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

Developing an attitude of friendliness towards ourselves can help us deal more effectively and realistically with the challenges of daily life. And, if we are able to cultivate this attitude towards our self, we're much more likely to offer the same attitude to others, and in so doing improve our relationships. This practice is a great way to start the day.

Being friendly towards ourselves leads to better relationships and effective handling of daily challenges; making it a good daily practice.