Mindfulness Mode

Trust and Mindfulness is the theme of today's Solo Weekend with Bruce. Today I welcome Elizabeth Johnston. She was a featured guest on Mindfulness Mode, episode 11.

Quotes:

• Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence. - Dictionary.com
• Part of mindfulness practice is tocultivate a trusting heart. - Jon Kabat-Zinn
• I've only ever trusted my gut on everything. I don't trust my head, I don't trust my heart, I trust my gut. - Bryan Adams
• Trust is the “confident expectation of something; hope.” - Dictionary.com
• Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. Albert Einstein

Guest:

Today I welcome my friend, Elizabeth Johnston, of OwnYourCreativity.com to discuss trust and mindfulness.

Elizabeth will be starting her own podcast on March 14, 2016 called Own Your Creativity Podcast.

Thanks for joining me today, Elizabeth!

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your Calm Your Busy Mind Infographic. It focuses on breathing, exercise and mantras. Please leave your name and email you'll receive it in your inbox right away. Download It here.

Robert DeLaurentis, is a pilot who absolutely loves flying his six-seater  plane; it’s a Piper Malibu Mirage. When he’s flying, he feels like he’s connecting with nature, because, as he says, you’reon top of cloud layers, flying by mountains, experiencing the rain and snow. In 2015, Robert flew around the globe in his plane, stopping at 22 countries over the span of 90 days. Robert embraces meditation and mindfulness and is known as the Zen Pilot. His book, “Flying Thru Life,” explains how to create an abundance of time and money in your life to pursue your dreams.

Contact Info

• Website: www.flyingthrulife.com

Most Influential Person

• Susan Gilbert (American author, entrepreneur and publisher)

Effect on Emotions

• It has kept me calm in the most challenging situations and I have decided not too try and label things that are bad because I don't always know what the spirit's intention is for me. So by not judging them good or bad, I save the judgement of myself cause you can't judge a situation or a person without actually judging yourself. Mindfulness has helped me to stop judging myself as much.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is something I need to work on, but when I work on my breathing, it's usually when I'm in bed attempting to fall asleep and I just really focus on my breaths. I am thankful for every breath that I am taking because I realize that my soul may be eternal but my physical life on the planet is not. This gives me a space of gratitude, and breathing helps me fall off to sleep.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
• App:  The Garmin Pilot App

Advice for Newbie

I would say shut off your cellphone, go for a walk, do whatever you are passionate about and do it by yourself. Just listen, because in the silence is where the answers are. So, just be by yourself, be quiet and listen.

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your free copy of my book, Cracking The Success Code. I teamed up with Brian Tracy, along with some other entrepreneurs to create the best-selling book called Cracking The Success Code: The World's Leading Experts Reveal Their Top Secrets To Help You Crack The Code For Optimum Health, Wealth and Success. You'll hear more about my story and how I became an anti-bullying advocate which later led to mindfulness and my mindfulness coaching. Download the book free at MindfulnessMode.com/cracking. Enter your name and email and you'll have your book downloaded in no time. Enjoy the book, Mindful Tribe.

Terry Lancaster is an entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the best selling book, BETTER! Self Help For The Rest Of Us. Through his business, Instant Events, Terry focuses his energy specifically on automotive advertising and has concentrated onthis segment of the market for over twenty years. Terry practices mindfulness as as a way to stay focused in his life. Through his speaking and writing, Terry helps his followers understand how to achieve their dreams through manageable goals and achievable steps. He helps people build better lives, using two simple strategies: habit and focus.

Contact Info

• Website: TerryLancaster.com

Most Influential Person

• Daniel Gilbert (Wrote the book, Stumbling on Happiness)

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness has effected my emotions greatly, because my emotions used to run wildly. I never expressed my anger violently, I wasn't a screamer and yeller, but I could get angry and hold on to it for weeks. This was a huge detriment to my personal life, my family life and my married life. I'd get angry with my wife and be angry for three or four weeks, to the point where I forgot what I was angry about. Now that I'm in charge of what's going on between my ear-holes, I can recognize my anger. I can express my anger if it needs to be expressed, and hopefully let it go. Then when it starts popping back in my head, I can remind myself, I'm not angry anymore; shut up.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I count my breaths. That is my mindfulness meditation every day. I sit down, I take a deep breath in through my nose, and out through my mouth, and that's '1'. I try to do one hundred breaths a day. If I'm about to step into a situation, do a speech, do a podcast, I close my eyes, take one quick deep breath to fully center myself and be fully present. I can do that in one breath now, because I practiced doing it every day. That's a super power.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Better: Self Help For The Rest of Us by Terry Lancaster
• Book: Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan and Daniel Goleman
• Book: 10% Happier by Dan Harris
• App: A Timer (Pomadoro)

Advice for Newbie

You can't get where you're going unless you start where you are. So just start. Take a few minutes to take a few deep breaths. To become aware of what's going on inside your head, when you start replaying the same arguments like when a guy cuts you off on the interstate and you're mad about it, but it's still going through your mind twenty minutes later, or two days later and you're formulating the perfect come backs for him and what you should have said to that guy and what you're going to say the next time. Learn to recognize these thoughts that are bouncing around in your head and they're accomplishing nothing. They're just echos. Tell them to shut up.

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your Fine Tune Your Focus, 5 Day Challenge. Be like my guests, get some meditation happening in your life. I've created 5 free simple, yet inspiring videos to help you get started with meditation. Please leave your name and email you'll receive it in your inbox right away. Download It here.

Breathing and Mindfulness Mode “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” - Amit Ray

I lived for quite a while without realizing that anxiety can be conquered by focusing on the breath. When I was a kid, riding mbike through the paths among the corn and bean fields, all you could feel was the amazing feeling of the air. You could breathe so deeply and the the breath felt fantastic. It was an incredibly good feeling with the country air blowing through my hair and being able to fill up with deep breaths of air.

Sometimes in my life I didn't feel the relaxed feeling of deep breathing. Sometimes in my life when I faced anxiety, I felt like I just had to be in nature. I went there and walked or roller blading among the huge trees. I feel a part of the trees and of nature. That was the only way I could feel satiated.

On Mindfulness Mode, many of the people I interview mention breathing and how important it is. Mindfulness and breathing go together for many of my guests. Many of my guests also mention a physical activity that makes them feel they are in the flow, totally mindful. I think that is related to the breathing that goes along with the activity.

Here in Canada in the wintertime, the air feels so fresh, cold and clean. It is an awesome feeling.

When I was a kid I slept upstairs in the farmhouse and in the wintertime the air would be cold and fresh. Now I still love having the air cold and fresh at night, so I turn the heat down.

“At this moment, you are seamlessly flowing with the cosmos. There is no difference between your breathing and the breathing of the rain forest, between your bloodstream and the world’s rivers, between your bones and the chalk cliffs of Dover.”- ― Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

Sharon Roemmel from Episode 26 talked about breathing. She said: "I like to use breathing as a diagnostic." You can do that too.

James Newcombe from Episode 13 is a professional trumpet player. James is an expert at controling his breath and knowing how to make his breathe to work for him so he can perform amazing passages on the trumpet.

In Episode 035, Anne-Claire Holland said "Stop and Check Your Breathing When Panic or Anger Feelings Surface." She uses breathing to maintain a level of calm.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice for Novices

Related Episodes:

035 Anne-Claire Holland: Stop and Check Your Breathing When Panic or Anger Feelings Surface

013 James Newcomb: Trumpet Performance Disaster Avoided with Mindfulness

026 Sharon Roemmel: Erase Pain and Find Your True Purpose With Yoga

Books:

Conscious Breathing by Dr. Gay Hendricks

Om Chanting and Meditation by Amit Ray

Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice for Novices by Thích Nhất Hạnh

Solo Weekend Action:

Sit down and take a deep, slow breath. As you do, count slowly to five. Hold it comfortably for two counts and then let it out slowly as you count to five again. If this feels comfortable, do it again, four more times. If it doesn't feel comfortable, just breathe any way you want and remember, you can't do it wrong. Just notice your breathing.

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your Calm Your Busy Mind Infographic. It focuses on breathing, exercise and mantras. Please leave your name and email you'll receive it in your inbox right away. Download It here.

Dr. Gay Hendricks is one of the most outstanding figures in the field of relationships, transformation and bodymind therapy. He is an author and co-author of many best-selling books including Conscious Loving and Five Wishes. After a twenty-one-year career as a professor of Counseling Psychology at University Colorado, he and his wife, Katie, founded The Hendricks Institute, which is based in Ojai, California and offersseminars worldwide. Dr. Hendricks has  appeared on hundreds of shows including Oprah and 48 hours. He also founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle, which distributes inspirational movies to subscribers around the world.

Contact Info

• Website: www.Hendricks.com
• Facebook: Hearts In Harmony

Most Influential Person

• Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian Philosopher and Teacher - He said, 'If you can't meditate on a subway, you can't meditate'.

Effect on Emotions

• When I first began my mindfulness meditation practice forty years ago, I don't think I  knew anything about my emotions. I think meditation has opened up a space in which I can really feel my emotions. Like right now, if I felt sad, I could feel it in my chest and I could say, I'm sad. I wasn't able to do that forty years ago.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I've written a whole book on breathing called 'Conscious Breathing'. I discovered that oftentimes clients and myself would, when we were trying to cut off emotions from ourselves, would cut off our breathing. We would hold our breath or restrict our breathing. Whereas if we open our breathing up and take full easy breaths, we can be much more aware of our emotions on a moment to moment basis. So I use my breathing as a barometer of exactly how I'm feeling. If I feel a big, easy, open flow of breathing, that usually tells me things are going on really well, but if I feel myself clamping down and not breathing as much, it's because usually there's something I'm anxious about that I haven't opened up to or some worry I have that I haven't gotten clear about. So I use my breathing as a powerful barometer.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Conscious Breathing Book by Dr. Gay Hendricks / The Big Leap by Dr. Gay Hendricks / A Path With A Heart by Jack Cornfield
• App: SuperMindApps.com An app that helps you learn to love yourself.

Advice for Newbie

Take ten minutes wherever you are and just pay attention to your breathing. Even if you're sitting on a subway. Don't try to make yourself breathe any which way, just take a moment to tune in and notice and then you can certainly get more elaborate with meditation if you want to use a mantra or take specific training in it, that's a really good thing also. In the beginning have the willingness and the courage to pay attention to yourself. The philosopher, Blaise Pascal, hundreds of years ago said that all of our problems as human beings could be cured if we could sit in a room by ourselves for ten minutes doing nothing.

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your Fine Tune Your Focus, 5 Day Challenge. Be like my guests, get some meditation happening in your life. I've created 5 free simple, yet inspiring videos to help you get started with meditation. Please leave your name and email you'll receive it in your inbox right away. Download It here.

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Greg Zuffelato is a sought after specialist in nutrition and exercise, and is the sole creator of the Too Busy to Eat Weight Loss Program. Gregg is passionate about helping people around the world be successful in their quest tolose weight and keep it off. Greg holds a masters degree in leadership and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. He also practices mindfulness and encourages his clients and colleagues to use mindfulness as a way to improve their lives.

Contact Info

• Website: www.TooBusyToEat.com
• Podcast: Too Busy To Eat

Most Influential Person

• Darren Hardy, in helping me understand how daily actions affect the outcome of your life.

Effect on Emotions

• As I talked about my morning routine, it has really caused my anxiety level to drop substantially. I had some anxiety issues early on in my thirties, just because I was wrapped up in my own mind and by doing my practice in the morning and really being present and being grateful from the very beginning, it actually lowers my anxiety. Really being present and being thankful for things around me has changed my life.

Thoughts on Breathing

• When I get centered in the morning and I wipe my mind clean, I do that by really focusing on my breath. Those that practice deep breathing and meditation, it's not only a mental change, it's a physical change.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
• App: The Habit List

Advice for Newbie

Get a morning routine. A daily morning routine to start the day with the right mindset and I think that will be life changing.

Gratitude, being Thankful and Mindfulness Mode. "It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up." I love this powerful quote by Eckhart Tolle about gratitude. He is awonderful author on the topic of mindfulness and he gets right to point here. He feels gratitude is so important that it can take us into the spiritual side of life and he feels gratitude for the present moment is most important.

Of course most of us feel some type of gratitude every day. There were times in my life when I didn't focus a lot on being thankful for the present moment, but I always have had gratitude in my life. As a family, we often talked about being grateful for what we had. My father would mention how grateful he was for rain and the weather, because he was a farmer and the weather was important in his work. There are always things to be grateful for, we just have to look around and be aware.

Related Episodes:

024 Pat Flynn: Using a Weird-Looking Device to Get Insight Into Calmness

047 Hilde Larsen: Gratitude Will Put You In A Sense of Awareness Every Second

More Thoughts From Bruce

If you're not feeling good, or feeling happy, just start to think about what you're grateful for. This will put you into a sense of awareness. When I interviewed Hilde Larsen, she said, "Gratitude will put you in a sense of awareness every second because when you focus on being grateful, you have to be one hundred per cent mindful. You cannot be lost in anything else when you're grateful. Plus, it is a feeling, it's not a mindset. Gratefulness is a feeling. And once you connect with those good feelings, you're always grounded in yourself."

Hilde also talked about nature and how important it is to be grateful for what nature provides. I loved interviewing Hilde, because her story about how she went from ill health into becoming a very healthy person who could help so many other people, is very compelling. (047 Hilde Larsen Show Link)  I share Hilde's opinion about the importance of nature and being grateful for the natural world.

In the book, Cracking the Success Code, Brian Tracy says: “Taking the time to become an excellent human being will do more to raise your visibility, enhance the quality of your life and improve your chances for promotion than anything else you can do.” - Brian Tracy.  Brian is a very grateful person and that gratitude comes through when you hear him speak, when you meet him in person and even in his books and training materials.

I enjoyed reading the book 'The Miracle Morning' by Hal Elrod. I am so inspired by him and live my life by the morning 'SAVERS' plan he teaches in the book. Gratitude is central to Hal's philosophies. See one of Hal's quotes below.

Quotes

“Gratitude and complaining cannot co-exist simultaneously, you must choose the one that best serves you.” – Hal Elrod

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” - John F. Kennedy

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” - Denis Waitley

“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” - Brian Tracy

“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.” Zig Ziglar

"Being grateful lifts you up and gives you confidence." - Bruce Langford

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” - James Herriot

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”  William Arthur Ward

Books:

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Will It Fly? by Pat Flynn

Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Words of Gratitude for Mind, Body and Soul by Robert A. Emmons

Count Your Blessings: The Healing Power of Gratitude and Love by Dr. John F. DeMartini

Solo Weekend Action:

Think of what you're grateful for and make a list. Post it in your office, on a mirror, as a screensaver, or as wallpaper on your phone to give you a constant reminder of what you're grateful for.

Thank You Bonus:

As a thank you for listening, download your free book "Cracking The Success Code", which I wrote with Brian Tracy and a group of other entrepreneurs. Please leave your name and email and I'll add you to the Mindful Tribe email list. Download Cracking The Success Code here.

Conclusion:

I think gratefulness needs to be a constant or nearly constant thought in your mind. It needs to run as a consistent message in your mind.

Tune in to our next Mindfulness Mode episode 58, for a terrific interview with Greg Zuffelato. We chat about how mindfulness can help you get centered.

Andy Gray is a software and technology expert, helping organizations be more effective in their use of technology. He has coauthored two books published by Cambridge University Press and is a frequent speaker nationally and internationally. Andy has a deep interest in spirituality and was aProgram Director for a non-profit education and retreat center. Andy has completed a two-year Art of Spiritual Discernment training and has attended many retreats and workshops on the topics of spiritualism and mindfulness. Andy also has a podcast called ‘A Congruent Life’.

Contact Info

• Website: www.acongruentlife.net/mindfulnessmode  (This page has some bonuses for Mindful Tribe)
• Personal Page: www.grayandy.com
• Podcast: A Congruent Life
• Twitter: @grayandy

Most Influential Person

• Belden C. Lane, Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies, Saint Louis University

Effect on Emotions

• I think mindfulness is really primarily about presence, about being present in the current moment. I would like to think that's positively affected my professional life in the way that I relate to other people. Sometimes we get into these corporate situations where there's a lot of disfunction, a lot of political maneuvering, a lot of emotion. I think that being mindful and being present has a way of diffusing that, of getting into a place where you can see beyond the immediate behaviour and really understand and connect with people on an individual, deeper level, listening to the things they are saying beyond just the words that are coming out of their mouths.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is great. Breathing is something that I completely underestimated the power of. We all breathe, of course we need oxygen. Our lungs need to work in a certain way to be able to exist. My experience with breathing is truly incredible. I've worked with a breath coach that was a significant eye-opener for me. What we are able to do without physical touch, but just through our breath is amazing. Deep conscious breathing is a tool that we always have with us. We always have our lungs, we have our bodies, so we can instantly access this way of being present, of calming ourselves down, of being conscious and in the moment in the places where we get these adrenaline spikes, or these fear responses or these flight responses.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Loving What Is by Byron Katie
• App: The Pomodoro Technique / Brain.fm and FocusAtWill.com

Advice for Newbie

There's no right way to do any of this. I tend to be a perfectionist by nature and so if I'm exploring something new I've got to figure out the right way to do it. There's no such thing with mindfulness. It's really just about being willing to jump in and figure out what works for you and give it a try without worrying whether you're doing it right or not.

Gregg Clunis is a writer, producer and podcaster based in New York City. Gregg is fascinated to learn all he can about the brain, motivation, mindfulness and what inspires people to succeed. Although he has no qualifications in psychology or neuroscience, Gregg isknowledgeable on the topic because of the many books and articles he reads and the information he’s learned from guests he interviews on his podcast entitled, Tiny Leaps, Big Changes.

Contact Info

• Website:  www.tinyleaps.co
• Twitter: @GreggClunis
• Podcast: Tiny Leaps, Big Changes

Most Influential Person

• Tony Robbins

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness has given me the ability to recognize what emotions I'm feeling and what that means for the situation.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Taking a deep breath is the main thing that gets me through the day when I'm stressed.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
• App: Calm and Headspace

Advice for Newbie

Start on the small things. Earlier in this episode I said I made this big, audacious goal and I failed to hit it. One of the things that I've learned since then is that the main issue with goal setting is that when we don't hit it, even if we're ahead of where we planned on being, it's still very demotivating. I would say to focus on setting smaller goals that you know you can achieve and build up momentum that way. And in regard to how that relates back to mindfulness, whatever area of your life you want to integrate this into, focus on doing something small everyday that's going to help you get there.

Solo Weekends with Bruce Langford. Laughter and Humor is the topic. "There is joy in the present moment." This quote, by Pompe Strater-Vidal expresses the connection between mindfulness and humor.

Humor and mindfulness fit together and there areso many ways they do. One of the reasons is because mindfulness is about letting go and its about allowing yourself to just enjoy the moment. How can we enjoy the moment more than having humor and seeing things in a laughable way.

When I think of humor and laughing I instantly think of people like Pompe Strater-Vidal. She was a guest on my show, episode #19. Pompe has a great sense of humor, I asked her about her humor on the show. I said, "I love the way you laugh, and how much you laugh, where did this free, relaxing laugh come from?"

She said her mom had a great sense of humor and she grew up with the humor. As she's grown older, she laughs even more.

Another person I really got that feeling of joy from is Michael Sandler, episode #28. He has a wah-who (higher pitched), followed by a lower pitched, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. He has a podcast called, Inspire Nation. He feels his laugh adds energy to the moment. He notices energy a lot and when he notices the energy is getting low, he injects the moment with his unique laugh.

Another funny person whose laugh I love, is my friend Heather. She has an incredibly refreshing laugh, which I think is about letting go. There's nothing restrained about it. Suddenly something sparks that humorous cell in her brain and she just lets go. I think those all the best kind of laughs.

I love how Ellen Degeneres sees humor in so many different places and she highlights that humor on her show. There's something very light and relaxing about her humor.

"Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else’s expense. And I find that that’s just a form of bullying in a major way. So I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else’s feelings." Ellen Degeneres

Mark Twain said, "Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing."

That's probably why I married two very funny people.

Humor is also related to pain and sorrow.

"The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven." Mark Twain

"There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt." Erma Bombeck

If we're going through something painful, being able to see humor somewhere can be helpful.

I love the humor in children. It is so natural and easy to enjoy.

"I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person." Audrey Hepburn

"Humor is everywhere in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does." Bill Nye

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road." Henry Ward Beecher

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." e.e. Cummings

"A day without laughter is a day wasted." Charlie Chaplin

"Laughter is an instant vacation." Milton Berle

"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere." Dr. Seuss

Tune in to our next Mindfulness Mode episode (55), for a terrific interview with Gregg Clunis. We chat about mindset, the brain and of course, mindfulness.

As a thank you for listening, download your free book "Twenty-One Ways To Practice Mindfulness With Your Child Everyday for 7 Minutes. Get your free ebook here. Please leave your name and email and you'll receive it in your inbox right away. Download It here.