Meditation & Mindfulness
Our take is that meditation is the foundational training for almost everything in any of the sections in this guide. Meditation gives you the awareness and control over your mind that lets you make good decisions and take consistent action.
Meditation skills:
- How to Experience Your First Insight in Mindfulness Meditation ~Marta Brzosko
- This is How to Breath Properly ~Patrik Edblad
Alternative meditations:
- Breathing In the Light ~David Paul Kirkpatrick
- The Complete Guide to Active Meditation for People Who Just Can’t Sit Still ~Brad Buzzard
- How Cross-Stitching Developed My Creativity and Self-Discipline ~Gloria Wickman
- How to Hold a Simple Cacao Ceremony for Yourself ~Eduardo Antonio Morales
Guided meditation:
- The Headspace App vs. One Trendy NYC Meditation Studio ~Felicity Sargent
- A Case For Spending $300 to Sit Silently in a Room Full of Strangers ~Annie Atherton
Mindfulness exercises:
- Habit-Building Self-Awareness Exercises to Keep Yourself Accountable ~Niklas Göke
- Strengthen Your Mind By Giving Names to Your Feelings ~Sílvia Bastos
- The Complete Guide to Developing Your Grit ~Patrik Edblad
Applied mindfulness:
- How To Apply Meditation to Marriage (Or Any Relationship) ~Giovanni Dienstmann
- A Guide to Stoicism for Creatives, Entrepreneurs & Freelancers ~Brian McFadden
Journaling
Best used in conjunction with meditation, journaling is another way to develop mindfulness and build awareness of your subconscious. In the productivity work that I’ve been involved in, journaling is often a faster and more direct way to achieve your goals.
Start here:
- How to Start a Journaling Habit Today ~Bryan Collins
- Free Writing as a Better Alternative to Meditation ~Buster Benson
Journaling with a goal in mind:
- Cognitive Journaling: A Systematic Method to Overcome Negative Beliefs ~Richard Ragnarson
- Journaling Techniques to Master Balance and Grow Faster ~Sílvia Bastos
- How to Make the Power of the Subconscious Mind Work For You ~Kate Maria Pennell
- Minimalist Journaling: A Fun and Effective Tool for Tremendous Habit Change ~Michal Korzonek
- Replace Your Todo List with Interstitial Journaling ~Coach Tony
- How to Become an Optimist with Journaling Exercises ~Niklas Göke
Cognitive Bias
A huge part of mindfulness is overcoming the many ways your mind tricks you into believing things that aren’t true.
Start with these two articles. The first gives you the breadth of cognitive biases and the second gives you a skill that will let you spot when you are wrong and change your mind:
- Cognitive Bias Cheat Sheet ~Buster Benson
- The Falsification Method and How to Change Your Own Mind ~Mike Sturm
The remaining articles are ways to spot and overcome biases, and to build mental habits for thinking more clearly and rationally:
- Fourteen Mental Models to Help You Think Clearly ~Brian McFadden
- Ten Mental Biases and How to Fight Them ~Niklas Göke
- A Decision Making Checklist That Works With Your Emotions, Not Against Them ~Liz Fosslien
- How to Improve Your Decisions By Recruiting Your Own Small Council ~Ryan Engelstad
- How to Stop Lying to Yourself ~Piyush Kamal?
- How to Be Your Own Mediator ~Donita Brown
Anxiety & Anger
The boss who gave me my first promotion was enthusiastically cynical and gave me this great advice: “You are going to love everything about being a manager, except for the people.” People trigger our emotions and we need to learn how to deal with that:
- How to Stop Being Angry with Obnoxious People ~Flannery Meehan
- How to Deal With Conflict Effectively ~Robert Bateman
Then, on top of the feelings other people pull out of us, we also carry an incredible amount of self-created fear, anxiety, and stress. Here are ways to manage and overcome that:
- How to Avoid Emotional Outbursts ~Christopher Sowers
- An Introduction to Using Biofeedback to Decrease Stress ~Patrick Whitehead
- How Depression Made Me a Morning Person ~Alicia Liu
- How to Fight Your Negative Thoughts and Anxiety ~Piyush Kamal?
- How Emotional First-Aid Protects You From Negative Self-Beliefs ~Ryan Engelstad
- How Life Coaching Fixed What Therapy Left Broken ~Dana Shavin
- Parenting With Social Anxiety ~Andrew Knott
- The Complete Guide to Coping with Misophonia ~Julia Odom
Then, sometimes it’s your friend or relative that needs your help: