“Mindfulness” is a popular concept these days. Thank God for that! Today´s busy lives really need moments of stillness. That is what mindfulness can do if you apply it.

First of all, mindfulness means to be conscious. It includes some ancient Buddhist methods such as breathing, body awareness and meditation. It is nothing fancy or complicated. The beauty of mindfulness lies in its simplicity.

The most basic way of applying mindfulness is to observe the present moment. And there are several techniques for doing that. One very elementary technique is to notice how you experience your actions, your thoughts and your emotions.

Most of our actions are on autopilot. We act, behave, think and react without much observation. Mindfulness points us in another direction; towards the true reality. It teaches us to see life as it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

So how can we learn to observe the present moment? The easiest thing to do is to breathe! Accordingly, here is a brief description of a breathing exercise which increases your self awareness and ability to be in the present moment:

Relax.
Take a deep breath.
Ask:
How do I feel right now?
How is my body? Tense or relaxed?
What feelings do you have? Are the emotions positive or negative?
Are there any disturbing thoughts?
Observe them!
They are nothing but thoughts.
Breathe more deeply.
Finish your exercise.

Mindfulness is a slow and gentle process. Use the exercise above in various situations, especially during unpleasant or stressful circumstances.

We all need to slow down and observe “the now”. Because the truth is that life consists of nothing but present moments. All the time, one after the other…

Mindfulness has become one of the new personal development trends. Many celebrities talk about how mindfulness has changed their lives. And if it changed the life of someone we admire, we tend to view that particular thing favorably.

These days you can hear someone say they are on their way to their mindfulness class. It seems that just like with yoga, qi-gong or meditation, we need a fixed time of the week to exercise the mental parts of ourselves.

Very few of us take the time and trouble to exercise stillness instead of activity. Not so many people realize the benefits of taking the time to do nothing, in order to be more energetic, present and efficient.

If I do nothing for a few moments now, I will accomplish better later. Mindfulness helps us do exactly that.

So what is mindfulness all about?

First of all, mindfulness is nothing new. Buddhists have been practicing mindfulness for more than 2500 years. In Buddhism, there are eight different paths to follow. One of them is the right consciousness, in other words; mindfulness.

In many ways consciousness is one of the biggest mysteries or enigmas of biology. We receive eleven million signals per second, but we are only aware of approximately forty of them. Our consciousness is like a spot light. You can actually control it.

This is where mindfulness comes in. Through mindfulness we have the ability to choose which world we want to create. Using mindfulness is like lighting up a dark room.

Here is a simple example of mindfulness in use:

Close your eyes.

Listen to the sounds around you.

Just listen.

Now you become conscious of the sounds surrounding you. They were there all the time, but you were not aware of them.

As you become aware of a moment, it transforms itself into a thought and then it is over. A moment can never be caught; it can only be observed and experienced here and now.

That is how mindfulness points us in the direction of “now”.

“A home without books is like a person without a soul”, is an old saying that I have heard in many variations and translations through the years.

There are many people however, who have never read a book in their entire lives, and are the most spiritual and soulful people conceivable! But in my opinion, they are rare… I believe that books are an unbeatable way of gaining inspiration and wisdom from.

Like with all proverbs, there is some truth in them, but not the one and only truth. So is “a home without books like a person without a soul” true to me?

Personally, I like to think of my home as a place which reflects me and my family´s taste, interests and personalities. And a big part of my life consists of reading books on personal development and related topics. Consequently, there are thousands of books in our home.

In recent years, I have also collected a fair amount of audios on topics like personal growth, positive thinking, mental strength, personal power, goal setting, success, affirmations and similar topics which I listen to in the car or whenever I want a little inspiration in life.

Some favorite speakers of mine are Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn. Wayne Dyer is entertaining, talkative and paraphrases his messages in several ways to get his message across. He uses a lot of humor and is a wonderful speaker!

Tony Robbins is one of the best speakers in the world. He teaches his skills to leaders worldwide, and is simply great at getting his messages on personal power across to his audience. Tony Robbins is a real master well worth listening to.

And then there is the old master of personal development who taught Tony Robbins in his early days; Jim Rohn. There is nobody like him! Jim Rohn´s way of speaking is like singing. I have listened to his audios so many times that I know some parts of them verbatim.

Nobody (except for his equal Zig Ziglar!) delivers concise pieces of advice like Jim Rohn: “Learn to express, not to impress”, is just one example.

Some amazing authors on personal development and personal power are Carlos Castaneda, Paulo Coelho and Don Miguel Ruiz.

What all these speakers and authors bring me is life- and people experience. They share their experiences in ways we can all relate to.

Personally I prefer indirect lessons from these masters. They share a story or some sort of wisdom which the reader himself has to digest, interpret and transform into his own knowledge.

What skillful authors do, is tell a story (true or fictional) that is full of interpretation possibilities. One reader might learn something entirely different from that story than another reader. It naturally depends on our personalities and how we choose to see things in life.

To me, there is a little bit of truth in the opening proverb. I feel that books indeed add soul to my home. There are books that I have read over and over through the years. They have become my friends. And nobody would argue that friends do not add soul to your life!

All in all, to me it is true that a good book has a soul. So yes, a home without books is like a person without a soul.

The act of breathing is something we all do every day without thinking about it. In twenty-four hours, we take about 20.000 breaths. It means that we normally take about 10-14 breaths every minute. But what happens if we are stressed?

When we are under pressure and feel stressed, we tend to breathe quicker, which results in far more than the normal 10-14 breaths per minute. And when we do, the breathing becomes shallow. Shallow breathing means that you only use the upper part of your chest to inhale and exhale.

Proper breathing uses all of the lungs. The breathing is deep enough to fill the entire lungs with air. And as you do that, the movements of the diaphragm creates a pressure downwards, which results in the appearance of an outward movement of the belly (abdomen).

But of course you never use the belly (abdomen) itself for breatning. Air can only reach your lungs through the nose or mouth. Air cannot reach the abdomen.

However, as you inhale, the belly should expand, so tight clothes around the waist is a killer for good, healthy breathing! Allow your body to function the way it is supposed to.

Healthy breathing is essential for all physical and mental functions of a human being. The oxygen of the air is what brings us energy and life.

Consequently, we need to stop for a minute or two from time to time to make sure we breathe properly. And to assist the process even further, there are some simple breathing techniques to use.

A favorite breathing technique of mine follows below:

Set aside three minutes of your time.

Relax.

Begin by exhaling all the air of your lungs. This should be done slowly and purposefully.

Do not exaggerate by pushing yourself to near collapse or making noises.

This long exhalation should be rather silent.

When you have emptied your lungs of all its oxygen, you will automatically inhale a lot! This inhalation means that you bring lots of fresh, nourishing oxygen to your lungs.

Continue exhaling and inhaling like this for three minutes.

A simple breathing exercise like this will revitalize your senses. Make it a habit, and you will, no doubt, feel much more energized and in control.

Shallow breathing is a common cause of many physical problems; headaches, tension, fatigue, poor digestion and other psychosomatic symptoms. That is why many alternative therapies talk about and recommend proper breathing.

I have practiced various martial arts for many years, and one thing the different arts like qi-gong (chi-kung), tai-chi and karate have in common is the importance of proper breathing.

What is proper breathing? Simply put it is breathing that is deep enough to move your stomach. It is also breathing which is makes use of the entire lungs, not just the upper part. Breathing with your upper part of the chest results in shallow breathing, which in many ways is insufficient for the transportation of oxygen to the lungs.

Proper breathing is healthy breathing. In the East, the vital energy called “chi” is everywhere all the time. But chi can be increased in many different ways. Breathing exercises is one way of increasing chi.

Most modern people suffer from one psychosomatic symptom or the other. The symptoms are caused by poor diet, poor sleep, mental discomfort which leads to negative thinking and mental weakness.

All this in combination causes physical symptoms. Often people call them “stress-related”, but above all it is your attitude towards the stress which causes disharmony. Some people even claim that there is no stress. We create the stress in our minds.

If that is true, we also have the power to dissolve stress through our mental power. And mental power can be increased by the simple act of proper breathing. Why?

When we slow down and let the body take care of the breathing, we relax. A relaxed body is a happy body and a happy body has a greater chance of staying healthy. That is how simple it is.

Whenever you feel stressed, slow down and breathe slowly and deeply for five minutes. You will be amazed at what difference it makes!

Modern people usually have very strict schedules. We love to plan ahead and make sure we get work, family and pleasure together. Our daily lives are full of important deadlines, meetings at certain hours and so on.

Many of us spend huge amounts of time planning, which often includes knowing about a conference, meeting or trip several months in advance.

We take for granted that communications work. If the internet is down for half a day, we panic.

If we cannot get hold of that important person on his mobile immediately, we get frustrated.

Not to mention if your flight is delayed. Or worse, if your flight is cancelled.

In my experience from international travelling, few other things bring out the worst in people more than having their flight cancelled! Why?

Having your plans and schedule spoilt means you are not in control of your situation. And most of us hate that. We think it is a sign of weakness if someone or something outside of us, changes our plans.

Technology has created a generation of people who think they are superhuman. With our iPods, mobiles, computers, bluetooths, GPS and lots more, we believe that we are smarter than Nature. And a little bit ahead of God.

However, the truth is that technology is vulnerable and so are we.

Right now there is a volcano, Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, which has erupted. It has been dormant for 200 years, but has for the last few weeks been spitting our ashes and gases.

Now airports not only in Iceland, but in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Denmark and Finland have closed their airports due to the ashes from Eyjafjallajokull volcano. More European countries will most likely have to close their airports very soon.

As I live in Sweden, I am about to be affected by a volcano more than 1300 miles away from me! It does not disturb me at all. Who am I to complain about the forces of Nature?

So now tens of thousands of people who had made plans and had important flights to catch, are forced to change their plans. In a longer perspective, that trip, meeting, conference or flight will have become unimportant.

Perhaps it is a good eye-opener for modern people. We are not in control of everything. We are not smarter than Nature. And definitely not ahead of God.

Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland teaches us a valuable lesson.

We all go through rough times in life. Thank God we do! Problems make us grow as human beings.

If there was sunshine all the time every single day and everywhere, life would be a desert. And although sunshine sounds really attractive, few people would be willing to spend the rest of their lives in a burning desert.

Naturally, very few people actively seek out problems in order to expand. But learning how to cope with problems and learn from every new experience is what separates a shallow person from a person with depth. Problems, and subsequently dealing with them, are our friends in that sense.

In my opinion, there are two basic personality types when it comes to problem solving:

1) The solution oriented person

2) The victim oriented person

The first personality type is aware that problems will always occur and treat them as challenges.

We all agree that the word “challenge” has positive connotations to it, whereas “problems” sounds a little less attractive.

It is totally acceptable to actively seek out challenges. To most of us however, seeking out problems sounds a bit foolhardy.

The challenge oriented person has realized that there is no point in worrying. “Don´t worry about it”, is a common phrase from such a person. Despite this attitude, there is a distinct presence of personal responsibility involved in his attitude. It is “Don´t worry. Be happy. We will find a solution.”

This attitude is to take personal responsibility. This person has good chances of growing personally.

The second category, the victim oriented person, likes to blame others for his problems. He tends to worry a great deal. But his worry very rarely leads to problem solving. How could he solve his problem, when he blames others for it?

I claim that this person is victim oriented because he is unable to see his own role in a problematic situation. He only sees that life, people and God treat him unfairly. He pities himself and fails to see his possibility of influencing whatever he wants in his own life.

Taking responsibility for your own problems is the key. Recognize the existence of a problem, embrace it, do something about it and then get on with life.

In conclusion, as many songs suggest, worry leads to nowhere, so don´t worry. Be happy!

“There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.” (Harold Stephens)

You are the creator of your thoughts, you and nobody else. You produce tens of thousands of thoughts every single day. The bad news is that most of the thoughts have been thought by you before… Very little originality there.

Our thinking capacity is vast, much more advanced than any computer in the world, but the mind is greatly underestimated and underused. Why?

First of all, it is more comfortable to re-use the familiar, than produce new thinking. Humans are extremely lazy in that respect. And if we do not stop to reflect upon our own way of thinking, we will continue to think what we have always thought, with very little variation.

Secondly, I believe that most of us are so conditioned to follow the crowd, that we have forgotten how to think independently! That is a waste, because we can create whatever we want in our own minds, and then make it real in the material world too. That is what we call manifestation.

Manifestation is the mind´s way of interpreting your thoughts and acting upon your command. That is why it is vitally important to think the “right” thoughts! The reason is that the subconscious mind does not distinguish between fact and fiction, truth or untruth. The mind considers everything we think as facts.

Consequently the mind acts upon the information given, whether it is positive or negative, productive or counterproductive to you. That is why I say: You might as well de-program your mind and feed it with positive thinking, which benefits you and leads to results that you like and want.

Lastly, another reason the mind is an underused resource is that we simply lack knowledge about its power. Rhetorically I would like to ask you:

If you could choose between manifesting your dreams desires thanks to positive thinking, or get into a mental rut (status quo) due to negative, common and routine-like thinking, what would you choose?

The answer of course is easy.

And now that you are aware of the power of your mind and the fact that you are in control of your own thinking, it makes your choice so much easier. De-program your mind from the negativity, begin feeding it positive thoughts.

In Sweden there is an old slogan that the flower shops used to advertise: When was the last time you gave your wife a flower?

The message was meant to make potential customers think about it, maybe awaken a bad conscience and make him buy. As simple as that. Giving some flowers to make up for lack of attention, appreciation or whatever.

I suppose it works sometimes for some people. Personally, I prefer to think in more holistic ways.  What do I mean by thinking holistically?

First of all, holistic means to consider “the whole”, not just one aspect, but everything. Holistic thinking includes the physical, spiritual, mental and social aspects of life. We often tend to pay most attention to the physical or material aspects.

Most of us think it is natural to provide materially for our family, for example. We want to make enough money to live and eat decently. We want to be able to get our kids “the best”, whether it is a new bike or spare time activities.

But (at least in the West) I think we have come to a point where our children have become spoilt and demanding. The material demands expand all the time, due to clever marketing.

The computer you proudly brought home for your kids last year have become “unfashionable” and insufficient. The games too. Not to mention what you thought was the latest “Pokemon” cards…

So parents work, commute and slave away trying to provide for a family whose needs increase all the time. It is a never ending story.

And the question is; are we providing what our children really need? Is the Affluent Society making our kids into independent, strong, happy, self-reliant and blame-free people? The answer seems to be “no”.

One aspect I believe that we need to emphasize much more is the art of giving away other things than material or physical objects. We need to see that it is also possible to give away your time, your attention, your smiles, your laughter, your understanding, your appreciation, your praise, your experience, your love and your energy and so on.

And in my opinion, most children would thrive both mentally, spiritually, socially and physically if parents and others adults focused much more on the fine art of giving away the non-material things.

Because at the final moment, it is the non-material things that count. You cannot bring your belongings to the other side, so train your children be loving and giving. The art of giving is a fine art indeed.

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