:Why read?
Speaker:Is it because you want to get to the last page as quickly as possible?
Speaker:Or just to find the nuggets of information you need for a book report?
Speaker:Approaching reading as a chore to rush through or a means to an end can actually be counterproductive.
Speaker:When we read mindfully, we are not concerned with cramming as much info into our brains as possible, as quickly as possible.
Speaker:Instead, we give ourselves ample time to pause, reflect, and absorb what we’ve read.
Speaker:Merely running your eyes along the page and understanding the meaning of the letters and words is “reading” in a sense… but you can do better.
Speaker:When you are mindful, you provide a space for profundity and insight to bloom.
Speaker:You spend time together, just you and the text, in the moment.
Speaker:You don’t rush, and you don’t assume you already know what’s being said.
Speaker:You allow the deeper meaning of the words to emerge, at its own pace.
Speaker:You may like to begin and end every reading session with a few moments spent sitting quietly with your breath.
Speaker:Relax your mind and notice how you’re feeling in the moment.
Speaker:When you’re done reading, pause again to allow things to settle.
Speaker:You are not doing “nothing”—you are actively creating space for your mind to soak up what it’s encountered.
Speaker:Take your time.
Speaker:Do you really like a particular sentence or phrase?
Speaker:Linger on it and savor it as you would a delicious meal.
Speaker:Get in close to feel its rhythm, the way it uses language, the images and emotions it evokes for you.
Speaker:When you pause, you give your mind time to take everything in, arrange it, and synthesize it with your existing knowledge.
Speaker:This takes reading and transforms it from a joyless data-transfer process to a richer and more dynamic dialogue, an experience of real communication.
Speaker:You don’t need to do any of this alone, either.
Speaker:When a group of people mindfully read the same poem or piece of literature, there are suddenly multiple, enriching perspectives to reflect off one another.
Speaker:A mindful reading group could have someone read aloud, slowly, while others focus and listen.
Speaker:You might be amazed to find that hearing things spoken in different voices suddenly changes their texture and the feelings they evoke.
Speaker:Mindful Writing
Speaker:Writing is seldom considered when people talk about mindfulness, but it’s a human activity that can be immensely improved by committing to really perceiving things as they are, fresh and new to the senses each time.
Speaker:Mindfulness can teach us a lot about being better writers.
Speaker:We sharpen our capacity to bear witness, to hold all of life’s expression, not just the pleasant or easy parts.
Speaker:Being mindful, we simply notice more, and can more faithfully document it.
Speaker:In a conscious state, we become more skillful in our thinking process, more deliberate, concise, discriminating.
Speaker:We open up to more.
Speaker:And where the writing process itself is concerned, we learn to watch it all unfold, without expectation.
Speaker:We become more agile in switching perspectives, and can be more patient as a work takes it time coming into being.
Speaker:Simply writing in a journal is an easy, accessible way to practice mindfulness.
Speaker:You don’t need to be a professional writer to care about mindful writing—meditation and poetry are perfectly complimentary.
Speaker:Whichever side of the practice you are more interested in developing, a dabble with the other is likely to be enriching.
Speaker:Journaling is a blend of expression and self-exploration.
Speaker:A journal is not for publication, and not for others to read.
Speaker:It’s only there for you to enjoy the feeling of “putting your thoughts down” on the page, where you can cultivate your own experience of the moment, express your creativity, explore themes and ideas, or notice patterns when you step back and watch yourself thinking and writing.
Speaker:How you use journaling as a mindfulness aid is precisely up to you.
Speaker:You can try “zen doodling”—just watch your pen trace along the page with no intention for where it will go.
Speaker:Or try to write automatically, as though the words want to write you, and you’re reading them for the first time.
Speaker:Don’t think too hard about any of it!
Speaker:If you can journal daily, you give yourself the gift of seeing something marvelous: your changing consciousness, over time.
Speaker:The ebbs and flows, the fleeting nature of life’s comings and goings—how day to day you are essentially always the same, and yet somehow never the same.
Speaker:Use journaling to note down the things you are grateful for.
Speaker:Write love letters to the beautiful sunset you were gifted that evening.
Speaker:Jot down dreams, questions, knotty issues you’re working through, reflections, pretty turns of phrase, ideas.
Speaker:Or you can simply turn up to the page every day, with no prior intention, and begin randomly with these words at the top of the page: “Here and now…” Then complete the sentence as it occurs to you, there and then.
Speaker:Isn’t it marvelous how many different things play out on this simple stage we call the present moment?
Speaker:Some people practice “morning pages”—the habit of writing first thing in the morning, even before they get out of bed.
Speaker:Simply wake up, and commit to free writing loosely for a set time, for example fifteen minutes.
Speaker:It’s like a release of everything that’s built up in your head overnight.
Speaker:Don’t think too hard, re-read anything, or pause at all.
Speaker:Just write whatever comes to you, quickly and without judgment.
Speaker:You may find this is a remarkable way of tapping into your inner experiences, gaining insight into your life, and heightening your own sense of identity and awareness.
Speaker:Other people use their journals as their own personal gurus: they write down their burning questions or quandaries… and then answer them themselves.
Speaker:This dialogue can be an incredibly effective way of gaining clarity and insight into life’s challenges.
Speaker:It’s a way of externalizing and slowing down the decision-making process, helping you bring deliberate awareness and organization to your thinking.
Speaker:Use mindfulness even when you’re doing more mundane writing.
Speaker:Take your time to write your shopping list in beautiful colored calligraphy, choose thoughtful and kind words in your emails, or start a practice where you breathe quietly and meditate for a few minutes before deciding to write anything on social media.
Speaker:Mindful Listening
Speaker:Finally, information can also find its way to us in the form of the spoken word.
Speaker:Unfortunately, modern life encourages one-way conversations—we speak out into the void that is social media or passively watch others on TV, unable to really connect with or respond meaningfully to what is shared with us.
Speaker:Mindful listening is a radical way to bring deep, authentic presence to the act of someone else’s expression.
Speaker:Attention is at a premium in our noisy, info-saturated world.
Speaker:If you think about it, it can be a tremendous act of respect and generosity to give someone your complete, undivided attention.
Speaker:Aren’t we all craving the very same kindness and consideration from others?
Speaker:Can you listen with no assumptions, and no inner voice insisting on talking back, arguing or stating its own agenda?
Speaker:Listening is about an overall willingness to be perceptive and receptive—but this does not mean adopting a weak, passive position!
Speaker:Rather, we go quiet within ourselves so that we can receive another—their voice, their ideas, their emotions, their reality, their perspective.
Speaker:We remain calm, alert, and open, accepting their being as an expression of the present moment.
Speaker:When we meditate, we say to every sensation that emerges in the stream of the present: “Hello, I see you.
Speaker:I accept you with compassion.” When we listen mindfully, we extend this same attitude to those experiences and perceptions that go beyond our own world, our own ego, and our own expectations.
Speaker:We witness another and allow ourselves to temporarily and respectfully enter their field of consciousness, sharing the moment with them.
Speaker:Want to be a more mindful listener?
Speaker:Try cutting down on the noise in your life.
Speaker:Regularly turn off things that bleep and hum in the background, and switch off TVs and radios you’re not really listening to.
Speaker:When you wake up in the morning or last thing before you sleep, let your ears savor the sounds of nature outside, the chatter of distant people or traffic, or simply silence (it does have a sound!).
Speaker:Let your conscious awareness sink fully into every sensation, without labeling anything as good or bad.
Speaker:Another practice is to deliberately use sound to focus your attention in the present.
Speaker:Music (and in particular prayer and chanting) has been used for millennia to repeatedly pull the mind back from wandering and into the fullness of the present moment.
Speaker:As you might recall from the previous discussion about the narrative circuit and the direct experience circuit, these two modes of thinking are mutually exclusive.
Speaker:Choose soothing and pleasant music you enjoy and focus entirely on it.
Speaker:Listen to every tone and harmony, and draw your attention to the sensations that emerge in your heart, mind, and body as you listen.
Speaker:If your thoughts wander, gently come back again, as you would with any other mindfulness practice.
Speaker:Finally, a perfect way to practice mindful listening is to fully attend to the people who talk to you, even if it’s just in ordinary, everyday conversation.
Speaker:Focus only on what they are expressing.
Speaker:Notice their facial features and how they move and shift, the timbre and volume of their voice, their posture, their hand movements, the words they’re using… even what they’re not saying.
Speaker:Forget about your own story for a moment, and try not to immediately start thinking of a response, rebuttal or compliment.
Speaker:You have plenty of time to formulate your own response when the other person is completely finished speaking.
Speaker:Sometimes, the art of good conversation starts with one or both participants willingly slowing down, tuning out distractions and making a space for real connection to happen.
Speaker:You may find that your own full presence acts as an unspoken invitation to the other person to do the same.
Speaker:Most of our days are filled with an abundance of opportunities to listen closely and with attention.
Speaker:There’s always a brand-new chance to fully engage with the words around us, not merely to quickly rush to their end, but to appreciate them and what they represent, right there in the moment.
Speaker:The stressed-out, ruminating, and overthinking mind uses language too, however.
Speaker:You might find that reading certain material or engaging in certain kinds of conversation is the very trigger that spurs mindlessness.
Speaker:But luckily, all you need to do is to become aware that this is happening, even if only for the briefest moment.
Speaker:Then, commit to using language mindfully instead.
Speaker:As you go about your day, watch yourself and how you use your words, where your attention falls, how you speak about the world, yourself, and others.
Speaker:Notice the effect that certain people, ideas or even social media platforms have on you.
Speaker:In many ways, we live in a world of words—stories, narratives, opinions, and arguments surround us on all sides.
Speaker:But we can always bring a little more awareness into how we move through it all, the roles we play, how we express ourselves, and what we choose to focus on.
Speaker:We can always use both awareness and discernment to cultivate lives that feel good to us.
Speaker:Maybe, through mindfulness, you notice how often you use the word “hate” in ordinary speech.
Speaker:Maybe you see that a close friend and yourself always seem to have the same conversation, over and over again.
Speaker:Maybe you realize that your best conversation partner is actually the person who says the least when you’re together!
Speaker:Whatever emerges in your present moment, by acknowledging and accepting it fully, as it is, you take the first step to consciously changing it.
Speaker:If you want to, that is.
Speaker:Keeping a Mindfulness Journal
Speaker:We can become mindful anytime we write something.
Speaker:But we can also specifically dedicate a journal to mindfulness practice alone.
Speaker:The idea is to slow down your thoughts and put them out into the world, onto paper.
Speaker:Once expressed, these thoughts are easier to process and, if you like, release.
Speaker:Again, journaling of all kinds can be therapeutic and meditative, but there are ways to be more deliberate, and use a journaling session as a focused mindfulness practice that goes beyond just putting pen to paper.
Speaker:Firstly, decide what format will work best for you—a “digital journal” on an iPad, a simple Word processor, a beautiful hardback paper journal that you write in with a fountain pen, or simply loose paper that you discard when you’re done.
Speaker:It’s up to you entirely, but be aware that digital devices may encourage distraction, and, some would argue, simply don’t offer the same immersive experience as pen and paper.
Speaker:Similarly, you don’t need a journal with written prompts inside—blank pages are fine.
Speaker:Most people find that selecting a special journal they love and use exclusively for the purpose helps them focus and appreciate the ritual of the practice.
Speaker:Once you’ve found the right journal, then what?
Speaker:What do you write?
Speaker:Below are some writing prompts to get you started, but if you spend a few quiet moments before writing, you’ll likely find that you can come up with plenty of interesting threads on your own.
Speaker:• What state of mind/feeling/thoughts do I want to cultivate today?
Speaker:How do I want to be today?
Speaker:• What am I grateful for today?
Speaker:• What has felt beautiful, alive, and poignant for me today?
Speaker:• How am I feeling?
Speaker:Can I look at all the sensations of my body, heart, and mind openly, and without judgment?
Speaker:• What can I let go of today?
Speaker:• What do I need today?
Speaker:What are my desires?
Speaker:• What is bubbling into awareness today?
Speaker:Do I have any questions, concerns, or threads I’d like to follow?
Speaker:• What happened today and how do I feel about it?
Speaker:• What are my intentions for the day ahead?
Speaker:While it is important to remain focused and purposeful as you write, try to remember that there is no right or wrong way to do this.
Speaker:Think of your journaling as externalized meditation.
Speaker:Write on any of the above prompts for ten minutes at least.
Speaker:You might like to dwell on the words for a moment afterwards, or even return to writing if it feels right.
Speaker:Remember, you are working with your own consciousness—notice what you are noticing.
Speaker:Become curious about your state of mind, or the state of your bodily experience, as you express yourself.
Speaker:Notice how some elements are coming more into awareness—if you date your entries, you can even see how certain themes, ideas, and feelings evolve over time.
Speaker:Remember to NOtice how you are bringing more things into awareness
Speaker:With time, you can write without prompts, trusting yourself to feel into awareness where it’s needed.
Speaker:Do what works for you!
Speaker:Just avoid using a journal to externalize mindless rumination, and avoid turning it into a dispassionate and unconscious list of events, or automatic and spontaneous responses that remain unexamined.
Speaker:A mindfulness journal can deepen insight and help you cultivate self-awareness, but it’s also fantastic at enhancing creativity.
Speaker:Art is only improved with more curiosity, and genuine attention.
Speaker:Sink into the details, into the essence of things.
Speaker:Really feel them.
Speaker:Touch the ineffable.
Speaker:Take a walk outside in nature for twenty minutes and return to express your experience, documenting and relishing the sensations, the insights.
Speaker:Be creative.
Speaker:You could also use your journal to revisit old memories, entering into them in body and mind to process and release them.
Speaker:However you choose to use your journal, what’s important is that you’re consistent—try setting aside some time every day for quiet journal reflection, so that journaling becomes a habit.
Speaker:The Takeaway:
Speaker:• Meditation is not the same as mindfulness, which can be practiced right now, no matter what you are doing.
Speaker:Each day presents opportunities to enter a state of heightened awareness, in the ordinary activities that you engage in—from washing your face, to eating, to the daily commute, to your interactions with others.
Speaker:• A common myth about the practice of mindfulness is that it requires total emptiness of the mind, where every emerging thought is blocked by a wall to prevent it from disturbing a pure, flawless Zen state.
Speaker:In reality, however, the mind will wander—and you are not required to completely stop it from doing so.
Speaker:• In mindfulness, you can allow your mind to wander, and work instead toward simply becoming aware, notice the stream of thoughts without becoming attached to it, and anchor back to the now.
Speaker:All you need is an attitude of non-striving, acceptance, patience, and the willingness to consistently and gently bring yourself back to the present.
Speaker:• A way to come back to the present moment is to tune in to your breathing.
Speaker:As the breath remains constant no matter what time of the day it is or what activity you engage in, breathing is a natural anchor you can use to bring yourself back to the now.
Speaker:Focusing on how your breath moves in and out of you leads you to redirect your consciousness to what is in the here and now.
Speaker:• In addition to breathing, your body’s sense perceptions (from your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin) are effective anchors you can employ to activate your direct experience circuit instead of your narrative circuit.
Speaker:• You can be mindful when you interact with others.
Speaker:As you talk with the person in front of you, really see them, be fully with them, and immerse yourself in their world for the time that you are with them.
Speaker:• Practice mindfulness as you read, write, and listen.
Speaker:Mindful reading allows a space for absorption, reflection, and insight to boom.
Speaker:Mindful writing sharpens your capacity for keen observation, discernment, and faithful documentation of what is.
Speaker:Mindful listening grants you the ability to remain calm, open, and accepting of the other person’s being as an expression of the present moment.
Speaker:And there you have it folks, we've looked at the world of mindfulness and its connection to our daily lives and remember, meditation is just one aspect.
Speaker:Mindfulness can be practiced in every moment.
Speaker:You have the power to cultivate awareness and presence right now wherever you are.
Speaker:Let's take a few minutes and run down the major takeaways from this episode.
Speaker:Meditation is not the same as mindfulness, which can be practiced right now no matter what you're doing.
Speaker:Each day presents opportunities to enter a state of heightened awareness in the ordinary activities that you engage in from washing your face to eating to the daily commute to your interactions with others.
Speaker:A common myth about the practice of mindfulness is that it requires total emptiness of the mind where every emerging thought is blocked by a wall to prevent it from disturbing a pure flawless Zen state.
Speaker:In reality however, the mind will wander and you're not required to completely stop it from doing so.
Speaker:In mindfulness you can allow your mind to wander and work instead toward simply becoming aware.
Speaker:Notice the stream of thoughts without becoming attached to it and anchor back to the now.
Speaker:All you need is an attitude of non-striving, acceptance, patience, and the willingness to consistently and gently bring yourself back to the present.
Speaker:A way to come back to the present moment is to tune into your breathing.
Speaker:As the breath remains constant, no matter what time of the day it is or what activity you engage in, breathing is a natural anchor you can use to bring yourself back to the now, focusing on how your breath moves in and out of you leads you to redirect your consciousness to what is in the here and now.
Speaker:In addition to breathing, your body's sense perceptions from your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin are effective anchors you can employ to activate your direct experience circuit instead of your narrative circuit.
Speaker:You can be mindful when you interact with others.
Speaker:As you talk with the person in front of you, really see them, be fully with them, and immerse yourself in their world for the time that you're with them.
Speaker:Practice mindfulness as you read, write, and listen.
Speaker:Mindful reading allows a space for absorption, reflection, and insight to boom.
Speaker:Mindful writing sharpens your capacity for keen observation, discernment, and faithful documentation of what is.
Speaker:Mindful listening grants you the ability to remain calm, open, and accepting of the other person's being as an expression of the present moment.
Speaker:As we close out this episode, I'm going to leave you with the words of Thick Not Hot, who said, The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.
Speaker:If you are attentive, you will see it.
