We can change our nervous system. More evidence emerges that mindfulness meditation can change our brain structure. This is good news because we can improve memory, reduce stress, become more empathic and change our sense of self.
For more info: 
Mindfulness to Improve Brain
By checking in with our thoughts, body and emotions, we have a gauge to plot our course. As we get to know ourselves better, applying mindfulness to our everyday decisions, we can make better choices. These choices are better because they are based in our own unique felt sense of the situation. No one else has this perspective. I invite you to notice your thoughts, body sensations and emotions as you make choices. Then check in again after you carry through with your decision and see what happens with your mindfulness gauge. Was your gauge the same or different imagining the decision versus living it? What tells you that it is a good decisions?
Babette Rothschild on developing a mindfulness gauge:
Apply mindfulness to stress, like a bandaid to heal stress. Stress is part of life. We can’t always get rid of the stress but we can modify our reaction. I am always looking for new ways to calm my reaction to stress. I just found these ways to calm the body which calm the mind: Reduce Stress and Increase Mindfulness with Franklin Method
More evidence comes in that we can train our brain to heal ourselves. Mindfulness, Meditation, Placebo, or Breathing can change a physiological response. We can learn to shape our brains to pay attention and build circuits in different pathways to promote healing and well-being. As I practice mindfulness, I feel this shifting. I am excited about my recent and ongoing training in Somatic Experiencing which adds to this practice as well as adding skills to help others with its application. More research in this area gives those of us with chronic pain or illness hope. The good news is that we can shift the habits of the brain.
More about training our brain: Cure, mind over body
Mary Oliver inspires me yet again. As we journey through life, we need to pause mindfully and listen to our own true voice. Applying mindfulness helps to really listen allowing our own voice to be clearer.
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life you could save.
Mary Oliver
I spent 4 more days training in Somatic Experiencing recently. Eight days training so far and 4 more coming in January. This is a very rich training helping me to learn more about the mind-body connection and healing trauma. I see it as another way to use mindfulness in relationship with a focus on the body and assisting the trauma process to complete.
Self-Observation Without Judgment
Release the harsh and pointed inner
voice. It’s just a throwback to the past,
and holds no truth about this moment.
Let go of self-judgment, the old,
learned ways of beating yourself up
for each imagined inadequacy.
Allow the dialogue within the mind
to grow friendlier, and quiet. Shift
out of inner criticism and life
suddenly looks very different.
I can say this only because I make
the choice a hundred times a day to release the voice that refuses to
acknowledge the real me.
What’s needed here isn’t more prodding toward perfection, but
intimacy – seeing clearly, and
embracing what I see.
Love, not judgment, sows the
seeds of tranquility and change.
Danna Faulds
From “One Soul”
Mindfulness of self without judgment.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver
Contemplating life. What is it I want? What is it you want? I check in with myself regularly to see and sense what is there.
“Once a 
year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama
Just a thought… someplace new can be internal or external geography. Change up the scenery and discover something about yourself and the world.
Chronic pain or intense emotions can highjack us and take over. Learning techniques to regulate emotional and sensory experience can provide an antidote to intrusive thoughts and sensations. Mindfulness breath meditation is one technique. The following was adapted from Thich Nhat Hanh, (pronounced TickNot-Han) a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. His lifelong efforts toward peace –particularly during the war in Vietnam – inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He lives in exile in a small community, Plum Village (www.plumvillage.org), in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide.
Experiment with some of the following, adopting what works for you.
Begin by noticing your body in space. Are you seated or lying down? What part of your body feels most connected to the earth? How do you know? Is there more weight or pressure in one part of your body? What words can you use to describe the sensations felt while noticing your body in space. Take as much time as you need. You may notice new things as you allow your awareness to linger and notice.
Scan the entire body, and if at any point this feels like too much, let your awareness drift around the room. Notice and name things in the room and see what this does to your experience. Use all your senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste.
When you feel a sense of your body in the room, begin to notice your breath. Just notice the breath, don’t change or judge it. A nice way to experience the breath is through the practice of mindful breathing. “Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.” After saying these sentences we can abbreviate them by saying “In” as we breathe in and “Out” as we breathe out.
We don’t try to control our breathing. Whether our in-breath is long or short, deep or shallow, we just breathe naturally and shine the light of mindfulness on it. When we do this we notice that, in fact, our breathing does become slower and deeper naturally. “Breathing in, my in-breath has become deep. Breathing out, my outbreath has become slow.” Now we can practice, “Deep/slow.” We don’t have to make an extra effort. It just becomes deeper and slower by itself, and we recognize that. Later on, you will notice that you have become calmer and more at ease. “Breathing in, I feel calm. Breathing out, I feel at ease. I am not struggling anymore. Calm/ease.”
And then, “Breathing in, I smile. Breathing out, I release all my worries and anxieties. Smile/release.” We are able to smile to ourselves and release all our worries. There are more than three hundred muscles in our face, and when we know how to breathe in and smile, these muscles can relax. This is “mouth yoga.” We smile and are able to release all our feelings and emotions. The last practice is, “Breathing in, I dwell deeply in the present moment. Breathing out, I know this is a wonderful moment. Present moment/wonderful moment.” Nothing is more precious than being in the present moment fully alive and aware. “In, out
Deep, slow
Calm, ease
Smile, release
Present moment, wonderful moment.
If you use this poem during sitting or walking meditation, it can be very nourishing and healing. Practice each line for as long as you wish.
Another practice to help us be aware of our breathing is counting. As you breathe in, count “one” and as you breathe out, count “one” again. Then “Two/two,” “Three/three,” until you arrive at ten. After that, go back in the other direction: “Ten/ten,” “Nine/nine,” and so on, until you arrive back at one. If you do get lost go back to “one” and begin again. Relax. It’s only a game. When you succeed in counting, you can drop the numbers if you like and just say “in” and “out.”
Modified by Martha Whitney, LMFT and Mary Lorenz, RYT, NCLMBT, 8363.
My Profiles