Have you ever felt happiness at someone else’s misfortune? It could be as simple as taking the last parking spot, and everyone else is still looking for parking. There’s a German word for this emotion: schadenfreude. Schaden means damage and freude means joy. This state of mind only exists when we live in a state of survival and fear. In fear, the misfortune of others equates to our fortunes. The more misfortune someone else has, the less chance I have of being unfortunate. On the other hand,...

When we live in fear, we see changes as unlucky, unfortunate, and destructive. This is why people stay in unhealthy relationships and unhealthy jobs, because they prefer the unhealthy familiar over the healthy unfamiliar. When we live in choice, we accept change as part of life. If life was unchanging, it wouldn't be life. If we are afraid of change, we are afraid of life.  Join Mitra as she offers three suggestions to help you embrace life's changes. First, right before you fully wake up in...

When we are in a state of fear and survival, we look outside of ourselves to find love and value. We feel like we need other people to tell us that we are worthy. We overfocus on these other people, be they our children, family members, or our lovers. We make this person the only source of our happiness and worthiness. If this person returns our attentions, we feel good, but if they don't, we feel unworthy and unloved. Often, this turns into a vicious cycle of feeling rejected, then...

Imagination means new ideas, images, or concepts that are not available to our senses at the moment. Key word: new. When we are in a state of fear, our imagination goes to a state of worry. It is limited to what we’ve experienced before- what we’ve seen, what we’ve heard other people have gone through. When we are in a state of choice, we are open to a new way of seeing and imagining things. So how can we access this different kind of imagination that is helpful and healthy? Take a moment to...

When living in survival mode, saying no can be a hard thing to do. There is a fear of being rejected or rejecting someone, of disappointing someone, of losing someone if we do say no. However, when we need to say no and we feel like we can’t, then we may begin resenting the people that we don’t want to disappoint. However, when we approach saying no from an Attentionist mindset, we can reframe the word “no” into a healthier and more positive mindset. Join Mitra as she explains that saying no...

Many people use the New Year to take inventory of the material things in their lives and decide whether or not these things still suit them. Perhaps we could do the same with our energies and relationships! Join Mitra as she explains how she asks herself whether a relationship still serves her and whether she should retain, revise, or release the relationship. Listen today and learn how to mindfully and respectfully let go of energy and relationships that need to be released, and how to...

Welcome to the last episode of our podcast for 2022. Join Mitra as she invites you to do three things to celebrate the ending of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. First, connect to the sense of compassion inherent in all human beings and ask yourself what are three lessons you learned in 2022. Secondly, ask yourself to select one word that describes how you would like to feel and be in the year 2023. Thirdly, navigate your attention accordingly.

There are three different levels of learning. The first is identification, where we learn the language and gain surface knowing. The second is comprehension, where our understanding and our knowing deepens at the mind level. The third and most important part of learning is incorporation. Learning and knowing are only useful if we incorporate what we learned into how we live our lives.

Have you ever spoken to yourself or had a conversation with someone else in your mind? Our minds are made of several layers of thoughts. This second layer of thought uses a lot of mental energy. We often imagine and create potential conversations between ourselves and others when we haven’t spoken our own truths out loud. Join Mitra as she discusses the power of imagination and how we can use it to create healthier conversations in our heads!

Are you a mindful listener? Even when we have the best of intentions, we can sometimes sacrifice the most fundamental need: the need to be seen and heard. When we are trying to think of ways we can help someone while they're speaking, we are not listening. Join Mitra as she discusses the ways we can learn to mindfully listen. Learn how to use what is being said as an anchor, how to bring your mind back when it does wander, and to let go of all your other jobs and actively, mindfully listen.

Have you ever had to deal with judgmental people? How do you work with them without sacrificing your own mental health and wellbeing? Join Mitra as she teaches us three ways of dealing with judgmental people in a mindful manner. Learn how to treat them with simple loving kindness such as a prayer, celebrate your own journey, and asking yourself if there is anything good about this person to focus on instead of the negative emotions.

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. We often believe that those who deserve our forgiveness have to meet certain expectations in order to qualify for our forgiveness. However, forgiveness is a gift to us, not to those who have wronged us. Even if our expectations are never met, we can forgive others so that we can accept what has happened to us and lighten our own load. And sometimes, the person we really need to be able to forgive is ourselves and lower the expectations and pressure on...

An open energy is very attractive to people and will attract others to you. So how do we protect ourselves energetically without closing ourselves off to the world? Join Mitra as she discusses how we can manage our own energetic boundaries while still being mindful and curious. Listen today to discover a simple visualization exercise that will help you maintain your energetic boundary without allowing someone else to take advantage of your energy and yet maintaining your openness.

While there are thousands of ways to meditate, almost all meditations fall under five general categories. Join MItra as she discusses the five different types of meditation: concentration, contemplation, visualization, cultivation, and observation. Listen to learn which meditation may be the best form for you to practice if one or more forms of meditation haven't worked for you in the past.

Psychologist Dr. Doreen Downing, Ph.D., is the founder of Essential Speaking and the training director of Speaking Circles International. She is an expert and coach in finding your voice. Check out her website at essentialspeaking.com. In this week's episode, Mitra joins Dr. Downing on her podcast "Find Your Voice, Change Your Life." Join Mitra as she dives deep into her history to discover how she formed her voice as a child. Listen today to learn how our vulnerable voice is just as...

Have you wondered what you can do to improve your sleep? After all, it is hard to be mindful and present if we are exhausted. Join Mitra as she discusses three steps we can take to help improve our sleeping habits, beginning with allocating enough time for sleep. Next, we can separate our sleep space from our activity space, and finally, create a ritual around sleep, even if it's as simple as changing into our pajamas and meditating for two seconds. Listen today to learn how to bring a kind...

Do you want to have a healthier relationship with your sleep? Sleep is vital for our physical, mental, and energetic health. Join Mitra as she discusses three ways to reframe your relationship with your sleep. Listen today to learn how to befriend your sleep, to look forward to sleep as the beginning of a restful experience, and to reframe your sleep experience when you wake up in the middle of the night.

In our industrial and competitive society, we have been brought to believe that there is a perfect version of ourselves somewhere out there. The perfect student, the perfect worker, the perfect spouse or perfect parent. But perfectionism is an illusion, and it is an illusion we pay a high price to chase. Join Mitra as she discusses the disease of perfectionism. Listen today to discover how you can replace your "perfect" with the best that you can do.

Do you have a problem asking for help? We are encouraged and even praised for our independence, but our nature is to be interconnected. In order to be balanced, we need to both give and receive. When we are stuck in survival mode, we either do not trust that another person can truly help us or we don't believe we are worthy of being helped. Join Mitra as she explores and examines the feelings behind our hesitance to ask for help. Listen today to learn how to replace your survivalist, fearful...

Sometimes, our minds become frightened and make everything seem bigger than it really is. Things seem more eternal, more personal, more terrifying. We need to allow our awareness and mindful practices to help us keep things in perspective. Join Mitra as she discusses the one way of getting out of survival mode. Listen today to learn how to pause and learn to question your fearful survivalist mind.

When we notice an unhealthy pattern of behavior, sometimes reframing that behavior can be beneficial. Behaviors come directly from our thoughts. Thinking gives us an emotion, and we develop a behavior to respond to that emotion or that thought. Join Mitra as she briefly discusses how to put a mindful frame around an unwanted behavior. Listen today to learn how to pay extra attention and give importance to a behavior, and discover how to tell your mind, "Thank you for your input, but I have it...

When we talk about grief, we don't just mean that we are grieving the death of a loved one. We grieve anything we see value in: a job, a lover, a friendship, a relationship. When we lose something or someone, their value goes up in our awareness. The more unresolved issues we have, the harder it is to find acceptance of our loss. Join Mitra as she walks you through the five stages of grief, from denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally to acceptance. Listen today to discover that...