Search Results for: mindfulness

Amy Winehouse, the Reluctant Celebrity: A Parable On the Fatal Cost of Fame

…herapeutic and curative powers dating back through millennia. Art enhances mindfulness by forcing our awareness into the present moment. Winehouse was an artist with extraordinary gifts whose sheer talent made us stop and listen. “Fame came like a huge tidal wave,” former Winehouse friend and manger Nick Shymansky said this past week on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, emphasizing what he thought was his friend’s undoing. Winehouse was woefully unprepared for…

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Loving a Trauma Survivor: Understanding Childhood Trauma’s Impact On Relationships

…n. Learn about the nature of trauma, self-care and healing techniques like mindfulness. For example, one helpful model is Stan Taktin’s “couple bubble.” This is a visual aid to help partners see how to become a more secure, well-functioning couple. Surrounding yourself and your partner with an imaginary bubble “means that the couple is aware in public and in private they protect each other at all times. They don’t allow either of them to be the th…

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Be Happy Now!

…what’s going on in the present is known in personal development circles as Mindfulness and is a great way to tap into the here and now. From awareness follows acceptance and/or action. Perhaps you choose to simply acknowledge that this is a tough moment, that there is fear or uncertainty in you. That’s OK, too. Sometimes it can be more helpful to sit with a negative emotion for a minute or two to see what’s causing it, to air it. Then you can choo…

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Is Fear of Emotion Driving Our Addiction?

…native way of dealing with these feelings. Cultivating self-compassion and mindfulness is of great help in this process. Adopting an attitude of self-compassion allows us to accept that our suffering is a part of being human. It teaches us to exercise self-kindness, patience and acceptance in our journey to grow and change. Additionally, practicing mindfulness can help us learn to sit with our thoughts and feelings without allowing them to overpow…

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How to Escape the Vicious Cycle of Anxiety and Insomnia: A 10-Step Guide

…rry and disabling fearful expectations.” Sleep is a perfect facilitator of mindfulness—the kind of merciful distance toward negative experiences we all need in order to put them in context and move on despite them. Researchers at University of California Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory found that the sleep-deprived brain reverts back to more primitive patterns of activity. The study participants who were kept awake were less likely to…

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Empaths: What Does it Mean to Be an Empath?

…hey get critical or mean. Remember, ‘no’ is a complete sentence.” Practice Mindfulness Because empaths tend to get caught up in what is going on around them, it is particularly important for them to set aside time to tune in. Practicing mindfulness can help you reconnect to yourself. Focusing on your breath, for insistence, quiets the mind and centers you in your body. It can be helpful in meditation to practice “non-identification” with others, t…

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feeling like a failure

Feeling Like a Failure

…elf-compassion, which she defines as having three elements: self-kindness, mindfulness, and common humanity. People who practice self-compassion have a kind (as opposed to judgmental) attitude toward their struggles. Through mindfulness, they learn not to over-identify with negative thoughts and messages that wear on them, and they embrace that to suffer is part of being human. They are not alone, no better or worse than anyone else, who faces cha…

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Love Yourself: Doctor’s Orders

…assion expert Kristin Neff defines this concept in three basic components: Mindfulness (maintaining a balanced perspective in the midst of struggle) Common humanity (acknowledging that struggling is a shared part of the human experience) Self-kindness (responding to oneself with care and understanding when struggling) Through examining self-compassion in the light of these three different lenses, it can be easier to break down and apply into our d…

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I Hate My Body: Dealing with Poor Body Image

…compassion As we take on our inner critic, it’s important to maintain what mindfulness expert Dr. Daniel Siegel calls a COAL attitude, in which we are curious, open, accepting and loving toward ourselves. We can all find ways to foster more self-compassion. Dr. Kristen Neff is a lead researcher on self-compassion, and she’s found that it has many benefits that are actually preferable to self-esteem. Unlike self-esteem, self-compassion doesn’t focu…

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Commitment Issues: Why Some People Have Them and Others Don’t

…ies of secure attachment in meditators, and he predicts that the fields of mindfulness and attachment theory will begin to intersect more in the future. This page links to articles and videos that can provide guidance for beginning a mindfulness practice. For many people, a spiritual or religious practice brings serenity and peace to their daily lives. A 12-step recovery program can also provide a base of stability and caring that can impact an in…

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