Three deep and powerful techniques — My interest in using meditation to relieve intense pain stems from personal experience. I will not go into detail, but my pain has sometimes been so overwhelming that I have been unable to think of anything else. In these situations, three types of meditations have provided me relief and significantly…

Increase your mindfulness leverage with the four meditation accelerators — If you have a regular meditation practice, you will gradually develop mindfulness skills. But if you want to speed up the process, to go deeper and wider, here are four methods we call accelerators: Trigger practice Duration training Motion challenge Situational practice 1. Trigger practice Have you ever reacted faster to a situation…

A Review of the Science — It is a classic joke that if you do not have time to meditate for twenty minutes, you should meditate for an hour. Admittedly, there’s a germ of truth there. But the joke is perhaps not so funny for an overworked single mom or nurse pressured by understaffing. In the…

How don’t know-mind leads to wisdom — Do you feel overwhelmed and confused? Does every day seem to bring more unanswered questions? This is not necessarily a problem. It may even be part of a solution to a bigger problem. Not knowing is scary because what we think we know gives us a sense of stability, solidity, and meaning. Without those, we feel threatened in many ways, all at once. But when we accept not knowing, other things lose our grip on us. What we think we know limits us…

One of the biggest challenges with chronic pain is what we call pain catastrophizing. Catastrophizing chronic pain has many negative consequences that can severely affect quality of life. The good news is that catastrophizing can be turned into improved coping skills. The elements of pain catastrophizing During pain catastrophizing, you experience the pain as a disaster, something terrible that will never end. This consists of three subconscious activities: rumination, magnification, and helplessness.

To cultivate equanimity, it is often fastest to train equanimity in the body first. The effect of equanimity is often obvious in our internal talk, which becomes quieter when it no longer judges and evaluates what we experience. But mind and body are always intertwined, and there are many indications that the body’s reaction is fundamental to how we think and perceive a situation. …

Many studies show that mindfulness works well to relieve anxiety. Even beginners with as little as one hour of meditation training can see noticeable improvement in their anxiety. I have blogged before that we are all, to some extent, susceptible to negative emotions. So if you are struggling with anxiety, you are not alone. Mindful attention training can help you cope with uncertainty and thereby decrease the vulnerability to anxiety that we all have.

Recently I received the following question: “It feels difficult to have time to practice when you are the father of small children. Do you have any good tips for setting aside time, favorable times of the day, etc.?” Here is an edited version of what I wrote back. Being a…

Enjoy the moment with a bite-sized mindfulness practice — Micropleasures are small experiences of pleasure that last less than a minute. They are short meditations that explore, create and cultivate positive and pleasant thoughts and feelings in everyday life. Regular training in micropleasures helps us create a personal culture of satisfaction. Micropleasures belong to the meditation path called Nurture…