Why Mindfulness Begins With You — and How it Spreads to Others

The useful part

The neighbors are throwing a loud party when you want to relax quietly at home. Your daughter has 3rd grade math homework and her school is teaching math using a fantastical model so convoluted you cannot see how to teach her why six times six is thirty six. Your partner has a wonderful new job that keeps them at work until long after dinner needs to be on the table every night.

How it works

• As we begin to shift how we notice and respond, the ripple effect becomes clear.
• We prioritize how we spend our time in ways that may or may not support our wellbeing.
• After all, the cutting edge of happiness and wellbeing research returns to the reality that choices around sleep, exercise, time in nature, and time off screen support our mental health.
• Bertin has been a longstanding contributor to Mindful as a researcher, writer, and meditation teacher.
• Life, you probably have noticed, tends to push us into a state of distraction, reactivity, and mindless habit.

What to take from it

We're so swamped we're barely paying attention, we're saying the things we always say, and believing the thoughts and stories we've always believed. We practice because it brings us back to our own best intentions, wisdom, and care. We practice because in the midst of all the things, it allows us to stay connected, and skillful.

Example or evidence

• to strengthening our well-being, our practice also builds a kind of mental and emotional fortitude that can allow us to move through the inevitable moments of difficulty, disappointment, and heartbreak that...
• Mindful practices of all kinds can be a bridge toward taking action, sharing our wisdom, or standing up for a cause.
• About The Author Mark Bertin Mark Bertin, MD., is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics.
• We can build traits that support staying grounded, wise, and intentional.

Details worth keeping

Our Practice Starts With Ourselves—But It Doesn't End There. Plus, outside your four walls, politics seem broken and the environment seems broken and health care seems broken, and what in the world are we thinking releasing AI into the universe the way we are, doesn't anyone have any common sense at all? We cannot stop our thoughts, and don't really want to.

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• Psychologytoday: What do we really mean by mindfulness? Its Buddhist roots reveal a richer, more nuanced practice than the familiar idea of simply being present.