Be In Touch With Your Inner Self: The first step towards being present is to take a voyage into your inner world. Unless you go there, you can't move on. In our world and depending on where you grow, vulnerability can be considered a weakness. As a result, not only do you end up hiding your feelings from others, you also hide them from your ownself. As a result, thoughts never get processed and spin around in your head ad infinitum. Processing your emotions and your thoughts

Author Judy Blume stated in a recent interview,"You can live a whole life time in summer" (Tweet it) There is something truly unique about summer. Perhaps its the long days, or its the sense of gay abandon or its the green around you that seems to lift everyone. Summer makes you feel alive and more optimistic than ever. Its in this general sense of well-being that meditation becomes even more difficult to fit in. In your countless summer activities, meditation seems like a ch

As a parent, you want your children to be successful. But often we force our personal definition of success onto them and find vicarious pleasures in pushing them in that direction. Society correlates success with financial wealth or fame and thats the value we try and ingrain in our children. But the society of tomorrow needs children who are mindful, community-minded and compassionate. Parenting with this in mind is not easy; given that we are living in a society which expe

If your children are like mine, I bet they love Harry Potter. Most of my students even if they haven't read Harry Potter, have watched the movies and are familiar with the characters. Before you do these exercises, the Harry Potter Way, take kids through Harry Potter, the Wizarding World and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding. Remind them of Harry's character and the many adventures of Harry and his friends (Hermione and Ron). Train Breathing: Imagine you are on

This is a body scan for children. If you’re a parent, you might choose to do this with your child, or feel free to use the audio or the whole video as part of bedtime routine or at any other time of the day. You can use the script and do the meditation with your children. 1) Lie down on your back or sit in a comfortable position. Let your legs and your arms relax. Close your eyes. 2) Take two or three gentle, large breaths. Imagine you are floating in a cloud and let yourself

Remember the clip from the movie "Inside Out"? What happened when the little girl was eating dinner with her parents? Does this sound like a familiar scene from your family dinners? What do you think the girl and her parents could have done differently to take care of the neuroplasticity of the brain? Your primitive brain prepares you to either fight, freeze or run in the hope that you are not noticed. That hunter gatherer brain is the amygdala, that responds to threats - rea