Excerpt from Five Good Minutes with the One You Love

Even the busiest people can begin to reconnect with the sources of life and love in a relationship if they learn to inhabit the present moment with sensitive and caring attention. Through simple, mindfulness-based practices for stopping, relaxing, connecting, and staying here, the momentum of hurry and worry becomes less compelling. Something else more precious and sustaining returns. The opportunity for a different experience arises. Exploration of deeper, more positive feelings suddenly seems possible, even easier.

excerpt from The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide

“The major stress I experienced after college involved this feeling of, ‘Oh my God, now I’m actually supposed to do something with my life! What the hell do I want to do?’” says Ricardo, a twenty-six-year old from Los Angeles. “I continue to feel scared because of an overwhelming need to come up with some sort of plan for affecting the world. I enjoy my job, make a fair amount of money, and have a lot of friends in the city, but there’s a constant pressure that I should be doing more, doing a better job of living up to the promise of my college education. I feel I should be leading mass social movements, changing the world, or at least using my mind to push forward truth, beauty, and happiness. There’s a sense that a nine-to-five job is a bit of a disappointment. To whom? My parents? College? Myself, I guess. I think the major stress after college for the highly educated is that we feel like we’re suddenly done with the dress rehearsal. Now we’re supposed to use everything we’ve learned and do ‘amazing’ things. It’s often hard to figure out even how to begin.”

excerpt from Is He Depressed or What?

One method to use when you want to communicate your feelings, meanings, and intentions in the most direct and respectful way possible is by using the “Asking for Change” model. The use of I messages in this approach is specific, nonjudgmental, and focused on the speaker.

Excerpt from Staying Focused in the Age of Distraction

 
We think you will agree that the challenge is not to stretch even further to take in more information, but, rather, to be mindful and discriminating about where our attention is focused. How can we minimize distractions and overlook things that don’t matter. We all know what it’s like to try to pay attention to something when we are distracted by something else. Suppose we are feeling emotional pain, and we don’t want to focus on the negative. We can direct ourselves away from unpleasant thoughts and feelings. We can do this by mindfully attending to our breathing and being in the present moment. The additional strategies below can also help.

Excerpt from The Procrastination Workbook

Practically everyone can develop a long list of delayed activities. The fact that many of us make “to-do” lists testifies to the very human wish to stay organized and get things done. Though few of us pride ourselves in falling behind, sometimes the things on our lists don’t get done....

The five-step self-development process is a powerful way to gain progressive mastery over procrastination. The five-step process involves establishing a mission, setting goals, building an action plan, executing the plan, and evaluating the results. Following this approach, you pick away at the foundations for procrastination.

Excerpt from What’s Right With Me: Positive Ways to Celebrate Your Strengths, Build Self-Esteem, and Reach Your Potential

If we look back at our lives with curiosity and kindness, we might be startled at our bravery. Often, we are taken aback by our natural propensity as children to explore what we truly enjoyed.... We are still as brave, creative, and determined.

by guest blogger Jeffrey Brantley, M.D., author of the Five Good Minutes® series, The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, Calming Your Anxious Mind, and Daily Meditations for Calming Your Anxious Mind

The word mindfulness appears frequently in the popular culture and media these days.  In addition, a growing number of professionals are exploring and offering mindfulness-based activities to their clients.

But, what exactly is mindfulness?

Excerpt from The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader by David M. Traversi

A high-impact leader possesses the classic character traits of a leader and also executes the classic leadership functions.  These include: