Thank you for your wise words on mindfulness. I have an experience that I wrote of on my own blog that I will never forget. Although longer than a “comment” I will share… Occasionally the universe (however one may define universe!) provides a gift and reminds us to live in the moment. On a particularly horrible day I experienced a tap on the shoulder that literally brought me front and center to the present. My 19 year old daughter was in a psychiatric unit of a trauma 1 hospital in Seattle, newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, preparing for a series of ECT treatments. It was Mother’s Day. She is a musician and had just played and sang “Blackbird” for me as my gift when she suddenly crashed again, back down into her depression and asked us to leave. I was about as low as I had been over the last 6 months of hell. My husband talked me into taking a walk through an old growth forest arboretum. It was an absolutely beautiful day and suddenly I had this feeling of smallness in an ancient world. I was simply in the moment of that beautiful place, a tiny speck on our earth’s curve. I relaxed, I let out and took in a breath of air. I was in that moment, at peace (www.cindajohnson.blogspot.com).

Thank you for that beautiful personal story Cinda.

I am a mid-life woman with major life decisions to make and I need to be able to function optimally in the meantime. How could a mindfulness orientation help to manage the preoccupying issues related to making major changes and decisions and result in a constant underlying stress. The underlying stress is difficult and damaging (to mind and body). I know about meditation and relaxation, I am more curious about cognitive or other strategies a mindfulness perspective might offer.

Great tips. We are all guilty of what I call negative self talk, most of which is done without ever thinking. It just becomes habit.