Toward the end of last year I posted the Most Popular Posts on the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Blog for 2009. Throughout the course of the year I’ve written about topics such as how to apply mindfulness to daily life, stress, work, depression, anxiety, OCD, self-esteem, procrastination, perfectionism, sexuality, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, self-acceptance and much more. You’ve seen interviews from leaders in the field such as Jack Kornfield, Jeff Brantley, Sharon Salzberg, Zindel Segal, Sylvia Boorstein, Tara Brach, Fred Luskin and more (stay tuned for an interview with Dr. Dan Siegel).

On Mondays I started “Mondays Mindful Quote” where I posted a quote from leaders such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, Mother Teresa, Hafiz, Rumi, the Dalai Lama, and many more.

Throughout this next year I plan on bringing you more interesting and exciting interviews with leaders, applications of mindfulness as a science, exploration of pertinent quotes, and more practical and do-able applications of mindfulness to the struggles and triumphs we face in this condition we call being human.

Here’s the Question: Now is the beginning of 2010 and I think it’s time I explicitly asked you, “What do you want to see more of? What are you facing in your life that you would like posts written about?”

In the past, readers have written in what they’ve wanted more of and I responded.

Here’s your opportunity, if you feel inhibited, go ahead and reply below anonymously, no problem. Whether you just have one idea or many ideas, go ahead and post it below.

Whether this is your first time here or your thousandth time here, I consider you to be part of the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Community and value what’s happening in your life and look forward to giving you something to chew on.

Please share your thoughts for 2010 of what you would like to see more of. Your interaction below makes fertile ground for living wisdom we can all benefit from.

In December of last year, I interviewed a wonderful mindfulness teacher, Psychiatrist and author, Jeff Brantley, M.D.. Jeff is Founder and Director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at Duke University’s Center for Integrative Medicine, and author of the popular book Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness & Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, & Panic, and co-author, with Wendy Millstine, of his recent hit series Five Good Minutes: 100 Morning Practices To Help You Stay Calm & Focused All Day Long, and Daily Meditations for Calming Your Anxious Mind

In this interview Dr. Brantley gives us some quick tips about how we might be able to take 5 Good Minutes to bring mindfulness into this New Year and calm our anxious minds.

Elisha: What are some of your favorite ways to take 5 Good Minutes each day?

Jeff:  Well, the first thing to recall is that whether we say 5 minutes or 1 minute or 1 day or 5 days, those notions are all just IDEAS about time.

Our life actually is happening in the present moment, which is timeless. So the practice in the 5 good minutes books, while they can be done in 5 minutes of “clock time” are actually invitations to readers to come into the present moment intentionally and consciously more often.

Then, after linking this more conscious “presence” to a particular “intention” (to become more relaxed, for example, or to feel more generous in spirit, or more forgiving, perhaps), the practices in the books ask the reader to act “wholeheartedly.”  Here, wholehearted action simply means actually doing it-the specific “five good minutes” practice-and doing it without attachments to outcome or to being caught up in judgments.

In terms of some of my favorite ways to practice 5 good minutes, I enjoy practicing mindfulness in the changing situations and conditions of daily life.  For example, walking from my office to the car, or waiting for a meeting to begin, or at home …