Mindfulness Mode

Latest Episodes:

037 Rob Dial: Disconnect from the World in a Dark Soundproof Sensory Deprivation Tank Dec 20, 2015

Show notes

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.

036 Don Hutcheson: Get Into Your Feelings and Out of Your Thinking to Live a Full Life Dec 16, 2015

Show notes

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.

035 Anne-Claire Holland: Stop and Check Your Breathing When Panic or Anger Feelings Surface Dec 13, 2015

Show notes

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.

034 Benjamin Tyler: Check Your Mental State for High Performance Using Mindfulness Dec 09, 2015

Show notes

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.

033 Aaron Green Sherwood: Find a Deeper Level of Stillness with Mindfulness Dec 06, 2015

Show notes

Aaron Sherwood is a Tai Chi and qiqong instructor. He also teaches meditation and is a gifted body worker. Aaron is from United States and offers personal sessions and group workshops in the U.S. Aaron has dedicated his life to helping others with mindfulness and movement. He believes these elements have tremendous power to heal and transform a person. Aaron spent his youth practicing many movements arts including Hatha and Kundalini Yoga, TaeKwonDo, Hapkido, Contact Improv, and Feldenkrais. He has worked with high level teachers in all of these disciplines. His most important teacher has been Bruce Frantzis, founder of the Energy Arts System. Aaron is now one of the Certified Instructors in this system, which has benefited his own life to a large degree.

Contact Info

Website: www.appliedenergyarts.weebly.com
Email: AppliedEnergyArts@gmail.com

Most Influential Person

My Tai Chi, qiqong and meditation teacher, Bruce Frantzis.

Effect on Emotions

It's been instrumental in me not ending up in jail and me not ending up dead or very, very miserable. I struggled with depression a lot when I was young and the more I got into these mindful practices the more that took me out, further away from that.

Thoughts on Breathing

It's huge. It's one of the pillars that we build everything we do on. The particular tradition that I teach is called Taoist Longevity Breathing and the main focus of that is to be completely present with your breath and then how you can maintain that presence and just deepen not only the length of your breath, but all the different qualities of depth, smoothness. You just remove any and all gaps that relate back to your consciousness through that.

Suggested Resources

Book: The Tao of Letting Go by Bruce Frantzis

Advice for Newbie

Test several methods. Don't just fall in love with your very first method. Use all the methods and really test them. Be your own laboratory. Find what really works for you and that can be a practice in it's own self where you decide that you pick four different practices that you want to work with and you take a week or a month and then you work through it, regardless of any kind of resistance you have and that will reflect what's going on inside of you and help you understand why you resist that particular practice.

032 Gretchen Bridgers: Get Recentered, Become Mindful and Get Back on Track Dec 02, 2015

Show notes

Gretchen Bridgers is a teacher coach. For the past four years she has been helping new teachers in her school district as part of the New Teacher Project. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Supervision and is also anauthor, having written the book: “Elementary Education 101: What They Didn’t Teach You In College. Gretchen has a blog and weekly podcast called “Always A Lesson”, which inspires educators across the globe.

Contact Info

Website: www.AlwaysALesson.com
Podcast: Always A Lesson

Most Influential Person

Louis Sachar (Author of There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom)

Effect on Emotions

Just not taking things personally. Realizing that people have, what my father calls 'head trash', or previous tapes. They are taking things out on you that have nothing to do with you at all.

Thoughts on Breathing

Not so much breathing, but listen, pause and respond. So that pause could be a breath but its that reflection, that gathering of thoughts to remain neutral.

Suggested Resources

Book: Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When the Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Laura Roppe
App: Facebook Groups - Specifically 'Encouraging Teachers'

Advice for Newbie

Reflect daily on how you could have handled anything that occurred differently or just take some actionable steps so you are growing and getting better each day. Hold yourself accountable for just growing and not being perfect.

031 Drew Hume: Step Out of Frustration and Slow It Down With Thai Massage Nov 29, 2015

Show notes

Drew Hume is an expert at Thai massage. One of the things he says often while delivering a massage is ‘Slow it down’. Drew believes it helps us all to just: SLOW … IT ... DOWN. Drew’s Thai massages clear your head and make you feel like he has a surreal connection to your body. From this you can tell Drew isa great person to talk to about Mindfulness. Drew was born in Australia and now lives in Toronto, Canada.

Contact Info

Website: www.navina.ca
Twitter: @NavinaTaiYoga
Instagram: @NavinaTaiYoga

Most Influential Person

S. N. Goenka, a Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma, he moved to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation.

Effect on Emotions

It's helped me maintain a little bit more equanimity in that I get less caught up in the big negatives and less caught up in the big positives and I can maintain a little bit more equilibrium in how I respond.

Thoughts on Breathing

I think its a great way to educate yourself on restrictions and tensions within your own body and I also think its a great tool as a reset button if you take an extra deep breath whenever you feel stressed or challenged. It just gives you a little bit of space to make other decisions.

Suggested Resources

Book: The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge
App: Notes and Calendaring (Taking notes and recording events in a calendar helps me to stay in the present moment)

Advice for Newbie

Avoid frustration. When you think that it's an unsuccessful meditation, your reaction to that is still part of the mindfulness practice. Step out of the frustration and just keep bringing it back in.

030 Kara Stricker: Oma Chocolate Uses Mindfulness to Exercise Your Emotions Like Muscles Nov 25, 2015

Show notes

Kara Stricker created her Oma Chocolate business, from a simple desire to feel more happiness. With a hundred dollar check, she walked away from her studies in college. Thousands of chocolate recipes later, she found happiness living in her heart. Incorporating ayurvedic spices to thebitterness of the dark chocolate encouraged her to become present to her emotions and gently exercise them like muscles. Kara believes in healing through mindfulness, that is being present to what she’s feeling without the judgement. Kara says, "It really boils down to accepting oneself and being yourself. Simply allowing myself to "love what I love". Many wonderful things began to change in her life - including breaking through her writer’s block and meeting her husband, Dave.

Contact Info

Website: www.OmaChocolate.com
Email: KaraStricker@OmaChocolate.com

Most Influential Person

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Effect on Emotions

I feel more positive (rather than negative) emotions in my everyday life. If I feel negative emotions, it feels more balanced and there's much more love and grace to welcome them in. I just just let them be.

Thoughts on Breathing

Everyday my breath or my holding back breath is a real immediate indicator of how to slow things down, be more mindful, and be engaged in the moment in a more relaxed way.

Suggested Resources

Book: The Dreams We Carry by the poet Olave Hodge
Book: You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
App: My Timer on my phone.

Advice for Newbie

I would say, ask yourself the question, "What brings you joy and happiness?" It doesn't matter what you love, take that one thing that you love so much and practice it every day, be with it everyday.

029 Kate Erickson: Different as a Kid, Journey to Systems and Processes Expert at EOFire Explained Nov 22, 2015

Show notes

Kate Erickson is an expert at Systems and Processes and she helps entrepreneurs and business professionals get their act together with their own systems. Kate is on the Entrepreneur on Fire team andis John Lee Dumas's partner in business and life. She is also host of the Audio Blog Podcast called, Kate’s Take. In addition, Kate is also author of the book, The Fire Path: A Beginner's Guide to Growing Your Online Business.

Contact Info

Website: www.eofire.com
Podcast: Kate's Take
Email: kate@eofire.com

Most Influential Person

John Lee Dumas has really encouraged me and challenged me to be mindful.

Effect on Emotions

It's really gotten me more in tune with myself. I know myself better now than I ever could have imagined.

Thoughts on Breathing

I've been doing some studying and research on practicing breathing and it really helps me take my focus off anything else.

Suggested Resources

Book:Essentialism by Craig Mceown
App: The Twelve Minute Athlete App

Advice for Newbie

A really powerful book that triggered for me this idea of living in the now, is the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

028 Michael Sandler: Bullied as a Kid, He says Be Present, Mindful and Choose How To React Nov 18, 2015

Show notes

Michael Sandler is an all-round fascinating person. He loves to move and have fun and he’s an avid athlete who’s had more than his fair share of injuries including being hit by a car when bicycle racing in France and being walloped by a motorcycle while mountain biking in Colorado. Back in middle school, Michael ran to and from school to avoid bullies onthe school bus. Since his high school days, mindfulness and meditation have been part of his daily life, and he now meditates an average of 2 hours a day. Today Michael is a best-selling author and online entrepreneur. Interestingly, he has had a knee surgery and sinus surgery both done without any anesthetics, just with the power of the mind and meditation. You can hear Michael on-line on his popular podcast, Inspire Nation.

Contact Info

Podcast: www.InspireNationShow.com

Most Influential Person

Claudio (his greatest teacher who believes we have it all too complicated. He says it's as simple as going silent)

Effect on Emotions

Hugely so, because I've become a lot less reactive. I'm a lot less of that super ball, bouncing from one thing to the next. And I'm a lot more present in myself. By present in myself, I mean I don't take ownership in the balls that are thrown at me or bounced around by others around me. If somebody throws me a fear ball, I'm able to say, 'wait, that's not mine'.

Thoughts on Breathing

There's conscious and unconscious breathing and I'm always trying to come back to my breath, consciously. With that said, my voice has changed over the years, and the voice that you hear on air is much more because of my mindfulness practice. It used to be 'up here' and that's because I was breathing high in my chest and I was talking really fast, and never taking a deep, full, slow breath. And so focusing on the breath calms me, brings me back into that present moment, gets my mind quieter and allows me to achieve all the things that I've achieved. So the breath really is the metronome, the heartbeat, the guide to everything.

Suggested Resources

Book: Natural Meditation by Dean Sluyter
App: None. I leave the electronics behind as much as possible.

Advice for Newbie

Focus on the breath. Just go to the breath. That can be as simple as, you're on the bus or on the subway on the way to work in the morning, just take one minute and feel the breath coming in, feeling the breath going out. Just starting from there and expanding from there. Or you're at work, at your computer, you're starting to get a little bit stressed out, go into the breath, breathe in. One, two, three, Out, one, two, three. I like throwing a count on it, that's my app, is just counting. Just drop right back into the breath.

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