mindfulness



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How I Teach to Focus on Reality in Yoga

a meditation bench in a room with lots of windows overlooking a marsh on beautiful sunny day
When you step into a yoga class, you might expect a focus on perfect poses or ideal wellness. However, I believe the essence of yoga isn’t about flawless postures or achieving a specific body shape — it’s about connecting with yourself and others in a meaningful way. It’s about investigating the nature of reality. This describes a few key aspects of my approach.

Mindfulness of the Body

Buddha in Meditation Posture
The first foundation of mindfulness is contemplation of the body (kayanupassana). When you learn to listen to your bodies and stay with sensations, you can become more grounded and less reactive. Contemplation of the body helps you make friends with your body, and accept the fact that this body is not "your" body, but rather just a temporary form. A large body of scientific research suggests that simply paying attention to your body helps ward off disease, improves cognitive and emotional functioning, and much more. However, simply staying present with the sensations in your body is as simple as it is challenging.

Meditating with Music

Man wearing headphones meditating on a yoga

Most people who try meditation probably think of it as an activity done in silence. They might learn the common meditation technique where they observe sounds that happen to arise and notice the temporary nature of those sounds, but they probably would not expect those sounds to continue throughout their meditation. In other words, sound is understood to be a departure from the "real work" of sitting — or struggling to sit — peacefully in silence. Fortunately, there is more than one way to meditate and there isn't some rule that the only allowable "meditation music" is repetitions of John Cage's 4' 33".

Learn How to Tame Your Wild Mind with Mindfulness Meditation

Man and Woman Meditating

Curious about mindfulness meditation? Perhaps you have heard the hype or seen the long lists of benefits. Maybe you are wondering how mindfulness meditation can be such a powerful tool for becoming more present in daily life or how "just sitting" causes people to develop more compassion for both themselves and others. Or perhaps you would like to develop deeper insight into the nature of your mind and the world around you.

Cultivate Well-Being at Work with Mindfulness

Person lying on their back with thoughts of computers and phones

Despite the growing popularity of mindfulness programs in the workplace, it can still feel a little weird to start a meeting at work with a meditation. Mindfulness is not for everyone. Nevertheless, scientists continue to amass evidence — intended to persuade rational Western minds — detailing the benefits of taking pauses during our days, including our workdays. Now we are learning that with regular practice our well-being can be cultivated.

Mindfulness of Breathing

Person in the woods eyes closed with head against a tree

Breath is an ever-present aspect of life, which is part of the reason why "mindfulness of breathing," or ānāpānasati in Pāli, is probably the most common form (object) of meditation. Typically, the practice involves focusing attention on the physical sensations caused by the movement of the breath, the in-breaths and the out-breaths. Mindfulness of breathing is a feeling practice, not a thinking practice.

Guarding the Mind

Guard standing by a gate

Mindfulness as a general awareness of the present moment receives a lot of attention these days. This kind of awareness is sometimes labeled "bare attention" or "present moment awareness." Some, however, teach mindfulness as one aspect of a practice that aims to do more. In certain yoga traditions, for instance, the ultimate goal is to still the fluctuations of the mind. Paradoxically, the most effective way to still the mind often requires more than just sitting still, and finding out what methods work requires experimentation. This article explores one method that many people find useful to cultivate mindfulness: the simile of the gatekeeper.

mindfulness