Less is Less

In our consumer-oriented, materialistic society, we’re often preyed upon to get more stuff, which supposedly will help the economy and somehow, subliminally validate our wounded psyches. Is this a good idea? Is all this crap really necessary for one’s self esteem and does it lead to a higher quality of life or just to higher credit card debt? In this Mindfulness Snack, the practice is simple, whenever you’re noticing a space in your home that’s cluttered or a

I’m fully aware of that cliched adage, Less is More, which is so overused. I’ve adopted a new mantra, Less is Less to help me get rid of the clutter in my head and in my home. There’s something comforting about Minimalism, which bring a sense of calm and simplicity. I recently read about a new movement of de-influencers on social media, people who reveal what not to buy, calling out the hype and unnecessariness of certain consumer products. Perhaps the popularity of Marie Kondo’s ‘Spark Joy’ movement speaks to a basic need to surround ourselves with only the essentials, organized and easily accessible.

So next time you’re obsessing about something (or someone) or you feel uneasy with all the clutter on your night table, try repeating the mantra, Less is Less several times. It just might be enough to jumpstart you in a new direction.

A Louis Armstrong Moment

There’s a scene in the movie, Throw Momma from the Train when one of the characters gets a loud trumpet to her ear while sleeping, then she wakes up and says, “I had a dream that Louis Armstrong was trying to kill me.” I’ve often repeated this line to myself (or to one of my kids) when I feel like I’ve been asleep to some truth about myself or the world around me, and have just roused myself from some kind of metaphorical slumber, the shockingness of it being akin to a trumpet in the ear.

This mindfulness snacks is not an exercise per se, but more of a call to action to wake yourself up. Notice something ordinary about your day, then let it reverberate in such a way that you see it in a whole new light.

Photo by JustJash (aka Joshua Grafstein)

A Glimmer of Gratitude

We all know that gratitude is good for you, fortified with warm, sweet feelings that are sure to jumpstart your day like a bowl of sugary cereal. There’s all this neuroscience behind gratitude’s health benefits, which range from lifting depression to curing constipation. Okay, I made that last one up, but I’ve often wondered how much gratitude do we need to practice to reap the rewards? In a recent NY Time Article on the health benefits of gratitude, they claim that one moment a day is enough. Sounds easy, right? But which moment? Before you go to bed, when you wake up? It doesn’t matter.

This exercise is about imagining gratitude as a glimmer, something shiny like a glint of sunlight off the water, or the way the way the sun sets on the landscape. Adding gratitude to some small moment makes is brighter, opens your awareness, and empowers your sense of depth about the world and your relationships. All you have to do is choose to ‘shine something up’ with the gift of gratitude

Love, Laugh, Layer

This thought-for-food mindfulness snack is meant to help you expand your experiences. It’s simple really. All you have to do is listen. Closely. There will be sounds that layer on top of other sounds. Sounds from the outside in the air like birds or from your phone like talkative friends or music, sounds from your breath and your body, and sounds from things that are just beyond your hearing scope. Ever wonder what the earth sounds like if it could breathe or laugh? O what the clouds sound like as they’re becoming saturated and ready to rain? Or what heat would sound like if it had a voice as it rises off the pavement or hovers in the desert?

All you have to do in this exercise is listen to the layers. Then, when you encounter someone who’s rude or angry and you can’t really understand why they’re behaving that way, think about the sounds that you can’t hear, the rain, heat, earth’s laughter and know that you can’t understand all the layers in someone else’s psyche. Just knowing they’re there beyond your grasp may help you have more compassion. Every sound, every person is complicated.

Brain Bathing

We bathe our bodies, so why not our brains? Instead of water, you can bathe your brain with sound. You don’t need go to your yoga studio for the Sound Bath experience, though I’ve done it and highly recommend it. This exercise is simple. Put in your headphones. Go to a quiet place where you can tune out the world. Pick a piece of music that has some science behind it for changing your brainwaves. I recommend typing in Solfeggio frequency, or Green Noise, or Meditation music, or Chakra meditation, etc. You get the idea.

Then listen to the music and imagine that the sounds as gently massaging your brain. You can actually feel the sound in your head (I can, but I might be a little bit crazy). Do this whenever your brain feels too agitated to fall asleep or whenever you’re getting worn out by your own thoughts. This level of brain cleanliness and massaging can help to open up your sixth chakra to more intuition and imagination. At the very least, you’ll get a great nap out of this practice.