Mindfulness Mode

Jiro Taylor is an adventurer from the heart. He loves surfing, skiing, exploring and digging deep into the philosophy of peak performance. Jiro is fascinated to learn what drives others to satisfy theirhunger for peak performance and he does just that as part of his podcast called Flowstate Performance. Jiro is an avid meditator and mindfulness enthusiast based in Manley, New South Wales, Australia.

Contact Info

• Website: www.flowstatecollective.com
• Podcast: Flowstate Performance
• email: Jiro@theflowstatecollective.com

Most Influential Person

• Thich Nhat Hanh

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness has allowed me to have the superpower to observe a thought before it's fully developed and therefore to make the choice as to whether I want to transform that thought or let it run. This has meant that I can abort thoughts or I can shift negative thoughts into positive thoughts or judgmental thoughts into more reasonable thoughts. This has had a huge effect on my self-worth and my compassion that I feel for other people.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is the anchor to the here and now. Breathing is our life force. Breath is everything. When we breathe mindfully and deeply we are actually putting ourselves into a different autonomic nervous state, a very calm and relaxed state.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Art of Meditation by Matthieu Ricard (The Happiest Man in the World)

Advice for Newbie

Just do it and enjoy the practice. This is not an arduous task or a thing you have to strive toward. This is about coming home to who you really are. This is about catharsis and release, self therapy and self love.

Ed Donato is an entrepreneur from Western Australia who works in the food industry with his wife, operating a holistic catering company. As a busy Dad and entrepreneur in the catering niche, Ed found it necessary tolearn how to stop feeling tired and regain energy. He loves to pass on his knowledge and help parents learn how to be healthy, energetic and happy too, in his podcast called ‘The Ed Talks’.

Contact Info

• Facebook: The Ed Talks
• Twitter: The Ed Talks
• Instagram: The Ed Talks
• Website: www.TheEdTalks.com/morningenergy

Most Influential Person

• Thich Nhat Hanh

Effect on Emotions

• Calming. It's allowed me to take control before I lash out at my wife or my son. I stop and realize he's a little boy.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing allows me to focus on something to begin that process of slowing down all those 70,000 thoughts that are coming into our mind in the day. By focusing on the breath it helps me to slow down and to get control of the thoughts in my mind.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Buddhism for Couples: A Calm Approach to Relationships by Sarah Napthali
• Book: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

Advice for Newbie

Make yourself realize there are proven scientific benefits that mindfulness works. It's not just 'woo-woo', it definitely works. It eliminates disease, it increases growth hormone, it makes you look younger, gives you a better night's sleep. Really find the reason why you want to do it and use that as a driving force. Then focus on your breath as a way to begin the practice and make it short. I only do just five minutes in the morning.

Melissa Mattern is a professional psychic known as The Psychic Genius. She’s energetic and fun and is committed to peace, daily mindfulness, meditation and living in love. Gratitude is a central theme in Melissa’s life, including being thankful for what she learned afterreceiving word in 2009 that she had breast cancer. Clients say - psychic readings with Melissa help bring clarity, release, joy and bring a big dose of inspiration to their lives. Previous to being an entrepreneur, Melissa was employed in corporate America where she learned many lessons about how to be highly successful on-line.

Contact Info

• Website: www.ThePsychicGenius.com
• Facebook: ThePsychicGenius
• Twitter: @whispersmelissa

Most Influential Person

• My kids, when they were babies. Also my cat.

Effect on Emotions

• I was the biggest swayer of emotions you could meet, I was all over the place and had the hottest temper you can imagine. I loved to scorch the village. Now that I am more mindful, I know I can take a breath and come at things more from a place of love and from a place of understanding and wanting to make things right rather than just getting my way.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is everything and nothing. It's as important as you make it. There are some days when I realize I'm not breathing and I need to breathe. For me meditation starts with that first breath and that tells my body and mind mind and my soul that, hey it's go time, kids, and we're going to meditate.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

Advice for Newbie

It doesn't need to be complicated at all, in fact the least complicated meditation is the best. That can be breathing, a 16 second meditation where you breathe in for 4, hold for 4, let out for 4 and hold for 4. You don't need a fancy cushion, you don't need anything fancy, you really just need to breathe and to spend a little time. You don't have to start with an hour.

Eric Tivers is a psychotherapist and licensed Clinical Social Worker, sharing his expertise with clients as a consultant in private practice. He specializes in ADHD as well as high functioning autism. Eric is anational speaker, coach, and he also hosts the popular ADHD reWired podcast. Eric laughingly refers to himself as a recovering perfectionist. Eric actively practices mindful awareness in his personal and professional life.

Contact Info

• Website: www.adhdRewired.com
• Facebook: Eric Tivers
• Twitter: @EricTivers
• Podcast: ADHDRewired

Most Influential Person

• Dan Harris (Author of the book, 10% Happier)

Effect on Emotions

• It has allowed me to explore anxiety and in a very paradoxical way because I don't judge my anxiety.  When I noticed anxiety, I sat with the physical sensation without trying to push it away. I became more aware of it, so it didn't heighten it and at the same time it made me realize at a certain point that I was getting anxious on a regular basis.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is always there when we look for it. It's one of the easiest things for us to pay attention to and when we focus on our breath, we can expand outward from there. When our thoughts are racing, when we're feeling anxious, we can always just focus on our breath.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Rising Strong by Brene Brown
• App: Sleep Cycle

Advice for Newbie

If you're a skeptic of mindfulness, I would suggest reading the book 10% Happier by Dan Harris because Dan Harris was also a skeptic. Try it. Figure out what you're hoping mindfulness will bring.

Mark Bowness is a speaker and coach whose goal is to be an inspiration to his clients. Based in Melbourne, Australia, his focus is on helping you make a life change that will transform your mind, body, spirit, relationships and wealth. He works with coaches from around the world to help thembuild businesses that will change peoples' lives, and he also has a Facebook group for coaches called 'I Work In Personal Development', with over 12,000 members. Mark also runs a movement called 'Life Change - The Revolution'. He says he is "addicted to empowering people to live the life they were created to live." Mark has studied psychology, spirituality and NLP, which stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. He also holds a degree in theology, which has given him more dimension in his work with life coaches, business coaches and personal trainers.

Contact Info

• Website: www.lifechangetherevolution.com

Most Influential Person

• Eckhart Tolle

Effect on Emotions

• It's enabled me to be aware of my emotions and to respect my emotions and also to rein them in when my emotions aren't serving me at that particular moment in time.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I love being aware of breathing, this deeper level of breathing.  Being in the moment and meditating, allowing myself to breathe deeply. I just feel a deep sense of connection with the world when I'm breathing deep and I focus on the fact that as I'm breathing, the planet earth is breathing at the same time. This beautiful level of connectiveness inspires me.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• App: www.calm.com

Advice for Newbie

Go at your own pace. Mindfulness is literally whatever that means for you in that moment with regards to taking control of your mind. Just take baby steps and allow the beauty of those baby steps to transform your life in that moment and just awaken you to new levels of understanding. Just enjoy the process.

Kamala Chambers is a relationship coach, mentor to online entrepreneurs and best-selling author. She is host of ‘The Lasting Love Podcast’ and also a business show called ‘Thriving Launch Podcast’.  Kamala is an entrepreneur, hashitch-hiked in 12 countries and is constantly learning from her many clients. Kamala believes being aware of your breath and your body is part of the secret of mindfulness. She suggests you frequently ask the question, “how can I relax more deeply right now?" The result, she says, will be magical.

Contact Info

• Website: www.lastingloveconnection.com
• Website: www.thrivinglaunch.com
• Podcast: Thriving Launch & Lasting Love Connection

Most Influential Person

• My first mentor in energy medicine school really helped to kick me off in that path.

Effect on Emotions

• Definitely more steady and even when I am paying attention to the moment rather than just riding off on whatever emotion comes.

Thoughts on Breathing

• It's all tied in with the breath. If we're holding our bodies tight and we're not breathing, how can we pay attention to what's happening in the moment.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
• App: Lasting Love Connection App

Advice for Newbie

It doesn't have to be complicated if you just practice taking a few deep breaths at a time and just notice what's happening in your body and noticing your sensations; the touch, the taste, the colors of the room. The more you practice, the easier it gets.

Rob Dial started in sales at 19 and was promoted to run a franchise with the company at the age of 21. Rob grew the franchise into a multi-million dollar office and broke almost every record in the company's 60 year history. Rob has moved on and now does consulting and training for fortune 500 companies.  Rob, also runsMWF Motivation Podcast - one of the fastest growing podcasts on iTunes. Mindfulness is a big part of Rob’s life and he has recently been meditating in sensory deprivation tanks. He shares his experience with us during this interview. Rob is also enthusiastic about binaural beats and finds they help him get into deeper states of meditation.

Contact Info 

• Website: www.mwfmotivation.com
• Email: rob@mwfmotivation.com
• Podcast: MWFMotivation

Most Influential Person

• Tony Robbins

Effect on Emotions

• I am so much calmer. I feel like mindfulness and meditating give you a bulletproof vest for things that happen around you. It seems like once you've meditated and you've become calm that nothing really affects you that much because you just kind of take life as it is. It slows the world down for you and makes it a lot easier to cope with.

Thoughts on Breathing

•  Whenever I have any kind of big call, whether it's with a client or before this interview, I always take five minutes and just breathe deep, slowly and close my eyes. I don't need to meditate or anything like that but I try to slow my heart rate down so I can be as concentrated as possible.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• App: Headspace

Advice for Newbie

 Just do it, just try it. Once you try it (mindfulness), make a commitment for a week to just do it for 15 minutes. That's not that much time out of your day or out of your life for something that could potentially be life-changing. Don't go into it expecting to be some buddha the very first time. Enjoy the quiet time with yourself and enjoy disconnecting from technology and all the crazy stimuli that comes into your world every single day.

Don Hutcheson has built six companies in the fields of publishing, advertising and career planning and fully believes in the power of meditation; so much so that he’s been meditating for 38 years. Don loves the art of communicating and makes that obvious as his role as host on his popular podcast, Discover Your Talent, Do What You Love. Don studiedRussian Language and Literature at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia and he is a true people person, fascinated with the passions and interests of everyone he meets.

Contact Info

• Email: don@dytpodcast.com
• Podcast: www.discovertalentpodcast.com

Most Influential Person

• Eckhart Tolle

Effect on Emotions

• In utterly profound ways. Life is not an intellectual equation. Enstein said, I never happened on one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking. I think the more we can get into our feelings and into our beingness and out of our thinking, that’s the only way we can live a full life. And mindfulness has done that.

Thoughts on Breathing

• It’s seminal to it. I don’t know how to do mindfulness without it. I was even more conscious of that when I was doing different kinds of yoga. I have a lower back issue, I’ll lay on my back to let my lower back stretch out and it’s all about breathing. It’s all about breathing as deeply as I can and as slowly and quietly as I can.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• App: None

Advice for Newbie

The big hurdle to overcome about mindfulness, meditation and consciousness is just the nomenclature because people think it sounds eastern or too metaphysical. The way to get that out of the equation is by reading The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson, a Harvard professor who broke apart meditation and made it more pragmatic and more scientific. You just count your breaths. Just do that without interruption and see what you feel. What you feel is called relaxation response.

Anne-Claire Holland is a teacher, translator and communicator based in Germany. She is also the creator of knitted crafts of all kinds. She is fascinated by body language, and loves to communicate with people from the many different cultures in the world. Anne-Claire has been working on a new way to teachBiz English, focusing on Globish, an international, summarised form of English more suitable for companies who need to communicate with people globally. Anne-Claire includes mindfulness in her thoughts and daily life.

Contact Info

• Facebook: Search Anne-Claire Holland and explain why you would like to be friends

Most Influential Person

• My father.

Effect on Emotions

• It has helped me to deal with them far better. It's helped me to sit, get quiet, look at them, accept them and let them happen. It's amazing how quickly they dissipate.

Thoughts on Breathing

• It's an essential part of mindfulness. If we didn't breathe we'd drop dead. I don't do any complicated breathing excercises. When I notice I'm getting panicy or angry, I stop and check my breathing.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

Advice for Newbie

Go to The www.EvolvingWisdom.com websites. I would also say, always question. Have enough respect for yourself not to be totally impressed by someone who appears to be a guru. Listen to your intuition.

Benjamin Tyler is an engineer by day, working in the field of water treatment, and specifically disaster management recovery. Benjamin is a podcaster and coach by night. Benjamin shares stories and details about interesting guests in his podcast, An Evolving Lifestyle. Benjamin works withselect clients to help them create lifestyles where they thrive in three main areas: professionally, personally, and in their relationships.

Contact Info

• Website: www.anevolvinglifestyle.com
• Podcast: An Evolving Lifestyle

Most Influential Person

• A guy in a community where I used to do service work in Haiti. His name was Gabby. He was the community leader there. He lived in the present.

Effect on Emotions

• I have created a lot of internal stresses upon myself and internal demands and mindfulness has released that. I don't have that kind of stress anymore because I understand that every day I'm growing stronger and I can only do so much.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I'm a chest breather and I've just recently started working on my breathing. I've been doing Yoga for two years and I've realized what breathing's done there. I'm trying to bring it into my daily life more.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understand and Influencing People (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) by Joseph O'Connor
• App: Pen and Paper

Advice for Newbie

The thing that really helped me in my life (I started getting into mindfulness without knowing what it really was) was asking myself 'why'. Why am I feeling this way? Why am I carrying this tension right now? Ask yourself, why am I feeling this way. Answer those questions even when you don't want to know the answer.