Excerpt from Five Good Minutes®

From our perspective, five minutes of clock time begins to change into something much more powerful and interesting when you are present (attention is in the present moment, and not lost in thoughts of past or future), when you set a clear intention for your actions, and when you act wholeheartedly. When you apply attention, intention, and wholeheartedness to the exercises in this book, which are aimed at cultivating peace and relaxation, deepening awareness and connection to life, enhancing relationships, and developing kindness and wisdom, then your five minutes truly becomes five good minutes.

excerpt from Everyday Bliss for Women

After I emerged from years of paralysis, I felt a tremendous need to apol­ogize for being slow, overweight, and lacking in strength. I did this by telling the story of my broken back to everyone I met, elaborating on both how much I had suffered—and was still suffering—and how hard I was working on my recovery.

Thanks to brilliant, caring friends and an extraordinarily dedi­cated yoga teacher, I realized that I wasn’t simply a broken-back story and got on with living my life.

Excerpt from The Mindful Path through Shyness

That we have emotions is a given. How we react or respond to them is a matter of choice. Victor Frankl offered the important insight that there’s a space between stimulus and response, and if we can pause and bring the full light of our awareness into it that space, we can free ourselves from automatic reactions that are often dysfunctional. Mindfulness practice will allow you to recognize that space and use it to respond to your emotions with clarity, compassion, and skillfulness.

Excerpt from The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination

Traditionally, mindfulness was taught as the essential foundation for meditation practice. However, it was also understood that mindfulness was half of this foundation. The other essential half was compassion. For thousands of years, mindfulness and compassion have been understood to be the two wings of spiritual enlightenment and psychological freedom.

Excerpt from five good minutes in the evening

If kids can have bedtime rituals, why can’t you? Tonight, be mindful of your bedtime routine and be fully present in each moment-to-moment ritual. Take extra care in brushing your teeth, washing your face, drying your hands, changing into your comfy pajamas, pulling back the blankets, fluffing your favorite pillow, and hugging yourself good night.