The Pomodoro Technique - named by an Italian after the “tomato” - is an approach to time management intended to enhance your focus and concentration and reduce the anxiety associated with time.  It’s a simple but effective way to improve your work and study habits.

And this ruby red can help you with mindfulness too!

The system involves the use of a kitchen timer set to 25 minutes of time, but you can actually use any timer.  This slice of time is officially called a “pomodoro”.  Wind your physical timer or click the Pomodoro online time for 25 minutes.  Then set out on a task without stopping until the timer rings.

Here’s where your mindfulness training comes in.

Meditation is about getting used to being in the state of non-distraction. Or, and this is even better, mediation is about not being distracted by your distractions!

When you begin the practice of meditation, you may become pretty disheartened to learn that your mind is everywhere else but on your meditation. Even after years of practicing meditation, there are times when instead of meditating, I find myself caught up in a sea of emotions and thoughts, unable to do anything but try desperately to ride the waves and not get swept away.

At his playfully provocative, incredibly pithy and insightful best, Sogyal Rinpoche is teaching children and adults the key points of meditation practice.

This video features Sogyal Rinpoche “hot off the press” from his Easter Retreat at Haileybury College in the UK. At his playfully provocative, incredibly pithy and insightful best, he is teaching children and adults the key points of meditation practice.  Best would be to find your cushion and then press play, but you do not want to miss this one!

If you’re already on your cushion and working to tame your wild mind through meditation, then please congratulate yourself because you have already accomplished quite a lot.

If not, then you might want to read this…

Meditation whilst sitting upon one’s cushion is all well and good but that’s not what meditation is about…at least not for me. When I practice formally, I’m working on learning how to bring my “meditative mind,” or “meditative awareness” into my life. For me, no aspect of life is better for testing my meditative abilities then the experience of fear.

One of the major interests of the meditation research community has been the study of the brain's default mode functioning. What is the default mode and why should we care? Scientists studying the default mode look at what networks in the brain turn on and off in a coordinated fashion.

There’s so much information available to us on how to meditate, when to meditate, even with whom to meditate. With what we have available, you’d think that we’d all be able to master meditation with ease. Nope!

Since first learning to meditate, after years of meditation, I’ve come to realize that there’s something that is definitely opposed to my peace of mind and finding my “meditative mind,” and that is…the soap opera mind!

Just the other day I found myself in the all-too-familiar situation of trying to explain what I do when I meditate to a curious and inquiring stranger. I’m sure this has happened to you before…You know, you’re sitting on the bus or in a coffee shop and you strike up a friendly conversation with someone next to you. One thing leads to another, and before you know it you’ve let it slip that you meditate. Then comes that slightly tense moment as you wait to find out whether or not the other person thinks you’re a total wacko and if you need to try and change the subject to something safer…like sports or IKEA.

This time it was a little bit different though…