I’m not talking about meditation here, though meditation might be very helpful to some in terms of being more mindful. It’s more about recognizing how many times we just do things (without even thinking), because that’s what we’ve always done. So, being mindful is just stopping or pausing to think about what we’re about to do.

Learning to do this on a regular basis can be very helpful when we’re trying to make changes in our lives. Try it! Experiment with your own life.

I like to do this with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s probably best to give it your full attention instead of thinking you can multi-task while doing something else. (Haven’t they come to the conclusion that multi-tasking doesn’t really work anyway?)

This can work very well with helping us to avoid eating things we know we shouldn’t, but it takes more than just asking ourselves, “do I really want to eat that?” Even if we really want to eat something, we’ll have a better chance of deciding it’s not “worth the risk”, if we have a plan and healthy alternatives on hand.