Mindfulness Mode

DeRu is the Founder of the Global Zen Consciousness Conference, the Founder & Chairman of the Global Zen Alliance, and a Kungfu Grand Master. He has served for over 10 years as head coach of the U.S. National Sanshou Team and is a Technical Chairman for the Pan American Wushu-kungfu Federation. His vast Kungfu experience has resulted in him being known as the “American Godfather of Sanshou” around the world. He has spent time sharing and teaching Zen Consciousness, which advocates daily conscious meditative action to heighten and expand one’s consciousness. He is also dedicated to bridging the gap between theoretical physics and Zen consciousness. Contact Info Zen Consciousness Conference Website: www.ZenConference.org Telephone: 678-300-8031 Email: ShaolinInstituteGA@gmail.com Most Influential Person   A past chief monk in charge of the Shaolin temple Effect on Emotions Oh, it's beautiful. You know, sometimes of course you get angry, you get upset. But normally for me it's 30 seconds. And then I get over with it. You know, human beings react to things. Then I breathe back to my knowledge state. That's just mindfulness. To me meditation is a conscious mode and back into the conscious mode. But most people probably are in reaction mode all the time. But I think when people do meditation; I do three hours a day, two hours a day, minimum one hour a day, every single day, seven days a week for 50 something years. Thoughts on Breathing I like to breathe into my abdomen and just listen to my breath and get into that meditative mood right away. And then I see things in a different way a minute later and totally different from a minute before. Suggested Resources Book: Potentiality by Barbara Vetter Book: Various Books by Bruce Lipton such as The Biology of Belief App: N/A Bullying Story I know a lady, her name is Pat and she's 81 years old. She was 81 years old a couple of years ago. She came to do some self defense with me and to learn how to survive as an 81 year old, single who sleeps by herself. I told her a couple of things. The first thing was, you have to meditate everyday to be mindful, to be conscious. That way, if anything happens you won't be chaotic and you'll be free of fear. Then there was a 20 some year-old boy who came into her house and put a gun to her head. She said, 'how dare you, I know kungfu'. And then she changed her mindset from the fear to kungfu mindset. That's consciousness. That's mindfulness. And the kid was just scared.

Sharon Lynn Wyeth has accomplishments to her credit in many fields, and one of them is education where she has benefited thousands of students. She has worked in many different capacities in education. She's been in nationally syndicated programs as well as the President of the United States Yearly Conference for the 50 governors. Sharon has used her innate gift of intuition combined with her keen observation skills and reasoning mind to create something called neimology science. Neimology science is about understanding someone's personality or characteristics. Contact Info Website: www.KnowTheName.com Podcast: Know The Name; Know The Genius In You Book: Know the Name; Know the Person: Decoding Letters to Reveal Secrets Hidden in Names Most Influential Person Eugene E. Whitworth, Author Effect on Emotions I can handle very stressful situations very calmly and keep my thinking clear and I really give it, (mindfulness) credit also for giving me a lot of creative ideas and a creative way of handling different situations. Thoughts on Breathing There is an interesting book that is saying how the author went and and interviewed only people that had lived more than 120 years or more than 200 years I think is what he ended up with. But his goal was over 120 years. And in that book it says, how do we breathe and what did he learn from these people that were really old. What he learned was that they spent hours everyday just on their breathing exercises. And so I learned different breathing exercises by reading that book. The book is called, Breaking the Death Habit by Leonard Orr. Suggested Resources Book: Way Of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman Book: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff Book: Mindfulness For Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn Book: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook by Bob Stahl and Elisha Goldstein Book: Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman App: Robert Monroe's recordings by the Monroe Institute www.MonroeInstitute.org App: Jack Purcell Recordings on Meditation Bullying Story I saw so much bullying when I was growing up that I think that's the reason I spent the 18 years developing neimology science because I was seeing the benefits of it. [I could see] that it could help people know how to handle different things, but I really got to see bullying grow when I was a teacher and I would watch how kids would shame other kids or make them feel less than. They would make little snide comments like, who are you, who do you know or just this, this niceness. And they're so subtle sometimes that I think a lot of people wouldn't catch them. I love teaching middle school and that's where bullying really comes out. That's just a tough year for everybody. When I would watch a kid make some kind of awful remarked to somebody else, I learned to say to them, wow, I just heard what you said. And for you to do that, you must really be in pain yourself or you wouldn't want to be causing somebody else that kind of pain. And is this happening to you in school, out of school? Would you like to talk with me in public or private, but we need to discuss this because your level of hurt is now coming out to cause other people pain and that's not appropriate. That's how I would handle that. But I will tell you, because I grew up where so many people were being bullied, we learned to defend ourselves and how to talk back right away.

Marc Guberti is a digital marketing expert. He is an entrepreneur and an author with over 80,000 online students. He's the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast where he and his top-level guests teach you how to take your business to the next level and achieve your breakthrough. His latest book is called Content Marketing Secrets and it teaches people how to create, promote, and optimize content for growth and revenue. Marc is a social media columnist for the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals. He coaches business owners on how to grow and monetize their online businesses. Contact Info Website: www.MarcGuberti.com Book: Content Marketing Secrets: How To Create, Promote, And Optimize Your Content For Growth And Revenue Podcast: Breakthrough Success Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/breakthrough-success/id1149458961?mt=2 Summit: www.ContentMarketingSuccessSummit.com Twitter: @MarcGuberti  https://twitter.com/MarcGuberti Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcguberti/ Most Influential Person My parents and my family. My mom, father, brother and grandparents. Effect on Emotions Mindfulness keeps my emotions in check. Sometimes your emotions can run a little wild based on current events. It helps you think about good times and puts a bunch of things into perspective. [show-notes-emotions] Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is something I do very unconsciously. With running I have a very specific way of breathing; in through the nose and out through the mouth. Apparently runners are supposed to breath in and out through the nose but that's a little too hard for me. Suggested Resources Book: The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy Book: Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington Book: Content Marketing Secrets: How To Create, Promote, And Optimize Your Content For Growth And Revenue by Marc Guberti   App: Find yourself  a music App that plays music that helps you meditate. Bullying Story I don't have a specific bullying story but being a Red Sox fan, sometimes Yankie fans can get a little, well not all of them, but some of them ... In some of those situations where that happens, mindfulness can help you hit the pause button. It's harder when there's an outside force trying to get your attention. If you get good at doing that with a bad outside force, you get a lot better over time and you just tap into your self-worth. That's something I believe we're not doing enough. There are a lot of people, myself included, where we have this line of accomplishments and we only look at what we haven't done. If anyone's trying to shatter you, just look back to your accomplishments, to things that make you feel proud and feel really good about yourself. You can bring those things to light. Realize you have this impressive track record and then words don't mean anything. If this is more of an internal battle, you'll be able to use this to propel yourself and get to the summit. Free Gift Thinking of launching your own podcast? You’ll need a host, a place to upload your episodes. Podbean is awesome. Podbean is built specifically for podcasters, been around for 10 years and the pricing is super competitive. It’s $9 a month, no matter how much content you upload and they have great stats as well. You can help support Mindfulness Mode AND get a month for free with my affiliate link. Go to www.Podbean.com/PodbeanMM

Bob Younger is a photographer with a thorough understanding of interconnectedness. His passion for photography began in grade school when he received a Brownie Starmite camera at Christmas. Gradually, he moved to larger format cameras, slowing down and adopting a mindful approach to photography. He discovered the value of building an emotional connection with his subjects. Today, Bob teaches how to achieve a deep emotional connection between photographer, subject, and photograph. Contact Info Website: https://www.bobyounger.com Blog: https://www.bobyounger.com/blog Workshop Opportunity: Contemplative Photography:  Join Bob Younger with a small group of photographers in Tuscany, Italy for a week of collaborative study and experience.  https://www.ilchiostro.com/workshops/contemplative-photography/?workshopinfo=1 Most Influential Person Richard Rohr has probably been one of the biggest influences in my life. We've attended a number of his conferences and read a number of his books and listened to a lot of his work on CD. https://cac.org/richard-rohr/richard-rohr-ofm/ Effect on Emotions Mindfulness is a standard. I would probably tell you I used to operate right at the edge. It didn't take very much [to get me there]. Even if Sandra [my wife] said, can I ask you a question? That would emotionally put me at the edge or over. So mindfulness and meditation have moved me to separate that a whole lot further away and I'm not really sure where the edge is right now, but I haven't been there in a long time. Thoughts on Breathing This is where meditation has really helped. It's because I realized that a breath is now and, and it's sort of the smallest part. It started the smallest piece of life that I can sort of separate out from the rest. And so I've learned that breathing, whether it's during meditation or whether it's just during the day, whenever I'm doing it enables me to say no, this is the breath, this is right now. Take a breath and then let's take the next breath. And so I've been able to bring myself back to this particular moment in time, this breath. I used to count in meditation one, two, three. I was always getting discouraged when I realized there had been a whole lot of breaths in there that hadn't been counted. And when I choose to count, I just only count to one because one is all you've got right now. Suggested Resources Book: The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life by John Daido Loori Book: Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn Book: The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing by Gross and Shapiro Book: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh Book: More than a Rock by Guy Tal App: Calm Childhood Story I don't ever remember being secure in who I was. I wasn't stupid; I did ok in school. We moved around a lot. I went to three different elementary schools, two different middle schools, and four different high schools. Growing up for me was moving around a lot and kind of making friends, but in retrospect, I realize I really never developed any close friends and I'm not in touch with anybody I ever knew growing up. I never established a community. I was never a part of a community as I was growing up. I was always alone because if we were someplace long enough, I was probably getting ready to move anyway. I learned to adjust, but I also never developed long-term relationships that many people did when they grew up and went to the same schools with the same people. Free Gift Do you want to improve the focus, drive, and productivity of your employees? If so, you can learn how by downloading, '10 Simple & Effective Ways to Increase Mindfulness in the Workplace Now', a free PDF at www.MindfulnessMode.com/workplacep.

Natasha Todorovic-Cowen is the CEO of National Values Centre Consulting and is the owner of the brand, Viral Dynamics. Natasha is all about helping people and businesses change. She has helped corporations with dysfunctional teams and incongruent leadership move to new levels of success. Natasha has personally endured massive levels of change in her life. She lived in three countries before the age of seven and then later, in adulthood, experienced two acquisitions and an industry that disappeared overnight. She has delivered over 100 SPIRAL DYNAMICS® Programs in 14 countries and continues to help teams learn how to meet their organizational goals. She holds an MBA degree and has worked extensively in the field of neural-linguistic programming. Contact Info Company: Spiral Dynamics Website: SpiralDynamics.org Most Influential Person Chris Cowan (my husband) Effect on Emotions Mindfulness has affected my emotions by allowing me to notice the initial sparking emotion. Far too many of us are feeling feelings about feelings, and that's a form of affect phobia. By noticing the messages in that initial spark, we get to understand our reactions and what we need to know quickly, rather than letting things spiral out of control. Thoughts on Breathing So we were talking about the PTSD, and one of the things I did when I was having a reaction was a long four count in, a four-count hold, a four-count exhale, and a four-count hold. And I did that until I could be present in the room again. Suggested Resources Book: N/A App: Unyte Bullying Story Actually, my husband and I were subject to over a decade of bullying and it was rough. It was very tough because some of the stuff that we did with spiral dynamics was very confronting to a certain group of folks. Sometimes we'd be in our classes delivering the spiral dynamics content and we'd have some of those people in our classes. I had PTSD for a number of years and this situation would get so bad it would trigger the entire PTSD. Now, if you've got a room with 30 people, you can't go freak out. So what I did was, I internally noticed the reaction, noticed the panic, and noticed the fear. I noticed it come up inside me and acknowledged what that was and asked myself, 'Okay. Is this person asking you that question because they're trying to get you? Or is it because there's a sincere desire underneath there to learn something or to explore something?' Once I was able to be mindful of their intentions, where they were coming from, and the origins of what it was that they were trying to explore, I was able to let that emotion or that reaction simmer down some, and then become fully present for them. Sometimes I had to ask them a couple of questions just to get myself grounded in their world, their experience, and their reality to be fully present for them. But that was one of the ways that I dealt with that. Free Gift Get the 'Release Your Overwhelm' Guided Meditation for only $4.99. Bruce Langford helps you abandon your inner blocks. Surrender your stress. Become more focused and raise your personal level of contentment. Achieve more with increased concentration. Download this full-length 30 minute guided meditation by Bruce Langford. www.MindfulnessMode.com/release

Ben Feder is CEO of a large gaming enterprise called Tencent Games and formerly was CEO of Take Two Interactive, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. In an effort to revitalize his sense of purpose and rebuild family relationships, he dropped everything and left his fast-paced Manhatten life-style to an exotic island for a year of growth, including a new level of mindfulness, meditation, and artistic expression. Contact Info Website: www.BenFederAuthor.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenFederAuthor/ Twitter: @BenFederAuthor https://twitter.com/BenFederAuthor Most Influential Person  Eric Langshur, author of 'Start Here' Effect on Emotions They skew much more positively than they used to and are much more optimistic. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is the center of my mindfulness practice. My mindfulness practice amounts to three things. It's yoga, meditation, and art. In terms of yoga and meditation, [breathing] is integral to the practice, and in terms of art, probably not so much, but I wonder what would happen to my art if I actually incorporated [breathing]. Suggested Resources Book: Take Off Your Shoes: One Man's Journey from the Boardroom to Bali and Back By Ben Feder Book: Mindfulness In Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana Book: Joyful Wisdom by Rinpoche Youngey Mingyur App: 10% Happier, Mindfulness Studio, Headspace Bullying Story My daughter was bullied in school and really suffered terribly. She would come home and either cry or fight with her brothers and we wouldn't know what it was about until towards the end of the evening, when you'd kind of find out what happened in school. It oftentimes wasn't anything specific. It was an eye roll from some girl and you know, all of a sudden she became devastated. By taking her out of that environment and putting her into an environment where she absolutely flourished, we noticed that she could have a positive experience, so that school was obviously the wrong place for her. A few years later, as she's a young adult now, or a teenager. She's just this utterly different human being. It just looks so amazing to watch. I'm sure some of that may have happened anyway, but taking her out of that toxic environment in and of itself was probably a mindful approach. So, I don't think you need to like, get up and go to Bali and have that experience, but taking her out of a toxic environment, provided you can put her in an environment that's not toxic, A, is beneficial, and B, it shows her that her parents are paying attention and are concerned and caring and doing the best thing for her. Free Gift Get the brand new 'Sleep Naturally' Guided Meditation by Bruce Langford. A deep, easy sleep is yours to enjoy. Sleep naturally and fall asleep easily. Drift off to sleep with a calm, gentle voice. Rest comfortably, without effort. Click here: www.MindfulnessMode.com/Sleep

Amina AlTai is a branding and marketing expert in the fields of nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. She believes that being nourished & having a healthy bottom line are intrinsically tied. After several years of pushing her physical limits in order to achieve business success, Amina experienced burnout and developed two autoimmune diseases and a whole host of food allergies. She realized being physically and emotionally healthy meant her business could thrive too.  Now she pays it forward and teaches others how to fill up in all the right ways: in business, and in life. Contact Info Website: www.AminaAlTai.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aminaaltai/ Free Mini-Course: Get Un-Stuck In Your Business http://getunstuck.aminaaltai.com/ Blog: https://aminaaltai.com/blogs/news Most Influential Person My Meditation Teacher. Effect on Emotions [Mindfulness has] tremendously affected my emotions. I think life is always ebbing and flowing, right? And so it's up, it's down, it's up and it's down. And I think if we're not prepared, if we're not trained, if we're not mindful, we can go along on that rollercoaster so when life goes up, we go up, when life goes down, we go down. But mindfulness allows me to witness what's happening in my life without riding the rollercoaster and that is just tremendous. Thoughts on Breathing So anytime I do any sort of a speaking or presentation, I will make sure to layer in additional breathing exercises in addition to my meditation practice. There's so much research on how it mitigates performance anxiety and just bringing ourselves back to our breath is everything. You realize that you've been in a state of fight or flight all day trying to get a taxi, commuting, whatever it is, and then you bring yourself back to your breath and it's just this moment of profound stillness. Suggested Resources Book: A Pocket Guide To Mindfulness: (In 10 Steps) by Deidre Megan App: Keep Calm Studio www.KeepCalmStudio.com Bullying Story I was obese as a child and I was bullied really badly at school for my thighs and I wish at the time I knew that it wasn't about me. I wish that meditation would have helped me tremendously because instead of me clinging onto these ideas that I was terrible because of my weight and my size and what I looked like, I wish I would have been able to sort of watch these emotions, these thoughts, sort of as if I was a passer by. [I wish I could have imagined I was] just sitting on the sidewalk watching them go by. Instead I was clinging onto them and, and believing that this was to do with me and my identity. So, yes I wish I had known about mindfulness and meditation. Free Gift Get the brand new Awaken With Focus 12-Minute Guided Meditation by Bruce Langford Be alert and focused after waking. Feel invigorated, fresh and dynamic. Let your vibrancy feed those around you. Be the energetic person you desire to be. Click here: www.MindfulnessMode.com/AwakenWithFocus

Arlene Battishill is a Business Dominatrix. She broke all the rules to become the highly sought-after consultant she is today. She shares the brutal truth of what it means to sell online and how you can have brilliant success no matter how big or small you are. Arlene used her nerves of steel when she appeared on the TV show Shark Tank promoting her brilliant motorcycle riders’ protective and fashionable gear called GoGo Gear. She is the best-selling author of Retail Shock Therapy: A Prescription For What Ails Your Online Sales. If you feel stuck in your business or your life, Arlene may just be your recipe for success. Contact Info Website: www.ArleneBattishill.com Podcast: What's Your Next Move: http://arlenebattishill.com/podcast-episodes/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArleneBadAssBattishill Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebusinessdominatrix/ Most Influential Person None Effect on Emotions Oh my God. Mindfulness has been absolutely huge because in the most stressful situations in life, which are all compliments of being an entrepreneur. My emotions have allowed me to self-regulate and to keep myself as calm as possible in every situation and I faced some pretty traumatic circumstances in my business and in my life and I've always looked at them in a way where it's, what do we need to do? What's my next move in this situation? So mindfulness has been critical for me. Thoughts on Breathing Like I said before, if I couldn't ride my bike, I wouldn't be able to breathe and breathing was really critical to my being able to deal with my debilitating flying anxiety. I think breathing, more than anything else, is the number one thing that people must be doing when they are trying to get of themselves. Suggested Resources Book: Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior by Jeffrey M. Schwartz Book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain App: Listening to music Bullying Story When we talk about bullying, I won't say that I experienced bullying in the way we see it today. When I was in high school I was in a situation where I had people threatening me and this was in the seventies. I grew up in Detroit and there were was a lot of racial conflict at that time. There was a TV show called Roots that came on. It was a mini-series with LaVar Burton, I think in 1976 or 1977. There was tremendous conflict between the African American students and the white students in all of the schools in Detroit because we had come out of the race riots and the violence of the police against African Americans in the late sixties. And we moved into the seventies and we experienced something called white flight where a judge ruled that all of the city schools must be integrated or desegregated. So now they were busing white kids into black schools and black kids into white schools. And the amount of violence that was going on in the schools at that time was just unheard of. And I was one of the white students that was taken out of an all-white school. This was completely random. It's just like they picked your name out of a hat and you had to go. And so I was taken out of an all-white high school and moved over to an all-black high school and there were six white kids in my graduating class. And I had an instance where I was in a locker room. I was asked to come be the token on the basketball team and I couldn't play basketball to save my life. But there I was and apparently, some kids had done something and they got in trouble for it and they thought I told on them. So one of the other basketball players came over and she grabbed one of these metal cages where we would put our clothes in lockers and she picked it up and started shoving it in my face. You know, saying that I was the one who did it. And I kept pleading with her saying, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, but when you're in a situation like that you know, you're guilty until further proven guilty. What I knew in that moment is I had been, up till that moment in my life, someone who was very much a diplomat, even though I'm telling everybody to f**k off, it was always around doing the right thing and you never caused harm to people. And I was very much about justice and making sure that people treated each other properly. And I spent most of my time in that situation, pleading with her to get her to understand who I was and to see me properly and to know that I would never do something like that because that's just not who I am. But the circumstances were such that it was such an incendiary environment that there was nothing I could do. And so the remainder of the year I was pretty much alienated from the rest of the students and I'd try and engage them, but you know, there was nothing I could do. And so I just kind of went about my business, but I think the thing with mindfulness and a situation like that is when you know yourself well enough and you feel really rock solid in who you are and you have a moral compass and a guide that is all about knowing what it is the right thing to do in a situation. I didn't have a real problem with that because I always knew who I was and maybe that's why early on I could tell people to go f**k off because, you know, they were not going to tell me something and they're not gonna blow smoke up my ass. I wasn't going to have any part of it because I knew exactly what they were doing. And so that, that's been kind of a guiding principle for me throughout my whole life, which is all about being mindful of other people and behaving in a way that's respectful of them and always working toward finding a way where we can work together so that everybody wins. Because I don't believe that it's beneficial in life for people to lose as a result of what someone else has done. Competition is one thing, but when people are losing in life because somebody else gets to win, that doesn't work for me. Free Gift Become more calm, focused and happy by reading the top 12 books recommended on the Mindfulness Mode Podcast. This mini 14-page ebook entitled '12 Must-Read Mindfulness Books' outlines each of the top books recommended by guests on the show. Get your digital copy now at www.MindfulnessMode.com/top12books

Elisabeth Misner is a Natural Health Practitioner and Meditation Leader. She teaches at the Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, TX, as well as at various retreats and conferences around the world. Her latest book, Healing Begins in the Kitchen, tells the story of how her husband, BNI Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner, healed prostate cancer using diet, nutrition, and lifestyle changes. Not long after his recovery, she was also diagnosed with cancer and applied everything she had learned with her husband and more to bring herself back to health with no surgery or radiation. Beth’s focus on the BodyMind is helping many others to heal quickly and naturally from a variety of conditions. Contact Info Website: www.BethMisner.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/bethmisner Private FB Group: Abundant Health Qigong (Ask to join) Most Influential Person Adyashanti  www.adyashanti.org Effect on Emotions Oh, mindfulness has really given me a perspective that emotion is just an emotion. It doesn't control me and I don't have to act on it. Thoughts on Breathing First of all, I love breathing. I'm a big fan of breathing. How has it affected my mind? It slows me down. I think it slows my thoughts down and when I have the breath to focus on, it really helps me stay in the present. It's a big cue for me for mindfulness. Suggested Resources Book: Interior Castle by St. Theresa of Avila Book: All Richard Rohr books such as Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation Book: Healing Begins in the Kitchen: Get Well and Stay There with the Misner Plan by Elisabeth and Ivan Misner Book: Also anything by Joseph Campell such as The Hero With A Thousand Faces App: Insight Timer www.InsightTimer.com Bullying Story I do have a couple of stories about bullying as it relates to this experience. In the first example, I wasn't quite as competent yet with my mindfulness. It was a very stressful experience. I actually had a very strong reaction was with the oncologist that I went to in the very beginning. She really bullied me and even Ivan couldn't believe how she bullied me and was telling me, you know, what are all these vitamins you're taking, you might be hurting yourself and you know, we're going to do it this way and I'm gonna have you do that so I know what kind of chemotherapy to give you. She was being a bully to me and I was asking questions and wanting to get more information and wanting to slow down and she, you know, push, push, push and bullying me. And I literally left her office and went into shock. I felt, well, literally going into shock is a little bit different than having a reaction where your immune system; your adrenaline is flowing and you're shaking. It was that kind of a thing, like I was in a state of shock. The next time that happened to me, I had a completely different experience and this happened online. I was working in one of the healing cancer naturally facebook groups that I'm in. There was a doctor in that group who really flamed me. I was sharing my experience. I wasn't telling anybody else this is what you have to do. And he really blamed me and I gently, with love and tenderness, I stood up for myself and I said, you know, with all due respect, this is not appropriate for you to be speaking to me this way, you know. And ultimately what happened was the lady who started the group, banned him from the group because he had been flaming other people as well. She stepped in to kind of protect us from his vitreal, which was very, very nice. But I can see the reaction with me was very different and maybe it was because it wasn't face to face and I was already well on the way to recovery. All of those dynamics were different, but I can pinpoint that being mindful really had me in my experience and his perspective and opinion did not rattle me at all. Free Gift Do you want to become more calm, relaxed, peaceful, and content? If so, you can learn how by downloading this free 'Waves of Content' Meditation by Bruce Langford. Unlock the secrets of calm by downloading the meditation here at www.MindfulnessMode.com/wavesofcontent

Chris Aimone is an inventor, an engineer, and a visionary. The Muse, brain-sensing headband for meditation is a creation of the company he co-founded called Interaxon. Chris' creative and design practices span many fields including architecture, alternative energy, augmented reality, imaging, music, and robotics. Chris holds a masters in engineering and computer science from the University of Toronto. Contact Info Website: www.ChooseMuse.com Most Influential Person My Mother. Effect on Emotions I would say I'm a much happier person now as a result of being introduced to mindfulness. I think this really comes from understanding myself that much better and understanding how to live in a way where I don't have as much conflict with myself. [Mindfulness has given me] the capacity to really understand how other people are experiencing things. This makes for a much more frictionless flow in life. It feels great. Thoughts on Breathing The breath is fascinating. I've recently played more with intentional breath work where breath is sort of an energetic tool to influence your nervous system. In my mindfulness practice, just recognizing that there is an automatic function of your breathing and a conscious aspect of breathing and simply watching your breath really isn't so easy. There is a really amazing rabbit hole there just to discover what it's like to try to simply observe the breath and not influence it. It's a beautiful biofeedback tool. And so Muse is a biofeedback tool, but actually, the practice of meditation is like deep biofeedback at work because of the things that we use to anchor our attention. Suggested Resources Book: Wake Up To Your Life by Ken Macleod App: Social Media like Instagram Bullying Story Like I said in the beginning, mindfulness for me is all about awareness and a big part of that is self-awareness. I think for an individual who might be a bully, for example, growing some deeper self-awareness, really provides an opportunity to understand what's happening and how your actions are being received. [Also], what those actions are and what they're related to in your own emotional experience. I think being aware of something is the first step in change. If you can't see what's happening there can be no interest in being any different. Seeing what's happening provides an opportunity to become interested and motivated to do things differently. That in itself doesn't allow you to change necessarily, but it certainly can make you aware of what's happening. So I think that's a really important first step is just expanding some inner awareness. You can actually see what's happening emotionally and how it's manifesting in action, even as a retrospective. So I think doing any kind of inner practice, you know, out of context where you're just with yourself can be perhaps simple enough. The things that come up in meditation seem to be better received and you can hear them more clearly. And so that's the really great first step in that someone who is being bullied, it's both an inner and an outer awareness that comes into play. Free Gift Thinking of launching your own podcast? You’ll need a host, a place to upload your episodes. Podbean is awesome. Podbean is built specifically for podcasters, has been around for 10 years and the pricing is super competitive. It’s $9 a month, no matter how much content you upload and they have great stats as well. You can help support Mindfulness Mode AND get a month for free with my affiliate link. Go to www.Podbean.com/PodbeanMM