When your mind is spinning...

Hiii and happy new year! I know it's been a wild start to the year.

It's easy to feel like your head is spinning these days. So much news. So much input. So many emotions.

I want to share some thoughts on how to handle this. And I'd love your feedback on what's working for you and how you are doing overall.

If your mind is swirling in thoughts, one idea is to look up. Notice a detail on a painter or poster you've never been mindful of before. See, really appreciate, the colors around you — the walls (yes, really!) or any art if you're inside .. a tree or balcony if you're outside.

Take a moment and appreciate letting whatever you are looking at — be. Notice it, appreciate it, and realize there is nothing you need to do in this moment.

Part of being on the Buddhist path, or any spiritual path, is allowing things to be. Accept the present moment. Appreciate what is.

Another thing I do if I'm lost in thoughts is a tip from my friend Olivia Fox Cabane's book The Charisma Myth. You can wiggle your toes. It's silly, I know. But it brings you into your body. It might make you laugh! It should make you smile. With this you stop the swirl of thoughts.

A third thing you can do is look directly ahead, at eye level, and say to yourself or even out loud — I choose love.

There is so much we can't control. But we can choose our responses. We can choose, as Sharon Salzberg writes in Real Love, to use love as a verb. To live with love. To be love. We can decide to live with love.

I choose to send love to you right now.

Who do you choose to send love?

Think of one person, or a group, or a country. Or everyone alive today. Or, perhaps, every person and animal and everything with a heartbeat alive in this moment. We have this choice. Even now. It's in our power.

If we can be mindful now, we can be mindful anytime. It's not easy. It is a path. I feel so grateful we are on this path together.

With love and thinking of you,
Dina