Today I have the honor of bringing to you the author of the new book, The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems. Ronald D. Siegel, Psy.D. is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School where he has taught for the past 25 years, a Board and Faculty member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and a long-term student of mindfulness meditation.

Dr. Siegel is also co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain. He maintains a private clinical practice in Lincoln, Massachusetts and teaches internationally about mindfulness and psychotherapy and mind-body treatment.

Today, Dr. Siegel talks to us about how we can work with mindfulness to support us with stress, anxiety, and depression. 

More often than not when I come in contact with people and ask, “How are you?” the answer comes out, “Things are good, just really busy.” The first part of that answer is often just a reflex most of the time or a socially acceptable response which may or may not be true, but the second part is true.

The question isn’t so much, how busy are you, it’s more; what are you busy with?

In other words, what and who are we spending our invaluable resources of attention on?

Here are steps to take stock of your life right now and shift to living a better life:

1. People – We all have a variety of people in our lives, some of them nourishing, some of them depleting. Let’s take a moment to take stock of who we are busy with and if we need to rearrange this at all.
   Continue reading… »

Usually today is Monday’s Mindful Quote, however, I was struck this morning and wanted to get this point across and hopefully it may give you something to work with throughout the day.

I had a rare opportunity on this warm and sunny day to just take a walk. As I walked onto a main street I noticed it buzzing with people getting their coffees, walking their dogs, or just taking walks with friends. As I walked by a couple I said “good morning,” but wasn’t very intentional about it.  I said it more out of habit.

I noticed this and my mind immediately wandered to a recent radio interview with Lou Castaldi in Portland, Maine, where I was talking about being more intentional in our lives.