Barrie Davenport Often when people consider meditation, they have a vague sense it’s something they should be doing, but they aren’t exactly sure why.
And the “should” part makes it just another self-improvement obligation, like eating more vegetables.
Sitting on the floor thinking about nothing seems like a big fat waste of time, especially if you’ve tried it once or twice and figured out how difficult it is to quiet your mind.
It’s easy to lose your cool when one of your kids does something you’ve told him not to do a million times before.
It’s especially easy when you’re already feeling weighed down by worries and irritations that have been piling up in your internal world.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Being mindful is great when you’ve got time to relax, but when you feel agitated and justifiably frustrated with your kids, who has time to be mindful?”
Mindful parenting isn’t just for those moments when you’re about to lose your cool.
In fact, practicing mindfulness as a parent can help you stave off many of the situations that trigger emotional outbursts in your child and you.
And the more you make time to practice mindfulness as a parent — and teach your kids to do the same — the more time you create to enjoy the fruits of this habit.
Once you learn how to be a mindful parent (and what that actually means), you’ll wonder why you didn’t learn about it sooner.
Self-reflection isn’t for cowards.
It’s not “navel-gazing,” either. And it’s not something only introverts know how to do.
If you can ask yourself questions and answer them honestly, you can do this.
And the better you know yourself and your deepest leanings, the better you can understand and help others, too.
But how do you reflect on yourself? And what do you get out of it?
You’ve got your very own meditation room.
And now that you have the space, you’re looking for the best meditation accessories and furnishings for it.
The variety of options can be overwhelming, though.
And when it comes to outfitting a room for quiet meditation, less is more.
Your head is swimming with meditation room ideas.
Narrowing down those options has you a bit stuck.
So, how about an overview of the best options out there?
What are the best meditation books out there right now?
And which ones will meet you exactly where you are now?
Look up “meditation books,” and the sheer volume of options is overwhelming.
That’s where we come in.
Because we want every meditation book you purchase to be worth every penny you spend on it and more.
To that end, we’ve created this list of 27 time-tested (and reader-approved) meditation guides written by real people who’ve met the same challenges you’re facing now.
Which one will you read first?
When was the last time you looked back on your nearly-spent day and thought, “How did it get to be night, already?”
You got up before the sun did, and you got things done.
You checked off everything (or most things) on your to-do list.
But now you’re thinking that if this disappearing day were your last, you could have made it more memorable — and more meaningful — if you’d focused on living in the moment and being present for at least five minutes of it.
As it happens, you vaguely remember eating something while trying to get all your work done.
And after calling your children’s names in a panic, you realize you did remember to pick everyone up from school, work, etc. and get them home.
But the day was a blur, much like the one before it.
One blurry day follows another because this has become your normal.
You have distant memories of savoring delicious food, one mouthful at a time and taking long, slow walks to enjoy and be restored by nature.
You want to get back to that.
You want to enjoy life and to stop worrying about the future and ruminating on the past.
The solution: live in the moment. But what does that even mean?
How do you create the best mindful morning routine?
And what will that do for you?
To answer that question, it helps to be fully aware of what your current morning routine is or isn’t doing for you.
What are your thoughts when you wake and finally turn off the alarm?
Those thoughts likely determine how you spend the first five minutes.
The tone you set with mindful mornings helps with everything from anxiety to depression to your relationships with everyone in your household.
Here is the essence of mindfulness: You are fully present right now. You are engaged in whatever you are doing.
You are no longer dwelling in the past or fretting about the future.
Your mind is able to notice and observe whatever is happening in a non-judgmental way.
Mindfulness ends suffering because the present moment is perfect when you accept it without evaluating it.
We hope you’ll be mindful and fully present with these mindfulness quotes we’ve put together for you.
Use them to inspire your meditation practice or to be more engaged in daily life.
If you practice mindfulness, you know it can be a challenge to keep your mind on track.
And maybe the mindfulness practices you’ve learned so far just aren’t working for you as well as you’d hoped.
Is it you?
Or are there ways to be mindful you haven’t learned yet — and that will make all the difference in your mindful practice?
You’re about to learn 15 of the best ways to practice mindfulness.
Wherever you go, people are talking about the benefits of mindfulness.
You’ve been working on your own mindfulness practices and want to learn all you can to make the most of these benefits and enhance your life.
Enter the gift of mindfulness podcasts — but with a wide variety of options available, it’s hard to know the best podcasts to follow.
We’ve chosen 19 of the best mindfulness meditation podcasts for this year.
Give them a try and see what a daily mindfulness practice can do for you.