how mindful am i essay

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Assessment: How Mindful Are You?

Jacqueline Carter,
Rasmus Hougaard,
Rob Stembridge

It’s not always easy to focus on what you’re doing.

Mindfulness is the ability to stay focused, while being aware of your thoughts and surroundings and being able to recognize and move past distractions as they arise. This is getting harder. Research shows that people spend almost 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, which impairs their creativity, performance, and well-being .

This assessment aims to help you understand how mindful you are. The authors provide you with a rating of your mindfulness and recommendations for improving it.

Mindfulness is the ability to stay focused, while being aware of your thoughts and surroundings and being able to recognize and move past distractions as they arise.

Jacqueline Carter is a senior partner and the North American Director of Potential Project. She has extensive experience working with senior leaders to enable them to achieve better performance while enhancing a more caring culture. She is the coauthor, with Rasmus Hougaard, of Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way and The Mind of the Leader – How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results .
Rasmus Hougaard is the founder and CEO of Potential Project , a global leadership development and research firm serving Accenture, Cisco, KPMG, Citi, and hundreds of other organizations. He is the coauthor, with Jacqueline Carter, of Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way and The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results .
Rob Stembridge is a senior partner and the head of Global Solutions at Potential Project.

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Home — Essay Samples — Philosophy — Mindfulness — Mindfulness in Daily Life

Mindfulness in Daily Life

Categories: Health Education Mindfulness

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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What is mindfulness, applying mindfulness in daily life, the benefits of mindfulness, challenges of practicing mindfulness.

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How mindful am I?

Dr Retha van Rensburg October 2017

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale ( Brown, K.W. & Ryan, R.M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848 .)

Day-to-Day Experiences

Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the 1-6 scale below, please indicate how frequently or infrequently you currently have each experience. Please answer according to what really reflects your experience rather than what you think your experience should be. Please treat each item separately from every other item.

I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until some time later.

Very frequently

Somewhat frequently

Somewhat infrequently

infrequently

Almost never

I break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.
I find it difficult to stay focused on what's happening in the present.
I tend to walk quickly to get where I'm going without paying attention to what I experience along the way.
I tend not to notice feelings of physical tension or discomfort until they really grab my attention.
I forget a person's name almost as soon as I've been told it for the first time.
It seems I am "running on automatic," without much awareness of what I'm doing.
I rush through activities without being really attentive to them.
I get so focused on the goal I want to achieve that I lose touch with what I'm doing right now to get there.
I do jobs or tasks automatically, without being aware of what I'm doing
I find myself listening to someone with one ear, doing something else at the same time.
I drive places on "automatic pilot" and then wonder why I went there.
I find myself preoccupied with the future or the past.
I find myself doing things without paying attention.
I snack without being aware that I'm eating.

Scoring information:

To know how mindful you are simply add all your scores together and divide by 15. The higher you score the more mindful you are.

This post is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered therapy. This blog is only for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered therapy or any form of treatment. We are not able to respond to specific questions or comments about personal situations, appropriate diagnosis or treatment, or otherwise provide any clinical opinions. If you think you need immediate assistance, call your local doctor/psychologist or psychiatrist or the SADAG Mental Health Line on 011 234 4837. If necessary, please phone the Suicide Crisis Line on 0800 567 567 or sms 31393.

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How to Practice Mindfulness the Right Way

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Key Takeaways

Researchers find that people confuse the practice of mindfulness with passive acceptance.
Mindfulness encourages awareness of the present, but also action and engagement through acceptance and curiosity.
The practice, when fully understood, can help societies become more socially conscious and motivated.

Mindfulness has become a buzzword and a trending concept for mental health all over the world. But the ancient practice rooted in Buddhism, may not actually be fully understood by those attempting to practice it.

A survey conducted by researchers in Canada and published in Clinical Psychology Review in early November has shown that people do not fully understand the tenets behind mindfulness.

Researchers found that there are some big gaps in how people understand the practice and apply it in their lives.

Do We Understand Mindfulness?

In a press release , Igor Grossmann, PhD , study author and professor of social psychology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, said that "mindfulness includes two main dimensions: awareness and acceptance." However, Grossmann and colleagues found that most people only understand half the story.

Namely, people tend to understand the awareness part—that tuning into emotions and sensations, and living in the moment can relieve stress. It's the acceptance piece that many confuse with passivity and avoidance.

Mindfulness is commonly defined as "awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally." That moment can exist when we engage in everyday tasks—from talking to someone to doing the dishes.

In the press release, Grossmann said that the "scientific understanding of mindfulness goes beyond mere stress-relief and requires a willingness to engage with stressors." While people seem to acknowledge the stress-relieving effects, the action piece is what's missing.

What Does Mindfulness Mean?

Ellen Choi, PhD , one of the study authors and an organizational psychologist, and professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, told Verywell that gaps in public understanding might have arisen because there is a disconnect between original philosophy and modern practice.

Mindfulness has been encouraging people to live in the present for at least 2,500 years. According to Buddhist thought, thinking too much about the past or future can lead us to dwell or become anxious, distorting our reality and separating us from what the world actually is.

Cognitive distortions appear in thinking patterns that are characteristic of mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

"Mindfulness has become so popular so quickly," Choi said, adding that it's mostly used as a stress-reduction tool rather than an ongoing practice. The emphasis on marketability and utility has led some to critique the trend in the West as "McMindfulness"—fueling a "capitalist spirituality" that simulates rather than produces real social and political change.

It's one of the fastest-growing areas in psychological research. Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall functioning. The practices have also been shown to improve self-regulation in various brain areas—a lack of which may contribute to mental health conditions like depression.

"If we're moving through our whole life just to get the dishes done, then we miss out on the sensory experience—that connection and gratitude that appear in any moment when you're just entirely in it," Choi said.

Acceptance Encourages Action

In addition to encouraging us to stay in the present, Choi said that mindfulness has a second part: acceptance, which can be understood as non-judgment, openness, or curiosity. This is the piece that can encourage action.

Let's say that while washing the dishes, you get your finger stuck in a trace of runny egg yolk clinging to a plate. Choi says that you could react by thinking, "Look at this egg yolk, stuck on my gross dish," By allowing your awareness to get consumed by that, your disgust can then color your mood or the way in which you interact with others for the rest of the day.

However, when you apply acceptance or curiosity—say by focusing on the texture of the egg yolk—Choi said that "there's something that happens to that experience in the moment [that is] very special, yet difficult to pinpoint."

Spotting the Disconnect

However, mindfulness' increased popularity has garnered criticism because of the way it is employed, Choi said.

For example, the "McMindfulness" critique claims that corporations, schools, and industries have employed the practice of mindfulness as just another way of triumphing individualism while exacerbating disconnection and inequality between individuals.

Choi said that such "McMindfulness" highlights the harmful ways in which the practice can be applied—but that does not mean that it's only harmful or that it cannot be anything but a marketable self-help tool. It may just need to be more fully understood.

To spot the disconnect, Choi, Grossman, and colleagues analyzed various formal and informal definitions of mindfulness in English, as well as many studies on its application. They also looked at how people in real life actually understood the term and how they applied it in their day-to-day lives.

They found that while most people seem to understand the general concept of mindfulness, they do not apply it fully. The public tends to associate “mindfulness” with passivity, when, in reality, it is a practice that involves engagement (rather than avoidance) with challenges or problems.

"One of the things that we're trying to say in this paper is that awareness and acceptance are supposed to work together," Choi said.

What This Means For You

If you're interested in trying to put mindfulness into practice in your life, talk to your doctor, a mental health expert, and/or a mindfulness expert . For a quick introduction, Choi goes more in-depth about mindfulness on their website and offers free guided meditations for people learning the practice. You can also look for tips on how to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life.

How to Practice Mindfulness

There are three parts to practicing mindfulness: awareness, acceptance, and action.

Choi said that awareness allows you to "see what it actually is without bias, clouded perceptions, or [your] ego, to see it all clearly."

Next, there's the acceptance part of mindfulness practice. You have to accept your gut reaction to experiences but then take action. According to Choi, the question becomes: "What am I going to do about that?"

You've practiced being in the moment to understand your perceptions. Then, you've accepted them, rather than ignored or suppressed them. Only then can you honestly ask yourself why it's there and what to do about it—to avoid clouding your judgment in the future.

"As we've cherry-picked the idea [of mindfulness] in the West," Choi said. "I feel like we have a responsibility to be honest, and ask ourselves, 'Do I truly understand it?'"

Choi added that a fuller understanding and practice of mindfulness could help us ask larger questions about why mindfulness tends to be only half-understood. "When we say mindfulness, are we all talking about the same thing?" Choi asked.

Xiao Q, Yue C, He W, Yu J yuan. The mindful self: a mindfulness-enlightened self-view. Frontiers in Psychology . 2017;8:1752. doi. 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01752.

Choi E, Farb N, Pogrebtsova E, et al. What do people mean when they talk about mindfulness? . Clinical Psychology Review . 2021;89:102085. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102085

Mindful. Jon Kabat-Zinn: Defining Mindfulness . Updated January 11, 2017.

The British Psychological Society. Mindfulness in psychology - a breath of fresh air? . Updated January 2015.

Mindful. A Review of McMindfulness . Updated August 15, 2019.

Lindsay EK, Creswell JD. Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT) . Clinical Psycholy Review . 2017;51:48-59. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.10.011

Hölzel BK, Lazar SW, Gard T, et al. How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective . Perspectives on Psychological Science . 2011;6(6):537-559. doi:10.1177/1745691611419671

By Sarah Simon Simon is a bilingual multimedia journalist specializing in health, science, culture, and technology. She is a PhD candidate in clinical psychology.

87 Self-Reflection Questions for Introspection [+Exercises]

Introspection in Psychology: 87 Self-Reflection Questions, Exercises & Worksheets

Do you sometimes take time to clarify your values in a moment of doubt or uncertainty?

If you answered “yes,” you are no stranger to self-reflection and introspection (terms that will be used more or less interchangeably in this article), an important psychological exercise that can help you grow, develop your mind, and extract value from your mistakes.

Read on if you’d like to learn the meaning of self-reflection and introspection, reasons why it’s important, and tools and techniques for practicing it yourself.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself but will also give you the tools to help your clients, students, or employees show more compassion to themselves.

This Article Contains:

What is introspection a definition, what is the importance of introspection, 70 self-reflective questions to ask yourself, 10 self-reflection exercises, activities, and techniques for adults and students, 4 self-reflection worksheets and tools, the 3 best books on self-reflection and introspection, a take-home message.

Introspection can be practiced both as an informal reflection process and a formal experimental approach, and the two have different definitions. Still, both processes can be undertaken by anyone with curiosity and determination (Cherry, 2016).

The informal reflection process can be defined as examining one’s own internal thoughts and feelings and reflecting on what they mean. The process can be focused on either one’s current mental experience or mental experiences from the very recent past.

The formal experimental technique is a more objective and standardized version of this, in which people train themselves to carefully analyze the contents of their own thoughts in a way that’s as unbiased as possible.

The original idea of introspection was developed by Wilhelm Wundt in the late 1800s (McLeod, 2008). Wundt focused on three areas of mental functioning: thoughts, images, and feelings. Wundt’s work eventually led to the current work on perceptual processes and the establishment of the field of cognitive psychology .

introspection self-reflection worksheets and tools

Researchers have shown that we think more than 50,000 thoughts per day, of which more than half are negative and more than 90% are just repeats from the day before (Wood, 2013).

If you don’t make the time and effort to refocus your mind on the positive through introspection, you won’t give yourself the opportunity to grow and develop.

Enhancing our ability to understand ourselves and our motivations and to learn more about our own values helps us take the power away from the distractions of our modern, fast-paced lives and instead refocus on fulfillment (Wood, 2013).

The importance of doing it right

Reflecting on ourselves and our environments is a healthy and adaptive practice, but it should be undertaken with some care—there is, in fact, a wrong way to do it.

When your focus on introspection has morphed from a dedication to an obsession, you have taken it too far. In fact, those who take self-reflection too far can end up feeling more stressed, depressed, and anxious than ever (Eurich, 2017).

In addition, it is all too easy for us to fool ourselves into thinking we have found some deep insight that may or may not be accurate. We are surprisingly good at coming up with rational explanations for the irrational behaviors we engage in (Dahl, 2017).

To help stay on the right path with your self-reflection, consider asking more “what” questions than “why” questions. “Why” questions can highlight our limitations and stir up negative emotions, while “what” questions help keep us curious and positive about the future (Eurich, 2017).

With this important point in mind, let’s move on to the questions, exercises, and worksheets that you can use to work on your own self-reflection.

What is the Importance of Introspection? self-reflection

Read through the following three lists to get some ideas for introspective questions. Answering them can take you from feeling like you don’t understand yourself to knowing yourself like the back of your hand.

These 10 questions are great ways to jumpstart self-reflection (Woronko, n.d.):

Am I using my time wisely?
Am I taking anything for granted?
Am I employing a healthy perspective?
Am I living true to myself?
Am I waking up in the morning ready to take on the day?
Am I thinking negative thoughts before I fall asleep?
Am I putting enough effort into my relationships?
Am I taking care of myself physically?
Am I letting matters that are out of my control stress me out?
Am I achieving the goals that I’ve set for myself?

The following 30 questions are questions you can ask yourself every day to get to know yourself better (William, n.d.):

Who am I, really?
What worries me most about the future?
If this were the last day of my life, would I have the same plans for today?
What am I really scared of?
Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?
If not now, then when?
What matters most in my life?
What am I doing about the things that matter most in my life?
Why do I matter?
Have I done anything lately that’s worth remembering?
Have I made someone smile today?
What have I given up on?
When did I last push the boundaries of my comfort zone?
If I had to instill one piece of advice in a newborn baby, what advice would I give?
What small act of kindness was I once shown that I will never forget?
How will I live, knowing I will die?
What do I need to change about myself?
Is it more important to love or be loved?
How many of my friends would I trust with my life?
Who has had the greatest impact on my life?
Would I break the law to save a loved one?
Would I steal to feed a starving child?
What do I want most in life?
What is life asking of me?
Which is worse: failing or never trying?
If I try to fail and succeed, what have I done?
What’s the one thing I’d like others to remember about me at the end of my life?
Does it really matter what others think about me?
To what degree have I actually controlled the course of my life?
When all is said and done, what will I have said more than I’ve done?

Finally, the following 30 prompts and questions are great ways to put your journal to use (Tartakovsky, 2014):

My favorite way to spend the day is . . .
If I could talk to my teenage self, the one thing I would say is . . .
The two moments I’ll never forget in my life are . . . (Describe them in great detail, and what makes them so unforgettable.)
Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.
“Write about a moment experienced through your body. Making love, making breakfast, going to a party, having a fight, an experience you’ve had or you imagine for your character. Leave out thought and emotion, and let all information be conveyed through the body and senses.”
The words I’d like to live by are . . .
I couldn’t imagine living without . . .
When I’m in pain—physical or emotional—the kindest thing I can do for myself is . . .
Make a list of the people in your life who genuinely support you, and whom you can genuinely trust. Then, make time to hang out with them.
What does unconditional love look like for you?
What things would you do if you loved yourself unconditionally? How can you act on these things, even if you’re not yet able to love yourself unconditionally?
I really wish others knew this about me . . .
Name what is enough for you.
If my body could talk, it would say . . .
Name a compassionate way you’ve supported a friend recently. Then, write down how you can do the same for yourself.
What do you love about life?
What always brings tears to your eyes? (As Paulo Coelho has said, “Tears are words that need to be written.”)
Write about a time when your work felt real, necessary and satisfying to you, whether the work was paid or unpaid, professional or domestic, physical or mental.
Write about your first love—whether it’s a person, place or thing.
Using 10 words, describe yourself.
What’s surprised you the most about your life or life in general?
What can you learn from your biggest mistakes?
I feel most energized when . . .
“Write a list of questions to which you urgently need answers.”
Make a list of everything that inspires you—whether books, websites, quotes, people, paintings, stores, or stars in the sky.
What’s one topic you need to learn more about to help you live a more fulfilling life? (Then, follow through and learn more about that topic.)
I feel happiest in my skin when . . .
Make a list of everything you’d like to say no to.
Make a list of everything you’d like to say yes to.
Write the words you need to hear.

Self-Reflective Questions introspection psychology

For example, the five self-examination exercises listed below (Bates, 2012) are a good way to get started with self-reflection. They’re simple and easy to do, but they can familiarize you with the process for more in-depth reflection in the future.

Self-Examination Exercise 1

Consider whether or not you tend to analyze people or diagnose their problems for them without their encouragement or request.

Often when we hold information that has helped us to make sense of the world, we want to share it. This information, when unprompted and delivered to another person, sometimes doesn’t feel so good. They may feel like you are telling them that something about them is wrong, something that they might not necessarily agree with.

Remind yourself that this information needs to be asked for and not prescribed by you, no matter how valid it feels to pass it on (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 2

This is a good exercise if you tend to expend a lot of energy trying to understand what upsets you about another person’s actions. You may also spend a lot of energy thinking of ways to address that person about what upsets you.

Not only does this burn a lot of your energy, but it also can have an unintended effect on the person who has upset you. When you place a clear emphasis or focus on what is wrong when speaking with someone, it implies that you are dissatisfied and unhappy.

Usually, the issue you have is not something that is making you terribly unhappy, just an annoyance or irritation, so this doom and gloom is not the message you want to deliver. It’s just a single issue that needs attention, but it can seem much bigger and more pervasive to the person you are planning to discuss it with.

Try to remind yourself that this problem, no matter how valid an issue it is or how important it is to you, is not the whole of your feelings. When you deliver this information, remember that a person who loves you does not want to be the cause of your unhappiness—do not make them feel an unnecessary amount of pain as a result of the unhappiness they’ve caused you.

Download 3 Free Self-Compassion Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you to help others create a kinder and more nurturing relationship with themselves.

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By filling out your name and email address below.

Self-Examination Exercise 3

Do you frequently interrupt people or constantly think of your own stories to share while they are talking? If you’re like a lot of social people, the answer is probably yes.

In order to relate to others, we have to share a little bit of ourselves with them—your stories can help you establish common ground with others or make you closer with them. However, if you’re only focused on sharing your stories, it can distract you from the greater purpose of a conversation.

In our eagerness to relate, please, entertain, and share, we often remove ourselves from the present, reducing our ability to be sensitive and engaged listeners. Even if we spend our whole lives trying to be good listeners , sometimes we slip out of practice in empathizing or identifying with the person we’re talking to, or we lose an opportunity to comfort or entertain the other person.

Next time you have a conversation with a loved one and you find yourself thinking ahead of them, take a moment to pause and truly listen. Don’t think about how you can personally identify with what they are talking about, and don’t search your memory bank for a relevant story of your own—just listen.

It’s a rewarding experience to truly soak in what another person is saying, both for you and the other person (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 4

Sometimes when we work very hard to do good things, we get to a level of comfort with that fact, and we begin to talk about it to others. That can be a great thing in that it allows us to own our efforts and our actions and, with that, acknowledge our goodness to ourselves.

But for this exercise, consider how you might feel if you were to do things that are good, but only for your own knowledge. The next time you do something really wonderful, try keeping that wonderful thing to yourself and not sharing it with anyone.

Often when a person is good and loving, they don’t have to tell anyone; it’s a truth that shines from every angle of their person. As an experiment, keep some knowledge to yourself, as a gift to you (Bates, 2012).

Self-Examination Exercise 5

For this exercise, you need only to do one thing: Consider what you don’t know.

When we get to a place of comfort in our skin and in the world, we tend to lose the ability to see things from a different perspective. Things make sense to us in our own point of view, so what’s left to know?

Everything, it turns out.

By this, we mean to try and remind yourself of these facts: You cannot know or understand everything, and you are not the judge of what is right for another person.

You can neither read minds nor know what the future holds. You can only exist in one moment at a time, and you are changing every day.

Trust that sometimes others know themselves and their lives better than you ever could. Listen with the awareness that you might learn something new.

Be open to the fact that you might one day feel totally different about something that you believe to be fixed—and that includes your sticking points, the “unchangeables” you thought were forever set in stone. Let what you don’t know and can’t know be a comfort rather than something to fear, because it means that anything is possible (Bates, 2012).

Once you have found your footing with these self-examination exercises, the following introspective exercises are a great next step.

4 Self-reflection technique – OER Africa

Affirmations

Creating affirmations is a helpful way to clear your mind and put things in perspective. Affirmations can be defined as positive phrases or statements used to challenge negative or unhelpful thoughts .

For this exercise, write a list of at least 50 affirmations. They should address what you want to embrace, improve, and achieve in your life.

Follow these instructions when composing and practicing your affirmations:

Write the affirmations in the present tense and be sure to use the word “I” throughout the affirmations;
Focus on the things that are occurring now that will lead to your future success. You may have negative thoughts pop up, but do your best to let go of the negative thoughts and replace them with positive thinking;
Repeat your affirmations aloud to help reprogram your mind with more positive thoughts.

Following these steps can help you open yourself up to the positive in your life and take steps that will lead you to the future you want (Holothink, n.d.).

Subconscious Mind Exercise

In this exercise, you will dive into your subconscious. Don’t worry, it’s not as painful or scary as it sounds!

Your subconscious mind is where your self-image is stored. All of your attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values are stored deep in your subconscious, driving your behavior and forming the core of who you are.

We don’t often take time to think about ourselves on this level. So in this exercise, take some time and put a concerted effort into thinking about your attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values. It may take a few sessions of self-reflection to really uncover your core beliefs, but it’s worth the effort it takes to learn about yourself.

Reflecting on this core component of yourself will help you gain greater self-awareness . Much like meditation, it will help you achieve a new, higher level of consciousness, and it may just help you find valuable information and answers about yourself and your beliefs (Holothink, n.d.).

Visualization Exercise

This exercise offers you an opportunity to put your creativity to use.

Create a box, a vision board, or some other medium to store and display who you are and what your hopes and dreams are for the future. You can create or decorate your box or board however you’d like. Use whatever you feel represents yourself and what’s important to you.

Place pictures, words, drawings, poems, or small items of personal significance on your board or in your box. The more details you include, the better.

The end result is a visual representation of yourself and what you love. Come back to the box or board when you’re having a dilemma or trying to figure out the best course of action, and draw from this visual representation of yourself to help you make decisions (Holothink, n.d.).

For this exercise, feel free to put your imagination to good use—the sky’s the limit when it comes to visualization.

Questions About Yourself

This exercise is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. All you need to do is ask yourself some questions.

Ask yourself questions about yourself. Write down the questions, then write down your answers to the questions. Ask yourself about your past, present, and future, and compose answers to the questions that are positive, insightful, and motivating to you.

Don’t worry about coming up with the “right” answers—there aren’t any right answers, and your answers will likely change over time. And be as creative as you’d like with the questions and answers since no one else needs to answer or read them but you.

Be sure to structure your questions to include details about your hopes and dreams. The more detailed your questions and answers, the more opportunity you have to dig into some valuable self-reflection (Holothink, n.d.).

Write and Reflect

Journaling is great for many reasons, and it can be used in several applications for introspection.

For this exercise, get a journal , diary, or notebook with plenty of pages to write in.

Every day, write down three things in your journal:

At least one positive thing that happened to or around you today;
A question for yourself (you can use one of the questions from the previous exercise, a question from the lists we covered earlier, or something entirely new), but don’t answer it yet;
A reflection on the question you wrote the previous day for yourself and an answer to it.

Following these steps, you will write only the first two components on the first day but will write three components every day thereafter (Holothink, n.d.).

Self-Awareness Worksheet

This worksheet is a treasure trove of exercises and ideas to help you think about yourself, including your talents, qualities, values, and perceptions.

The point of this worksheet is to help you know and understand:

Your beliefs and principles;
What you value and what is important to you;
What motivates you;
Your own emotions ;
Your thinking patterns;
Your tendencies to react to certain situations;
What you want out of life.

There are several sections to this worksheet, each of which has its own set of questions and prompts:

– Talents

What are your greatest talents or skills?
Which of your talents or skills gives you the greatest sense of pride or satisfaction?

– Traits/Qualities

What are your five greatest strengths?
What do you feel are your two biggest weaknesses?
What qualities or traits do you most admire in others?

– Values

What are ten things that are really important to you?
What are the three most important things to you?
What are the values that you hold nearest to your heart?

– Perception

How is the “public you” different from the “private you”?
What do you want people to think and say about you?
Is it more important to be liked by others or to be yourself? Why?

– Accomplishments

What three things are you most proud of in your life to date?
What do you hope to achieve in life?
If you could accomplish only one thing before you died, what would it be?

– Reflection

What is something that represents you (e.g., song, animal, flower, poem, symbol, jewelry, etc.)? Why?
What three things would you like to change most about yourself?
List three things that you are.

– Finish the Sentence

In the final section, you will be shown several prompts to complete:

I do my best when . . .
I struggle when . . .
I am comfortable when . . .
I feel stress when . . .
I am courageous when . . .
One of the most important things I learned was . . .
I missed a great opportunity when . . .
One of my favorite memories is . . .
My toughest decisions involve . . .
Being myself is hard because . . .
I can be myself when . . .
I wish I were more . . .
I wish I could . . .
I wish I would regularly . . .
I wish I had . . .
I wish I knew . . .
I wish I felt . . .
I wish I saw . . .
I wish I thought . . .
Life should be about . . .
I am going to make my life about . . .

Once you finish this worksheet, you should have plenty of insight into who you really are and what is most important to you. Use your answers to inform your decisions about what goals you choose to strive toward, what you would like to do in the future, and what moves to make next.

You can view, download, or print this worksheet for yourself.

The average human has more than 50,000 thoughts per day; more than half of them are negative, and more than 90% are just a repetition from the day before (Wood, 2013).

This means refocusing your mind on positive thoughts through introspection is essential for personal ascendance and growth. Most people take the end of the year as an opportunity to reflect on the past and set goals for the following year. However, reflections and introspection are critical at any point in time and enable your clients to grow.

Wilhelm Wundt developed the concept of introspection in the late 1800s (McLeod, 2008). According to him, introspection is focused on thoughts, images, and feelings. Introspective questions are often used in the field of cognitive psychology.

Understanding your clients allows you to learn more about their values, internal thoughts, and feelings. Furthermore, it takes the focus away from fast-paced lives and allows your client to be in the present moment and refocus on fulfillment (Wood, 2013).

Besides asking your client reflective questions, another tip is to practice active listening. Being able to stay entirely in the present moment without interruption or projecting your own story onto someone is key to helping your clients flourish. When the urge to share your story arises, pause and take the time to listen.

Tool 1: Persona

Before moving on to the empathy map below, first create a “persona,” or a clear character representation of your actual self, your ideal self, and your “ought” self (Kos, n.d.).

In order to create this persona, you will need to thoroughly analyze who you are, who you want to become, and what the social expectations connected to your feelings and behaviors are like in different situations.

Answering questions like the following can help you define these three important selves:

Why do I want to become [enter a characteristic important to you] ? Who in my life was or is like that?
Who would I be proud if I were [enter a characteristic important to you] ? Why?
How are my feelings in certain situations connected with my actual, ideal, and ought self?
Am I pushing myself to be something I’m actually not?
Am I being something I’m not just because others expect it of me?

Use your answers to these questions to help you get an idea of who you are, who you want to be, and who you feel you ought to be. Once this preparation has been completed, move on to creating an empathy map.

Tool 2: Empathy Map

An empathy map can help you engage in a valuable and informative process of self-reflection, using all of your senses to help you identify your needs and the disconnections between what you say and what you do (Kos, n.d.). Don’t worry—we all have a disconnect between what we say and what we do.

This exercise can help you figure out where you have these disconnects and how you can best address them to become the person you want to be.

To create your empathy map, simply draw four quadrants on a piece of paper. Each quadrant represents a different aspect of yourself:

Next, consider a situation that evokes a specific strong emotion in you, like having a fight with your spouse or significant other. In each quadrant, write down the relevant aspects of each perspective.

For example, for the fight scenario, you could write down something like the following:

Seeing: What are some of the things you saw during the situation?
Doing: What actions did you do and which behaviors did you notice in yourself? What is the behavioral pattern you can identify?
Thinking: What were you thinking in that situation? What does this tell you about your beliefs?
Feeling: What emotions were you feeling? Why? Which past situation do they most remind you of?

On the backside of your piece of paper, on another piece of paper, or next to your four quadrants, create a fifth section. Here, you will write down your insights and ideas based on your empathy map.

The following questions can help you with the self-reflection process while you’re working on your map:

How is the situation connected to your fears and hopes? What are your fears? What are your hopes? Which of your needs are met or not met in that situation?
What was the environment in which you encountered the situation? What do you remember from the environment? How did you find yourself in that environment and why? What was your sight focused on?
What hurts you most in the situation or makes you feel good about the situation?
What was the feedback you gathered from your environment or other people?
What are all the positives about the situation? What can you learn about yourself, others, and the world by experiencing that kind of a situation?

Do your best to avoid falling prey to cognitive distortions or reinforcing negative feelings while answering these questions. Go deep, and identify why you feel like you do. Observe, but don’t judge (Kos, n.d.).

Tool 3: Life Satisfaction Chart

A life satisfaction chart is a great way to assess how well you are meeting your goals and furthering your hopes for the future. You can complete this chart periodically to track your progress toward your goals and see what needs to be revised, improved, reduced, or eliminated to help you strive toward them.

Draw a scale from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied) horizontally, and list the following ten areas of life vertically:

Relationships;
Competencies;
Spirituality ;
Technology.

Assess your satisfaction in each of the 10 areas using the scale you created.

Next, take a second look at all the areas where you are only somewhat satisfied (where you used a rating between 4 and 7). It can be hard to effectively reflect when you don’t have a clear idea of whether you are satisfied with a specific area or not.

Go back through these “somewhat satisfied” areas and rate your satisfaction again, but use only ratings between 1 and 3 or 8 and 10. Limiting your options to either “very satisfied” or “not very satisfied” will help you to make a more decisive judgment about your satisfaction in each area.

Highlight every section rated with a 1, 2, or 3 with red, and highlight every section rated with an 8, 9, or 10 with green. Finally, for all ten areas of life, ask yourself, Why did you rate each area how you did? What would make you change your rating?

Repeat this exercise as often as you’d like to help you keep track of your satisfaction with the way your life is going (Kos, n.d.).

17 Exercises To Foster Self-Acceptance and Compassion

Help your clients develop a kinder, more accepting relationship with themselves using these 17 Self-Compassion Exercises [PDF] that promote self-care and self-compassion.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

There are many books out there on self-reflection, self-awareness , and introspection, but we recommend the books below as resources to help you start your journey.

1. Question Your Life: Naikan Self-Reflection and the Transformation of Our Stories – Gregg Krech

Question Your Life: Naikan Self-Reflection and the Transformation of Our Stories by Gregg Krech

Like the physical bags we carry when we go on a journey, our hearts and our minds only have so much room—but instead of carrying luggage, they carry stories. Some stories inform our lives and help us understand ourselves, while others don’t serve a purpose and can weigh us down.

In this book, Krech will guide the reader through several powerful examples of people who had an important change of heart or mind as a result of quiet self-reflection, including a woman who hated her mother, a man estranged from his father, a pregnant woman hit by a train, a couple who was struggling with their marriage, and a rabbi who neglected his shoes.

Read this book to open yourself up to seeing the world differently, and finding a better path forward.

You can find it on Amazon .

2. Being Present: A Book of Daily Reflections – David Kundtz

Being Present: A Book of Daily Reflections by David Kundtz

Being present can be defined as:

Paying full attention to what is going on right now;
Staying in the moment;
Observing what is, without criticism or judgment;
Having a balanced concern for things exactly as they are;
Accepting whatever experience one is having;
Having an awake participation in ongoing life.

You can use this book as a reminder to be more present through every season of the year and every season of life. The book draws inspiration from poets, scientists, spiritual teachers, children, butterflies, and big cities, and teaches you to accept each day as one full of possibilities and potential surprises.

3. 52 Weeks of Self Reflection – Erika R. Dawkins

You can use this book to guide you through self-reflection. No matter your goal, this guidebook will help you clear your head, see the world from a new perspective, and build a greater understanding of yourself.

In this piece, we defined introspection, described the importance of self-reflection (especially healthy self-reflection), and provided many example exercises, activities, and worksheets for you to enhance your understanding of yourself.

Keep in mind that self-reflection is an intensely personal process. If you find other activities that work better for you, feel free to focus on those—but we’d love for you to come back here and share with us what works.

Do you have any other techniques for self-reflection that you like to use? How important do you think introspection is for the average person, or for yourself? Let us know in the comments.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Self Compassion Exercises for free .

Bates, S. M. (2012, November 11). Check yo’ self: An exercise in self-reflection. Hello Giggles. Retrieved from https://hellogiggles.com/fashion/check-yo-self-an-exercise-in-self-reflection/
Cherry, K. (2016, June 14). What is introspection? Wundt’s experimental technique. Very Well. Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-introspection-2795252
Dahl, M. (2017). Sometimes ‘introspection’ is you just making stuff up. Science of Us. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/03/sometimes-introspection-is-you-just-making-stuff-up.html
Eurich, T. (2017). The right way to be introspective (yes, there’s a wrong way). TED. Retrieved from https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/
Holothink. (n.d.). The art of self-reflection – 5 exercises to find peace in your life. Holothink.org. Retrieved from https://holothink.org/the-art-of-self-reflection-%E2%80%93-5-exercises-to-find-peace-in-your-life/
Kos, B. (n.d.). Tools to help you with self-reflection. Agile Lean Life. Retrieved from https://agileleanlife.com/tools-to-help-you-with-self-reflection/
McLeod, S. (2008). Wilhelm Wundt. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/wundt.html
Tartakovsky, M. (2014). 30 journaling prompts for self-reflection and self-discovery. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/09/27/30-journaling-prompts-for-self-reflection-and-self-discovery/
William, D. K. (n.d.). 30 thought-provoking questions you should ask yourself every day. Lifehack. Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/30-thought-provoking-questions-you-should-ask-yourself-every-day.html
Wood, K. (2013). The lost art of introspection: Why you must master yourself. Expert Enough. Retrieved from http://expertenough.com/2990/the-lost-art-of-introspection-why-you-must-master-yourself
Woronko, M. (n.d.). The power of self-reflection: Ten questions you should ask yourself. Lifehack. Retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-power-self-reflection-ten-questions-you-should-ask-yourself.html

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Fantastic article and each of the Reflective Question is like a light house taking us deep inside of our life experiences. Thank You with deep appreciation in preparing this.

Great article! Self-reflection is necessary for improvement!

A very informative article. I learned alot.

I would say ”Best” information I’ve ever read about Self-reflection

I am really impressed with your writing style. Keep it up. The way you explain a complex topic in an easy to understand way is really impressive. Thanks for your inspiring thoughts which guided me well during my journey and gave me the hope I was looking for in personal and professional life. Hats off for this content…

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Starting 2020 with Mindful Self-reflection Practices

By: Other | January 2, 2020

Written by Kimberly Nenemay, Psy.D.

The end of the year and the decade presents a natural pause to take time for self-reflection. One can reflect by asking questions such as “did this go as planned?” or “did this go right?” We may find ourselves thinking in black and white terms such as “did I have a good year or a bad one?”

What if we use mindfulness instead as a tool for self-reflecting? Mindful reflection allows one to reflect without judgment but with curiosity and openness to our experiences, thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness originated in Eastern thought and philosophy espousing the idea of being fully present and in the moment to one’s experience with acceptance and without judgment. Within psychology, practitioners utilized the concept since the 1970s and became more mainstream over the past several years. In the mindful state, one does not worry about the past or the future but does accept the present moment’s experience. As a psychologist, I often work with clients using mindful practices to ease the stress and anxiety of everyday life or worries about the past or the future.

So, how would we use mindfulness when we reflect on our past year and decade while looking into the future? Hello 2020!

Self-reflection

We define self-reflection as a “meditation or serious thought about one’s character, actions, and motives” or “careful thoughts about one’s own behavior and beliefs.” Adding a self-reflective component to a mindfulness practice can enhance the experience of assessing our thoughts, behaviors, motives, and the resulting consequences in our lives.

Learning from the Past

Essential components to growing and learning include the ability to learn from our past. Adding a mindful concept to the practice of self-reflection adds a layer of acceptance and non-judgment. Not in the sense of accepting one’s own behavior to rationalize away the need for change but rather changing through more acceptance and non-judgment. In this way, we enhance our ability to move forward without shame or guilt.

Enhancing Relationship with Self

Change can only start by looking within. Through mindful self-reflection, one begins to live a life more in line with one’s value system. How often do we hear about those who felt joy and freedom after taking the leap to leave a soul-sucking job or an unhealthy relationship that no longer served them? Brené Brown writes in her book entitled Rising Strongly about the process of “being brave, falling and getting back up.” Through extensive research, she learned that people who rise “are not afraid to lean into discomfort.” Through self-reflection, we can begin to lean further into these areas of discomfort and perhaps lead more authentic lives.

Enhancing Relationships

Through mindful self-reflection, we can not only enhance our relationship with ourselves but with others. Through questioning, you can begin to assess your relationships with others. “Do I treat others as I would want to be treated?” When looking within, and when there are points to change, one can then begin to take action and change how we interact with others. In turn, relationships can become more fulfilling, in turn making ourselves happier. Relationships wherein you can trust and lean-on others have proven to enhance the sense of happiness in life.

Questions for Self-reflection :

Do I live up to my value system? If not, why not? If so, what allowed me to do this?
Do I surround myself with people who uplift me and my values? If not, what holds me back? If so, how do I express my gratitude to the people within those relationships?
Am I a model of behavior and value systems for my children? If not, what can I do to change this?
Are there areas of my life that have not worked well for me? Are there areas of my life that HAVE worked well?
Am I happy in my career? If not, how can I make my work experience better for me? Do I need to start the process of changing careers?
Do I take care of myself? If not, why not? How can I add self-care to my daily practice?

These represent only a few examples of questions to ask yourself. By being in the moment with a daily mindfulness practice, you begin to become more in tune with yourself and others. We often live on auto-pilot with the pressures of modern life. Only when we slow down can we fully appreciate those little moments. With self-reflection we can make changes or continue the practices that lead us to live happier lives.

As we begin the year 2020, I invite you to pause, reflect, and reset. An enhanced mindful practice can surely lead you to a healthy, happy, peaceful New Year and decade to come!

Image: *natalia altamirano lucas* on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0

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Being present, focusing on images, appreciating goodness: these are the foundations of mindful writing. Writing for mindfulness is a skill that any writer can develop, helping you to sharpen your language and keep it succinct.

What are the foundations of mindful writing? Let’s explore what writing for mindfulness means in depth.

What “Mindful Writing” Means

I’m very influenced by the simple instructions of Padmasambhava, the Indian meditation master who established tantric Buddhism in Tibet: “Don’t recall the past, don’t anticipate the future, remain in the present, leave your mind alone.”

That sentiment— leave your mind alone —defines the essence of mindful writing: it’s a process of documenting, rather than reining or controlling, the mind.

Mindfulness: leave your mind alone.

Mindfulness contrasts another approach, that of the academic poets that tend to end up in The New Yorker. These writers polish, polish, polish, so that there’s very little sign of that original graph of the mind moving.

How Mindfulness Combats the Inner Critic

Writing for mindfulness really helps us get out of our own way. It’s a safer way to suspend the inner critic than what was often the tradition, which was to get drunk or high.

Writing for mindfulness really helps us get out of our own way. It’s a safer way to suspend the inner critic.

When there’s a mechanical thing—when you’re sitting down to meditate or to write—you no longer sit down saying, “Gee, I hope I write something really mind-blowing. I’m feeling inspired.”

William Burroughs once said, “When I’m feeling inspired when I’m writing, I throw it away.” I don’t know if he did that, but there’s something to that. The feeling of inspiration really has little to do with what appears on the page. I often don’t know whether I’ve written a good poem until a month later.

Without that sort of excessive criticism, internal or external, I think we find more joy in the writing process—rather than hunting some sort of success, which doesn’t really seem to have much to do with the haiku moments of existence (the real pleasures).

Marc's Upcoming Courses:

Observing What’s Vivid in Prose and Poetry

June 26th, 2024

Learn how to spotlight beauty through fresh, vivid, and surprising language, in this four week mindfulness writing course.

Writing Mindfulness: Sensual World/Poetry Mind

September 25th, 2024

A four-week class, melding the language mind with the sensual: How to turn detailed observation into a poem. With Marc Olmsted.

How Mindfulness Can Improve Your Writing

The mindfulness establishes a certain grounded quality, a sort of calm abiding. And in that grounded quality, one is able to observe what’s going on in the mind and to allow spontaneous insight as it arises.

That mindfulness quality is what we see in things like haiku and other popular forms of Asian poetry: the observation of things unadorned, without any sort of editorial about them. They come out, you see them, and it’s like a snapshot or a little movie.

That quality of mindfulness seems to offer a wonderful way to improve one’s poetry writing: if you emphasize image rather than editorial language, you often have greater poetry. Everyone knows you can say “I’m sad,” “the world is messed up,” “I’m really angry at this president,” that sort of thing. But observation through mindfulness—of what’s going on in the body, maybe, or of happening to glance up at a billboard in a moment of thought and there’s a synchronicity—these observations allow one to look for phenomena directly: what’s in the mind and in the world, in a way that doesn’t really need to be glossed, cleaned up, or romanticized, that is quite amazing in and of itself. There’s a long tradition of art having this echo of the sacredness of the world, and we can certainly use more of that.

7 Tenets of Mindful Writing

1. mindful writing: when the mind wanders, gently bring it back.

Of course, the mind wanders, so what do you do with that? The mind wanders on the page, as well. In the case of writing, what happens is you can just cut that part later. You bring the mind back, you just keep writing.

2. Mindful Writing: First Thought, Best Thought

You may have heard of the phrase “First thought, best thought.” This came up in a conversation between Tibetan lama Chogyam Trungpa and his student, poet Allen Ginsberg . Ginsberg later clarified. “First thought, no thought, then see what comes up.” In other words, there are gaps between thoughts, and rather than sit like a cat ready to pounce, “Is this the first thought? Is THIS? How about this one?”

Instead, we just observe and learn to start writing down which rises into our heads. And why do that? Because inspiration is uncontrollable: it rises when it rises. It seems to have something to do with spontaneity. The tighter we are, the more we try to generate something “important,” and the less likely anything on the page is very good.

And that sensibility connects Trungpa and Ginsberg, and before them Kerouac, Joyce, and really all the way back to Shakespeare—who, according to Ben Jonson, “never blotted a line”—and is very much a part of this idea of writing for mindfulness, which is a graph of the mind moving. It’s a Beat approach that is spontaneous, raw, and conversational.

Mindfulness: a graph of the mind moving.

Ginsberg emphasized, “Keep all the first drafts.” That doesn’t mean that the first draft is always good, by any means—I think there has to be some craft or discipline—but a lot of us write over our first draft. We polish, and then polish that, and polish that, and we lose what we initially wrote down. We have no way of going back and seeing what the original was, which, in many ways, might have said it better.

3. Mindful Writing: Being Here, Now and Beyond

So the point of being present is not just to enjoy the moment. There is a constant strobing of thoughts. The awareness of that strobing and the gaps between those flashing thoughts slowly introduces the insight that we are more a process than a solid fixed entity, more a verb than a noun, to paraphrase Buckminster Fuller . This seems akin to being “in the zone” that runners or musicians sometimes describe.

4. Mindful Writing: Snapshot Poetics

Snapshot poetics is a phrase of Ginsberg’s. This mindfulness quality is what we see in things like haiku and other popular forms of Asian poetry: the observation of things unadorned, without any sort of editorial about them. They come, you see them, and it’s like a snapshot or a little movie. In mindful writing the same can be done with our interior mental world—our memories and dreams.

5. Mindful Writing: No Ideas But In Things

This is a phrase of William Carlos Williams . The quality of mindfulness seems to offer a wonderful way to improve one’s poetry writing: if you emphasize image rather than editorial language, you often have greater poetry. Everyone knows you can say “I’m sad,” “the world is messed up,” “I’m really angry at this president,” that sort of thing.

But observation through mindfulness—of what’s going on in the body, maybe, or of happening to glance up at a billboard in a moment of thought and there’s a synchronicity—these observations allow one to look for phenomena directly: what’s in the mind and in the world, in a way that doesn’t really need to be glossed, cleaned up, or romanticized, that is quite amazing in and of itself. There’s a long tradition of art having this echo of the sacredness of the world, and we can certainly use more of that. That sacredness is appreciation without grasping tightly, whether one believes in God or not.

Mindfulness: appreciation without grasping tightly.

6. Mindful Writing: Basic Goodness

From that sort of appreciation, a kind of empathy rises, and a generosity, warmth. I think that comes pretty quickly in anyone’s experience of sitting meditation—the idea that there’s some worth that’s not based on one’s appearance, wealth, success or lack of it: just a basic goodness, as Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche said. We can write from that without ignoring what comes up, the fact that existence is very bittersweet, that the world is often a “shit show.”

It’s okay to write about one’s depression, loneliness, anger, but if we’ve begun to make friends with that, there’s the possibility of being more authentic. Walt Whitman called that “candor.” We can give voice to the voiceless, assuring others they’re not alone.

7. Mindful Writing: Sacred View / Empathetic Conduct

Ultimately, basic calm abiding allows for the development of sacred view and empathetic conduct. I think the best writing contains both these qualities. Take Shakespeare. Everybody knows Shakespeare’s great, and a lot of it has to do with this incredible recognition of the human condition—without judgement, really.

Go Deeper in Mindful Writing

There’s much more to say about the foundations of writing mindfully. For an in-depth video interview exploring mindful writing, see below:

Explore Mindful Writing at Writers.com

Mindful writing can be practiced anywhere, but if you’re looking to learn more about the practice, take a look at my course Writing Mindfulness: Sensual World/Poetry Mind .

Mindfulness

How mindfulness can tame anxiety, how mindfulness can help find ease in the midst of life's angst..

Posted May 9, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

What Is Mindfulness?
Find a mindfulness-based counsellor
Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for managing anxiety by helping us relate differently to our thoughts.
Mindful awareness helps us notice thoughts from a half-step back and creates space for self-compassion.
Mindfulness helps us notice the narratives our mind constructs, to discern what is actually there.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve noticed that I’ve been feeling more anxious than usual. For me, as it is for many people, the theme has to do with uncertainty, not having control, and not being able to predict the outcome of certain future events. Despite my profession as a psychologist, unfortunately I don’t get a pass on this emotion . However, I came across a personal journal entry from a while back that was a helpful reminder to me of how mindfulness has become my ally over the years in working with anxiety . Here are some ways that mindfulness has helped me when I’m feeling anxious, and how it can help you. (Give it a try, even if you have never practiced mindfulness!)

Mindfulness helps us notice from a half-step back

At the time of this journal entry, one of my children was traveling abroad and I lost contact with her. Rationally I knew she was having trouble getting cell service and may be out of range for stretches of time. However, that knowledge did not stop the anxiety from coming in full force, when my texts went unanswered for what felt like an interminable period of time. Sitting with the uncertainty and waiting was very difficult. Being swallowed up in the anxiety felt unbearable. Yet here is where mindfulness became my friend.

Instead of thinking to myself “I’m so anxious”, I found it helpful to say, “I’m noticing anxiety in my body and I’m noticing worry thoughts zooming through my mind.” Naming what was arising helped create a little bit of space between my direct experience and the witnessing self. In that space, there was an opportunity to breathe – to literally remember to connect in with my breath. Following my breath brought me out of my head and helped to calm my body, and it helped to ease the tension there just a few notches.

Instead of staying completely caught in my anxiety, as I would have in the past, I was able to notice it, and observe it from a slight distance. It was still happening, but I was able to see it instead of being completely swallowed up whole within it.

Mindfulness helps us notice the stories in our heads and brings us back to what is actually happening

Besides noticing the physical sensation of tension in my muscles and being “on edge” in my body, I noticed my mind pulling me into future imagined fears, as well as reliving past ones that were not relevant to this situation. My mind seems to love to do this more often than I’d care to admit, looping and ruminating in unhelpful ways. I might not be able to stop this, but when I can see it happening, in that seeing there is an opportunity to catch myself and step back into this moment.

In these moments of coming back, I can step out of the story in my head and feel my feet back on the ground (literally), connecting myself to the floor beneath me, and to the present, to what is actually here. When I can see my mind jumping from A to Z, I can remind myself that I am only at A, or maybe B. I don’t have to live at Z. I can come back, again and again.

When I am able to step out of my tunnel vision closing in on me, I can also see the beauty of the woods out my window and notice the sun (hidden for so many days) shimmering through the trees. I can come back to the facts of the situation (my child has not yet responded to my text) and recognize the element of story my mind is embellishing (something bad has happened, she's not OK).

Mindfulness creates a space for self-compassion

Mindfulness also offers something else for me. It reminds me to bring compassion to myself and to what I am experiencing. It allows me to turn towards what I am feeling and sit with my fear the way I might sit with a good friend, or a small child. Life is hard sometimes. As someone who experienced loss at an early age, I know that as much as I like to grasp onto the illusion of control, there is much that is out of my control. This is a hard truth. When I can rest in a mindful space and accept myself for whatever I’m feeling, there is more ease to bear whatever is happening. Instead of disconnecting from myself (e.g., by pushing my feelings away or judging myself for how I’m feeling), I remain on my own side.

How to cultivate the mindful view

To become a compassionate mindful witness, I like to think of the metaphor of sitting in the audience watching a performance on stage (something I refer to as the “Audience view” in my newest book ). When I am gripped by anxiety, I am like the actor on stage, caught in the drama. When I take the “audience view” there is an observing self that notices from the audience that Beth is anxious. This aware self sees what is arising without identifying with it. Importantly, this aware self is not dispassionate but has an attitude of caring attention (think watching a niece or nephew at a school play). From the audience view, I can notice what is happening from a wider perspective than the small self on stage.

Shift your vantage point. Imagine sitting in the audience, being able to see the thoughts and emotions of the moment like actors coming and going on the stage.
Talk to yourself in the third person (e.g., I notice that Beth is having a difficult time right now...). Use the language “I notice that…” to name emotions and thoughts that are present (e.g., I notice that Beth is feeling a lot of fear in her chest right now; I notice that Beth is having a lot of irrational and catastrophic thoughts). Interesting research suggests that talking to yourself in the third person can increase emotional regulation .
Ask what is actually here. Look for the facts. Whatever is here (it might be difficult), focus on how you might take care of yourself, or take wise or skillful actions if there is anything that might be helpful in the moment. Be kind to yourself for whatever you are feeling.

Anxiety and the uncertainties in life that go along with it are part of our human condition. Thankfully in the moment I described above, I got a text from my daughter (big sigh of relief). Now, again, I find myself with uncertainty about other things.

What I can be certain of is this: We all experience anxiety from time to time. Cultivating mindful awareness to help us notice what is arising, and to separate out what is actually happening from the stories in our heads, can create a bit of breathing space in which to remind ourselves to come back to this moment. And in this moment, we can sit with ourselves, side by side with our fears, wrapped in the loving arms of compassion – and know that we are not alone.

Beth Kurland, Ph.D. , is a clinical psychologist, TedX and public speaker, mind-body coach, and author of four books. Her newest book is You Don’t Have to Change to Change Everything.

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Mindfulness in General Essays

Introduction to the Blog on Mindfulness (First Essay)

The purpose of this blog is to promote conversation about mindfulness. My practice of mindfulness is an important part of my clinical work as a Pastoral Counselor. Mindfulness is an ancient idea that describes a very natural state of mind: being focused, alert, relaxed, non-judgmental, and open. Babies are very mindful! Each of us can be too, it’s just a matter of instruction and practice.

The Buddhist traditions have the most to say of all of the religions about mindfulness. You’ll find a lot of inspired literature across all religions of course, but the Buddhists seem to have it best. Cognitive psychology has discovered mindfulness and the synergies between the two are strong. I teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is an eight week program (developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; most often associated with Jon Kabat-Zinn) that integrates instruction in meditative techniques with insights from cognitive therapy. Of all of the therapeutic styles that I’ve employed in my work, MBSR is easily the most powerful and life-changing.

My hope for this blog is to bring useful materials to anyone seeking to learn more about mindfulness and to begin or sustain a practice. I also hope to find fellow meditators who might enjoy online discussion about this life giving practice. Welcome to my blog!

Meditation Issues

Yesterday marked the 10th time that I have had the pleasure of facilitating an all-day retreat as part of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. We had 14 participants, including four members of our existing “MBSR Alumni.” It also marked the second time that I co-facilitated the all-day retreat; Bill McCracken and I have been working together for over a year now as co-facilitators of the MBSR program.

During the retreat an important problem was raised and discussed. Though formal sitting practice is an essential part of the training, what should we do when we just don’t have the space in our schedule to apportion the time necessary for a meaningful meditation session? The reason that most of us were drawn to Mindfulness in general and MBSR in particular is because we’re so stressed out from the demands put on us by our jobs, families, and general manner of American living. If we had time to meditate, we might not be all that stressed out in the first place. It’s a difficult and paradoxical problem.

Bill and I had somewhat different takes on the problem as posed. Bill stated the need to “make time” no matter how difficult. He has a good point there. He went on to say that many times when we believe we’re too busy to meditate, it’s actually that the meditation would raise awareness of difficult issues, ones we’d rather avoid facing. The option to procrastinate and then to abandon the commitment to sit becomes very attractive; seductive, in a way.

I agree with Bill, to a point. But there truly are occasions when there’s not the time to settle in for a good period of practice. Not all decisions to “not meditate today” are open to psychological interpretation; sometimes the urgency to get on with our schedules and forego our meditations is just that, an urgency that cannot be denied. I think that those of us dedicated to following this path have to carefully discern our motives when we put off our meditation practice because of a demanding schedule.

However, that doesn’t mean we cannot cultivate mindfulness. Let’s not forget that meditation is a practice that we follow with the intention to cultivate mindfulness. To meditate is to be mindful, but the point of the meditation is to strengthen our mindfulness for the demands of even an ordinary day. If meditation is the tool and mindfulness is the result, what other tools might be available for us to cultivate mindfulness?

I’d like to address this question in my next post. For now, I’ll leave you with these thoughts. First, mindfulness is a natural mind-state; we all have it to one extent or another. Second, the degree to which a person is mindful fluctuates throughout the day. Third, a person can learn to remain mindful through most if not all of the events of the day, but it does take practice. Fourth, the mindful state is defined as the felt sense of having focus, being alert, and, most importantly, not judging the objects that come into one’s awareness. With these thoughts in mind, how might the overly taxed person cultivate deeper mindfulness despite being so pressed for time each day that maintaining a formal practice becomes difficult, if not impossible? More on this later, but your ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

More Meditation Issues

What a lovely week! I think I’m still feeling the after-effects of spending many hours meditating within the group last Saturday. Many blessings to all who shared in the day’s meditations.

My previous post posited this question: “If meditation is the tool and mindfulness is the result, what other tools might be available for us to cultivate mindfulness?” It’s a good question. It’s easy to think of this work as trying to achieve some end that’s “out there,” but the end we’re moving toward is already “in here”! Let’s discuss this a bit.

As stated previously, when we practice meditation it’s with the intention to cultivate a very natural state, that of being mindful. To be mindful simply means to be aware in the present moment of exactly what is happening without judgment. No bias, no yearning, no wishing the situation to be anything other than what it is. It’s easy to not judge the present moment when things are going smoothly, but are we also awake in those moments, noticing and, perhaps, savoring them? If the answer is yes, then we’re being mindful. And that’s a good place to start your work of everyday mindfulness, work that is not “formal sitting meditation” but, rather, a very naturalistic effort that pays enormous spiritual dividends.

As it turns out any moment in which we are awake to actual events, both internal and external (though all events are internal, but that’s another subject!), without bringing judgment into the situation is a mindful moment. ANY effort we put into our everyday life that leads to being mindful makes that moment a tool to cultivate stronger mindfulness. So I can be strengthening my mindfulness when I’m walking the dog, taking out the garbage, listening to a piece of music, running trails, reading a book, sipping coffee, gazing out a window, writing a letter….. There’s no end to the list because there’s no end to human activity. Remember, mindfulness is not a special “state” that is in any way “more than natural.” It’s a most natural state that can become more prevalent with practice.

The practice par excellence is formal meditation. There’s no better “brain exercise” than simply sitting, aware of breath, aware of perceptions, aware of sensations, aware of thoughts, aware of emotions. It doesn’t matter where your attention rests, because when you direct your attention non-judgmentally you’re establishing a mindful state. The formal practice allows for the greatest concentration and practice of lovingkindness for your self, your internal experiences, and all beings. But don’t overlook the 10,000 opportunities that your life offers to you to be practicing. Bring intentionality to each morning, afternoon, and evening. The moment you realize you’re being mindless make the shift, commit again, notice, breathe with it, accept. And you’re back!

One last item to enjoy. I found a brief article (link below) about the use of mindfulness to help men and women in the army avoid Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of their combat experiences. Fascinating reading.

Mindfulness Military

Even More Meditation Issues!

Our group sat yesterday as we do every month in Magdalena’s home. Once again we were graced with beautiful Ikebana as a centerpiece to our small community. Alstroemeria, or “Lily of the Incas,” is a hardy perennial, growing in its native Andes. It needs at least 6 hours of sunlight daily, but can survive to temperatures as low as 23 degrees F.

The work of mindfulness needs similar care. Like our friend Alstroemeria, there are certain qualities that must be attended to in order for our practice to survive and thrive. We must have intentionality if we are to be mindful. That is, there’s a need to bring focus to each day, each hour, and eventually each moment. Our formal practice helps us to look into the nature of our minds, learn how it works. Am I distressed by events, or is it the thought I am having about an event that is distressing me? Not all events that lead to distress are actually distressing; it’s good to know the actual source, so we can respond with skillfulness. With the intention to be mindful throughout our day firmly established in formal practice, we are ready to bring the equanimity of a compassionate observer to each moment of the day.

Another quality that our practice needs in order to survive and thrive is our attitude of radical acceptance. My first reaction is often to have aversion to what life is presenting to me in this moment. I find it so difficult to allow my body and mind to wrap around reality as it is occurring and commit myself to work with it as it actually is, rather than rail against it because it isn’t what I KNOW it should be. And thus I suffer, until my practice restores my acceptance.

This sitting, such a simple act, always available in the moment our intentionality and acceptance are restored, becomes our life. Like the Alstroemeria our lives abide moment to moment if we are open minded and open hearted. I felt tremendous joy yesterday gazing at the Alstroemeria. It needed nothing. There’s was nothing I could say or do that could make it better, or change it in any way. It was sufficient, just like each of us are sufficient, if only we have the intentionality and acceptance to realize it.

Off to run now. Good morning sit, a good run, maybe a good book. What a great day it is!

PS I also learned that Alstroemeria are very commonly used in bouquets, especially at weddings. So this is probably not the FIRST Alstroemeria I’ve ever met (literally), but it sure felt like it!

Mindfulness and Compassion

A local church asked me to address their assembly at a time later this year on the topic of “Self Compassion.” I have to admit it’s not something I’ve thought a lot about, either personally or philosophically. I’ve thought a lot about Compassion, though, as part of my personal journey and my professional activity. But the idea of extending Compassion to myself just hasn’t been on my radar.

Compassion, as defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” That certainly seems like a reasonable definition, and an excellent starting point for my mental meandering. Let’s take a close look at this definition.

First, you can’t help but notice the word “sympathetic” here. To have sympathy (going back to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary) is to have “an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other.” ”Consciousness” we’ll take to mean awareness, which leaves us with the object of our Compassion: “others’ distress.” Well, so far, we have three key words (Compassion, sympathy, and others) that are about someone else, not me. You can’t help but be struck by the paradoxical nature of the phrase in question, “self Compassion.” Is it even possible to have such a quality?

The answer is yes, but only if we twist our definitions a bit. We’ll start by looking at sympathy: Is it possible to have a relationship in which you notice what you, yourself, are feeling, so that some aspect of “you” is affected by another aspect of “you”? Next up is “others.” Again, is it possible for a person to regard him/herself as an “other”? The only way that I can fathom that these questions can be answered “yes” is from the perspective of mindfulness practice. Let me explain.

When we sit mindfully we begin to notice things. Generally we start with our breathing. That’s a good place to start; if you’re not breathing then you have bigger problems than this blog site can possibly address, so we can assume that there is a breathing process ready to be noticed. As we mentally observe our breathing we begin to notice that our mind wanders, rather easily as it turns out. Quite suddenly we may find ourselves remembering aspects of our day, picturing some place we plan to visit, hearing a good (or bad) song in our head, making a grocery list, planning an event, the possibilities are endless. So the meditation teacher gently reminds you that a wandering mind is typical and not to get worried about it, simply keep returning the wandering mind back to focus on the breath over and over again. So far so good.

But after a while the meditation teacher hears statements like this: “OK, I just spent several minutes with my mind noticing my breath. Then a thought arose, and my mind simply noticed the thought. Then a memory arose, and I simply noticed the memory.” Those statements are usually followed by a question that goes like this: ”OK, ‘I’ am watching ‘me.’ So, who is this ‘I’ and who is this ‘me’?” Now, THAT is an interesting question. Clearly, there’s only one “me” sitting on the meditation cushion, but at the same time there is clearly an observing consciousness that is experienced as somehow having a bit of separation from my immediate, direct experiencing.

This is a philosophical rabbit hole that I’m not going down in this post. But it IS an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it? In my mindful moment I’m “noticing” my own, personal reality. And when I’m mindful I find that my “personal reality” is simply something that “I,” whoever or whatever THAT is, am having, and I become very free to choose (hopefully) a skillful response.

Which brings me back to “Self Compassion.” One thing we know for sure is that life brings events that precipitate painful feelings, emotional or otherwise. One thing I’ve noticed about pain (maybe you have too) is that when I’m in any kind of pain it feels relentless, as if it has permeated me totally. It is very easy, when in pain, to become convinced that the pain is the new “me” and the old “me” is no longer available. Now, I think that’s a fundamental thinking error but the fact remains that when a person is in pain, it’s hard to separate any sense of “self” from the felt pain. The mindfulness meditator knows something about pain, however, because regular practice cultivates great skill at sitting with pain, making space for pain, abiding with pain, and being at peace with pain. In a nutshell, the mindful person has established a “relationship” with pain, a relationship that accepts pain as a typical part of life. You may be seeing where I’m going with this: the attitude of mindfulness tells me to become conscious of, feel, and accept “my” own pain (sympathy for my “self”). This seems to cover the first half of that definition of Compassion cited above: ”sympathetic consciousness of others’ (in this case the “personal reality” that my mind observes) distress.” Now I’m feeling better about this idea of Self Compassion. But there’s still another aspect of Compassion to consider.

“With a desire to alleviate it.” It is not enough to become sympathetically aware of my own distress, I have to want to bring relief to the pain that I am observing in my personal reality in order for this to be Compassion. And, moreover, I would like to add that a person’s capacity for Compassion, for others or self, may or may not be skilled. I have met well intentioned people who try to alleviate someone’s distress and, frankly, just are not very skilled at it (that’s pretty much what I talked about in the “Let It Be” post).

There is another potential problem that I see with this. How engaged should I be with relieving my own pain? I sense that one can become over-engaged, become preoccupied with relieving one’s own pain. It seems self-centered, and just doesn’t seem right. Being over-engaged with finding relief may distract me from seeing what’s going on around me; it may diminish my capacity to feel Compassion for others.

On the other hand, being under-engaged in relieving my pain seems a bit masochistic. History is filled with martyrs, but the martyrs we admire have allowed their own pain for the relief of the pain of others (think Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Steven Biko). I have to admit to having little patience with people who COULD bring relief to themselves but continue to live in great pain (and love to tell everyone about it!).

Clearly there’s a middle path to follow here. Pain is not necessarily an enemy. Sometimes pain is necessary. Anyone who has ever raised rebellious teens, only to see them mature into adults who appreciate the standards and values of their parents, knows what I mean. My mind goes back to acceptance; that is, living with pain as an inevitable part of life.

I think the key word we need to invoke here is “healing.” When my intention is to relieve my pain by regaining health, healing, I believe that I find the middle path between self-centeredness and masochistic martyrdom. To heal is “to make sound,” to restore to previous functioning, or, if restoration is not possible, to find the” new normal,” and accept a new reality. When we heal we may not look or think or feel like we once did, but usually the healed wound, scar tissue and all, is actually stronger and more durable than the skin (or relationship) that has been replaced.

And that, to me, is Self Compassion. It starts with an attitude that accepts pain as normal. It proceeds to investigate the potential for healing. Self Compassion leads me to seek healing, but invites me to consider emerging changes in my situation, and to embrace new realities. When I extend Compassion to myself I truly seek to relieve my suffering while accepting my pain. And I know that I’m the wiser for it, and probably more adept at extending Compassion to others. When I seek healing rather than restoration, I learn the lessons of acceptance, and gain clarity of mind and vision. My capacity for “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” becomes more deeply engrained; I become more fully human, to myself and to those around me. I become mindful.

Day to Day Mindfulness

Meditation is a formal practice. When I meditate I choose to take time in a reserved place to engage my mind in mental exercise. The exercise requires much exertion; I direct and redirect the wandering mind to my breath, to the sounds and other perceptions around me, to the stream of thoughts passing through my brain like boxcars in a train, or perhaps allow my direction to be choiceless, just noticing, not judging. The formal practice of meditation is necessary if one is to become mindful.

Mindfulness is an experience of being awake moment-to-moment non-judgmentally. When I meditate I cultivate deeper mindfulness. When I have been meditating regularly then my capacity to be mindful in my day-to-day routine is enhanced. Mindful in my waking moments, I remain calm and focused, centered and relaxed. No matter what happens, I yield to the experience of the moment, able to work with arising reality with greater skill and compassion.

Bhante Gunaratana is a Buddhist monk and renowned teacher from Sri Lanka. My good friend Scott Caplan recently forwarded this video of Bhante G. discussing the nature of meditation. It is a good reminder of how meditation can change your life, and a good reminder that meditation is a daily task to be taken seriously. The fruit of meditation, mindfulness, is precious. Enjoy Bhante G.’s wisdom in this five minute video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWsHoanB7pw

Judicious or Judgmental?

Probably safe to say that every mindfulness teacher emphasizes the non-judgmental quality of mindfulness practice. ”Be awake in the present moment; notice; do not judge; if you find yourself judging, do not judge the judging, just notice it.” I’ve probably said that or something similar thousands of times, to my students and to myself. It’s the heart and soul of mindfulness work.

But being non-judgmental does not mean that we suspend our capacity to make a judgment. What we are sacrificing is the personalization of the judgment that we felt inclined to make. There must be hundreds of moments every day in which I have to exercise judgment concerning the events unfolding before me. In those moments in which I must make a decision, I am called to be judicious, that is, to exercise wisdom concerning the best path to follow. If I personalize that event by making it about myself, then I cloud my judgment with my point of view about the other person. Let me give an example from my clinical practice. This example IS NOT about any particular client, but is a typical scenario that I encounter as a counselor.

A man comes to see me needing help in his marriage. His wife berates him about his habits, which he finds difficult to change. His habits are not life threatening, but they are not healthy either. When he thinks about his habits without taking his wife’s criticism into consideration, he realizes that he’d be better off exercising self-discipline around his lifestyle. But when he thinks about his habits AND his wife’s criticism, he becomes angry at his wife (judgmental, that is; she is WRONG! to be so critical of him, he thinks) and his personalization of the bad habit issue clouds his judgment. In therapy, my role is to gain his trust through empathy, authenticity, and my own non-judgmental attitude, and then begin the process of seeing his lifestyle habits AND his wife’s criticism with clarity. If I was seeing his wife concurrently we would work on her anger about her husband’s unhealthy habits, wondering if there was some fear about his health behind all that anger. If I am somewhat successful as a therapist my client (the husband) would be able to exercise judgment concerning his bad habits once he has stopped being judgmental about his wife. I would also hope to be able to help his wife stop being judgmental about her husband, and instead see his bad habits as evidence of who HE is, not evidence of anything concerning her character.

When I am mindful I am less inclined to judge the people I’m with and more inclined to exercise judgment. Being judicious allows me to make wise decisions, to be sagacious (a cool word if there every was one!). When I am not personalizing what is happening in this moment I see the events with clarity and the next right action becomes apparent. Though I can’t be in sitting meditation all day, what emerges from that sitting meditation is the mindset that accepts what is happening, makes no judgment about the person or persons involved, and then is free to exercise the best judgment about what comes next. One thing I can say about this mindset is that it makes life a lot simpler to navigate. God only knows how much stress life can bring to you on its own without me adding any drama by being critical and judgmental about the people in my life and the ones I meet along the way. I like the simple life!

So, let your mantra be “Judicious (Sagacious!) today, not judgmental.” And have a simple day!

Being Mindful Essay Example

Pages: 2 (515 words)
Published: October 14, 2016
Type: Essay

Being mindful when someone is speaking to you is extremely important. Being mindful means that you aren’t focused on anything except what is happening right that moment. While people are speaking to you there aretwo main types of obstacles that can get in the way of being mindful. Those are internal and external obstacles, but fortunately for us there are ways we can help eliminate or reduce them. Like most people, I have let internal obstacles get in my way of being a mindful listener. I am the type of person that has a million thoughts at one time.

Was I supposed to pick that up? What should I make for dinner? This is called preoccupation. Preoccupation happens when you let your own thoughts take over. You stop listening to what the other person is sa

ying to you. Prejudgement is another internal obstacle that makes it hard to be mindful. Prejudgement happens when you think you know what the other person is going to say. Most people tune the other out, which makes it easy for misunderstandings. Yet another internal obstacle that makes it difficult to be mindful is when we react to things that are said emotionally.

Certain phrases or words can make us upset, sad, or angry, this is called reacting to emotionally loaded language. When this happens we are more likely to miss the other persons meaning. Just like internal obstacles external obstacles can make it difficult to be a mindful listener. Many people tune others out when messages are too detailed which is called message complexity. Others like me find it hard to be mindful after

long day of communication, message overload. I tend to only half listen on phone calls from friends on the days that I’ve been with my children all day.

My children can be catter boxes. My children also make a lot of noise which also makes it difficult to be mindful. Noise comes from many different sources like: television, radio, cellphones, and music. People get easily distracted by the noise around them. Although these obstacles can make it difficult to be mindful, there are ways in which we can eliminate or reduce them. We can turn media off, as well as go in a quiet room with limited distractions. We also can train ourselves to notice when we our thoughts are straying from the conversation and get ourselves back on track.

Many people ind it helpful to ask questions and take notes when the messages are too detailed. I find it helpful myself to ask the other person to call back or wait to talk to me on a different day when I haven’t had such a big day full of communications. “Research suggest that we remember between 25 percent and 50 percent of what we hear,” ( Mindtools Ltd. , 2013). This fact alone makes it more important to be mindful when someone is speaking to us. There are many obstacles that can affect us being mindful. They include internal and external obstacles, fortunately for us we can do certain things to reduce or eliminate them.

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Watch CBS News

Mindful Brewing set to reopen under new ownership as Chimera Brewing

By Mike Darnay

Updated on: May 13, 2024 / 3:34 AM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

CASTLE SHANNON, Pa. (KDKA) -- A brewery in the South Hills that has been closed since the fall is set to reopen under new ownership.

Mindful Brewing along Library Road in Castle Shannon closed its doors in November, but new owners are set to reopen the brewery under a new name soon!

kdka-mindful-brewing-chimera-brewing-castle-shannon.jpg

The new owners also run Federal Galley on the North Shore and Arthur's Korner Pub in Mt. Lebanon and say that the brewery will be reopening soon as Chimera Brewing.

T he owners say that they hope to be open by late summer with a new menu, new beers, and a brewer apprenticeship program.

An official reopening date has not been set yet.

Mike Darnay is a digital producer and photojournalist at KDKA-TV/CBS News Pittsburgh. Mike has also written and produced content for Vox Media and the Mon Valley Independent. He often covers overnight breaking news, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and high school sports.

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The families risking everything to keep Ukraine’s trains running – photo essay

Dutch photographer Jelle Krings has been documenting the workers of the Ukrainian railway since the war began. Here, he revisits the families that have kept a war-torn country moving, often to great personal sacrifice

Words and pictures by Jelle Krings

I n the early hours of 24 February 2022, when Russian bombs and rockets struck Ukrainian cities and infrastructure throughout the country, railway workers boarded trains heading east. Determined to get as many people as possible to safety , they would end up evacuating millions to Ukraine’s borders in the west.

Ukraine’s new railway chief Yevhen Liashchenko was in the team that guided the network through the first stages of the war. He says his people acted not because they were instructed to but because “they didn’t know any other way”. There was no time for bureaucracy, “decisions were made by the people on the ground, and they love the railway, not as a business but as a family”.

It takes more than 230,000 people to keep the trains running in Ukraine.

The train station in Lyman, Donbas, in ruins after being destroyed by shelling.

The railway station in Lyman, Donbas, destroyed by shelling

Yevhen Liashchenko, chief executive of Ukrainian Railways, standing in a rail shed with a man working on a wagon behind him.

Yevhen Liashchenko, chief executive of Ukrainian railways, has been leading Ukraine’s 230,000 railway workers through the war

Together they run a vast railway network of more than 15,000 miles (24,000km) of track, one that has been invaluable for Ukraine’s ability to withstand the invasion. Despite continual bombing, the network has largely remained operational. Damage to the tracks is swiftly repaired, and shell-hit critical infrastructure is promptly restored.

Over two years, we followed families and workers living by the tracks near the frontlines to find out how the war and the struggle to keep the trains running is shaping their lives.

The Neschcheryakovas

Nadiya Neschcheryakova works as an attendant at a railway crossing in Bucha, about 10 miles from Kyiv. She works in shifts, sharing her post with her mother and two other women. On the morning of the invasion, the sound of explosions pierced the sky above the thick pine forests surrounding her home. She went to work anyway. A few days later, her post at the railway crossing was occupied by Russian troops. Her home in the next village along the track was now at the frontline of the war.

Nadiya Neschcheryakova at her post at a railway crossing in Bucha, near Kyiv. A freight train approaches under an overcast winter sky.

Nadiya Neschcheryakova operates her railway crossing in Bucha, near Kyiv . A freight train passes transporting materials such as wood for possible use in Ukraine’s defensive efforts along the frontline

Remnants of a house, destroyed by shelling, lie in a yard

Remnants of the Neschcheryakovas’ family house, destroyed by shelling, lie in the yard at Spartak, Kyiv oblast

Nadiya Neschcheryakova, right, with her husband, Yuriy, left, on either side of their daughter Kateryna and grandson Andriy.

Nadiya Neschcheryakova with her husband, Yuriy, their daughter Kateryna and grandson Andriy. Yuriy built a new house after their home was destroyed by shelling early in the war

With her husband, daughter and grandson, Nadiya managed to flee to the west where they stayed for a month waiting for the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv. When they returned home, they found their home had been reduced to rubble.

The Petrovs

When the city of Kherson was liberated after nine months of Russian occupation in November 2022, Oleksandr Petrov was sent on a mission to repair the tracks leading to the city. When he set out in a van with a team of repairmen in the morning, he knew the risks: the fields along the tracks were heavily mined in an attempt to slow the Ukrainian advance.

Railway workers wash their wounds after driving over a mine in the Kherson region, November 2022.

Railway workers wash their wounds after driving over a mine in the Kherson region, 13 November 2022. They were carrying out repair works just days after Kherson was liberated. Oleksandr Petrov lost a leg in the incident

Oleksandr shows his prosthetic leg to workers in a railway repair team, Voznesensk, Mykolaiv oblast, Ukraine.

Oleksandr shows his prosthetic leg to workers in a railway repair team in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv oblast. Since his injury, Oleksandr has been given a desk job

Oleksandr Petrov at his parent’s place in Voznesensk. His prosthetic leg is on the floor beside him and there is a wheelchair nearby.

Oleksandr Petrov at his parents’ house in Voznesensk. Family members spend a day at the cemetery to maintain their relatives’ graves and pay their respects

Russian troops were expected to start shelling the city once they’d had a chance to regroup on the other side of the Dnipro River. The civilians left in the city would have to be evacuated by train, so Oleksandr went anyway. Later that day, Oleksandr lost his leg after they drove over a Russian anti-vehicle mine.

The Lyman community

When Ukrainian troops recaptured the railway hub of Lyman from Russian troops in November 2022, it had been under Russian occupation for six months. Since then, it has been on the frontline of the war in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Yet, a small community of railway families continues to live in the basements of their battered apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city.

The Rosokhas family mourn the death of Nina Rosokha who was killed by a Russian artillery strike on Lyman

The Rosokha family mourn the death of Nina Rosokha, who was killed by a Russian artillery strike on Lyman. Nina had worked in a railway service department, her husband was a train driver for 36 years. During the funeral, sounds of fighting could be heard in the nearby Kreminna forest

A forest on the outskirts of Lyman burns after shelling

A forest on the outskirts of Lyman smoulders after shelling. Firefighters do not go into the forests for fear of mines

Fedya, 13, plays his accordion outside the apartment building where he lives with his mother and grandmother, both of whom work for the railway. Evelyna, 12, with one of her cats

The families in the community stay underground most of the time. The frontline is too close for the air raid alert system to be effective, and artillery and missiles can strike at any moment. The community have paid a heavy price in the war . Railway worker Nina Rosokha was killed on her way to the post office in a Russian artillery strike on a market. During another attack, Lyubov Surzhan’s top-floor apartment was obliterated. A piece of shrapnel skimmed Fedya’s head during a strike on a nearby railway depot. Yet the railway is their home and, despite the danger, they don’t want to leave.

The Mykolaychuks

The Mykolaychuk brothers live in an apartment building in the centre of Podilsk. Both are fifth generation locomotive drivers. Before the invasion, their jobs were mostly local, transporting grain from the region to the port of Odesa. Now, they go farther east towards the frontlines of the war, driving evacuation trains and weapons transports.

A woman in an apartment looks after two toddler girls who have just started walking

Alla Valeriyivna Mykolaychuk in Podilsk with her daughter and niece, both aged one

They don’t get paid if they don’t work, and jobs have become less frequent since the war. With money hard to come by, they have had to sell their family car to make ends meet.

The Tereshchenkos

Olha Tereshchenko survived a Russian attack on a convoy of civilians fleeing the then occupied city of Kupiansk. Her husband and five-year-old son were killed. Consumed with grief, she now works at a railway office in Kharkiv and gets support from her fellow workers there. Urns containing the ashes of her husband and son still sit on a shelf in a nearby crematorium. She hopes to bury them near their home in Kupiansk one day, when the frontline is further away.

Woman walking in a grey, desolate street with a blossom tree in flower

Olha Tereshchenko in Saltivka, the area of Kharkiv where she now lives

A photo of Olha’s dead husband and child on a floral bedspread

Olha’s husband and son, photographed as a baby, were killed in a Russian attack on a civilian convoy. Olha is overcome when she visits their remains in a nearby crematorium: she hopes one day to bury her husband and son near their home in Kupiansk

Rights and freedom
Rail transport

To the moms all alone on Mother's Day, I see you and you are enough.

Most of my 14 years of motherhood felt like Mother’s Day was spent alone, including some of the years I was married.

Every May, when the second Sunday in May comes around, I think of the women who are where I was in multiple places of my mother journey: scared, alone and envious of the moms with a supportive partner at home.

This year, I've written a letter to every single mother struggling to celebrate herself today, who feels inferior to the other families she sees.

When the flowers don't come, when there are no "thank yous," when there is no one posting our picture, I want us to remember where our gift truly lies.

To our kids, this is the life and this love is enough. So, we can raise our glass.

Dear, single mom on Mother's Day

Maybe you woke up a little early today to give yourself the gift of solitude. There is no one to tag in at the end of the day. It’s exhausting.

You might get a few minutes before feelings of inadequacy come flooding in. You are reminded of all the things you can't do, never seeing all that you have. You wonder how a single-parent home is affecting your kids, who will be down in a matter of moments.

Then, the day will begin just like any other day.

Maybe there were once flowers waiting for you. Maybe there were never flowers at all. You may find crumpled up Mother's Day art in your kids' backpack today, but they may not recognize that there should be anything to celebrate.

You will prepare every meal, answer every request, create every moment, wipe every tear and calm every fear. But your requests will be left unmet, your moments 60 seconds at a time, your tears wiped by your own hand and your fears, ever ponding.

Yet every day you show up and you do it, maybe with a little envy for the two-parent home down the street, because it's hard to be a full-time parent and a full-time provider. You can't possibly do either perfectly well.

If you're feeling discouraged today, seeing only your lack, look inside.

You are the creator of all the good that you see.

Tonight, when you tuck in your kids, witness your gifts.

There may have not been anything on the table this morning, you may have cleaned up the house and cooked every meal, but there is peace in the room. There is joy on their faces. There is a tangible love providing security like the blanket wrapped around their feet.

Your family is not inferior.

You are enough. Your kids know it, and some day someone else will too.

But it has to start with you.

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Your married friend may be struggling, too

Single mothers should know that married mothers aren't necessarily better supported. Sure, they may have flowers, but just like you, they have learned how to water themselves.

There were Mother's Days when all I felt was hollow. There were flowers, photos, dinners and lots of hugs, but it obscured a darker reality. Presence doesn't equal support. Lonely doesn't equal alone.

Knowing my "enoughness" led me back into singleness and back to the mother I've always been. So, cherish where you are and never trade your peace for support. Recognize yourself and celebrate this day.

Last year, I bought myself a bouquet of wildflowers, and this year, I bought myself a few.

My gift is this home I've created and the peace I feel at night. Sure, it may be a little messy, but it is far from inferior.

When I release my kids into the world, they will take this love that they've been given and begin planting it in places of their own, definitely better than if they had grown up in our broken two-parent home.

Yet I know that you, like me, may have a desire to share your life with someone. Just make sure that they are a seer too, a seer of your worth and your "enoughness," on more than just this special day.

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Guest Essay

As Bird Flu Looms, the Lessons of Past Pandemics Take On New Urgency

A woman wears a mechanical nozzle mask in 1919 during the Spanish flu epidemic.

By John M. Barry

Mr. Barry, a scholar at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”

In 1918, an influenza virus jumped from birds to humans and killed an estimated 50 million to 100 million people in a world with less than a quarter of today’s population. Dozens of mammals also became infected.

Now we are seeing another onslaught of avian influenza. For years it has been devastating bird populations worldwide and more recently has begun infecting mammals , including cattle, a transmission never seen before. In another first, the virus almost certainly jumped recently from a cow to at least one human — fortunately, a mild case.

While much would still have to happen for this virus to ignite another human pandemic, these events provide another reason — as if one were needed — for governments and public health authorities to prepare for the next pandemic. As they do, they must be cautious about the lessons they might think Covid-19 left behind. We need to be prepared to fight the next war, not the last one.

Two assumptions based on our Covid experience would be especially dangerous and could cause tremendous damage, even if policymakers realized their mistake and adjusted quickly.

The first involves who is most likely to die from a pandemic virus. Covid primarily killed people 65 years and older , but Covid was an anomaly. The five previous pandemics we have reliable data about all killed much younger populations.

The 1889 pandemic most resembles Covid (and some scientists believe a coronavirus caused it). Young children escaped almost untouched and it killed mostly older people, but people ages 15 to 24 suffered the most excess mortality , or deaths above normal. Influenza caused the other pandemics, but unlike deaths from seasonal influenza, which usually kills older adults, in the 1957, 1968 and 2009 outbreaks, half or more deaths occurred in people younger than 65. The catastrophic 1918 pandemic was the complete reverse of Covid: Well over 90 percent of the excess mortality occurred in people younger than 65. Children under 10 were the most vulnerable, and those ages 25 to 29 followed.

Any presumption that older people would be the chief victims of the next pandemic — as they were in Covid — is wrong, and any policy so premised could leave healthy young adults and children exposed to a lethal virus.

The second dangerous assumption is that public health measures like school and business closings and masking had little impact. That is incorrect.

Australia, Germany and Switzerland are among the countries that demonstrated those interventions can succeed. Even the experience of the United States provides overwhelming, if indirect, evidence of the success of those public health measures.

The evidence comes from influenza, which transmits like Covid, with nearly one-third of cases transmitted by asymptomatic people. The winter before Covid, influenza killed an estimated 25,000 here ; in that first pandemic winter, influenza deaths were under 800. The public health steps taken to slow Covid contributed significantly to this decline, and those same measures no doubt affected Covid as well.

So the question isn’t whether those measures work. They do. It’s whether their benefits outweigh their social and economic costs. This will be a continuing calculation.

Such measures can moderate transmission, but they cannot be sustained indefinitely. And even the most extreme interventions cannot eliminate a pathogen that escapes initial containment if, like influenza or the virus that causes Covid-19, it is both airborne and transmitted by people showing no symptoms. Yet such interventions can achieve two important goals.

The first is preventing hospitals from being overrun. Achieving this outcome could require a cycle of imposing, lifting and reimposing public health measures to slow the spread of the virus. But the public should accept that because the goal is understandable, narrow and well defined.

The second objective is to slow transmission to buy time for identifying, manufacturing and distributing therapeutics and vaccines and for clinicians to learn how to manage care with the resources at hand. Artificial intelligence will perhaps be able to extrapolate from mountains of data which restrictions deliver the most benefits — whether, for example, just closing bars would be enough to significantly dampen spread — and which impose the greatest cost. A.I. should also speed drug development. And wastewater monitoring can track the pathogen’s movements and may make it possible to limit the locations where interventions are needed.

Still, what’s achievable will depend on the pathogen’s severity and transmissibility, and, as we sadly learned in the United States, how well — or poorly — leaders communicate the goals and the reasons behind them.

Specifically, officials will confront whether to impose the two most contentious interventions, school closings and mask mandates. What should they do?

Children are generally superspreaders of respiratory disease and can have disproportionate impact. Indeed, vaccinating children against pneumococcal pneumonia can cut the disease by 87 percent in people 50 and older. And schools were central to spreading the pandemics of 1957, 1968 and 2009. So there was good reason to think closing schools during Covid would save many lives.

In fact, closing schools did reduce Covid’s spread, yet the consensus view is that any gain was not worth the societal disruption and damage to children’s social and educational development. But that tells us nothing about the future. What if the next pandemic is deadlier than 1957’s but as in 1957, 48 percent of excess deaths are among those younger than 15 and schools are central to spread? Would it make sense to close schools then?

Masks present a much simpler question. They work. We’ve known they work since 1917, when they helped protect soldiers from a measles epidemic. A century later, all the data on Covid have actually demonstrated significant benefits from masks.

But whether to mandate masks is a difficult call. Too many people wear poorly fitted masks or wear them incorrectly. So even without adding in the complexities of politics, compliance is a problem. Whether government mask mandates will be worth the resistance they foment will depend on the severity of the virus.

That does not mean that institutions and businesses can’t or shouldn’t require masks. Nor does it mean we can’t increase the use of masks with better messaging. People accept smoking bans because they understand long-term exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cancer. A few minutes of exposure to Covid can kill. Messaging that combines self-protection with communitarian values could dent resistance significantly.

Individuals should want to protect themselves, given the long-term threat to their health. An estimated 7 percent of Americans have been affected by long Covid of varying severity, and a re-infection can still set it off in those who have so far avoided it. The 1918 pandemic also caused neurological and cardiovascular problems lasting decades, and children exposed in utero suffered worse health and higher mortality than their siblings. We can expect the same from the next pandemic.

What should we learn from the past? Every pandemic we have good information about was unique. That makes information itself the most valuable commodity. We must gather it, analyze it, act upon it and communicate it.

Epidemiological information can answer the biggest question: whether to deploy society-wide public health interventions at all. But the epidemiology of the virus is hardly the only information that matters. Before Covid vaccines were available, the single drug that saved the most lives was dexamethasone. Health officials in Britain discovered its effectiveness because the country has a shared data system that enabled them to analyze the efficacy of treatments being tried around the country. We have no comparable system in the United States. We need one.

Perhaps most important, government officials and health care experts must communicate to the public effectively. The United States failed dismally at this. There was no organized effort to counter social media disinformation, and experts damaged their own credibility by reversing their advice several times. They could have avoided these self-inflicted wounds by setting public expectations properly. The public should have been told that scientists had never seen this virus before, that they were giving their best advice based on their knowledge at the time and that their advice could — and probably would — change as more information came in. Had they done this, they probably would have retained more of the public’s confidence.

Trust matters. A pre-Covid analysis of the pandemic readiness of countries around the world rated the United States first because of its resources. Yet America had the second-worst rate of infections of any high-income country.

A pandemic analysis of 177 countries published in 2022 found that resources did not correlate with infections. Trust in government and fellow citizens did. That’s the lesson we really need to remember for the next time.

John M. Barry, a scholar at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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