All day long we are bombarded with requests for our attention. Our brains do an amazing job of sifting through all the stimuli and picking which things should get our attention.

We all know the tug of endless email, seemingly random requests at work, keeping up all the wonderful and tragic worlds of our social network friends. Sometimes enough is enough even for all that gray matter. When this happens, our ability to respond gracefully degrades and starts to impact our jobs, relationships, health (blood pressure, sleep, digestion) and happiness. There are ways to create small moments of space between stimulus and response which can give us more choice over if/how/when to respond.

As a lifelong over reactor, I will share some of the things I have learned through mindfulness and meditation practices which help me slow down, increase awareness and respond in a healthier way.