How To Make Your Mind Happy: 5 Secrets To Mindfulness Sometimes it seems like your brain just sits around creating lousy feelings and worries. You want this, you’re frustrated about that, you’re annoyed about some other thing and the list never stops. And it makes it impossible to be happy. What would be nice is to have a perspective that helps your brain deal with all of these negative emotions. And there may be one — and you’ve probably heard the name a lot lately: Mindfulness. And research shows it works. Three big names in the field have collaborated to produce an app that can teach you how to be more mindful. Dan Harris is the anchor of Good Morning America and author of 10% Happier, where he recounts his journey from mindfulness skeptic to believer. Now here’s the part where I give you an actual definition of mindfulness, right? You and I are gonna walk through the first few steps on how to be more mindful so you don’t just sound like Merriam-Webster, but you really understand what the deal is and how to do it. From The Upward Spiral:
RAIN: A Mindfulness Practice for Welcoming Your Emotions Most people who come to meditation are looking for respite from what is sometimes called the “monkey mind”—the perpetual, hyperactive (and often self-destructive) whirl of thoughts and feelings everyone undergoes. But the truth is that meditation does not eradicate mental and emotional turmoil. Rather, it cultivates the space and gentleness that allow us intimacy with our experiences so that we can relate quite differently to our cascade of emotions and thoughts. That different relationship is where freedom lies. The RAIN Practice RAIN is an acronym for a practice specifically geared to ease emotional confusion and suffering. R — Recognize: It is impossible to deal with an emotion—to be resilient in the face of difficulty—unless we acknowledge that we’re experiencing it. A — Acknowledge: The second step is an extension of the first—you accept the feeling and allow it to be there. As we get closer to it, an uncomfortable emotion becomes less opaque and solid.
5 Meditation Apps for Channeling Your Inner Peace Meditation and, more broadly, mindfulness have of late been linked to everything from increased creativity to stress reduction. But who has time to pause and assume lotus position amid back-to-back conference calls and an overstuffed inbox? You may not realize it, but the smartphone that you’re currently using to flip through emails could be the ticket to workday zen. 1. What it Does: Tap into this app to learn how to meditate in just 10 minutes a day. Why I Love It: Headspace makes it easy to set reminders to keep yourself on track and even offers a dashboard to evaluate your progress. 2. What it Does: Buddhify provides guided meditation tracks for 14 different activities, from eating and traveling to walking in the city and even working online. Why I Love It: Designed by a data artist, Buddhify is one of the most beautiful (and easy to use) mindfulness apps on the market. 3. Why I Love It: Anything with Arianna Huffington’s stamp of approval gets my buy-in. 4. 5. About The Author