What can you learn from the practice of mindfulness? Why has this ancient practice exploded into the mainstream? You may have noticed the long-time meditators among us looking bewildered but happy about this geek-to-chic transition.
One definition of mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment with nonjudgmental awareness. That sounds simple, but it’s endlessly subtle. The truth is, mindfulness can alter your relationship to your self, others, and the world around you in dramatic fashion.
And now, as you’ve probably heard, there are a host of scientific studies confirming the benefits of this practice.
What Can Mindfulness Do For You?
If you spend consistent time practicing mindful awareness, you start to notice things that you missed before. At first, you become aware of what you think and feel. But then how you think and feel starts to become apparent.
You notice how your relationship to your mental and physical state affects you moods, feelings, and emotions. In turn, you realize how much your choices are guided by habitual thought patterns.
Slowly but surely, mindfulness yields to insight, empowering you to respond to life in new ways. Situations that felt stagnant become fluid again. Your relationships evolve because you are changing.
In the end, mindfulness is training for your attention. Because awareness is the backdrop for all of our experience, refining your attention through meditative practices can lead to breathtaking transformation.
Exploring Basic Mindfulness with Julianna Raye
In this episode of The OneMind Meditation Podcast, we explore Basic Mindfulness training with meditation teacher Julianna Raye. For Julianna, mindfulness is more than a practice, it’s a way of life.
Julianna has an amazing story. She’s a long-time singer songwriter, and in her early career she received critical acclaim for her first album on Warner Bros Records. Then her life took some unexpected turns, and she found herself waiting tables just two years later. She was drawn to mindfulness to manage debilitating anxiety.
Today, having attended over 70 retreats and racked up 12,000 hours of formal practice time, Julianna has rewired her brain. In fact, in a recent study at UCLA comparing long-term meditators’ brains with non-meditators, the results of Julianna’s MRI led to interviews on media outlets like ABC and GLOBO news.
Julianna currently teaches a form of mindfulness called Basic Mindfulness to executives, performance professionals, TV personalities, entrepreneurs, executives, and corporate groups.
Basic Mindfulness was developed by meditation teacher and scholar Shinzen Young, and it is the subject of studies at Harvard University, the University of Vermont, and other research institutions.
In this episode, we explore Julianna’s journey from musician to meditation teacher and then we delve into the nuts and bolts of how to practice Basic Mindfulness.
In this interview with Julianna Raye, we discuss:
- How meditation helps you lift your center of gravity
- How an intimate encounter with a radish changed her life
- Why your body and mind are more resilient than you think
- The value of hard work vs peak experiences in meditation
- How meditation helped her overcome anxiety and depression
- What is basic mindfulness
- How running an ironman marathon can be a great exposure to mindfulness
- How mindfulness can help you locate where emotions manifest in your body
- How to develop a mindful relationship to your emotional life
- What Julianna finds to be the biggest challenge of meditation for her clients
- Julianna’s advice for new meditators
Show Notes
- Try a free guided meditation with Julianna
- Visit Julianna’s website PopGoZen.com
- Listen to Julianna’s Music (highly recommended)
- Learn more about Basic Mindfulness
- Learn about Shinzen Young’s Harvard Study
- Get Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno
- Read 4 Mindfulness Tips To Reclaim Your Center & Ground Your Being
- Leave a rating & review on iTunes
Nice read:) I would be interested in reading an article with your view about the keys differences between mindfulness and meditation.
Thanks for your comment Andy. That’s a great idea for a future blog post re the distinctions between mindfulness and meditation. There are some ideas to tease out around that because those terms are often used interchangeably (not incorrectly) and at other times they connote very different modes of contemplative practice.
Without going into detail, one basic distinction that some people use to characterize this difference would be that meditation is the formal sitting practice and mindfulness is the practice of bringing that meditative awareness into your active life–like meditation in motion.
Morgan, although I was skeptical in the beginning, I found your interview with Julianna most insightful and interesting; I have been meditating for about 6 months and it has opened up a whole new world to me/ have made several changes in my life style and have transformed myself on several levels….Thanks for your efforts and I will be examining this process more in the future….so you keep up the good work…
Thanks so much Jerry. I really appreciate your feedback. I’m glad you found the interview with Julianna insightful and interesting. Fantastic to hear about all the change in your life. Keep me posted!
Great article and podcast. Love the idea and practice of bringing meditation into waking life through mindfulness. Awesome interview. Thank you.
Thank you for your feedback Harry! Really happy you enjoyed the article and podcast. Julianna is awesome and I think she has a great way with translating mindfulness into very accessible language and concepts.
Well said! It also has some traditional exercises to increase the power and flow of it. You will be very grateful after doing reiki regularly
Thanks Jack!
Wonderful article! The practice of mindfulness is life changing in so many ways. I’d recommend anyone to give it a try and experience the benefits for themselves!
Thanks for your comment and so glad you liked it!