Practice mindfulness to gain perspective, connect with what truly matters, and reclaim your nervous system from reactivity, especially during life’s inevitable ups and downs.
Accept your current external and internal conditions without judgment to create a strong, empowering foundation for moving forward, rather than wishing for different circumstances.
Rewire your inner dialogue to be supportive and realistic, like talking to a mentee, claiming how you wish to relate to a situation and making your own decisions from a place of strength.
Clarify your core values (e.g., non-harming, presence, kindness) and situational values to serve as a stable base, guiding your choices and helping you learn and grow from every transition.
Recognize that mistakes are inevitable during transitions; instead of self-judgment, gently return to your values and chosen path, fostering clarity and intuition for a responsive mind.
Consciously interrupt reactive thinking by pausing for even 3-30 seconds, allowing you to stop the self-feeding nervous mind, bring kindness to yourself, and reconnect with your values and plan.
Cultivate awareness of your body’s ‘felt sense’ by regularly checking physical sensations to identify reactivity and return to a more balanced perspective, as the body often signals distress before the brain.
Examine your underlying motives during changes, acknowledging they are often a mix of wholesome and unwholesome intentions, and consciously choose to act from values-aligned motives.
Cultivate presence to create space around your experiences, allowing you to observe emotions (even from within them) and choose a wise response rather than being blindly swept away by reactive impulses.
Pay attention to the ‘feeling tones’ (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) of experiences as they arise, observing them without attachment or aversion to short-circuit reactivity and prevent being commanded by the pursuit of pleasure or avoidance of pain.
Reframe suffering and difficult transitions as opportunities to create value, gain perspective, and grow, rather than allowing them to be meaningless or one-off painful experiences.
Practice daily meditation, even for a few minutes, to build the habit of recognizing when your mind wanders and gently returning to your focus, a skill directly applicable to starting over in life.
Carry a small object, like a stone, and touch it during reactive moments to physically interrupt obsessive thinking and return to a grounded state.
Download and complete the ‘Core Values and Essential Intentions Worksheet’ from the Life Balance website to systematically identify and clarify your personal values and intentions.
Access free online retreats offered by Dharma Ground to learn the ’natural arising practice method’ and deepen your understanding of mindfulness and Buddhist teachings in a practical, accessible way.
Refer to the extensive collection of articles on the Dharma Wisdom website (DharmaWisdom.org) for guidance and insights on various life difficulties and transitions.