“I practice mindfulness through food. I take time to listen to my body and what it wants. I consider where I source my ingredients from and the process of how they were grown or harvested. When I’m cooking and sitting down for a meal, I make an effort to be present in that moment and be unplugged from electronics. Being present is something I’m not always the best at, but I try to remind myself how important it is and how it affects my overall happiness.” “What I know for sure, and have had to learn through much trial and error: The voice that truly matters is the silent voice of awareness, consciousness, aliveness. My advice is to start small. When you’re in the shower or tub, simply be with the water. Appreciate the fragrance of the soap. The other day, I had a moment of transcendence just fully taking in the scent of my shower gel. The pleasure of the warm water and the privilege of cleanliness filled me to the point of tears. Although I’m a big proponent of formal meditation—for the discipline, joy, and calm it brings—I’m moving into an even greater phase of being fully present all the time. It’s a heightened state of being that lets whatever you’re doing be your best life, from moment to astonishing moment.” Read the full story “Mindfulness is an essential part of my daily routine as it brings clarity and perspective to the tasks at hand—whether in personal situations or business. The rapid change[s] we’re experiencing in all facets of life can be overwhelming. Pairing mindfulness with physical activity helps ground me to set clear intentions for the day ahead.” “Once I started practicing mindfulness, it was one of those eye-opening, why haven’t I been doing this all along? moments. Taking a minute, an hour, or whatever I can to make myself fully present influences my overall behavior outside of that dedicated mindfulness time. For example, it means I can monotask and be more focused when I write and that I can brush aside knee-jerk reactions more quickly because I’ve learned to recognize and label my emotions.” “My mindfulness practice gives me the space to transcend the emotional chaos of daily life. In the midst of life’s sounds, you can find that there’s always a quieter side of you. By bringing your attention to the present moment and reconnecting to your breath, you can learn how to drop your expectations for anything other than what’s happening right now.” “I have to have at least 30 minutes to myself…to just sit back, close my eyes, and absorb what’s going on, the space that I’m in…how I’m feeling in the moment. Because if I don’t, it’s going to zoom by….That 30 minutes helps— I can totally zone out, and not think about my next lyric. It gives me a restart, a jumpstart, and a refresh. It lets me know why I’m here, doing what I’m doing.” Watch the full interview “Anxiety has been a teacher to me. It’s caused me to learn there are only two basic states of being: dilated and contracted. Every thought, feeling, and action leads to one of those two states. If I was headed into a panic attack, I learned I could find my way into a dilated state by focusing very hard on a different feeling: I chose gratitude. I’ve put this and other [mindfulness] exercises, into a free curriculum that rewires the brain through neuroplasticity, proven to work by neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Judson Brewer, MD, PhD.” “Mindfulness for me really started after [my defeat at the 2016 Olympics in Rio]. Up until that point, I had never really had to draw on my emotions [in] such a negative situation…I have to feel the negative emotions. You have to figure out whether it’s fear or negativity, anxiety, or pressure…I think the best athletes in the world are the people who can control their emotions. And controlling them doesn’t mean just blocking them out completely. It means feeling them and acknowledging them, but also not letting them affect your performance.” Read the full story “[The Chinese philosopher] Lao Tzu once said, ‘If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.’ For me, mindfulness doesn’t require some seismic shift in awareness or behavior. It’s about getting better at finding opportunities to pause, to let go of what may be, to be with what is, without judgment or expectation. It’s not always peaceful here, but now is when we live.” Listen to the full interview “Mindfulness is really being in the moment. I think it’s wonderful to be able to bring yourself back to center and actually have the sense of now. It’s all we have. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow hasn’t happened. So the beautiful thing is to live right now.” Watch the full interview “I discovered meditation when I was about 13 years old. It helped me through my tumultuous teenage years and has been part of my life ever since. Mindfulness can help us manage stress and increase focus, remain grounded in change and ambiguity, and manage emotional triggers. I appreciate how mindfulness can help me feel a deeper appreciation for life. I’m a better version of myself when I practice.” “I’ve won most of my matches—probably all of my grand slams—because of what’s upstairs, not anything else. When I’m behind in a game, that’s when I become most relaxed…Don’t focus on the score, don’t focus on anything else. Just focus on that sole point, and then the next one, and the next one, only as they come.” Watch the clip “Take a pause. You don’t have to sit and do some formal meditation. In that moment when you’re about to snap, take a breath, turn away. Bring that quality of loving awareness, and name the feeling gently—upset, worried, frightened, or whatever it might be—and then, almost as if you could put your hand on your heart, say, ‘Thank you for trying to protect me. I’m OK.’ That can take 10 seconds, and it allows us to reset our consciousness. All the good neuroscience on trauma and its release is based on this kind of caring attention.” Read the full interview “When our world is in flux, our mental well-being is often one of the first things we neglect. But this should not be the case. In fact, it’s in times like these that mindfulness can help us most. Meditation, to me, can be one of the key first steps in achieving mental and spiritual well-being. It’s about understanding that your mind isn’t just an idea—it’s a living, breathing thing, something that needs to be cared for and looked after. Meditation is the act of mental hygiene.” Read the full personal essay “I picked this up from the gentleman who works with the Seattle Seahawks, Michael Gervais. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning, you get out of the bed and then you put your feet down and say what you were thankful for, and what you’re looking forward to. That’s it. It’s the simplest thing, and given that it’s the first conscious act, very helpful.” Read the full story “Pausing allows you to take a beat—to take a breath in your life. As everybody else is rushing around like a lunatic out there, I dare you to do the opposite. Pause and take the time to find out what’s important to you. Find out what you love, what’s real and true to you—so it can infuse and inform your work and make it your own.” Watch the full commencement address “I see prayer as a way of meditation….That’s really what prayer is for me. It’s taking a moment to be mindful, thinking about your world, thinking about your day, visualizing, thinking about a future, thinking about the past.” Listen to the full interview
