Cultivate the skills of being present and responding wisely in daily life.

It’s normal to want to prolong our pleasant experiences and escape our unpleasant ones.  And, if that experience is in the outside world, such as delighting in our favorite food, often we can choose to have another portion or look forward to next time we’ll have some. And if we’re trying some food that we don’t like, we can easily escape the unpleasant experience by pushing the food away.

If the experience is based on our thoughts and feelings, we can’t easily discard it or produce more of it, so in mindfulness we learn to work with our experiences, exactly as they are. This allows us to uncover a paradox – the more we are able to work with our unpleasant experiences, the less they affect us; and the more we are able to simply enjoy rather than crave our pleasant experiences, the more impact they have when they are around.

The mindful meditation practices in this channel help us to work with reality rather than against it--training our mind to stay present while reducing unhelpful reactions, and increasing our insight and ability to respond wisely to whatever arises… and so enhancing our resilience and wellbeing.

Be with Open Awareness

Three-Step Being Space

Being with Sound

Be with Breath

Body Scan

Befriending and Self-Compassion

Savoring

Mark Quirk

Psychologist, Health Coach, Mindfulness

Today has been up & down & all around. Living in the moment, feeling my body, and resting has bought me inner peace. So thankful for this meditation.

At peace 

By focusing on each small segment of my body, I was able to acknowledge the sensations of each one quite separately, not as a whole, which is my usual.  I felt totally relaxed.  This 20-minute meditation was perfect for a very mindful session.  Thank you.  🙏🌷

Puppet on a String 

They make me concentrate on areas of my body where I experience discomfort due to the aftermath of my massive stroke. Areas I’d just as soon ignore. My left leg fell so ”asleep” earlier that I could barely stand up and walk! I still have a couple of weeks before I contact my neurologist to follow up about the medication he prescribed to try and lessen the ”dead” ”pins-and-needles” feelings I get in my legs, arms, feet and hands. I'm pretty sad about this deterioration...

I don't like performing body scans😢

I learned body scan is easier for me than mindfulness of thoughts or breathing alone, with some caveats. I almost fall asleep, and I do get a restless feeling toward the middle/end and tend to twitch to get out of it. Perhaps lying on a mat would be better. 

Body scan 

This calming practice helps us connect with and build awareness of our body, as well as training our attention as we continually focus and re-focus throughout the scan. This practice can be done lying down, as well as sitting or standing. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash