Mindfulness Isn't A Worry Session

Mindfulness is not the same thing as navel-gazing. To be here now does not mean obsessing over yourself and your problems and disregarding others. Scholars have shown that excessive self-concern can increase defensiveness and the perception of threat.

Mindfulness should work instead toward a sense of yourself as part of the wider world, and an observation of your emotions without judgment. As you work to focus on the present, remind yourself of two things: You are just one of more than 7 billion human beings, and your emotions will come and go as a normal part of being alive.

Many of us, even if we don’t travel for work, do something similar by avoiding spending time in the home of our own minds. If being fully present—or in the parlance of modern meditators, being mindful—is boring, stressful, sad, or scary, you’re not going to want to do it very much. You c...