How to Be Mindful When It Matters Most

Finding your flow and living authentically comes from a place of mindfulness, explains Shalini Bahl-Milne—we just need to be willing to stay with both the good and the messy aspects of our lives.

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Shalini Bahl-Milne is an award-winning researcher, mindfulness teacher, and town councilor. While her work often involves helping clients develop their skills within the contexts of business, education, and politics, she also reminds us that practicing mindfulness doesn’t start in these external circumstances—the journey begins, instead with our relationship to ourselves and then flows outward to every area of our lives. In her recent TEDx Talk, Bahl-Milne shares some of her own experiences with learning to stay grounded and take mindful action despite challenging situations. She offers science-backed tips and wisdom that can help us return more often to our “field within.” 

Returning to the Field Within 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Rumi

I always believed in that field, but I didn’t know it was for me. And if it hadn’t been for one difficult decision 23 years ago, I wouldn’t be standing here.

One quiet morning when everyone was asleep in the house, with one suitcase in hand, we tiptoed down the staircase to the car. My husband was dropping off our two-and-a-half-year-old son and me at the Delhi International airport. We were going to Kuwait to…