Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross, author of The Binge Eating & Compulsive Overeating Workbook, on Fox31's Everyday with Libby & Natalie:

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 The Smart Student's Guide to Healthy Living

After a long day of classes, the late shift at work, or just experiencing the mayhem of your dorm hallway, you retreat to the quiet sanctuary of your room. As you climb into your bed, wrap yourself in the sheets and attempt to fall asleep, you suddenly remember that you have a biology quiz tomorrow and you haven’t opened the book yet. As you climb out of bed, you tell yourself, “Missing and hour of sleep won’t kill me,” and you study longer. You nail the quiz and feel fine. But as those nights of short sleep become the norm rather than an occasional thing, you begin to see the effects. You begin to feel drained and tired all day. Of course, there will be nights when you will sleep less, whether it is after a big concert or when you’re studying for finals. But chronic sleep loss adds up to being more than tired and grouchy. Lost sleep can cause problems like these:

Excerpt from Grieving Mindfully

Suffering can bring you to a place of profound mindfulness about your relationships and your spiritual beliefs.  In the context of grief, the person, and by extension the relationship, can be your spiritual teacher. Being aware of how your loved one lived, what his or her role was in your life, and how you are experiencing the loss of that person can turn your grief journey into a vehicle for your spiritual growth. Without this person's presence in and loss from your life, you would not have this unique opportunity to appreciate life and love, and seek out personal growth.

Using the pain of loss as a spiritual teacher, you begin to cultivate a sense of gratitude toward what you are feeling and experiencing. The intense emotional pain of your grief may still hurt. However, as you experience grief mindfully, allowing yourself to feel the twists and turns of the spiral staircase, the triggers and changes in your relationships, and your own personal development, you may eventually come to realize, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, perhaps even physically, that your capacity to grieve - and your capacity to love - are interconnected.