If you are looking for a simple, yet elegant description of what mindfulness is, take a look at this short video by Susan Kaiser-Greenland, author of The Mindful Child. It's great for kids, but pretty effective for anyone!

Shauna Shapiro and her colleagues (reference below) wrote about the mechanisms of mindfulness and highlighted "reperceiving" as a fundamental shift in perspective that arises out of the practice of mindfulness. This is not just an interesting theoretical point, it has real consequences.

Zindel Segal of the University of Toronto, lead author of a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry that found no difference between antidepressant medication and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in preventing relapse in depress

A study just published in the Springer journal Mindfulness by Raes and Williams, explores the relationship between rumination and mindfulness. From the abstract: "when controlling for current depressive symptoms and prior history of depression, mindfulness was significantly negatively correlated with rumination, but it was only associated with the extent to which rumination was experienced as uncontrollable, not with global levels of rumination.

If you accept the premise that the present moment is the "place to be" in regard to finding ease, well-being, contentment and equanimity, then the real question becomes: "How do I bring myself to the present moment?"

I have found that there is a very simple but very powerful question (that is also a little bit silly) that can serve as a terrific reminder to become present.

Ready? Brace yourself!

Here it is: Where Are My Feet?

I was recently honored to be asked by Shamash Aldina to write the foreword for his new book Mindfulness for Dummies. The book was published a few months ago, and there I am in the opening pages!

Below is the text of that Foreword. I strongly urge that you check out the book when you have a chance.