Free Mindfulness & Meditation Resources

I hope that you’re feeling healthy, happy, and safe.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve all been consumed by the spread of the COVID-19.  Initially focused on accumulating supplies, many of us are now dealing with the day-to-day stressors of working from home, managing our kids’ schooling, and living with social distancing.  Here is a curated and annotated list of FREE resources to help us live easily and meaningfully, even as we’re confined to our homes.  As you might expect from us at the SoHo CBT + Mindfulness Center, most of these resources focus on mindfulness and meditation... :-)

Meditation Websites

Ten Percent Happier has a “Coronavirus Sanity Guide” with many meditation recordings.

Mindful magazine also has made many resources available for free, including its course, “Find Calm and Nourish Resilience.”

Many folks love Calm, a meditation app with a companion website.  It’s offering a variety of meditations and exercises to help us all calm down. 

Live, Group Meditation

Daily, 10:30 – 11:15 AM EDT

Bill and Susan Morgan of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies offer a daily meditation.  I’ve been participating in their sits, and it’s been nice to be part of a 100+ group of people dedicated to meditating together. 

Monday – Saturday, 8 – 8:35 am EDT

Monday – Saturday, 6 – 6:35 pm EDT (except Tuesday)

Jon Aaron and Upayadhi offer twice daily, live meditation sittings on most days of the week.  I took an MBSR course with Jon a few years ago and he was an excellent teacher. 

Meditation Apps

My personal favorite app is Insight Timer due to the incredible variety of its guided content and ease of using a simple timer.  Unfortunately, its greatest asset (i.e., the diversity of its content) makes it difficult to navigate for beginners who do not know what they’re looking for.  So, I’d advise sticking initially to well-known teachers, such as Jon Kabat-Zinn and Tara Brach. 

Liberate is a relatively new meditation app for people of color.  It includes talks and meditations led by fabulous teachers, including Ruth King, Gina Sharpe, and Sebene Selassie.

If you’re a health care worker, Headspace graciously made its app free for you for the remainder of the year.

Specific Guided Meditations

The acronym of RAIN—Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture—has been used as a model for meditations to help us deal with difficult emotions.  We have a version on our website (it’s the “Meditation on Difficult Emotions”).

Last week, Tara Brach led a tender RAIN meditation related to fear amidst the pandemic.  Tara also has made her Udemy course, “Mindfulness for Anxiety and Sleep,” free if you sign-up today.

Mindfulness & Kids

Mindful Schools is offering a daily mindfulness class for children on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday at 1 pm EDT.

Therapy-Related Help

The app, The ACT Companion: The Happiness Trap, will be available for free for the next few months.  One of the creators is Russ Harris who is a very respected ACT therapist in Australia.  Just use the code “TOGETHER” on the subscription page.  (ACT stands for “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a relative new form of CBT that we practice a lot in our office)

My friend, Dr. Bob Leahy, has been writing several helpful blog posts about how to manage depression, anxiety, and stress during this time.

Last week, I participated in a webinar with Drs. Anne Marie Albano, Dean McKay, and Rebecca Sachs—all amazing colleagues and CBT therapists!  We covered many topics to help assuage anxiety and help our kids and families. 

While you’re at home, perhaps there’s a something that you’d like to explore, like learning a new skill or deepening one that you already have.  Here are a couple suggestions:

Go deeper into Buddhist Mindfulness and Meditation

Hundreds (thousands?) of Dharma talks available on Dharma Seed. 

You might read Bhikkhu Bodhi’s excellent overview the 8-Fold Path or Bhikkhu Analayo’s superb, scholarly review of the Satipatthana Sutra in the Pali Canon.

Wisdom Publications is offering  an online course on meditation in the Abidhamma.  I haven’t taken it yet, but it’s on my list.  

Social Justice

Now is a great time to continue our social justice work.  Currently, I’m reading the book “Me and White Supremacy,” which is a helpful workbook to address privilege and promote racial literacy. 

An Associate Professor at NYU, Dr. Doris Chang is urging people to attend this town hall event on anti-Asian racism on Saturday, March 28 (today!), from 6 – 8 pm EST.  Dr. Chang also works as a psychologist in our office.

Other Options

Dr. Jillian Rosati in our office recommends this crowd-sourced list of activities and resources.  It’s hosted by the folks at the Death, Sex, and Money podcast.  

She also suggests this comprehensive list of complimentary, at-home fitness options.

Or maybe just read a coronavirus-related poem by Lynn Ungar, which invites us to connect with our hearts during this time.  

Spotify Playlist

In hard times, I find great solace in listening to music.  On Spotify, I made a Social Distancing & Coronavirus Playlist that’s filled with lots of nostalgic hits from the 80’s.  If you’re needing a throwback fix of a Phil Collins duet, then this will be your jam. :-)

That’s all of our recommended resources for now.  Here at SoHo CBT + Mindfulness Center, we remain committed to maintaining the health and wellbeing of our patients and the larger community.  Please feel free to forward and circulate this email to anyone who might benefit from these resources.  May you be happy, healthy, safe and live with ease.  

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

Dear friends, neighbors, patients, and fellow New Yorkers,

I hope that everyone is feeling well.  Like people around the world, Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be top of mind for us.  Personally, I’ve been actively reading updates from the CDC, New York Times, and other sources as well as keeping in touch with medical doctor friends of mine.  

Based on the information available so far and out of an abundance of caution, we started meeting with patients by phone or video conference last week.  While I’m not particularly worried about folks getting infected in the office, I am concerned more about our collective use of public transportation, which could unduly expose us to the virus.  To reduce the spread of the disease, some specialists have been recommending the practice of social distancing—being 6 feet away from others and avoiding large groups of people—neither of which we can maintain on the subway, bus, or train.  Accordingly, we will be meeting with our patients virtually until the end of the month.  Of course, this might change as we get further information about the spread of the virus and official recommendations.  You can expect to hear directly from your therapist about the specific meeting arrangements.  

In addition, we will be regularly providing public information about how to address the psychological issues that arise during this stressful time.  In fact, tomorrow, Monday, March 16th at from 4 – 5:30 pm, I will be participating in a free webinar with several amazing colleagues:

In the Midst of Rapid Fire Change and Social Distancing: Resilience, Coping, and Parenting Strategies for Everyone

You can watch the live webinar at the following site:  https://myocdcare.com/coping/

 Finally, as a reminder (for perhaps the umpteenth time), the CDC recommends everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses:

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and/or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.  Be sure to pay attention to the spaces around the nails and between fingers.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve when coughing or sneezing. Discard tissue immediately.

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

• Stay home when you are sick.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

We’ll provide more updates, advice, and support in the future. In the meantime, stay healthy and remember that we’re all in this together.

Warmly,

Jonathan 

P.S.  In case you’re interested in what I’ve been reading, check out these articles:   

https://elemental.medium.com/why-we-should-care-commonly-asked-questions-and-answers-about-covid-19-6b166f1876e9

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-cancel-everything/607675/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html

Mindfulness as a Gift to Others

By Dr. Jonathan Kaplan

Mindfulness, as it has been practiced thus far in the United States, has typically been about cultivating personal awareness.  We’re advised to notice our thoughts or check-in with the body or slow down our behaviors.  While these practices have been very beneficial, they also suffer from a fundamental limitation:  they all focus attention on our own internal processes to the exclusion of other people around us.  Even meditations that help us cultivate compassion or loving-kindness—more interpersonal experiences—do so within the confines of our own minds.  Attend any meditation session on compassion, for example, and you’ll be surrounded by people sitting with their eyes closed as they imagine offering kindness and care to people they know.  What about opening your eyes and offering these same blessings to the person next to you?

As part of the mindfulness and meditation class that I teach at The New School, I regularly lead students in interpersonal practice, dedicated to seeing the inner beauty and goodness of the person in front of them.  Initially, some students giggle at the discomfort of looking unwaveringly into someone’s eyes, but it quickly becomes very emotional and touching.  It’s a powerful moment, recognizing and accepting the shared humanity with another person.  And, perhaps even more touching, it’s awe-inspiring to know that we’re being seen and accepted in the same way, despite our mistakes, struggles, insecurities, and imagined deficiencies.  After all, isn’t this what you’d love to experience in your relationships?  Wouldn’t you love to look into the eyes of another and see your own goodness reflected back to you?  How would you be in the world if you knew and trusted that you were accepted and loved without having to act, look, or be different in anyway?

So, as you’re setting intentions for the new year, I’d invite you to consider expanding your mindfulness practice to include others.  Open your eyes to the people around you and see their inner beauty.  You don’t even have to say a word.  Let your eyes burn brightly with the unshakeable knowing of their goodness.  Can you love them unconditionally?  

Of course, practically speaking, you’re welcome to dislike their views, speech, and actions.  And, despite these difficulties, can you at least try to recognize your shared humanity?  Like you, your nemeses wish for the safety and security of their loved ones.  Like you, they would be ecstatic to win the lottery.  Like you, they want to be seen, accepted, and loved.  Can you aspire to offer them—and everyone you meet—this precious gift?

[Later this month, I’ll post a recording of a guided interpersonal meditation.  In the meantime, please feel free to leave comments below.]

Why Most New Year's Resolutions Are Horrible

By Dr. Jonathan Kaplan

Many of us make health-related New Year’s resolutions--earnest promises to exercise more, stop smoking, drink less, eat more veggies, lose weight, etc.  While I admire our collective attempts at self-improvement, I also know that there are many problems with how we approach setting such intentions.  In fact, given how most of us pursue these goals, I’ve come to consider most New Year’s Resolutions to be pretty horrible things.  

Let’s do a little quiz.  Let’s take one of your New Year’s resolutions.  Does it involve any of the following?:

Stop making bad New Year's resolutions!

• Losing weight
• Exercising more
• Quitting smoking
• Drinking less
• Eating healthier

If so, then it’s probably a horrible resolution.  “But, what could possibly be wrong with wanting to get fit?”, you ask.  Unfortunately, given how we approach this intention, there are three main problems.  

First, we often have a corrosive belief underlying our intention to be more healthy.  If you’re trying to get fit in order to look better, then what you’re doing is reinforcing a mental message that you’re somehow not OK the way that you are.  You’re contributing to a fundamental belief in your own unworthiness, which just isn’t true.  You’re beautiful.  You’re worthy.  You’re lovable.  Truly.  You’re better off trying to reconcile yourself to the reality of your own amazingness rather than lose 30 pounds.  If you do want to lose weight, then focus on how it feels in your body to move and carry less pounds.  Most likely, this will feel good, naturally.  You don’t have to berate yourself in order to be healthy.  

The second reason why New Year’s resolutions are terrible is that they are often based on literal, arbitrary rules disconnected from physical experience, life circumstances, and physiological reality.  That is, we devise a particular guideline to follow, then do our best to meet it regardless of the consequences.  Suppose I resolve to eat a salad every day.  While seemingly noble from a vegetarian perspective, what if I don’t like the taste of salad?  What if I add so much dressing that it defeats the purpose of losing weight?  What if there is no place to get fresh veggies near me?  Ideally, behavior connected to a New Year’s resolution is grounded in our real experience of the world, not just what our mind tells us to do.  

Finally, many resolutions focus on stopping a problematic behavior without an understanding of its function.  For example, many people want to quit smoking, eat less sweets, or drink less alcohol, but all of these behaviors help us feel better in the short-term.  Sure, we later cough up a lung, or crash from a sugar high, or feel hung-over.  But in the moment, they all serve a function--to help us feel less stressed.  So, we need replacement behaviors to serve this same purpose.  If you’re not going to smoke in order to reduce stress, then what are you going to do in the moments when you would be reaching for a cigarette?

So, what are the parameters in making a good New Year’s resolution?  Make sure that it is...

• based on a positive view of yourself 
• connected with your personal values
• grounded in your experience in the world
• describes what you’re going to do (not just what you’re trying to avoid)

With these guidelines in mind, you're better able to create (and adhere to) resolutions that will change your life.  

A Helpful New Year's Resolution: Praising Your Children

By Dr. Cecily Anders

Any time your child engages in a positive behavior that you want your child to repeat again in the future, it is beneficial to both you and your child to praise that behavior.  Praised behaviors are repeated behaviors.  When I work with children in therapy, a behavior that is praised is frequently repeated in future sessions.  Parents often have concerns and questions about praising their children.  Hopefully, this post will help you feel comfortable praising your child more frequently, but also at the right time.

Often parents say, “But I don’t want to praise my child for engaging in a behavior that most children are able to do without praise.”  When praising, it doesn’t matter how small or obvious the behavior is, you should still praise the behavior if you would like your child to repeat the behavior again in the future.  For instance, you can praise a child for not interrupting you while you were on the phone or for sitting still while riding in the car.  A child learns from praise and also feels rewarded from praise.  Most likely, other children learned that they should engage in “obvious” behaviors because someone praised them for those behaviors at some point in their lives.

Some parents say, “My child has been misbehaving all day.  I can’t praise my child after doing one little thing right.”   This is exactly when you should praise a child.  Your child is paying attention to when s/he has your attention.  Your child wants to be praised and receive your positive attention.  If you only give your child praise once during the day, your child is going to remember that event and will most likely repeat that one behavior again in the future.  In addition, always make sure to state what the child did correctly during the praise and this will make it perfectly clear to your child what you would like your child to do again in the future.  For example, you might say, “Thank you so for picking up your toys before going to bed.  You did an excellent job.”   You can include non-verbal praise like a warm smile or a hug.  Praise is about shaping your child’s behavior.  The more you let your child know the behaviors you prefer, by pointing them out right after your child does them, the more you will see those behaviors in the future. 

If you really want to challenge yourself, you can begin praising everyone in your life more.  Teenagers, significant others, coworkers and friends all appreciate and respond to genuine, warm praise.  Notice the wonderful behaviors going on around you and verbally reward away!  You might just be surprised and delighted by how often those behaviors are repeated in the future. 

OCD in Children and Teens: What Parents Can Do to Help

By Dr. Cecily Anders

When people have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), they often engage in rituals or compulsions that help them to immediately decrease their anxiety.  These compulsions might include cleaning, straightening, checking, or movement rituals (such as opening and closing a door multiple times).  Often a child with OCD will have a thought such as, “If I don’t wash my hands right now, I will die.”  So the reasons that children engage in the rituals are quite terrifying to them.  Many parents believe that compulsions or rituals help to decrease their child’s anxiety in a helpful way.  In the short term, a compulsion or ritual can be highly rewarding for the child, especially in the beginning when the ritual doesn’t take too long to complete. However, over time, the rituals may become more elaborate and time consuming.  Once the rituals become more time consuming, then the child and parents are able to see the down side of this coping mechanism. 

With OCD in particular, working as a team with your child is a great way to help him or her better manage the symptoms. Together, you and your child can make an agreement to eliminate compulsions.  If you see your child engaging in a compulsion, gently encourage him or her to try a different way to manage the anxiety using coping mechanisms that are frequently taught during therapy.  If you also learn these helpful coping behaviors, then you can help better coach your child at home.  Even though your child has made an agreement with you, frequent reminders will still be needed because the emotions and urges experienced by your child will be intense, thus making teamwork an essential part of OCD therapy.

Children and teens have a difficult time behaving in ways that will benefit them long-term.  A helpful role for parents in this situation is to think about the long-term benefits for their child.  Each opportunity to sit with anxiety, rather than engage in the compulsion, will teach your child that the anxiety is tolerable and that these scary future events will not actually happen to him or her.  The short-term management of anxiety after a distressing thought appears will lead to better long-term management of your child’s OCD symptoms. 

A lot of parents find it difficult to watch their children suffer.  Resisting the urge to act on a compulsion will feel unpleasant to your child, especially in the beginning when the compulsions are easier.  You may also want to “fix” a situation for your child so that they don’t feel an urge to engage in a compulsion, such as you are always the person to open a door so that your child doesn’t feel the urge to open and close the door multiple times.  However, once one urge is “fixed”, another will pop up until you are overwhelmed with having to “fix” a number of previously smaller situations.  Again, your role is to think long-term, rather than short-term.  Everyone would prefer a quick fix for his or her child that does not involve any suffering.  However, treatment often does feel uncomfortable at first.  For example, we give our children vaccines, which involve a painful shot, so that they don’t develop life-threatening diseases later.  Remember, that you are a team and you can also share your feelings about how hard it is to change and try out more helpful behaviors that have long-term benefits.  Together, teamwork can help your child. 

The SPARK Model of Mindfulness Training

By Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D.

For the recently published book Becoming Mindful: Integrating Mindfulness into Your Psychiatric Practice, Dr. Doris Chang and myself wrote a chapter on developing mindfulness practices for patients.  As part of our contribution, I shared a model for mindfulness therapy practice that I’ve developed based on my work with patients and my own personal practice.  Represented by the acronym SPARK, this model involves 5 distinct steps for practice:

• Stopping (or Slowing Down)

• Perceiving

• Allowing

• Reflecting

• Knowing

Stopping (or Slowing Down)

Oftentimes, our attention is divided across multiple activities or simply “turned off” as we’re immersed in a mind-numbing experience, like watching TV.  In order to begin our mindfulness practice, we need to make a conscious decision to stop or slow down what we’re doing.  This deliberate act signifies that we are going to start paying attention.  

Perceiving

Next, we need an object of attention.  We need to pay attention to something.  The particular object can vary depending on your practice and intention.  If you’re new to meditation, you might begin by paying attention to the physical sensations of breathing.  If you’re at a nice restaurant, you might savor the flavors of your meal.  If you’re interested in dieting or losing weight, you might notice feelings of hunger, thirst, and satiety.  Here, it is important to pay exquisite attention and really linger over the experience.  

Allowing

As part of the practice, we cultivate acceptance of all experiences--whatever is present and whatever is absent.  In fact, this attitude is more important than whatever you noticed in the second stage of practice.  Of course, the mind finds many ways to resist this way of being.  How do we deal with this resistance?  In mindfulness circles, the simple instruction is often to “let it go.”  While this makes sense for some people, many can be left wondering exactly how to do that (including me).  If you’re one of those people, it’s helpful to provide some simple encouragement, such as “It’s OK that...” or “Yes” relative to whatever you notice.  

Reflecting

Mindfulness practice is not the same as developing one-pointed concentration.  In fact, self-reflection is a significant part of cultivating mindfulness.  So, we can inquire of our experiences and/or make observations of what we notice.  In guiding my patients in mindfulness meditation, I might prompt them to dialogue with difficult emotions by posing questions such as “What do you want me to know?” or “How can I help?”  Questions such as these deepen our practice and set the stage for the development of...

Knowing

Through our practice and embodied inquiry, we develop a better understanding of ourselves and the world.  This wisdom is not characterized as discursive musings or logically plausible hypotheses.  Rather, it emerges as a profound truth that resonates with the heart, body, and mind.  

If you’d like to learn more about this model, please check out our chapter, "Mindfulness in Practice: Incorporating Mindfulness Inside and Outside of Sessions," in Becoming Mindful, available here: Awesome New Mindfulness Book for Psychotherapists.

Meditation + Anxiety

By Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Meditation can be quite challenging for people with anxiety difficulties.  In addition to the usual difficulty with concentration, they can be overly sensitive to physical sensations, jittery, and prone to rumination.  As a result, seated breath meditation--the typical starting point for newbies--often becomes too frustrating or overly provocative.  Indeed, many just give-up and resolve never to meditate again.  [Of course, a breath focus might be a useful exposure exercise, but it is not one that is initially relaxing.]

Fortunately, there are many kinds of meditation available.  And, there are a few that are particularly helpful in cultivating relaxation for people with anxiety:

Sound Meditation:  Listen to sounds in the environment.  While sound ultimately is perceived internally through listening, the apparent focus is external to the body and thus less anxiety-provoking.

Walking Meditation:  Pay attention to the physical sensations of walking by noting shifting body weight, tensing muscles in the legs, and the “lift, move, place” of each foot.  It is a more active meditation because you’re physically moving and the object of meditation keeps changing.  

Word Focus:  Repeat an anchor word or phrase in one’s mind.  Based on Herbert Benson’s work on the relaxation response, this style of meditation provides a verbal object of focus, which occupies the thinking mind.  I advise people to pick two simple words and synchronize their repetition with each breath in and out.  For example, you might inhale while thinking the word “one” and exhale while thinking the word “peace.”  I also like Thich Nhat Hanh’s suggestion:  “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.  Breathing out, I smile.”  

Last month, I started recording professional, guided meditations, available on our website and Insight Timer.  My inaugural meditation, Sound Meditation, is 9 minutes long and can be found here:  Resources.  Give it a try and let me know what you think--or hear.  :-)

Meeting People

By Jessica MacDonald, Ph.D.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, social phobia or social anxiety affects about 7% of adults (Kessler et al., 2005). Many of my clients report experiencing social anxiety, and reveal some feelings and behaviors that reinforce social anxiety and keep my client from experiencing social success.  Below are some tips for overcoming these behaviors and meeting new people:

• Be open to others. The first step in showing that you are receptive to talking to someone is to make eye contact. Unfortunately, with the proliferation of cell phones, making eye contact is more difficult. If you are at an event, party, coffee shop, etc. and don’t know anyone, don’t reach for your phone. Look at people. Some people will be looking down at their phones but some won’t. Make eye contact and smile. You may find that they smile back, or even come up to you (or you may go up to them) and start a conversation.

• Embrace your fear of rejection. This is the core difficulty in meeting someone new. Fear of rejection is a universal experience, and a difficult emotion to feel. However, this experience gets easier with practice. Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, had a fear of meeting women. By applying the theories underlying fear extinction in behavioral psychology, Ellis made himself approach one hundred and thirty women and talk to them for one minute. While it was a very uncomfortable experience at first, Ellis learned that he did not die from doing something fear-inducing and that his fear of rejection subsided over time. He even got a date! With repeated exposure to your fear, you will actually reduce your feelings of fear.

• Avoid avoidance. Frequently, when I ask clients if they went to that acquaintance’s party or that class that none of their friends wanted to go to, they say no, stating that it was too anxiety-producing. While not going to the party or class can temporarily feel good and relieve anxiety, unfortunately this avoidance behavior can actually reinforce and strengthen anxiety and lead to avoidance of future opportunities to meet new people. In session we discuss ways toexperience and manage anxiety while embracing social experiences.

Overcoming these fears and avoidance behaviors is not easy, but is absolutely achievable. If you are interested in learning more about techniques to overcome social anxiety, please contact us.  

Mindfulness for Busy New Yorkers

By Jessica MacDonald, Ph.D.

For many people coming to the center, they are eager to try mindfulness. For most it’s great, until they try to fit it in to their daily schedule. And then it gets tough. Between working nine, ten, eleven hours a day, having a family and/or social life, exercising, cooking, cleaning, eating, and sleeping, it seems like there’s not enough time for the things we absolutely have to do, never mind want to do. It’s easy to become frustrated and give up. However, with just a tiny bit of effort, you can incorporate mindfulness into your life within your current schedule:

Here are some exercises to bring mindfulness into your daily life.

• Morning Coffee (or tea)?  As you drink, focus on the taste, aroma, and sensation of drinking and the feeling of the cup in your hand.
• Taking a taxi or Uber? Put down your phone and look out the window. Pay attention to the sights and sounds of the city. Notice them without judgement, letting go of any thoughts. Notice what it feels like to be moving.
•  Walking home? Try a walking meditation:  Start by feeling the connection of your feet to the ground and your feet to the rest of your body: legs, torso, arms, shoulders, neck and head. Now bring your attention to your right leg. Shift your weight to this leg and lift your left leg up. Move this leg forward and gently and deliberately place it back on the ground. Repeat this process. Bring your attention to the sensations in your feet, from the soles to the toes, as you place them on the ground and lift them back up. Notice any thoughts, feelings, worries or concerns that come, and let them go.
• Eating at your desk? Take a minute to eat mindfully. Observe your sandwich with a gentle curiosity. What does it look like? What color or colors is it?  What does it smell like?  What’s it texture? Now take a bite. What does it feel like to chew it? What does it taste like?

With a little bit of work and practice, you can incorporate mindfulness into your daily life. If you are interested in learning more about these techniques or other methods of incorporating mindfulness into your day, please feel subscribe to our monthly newsletter.