* Second, take one significant area of your life and open up yourself to this person. Choose an area where you know you struggle with other peoples perceptions of how you look in that area. Begin to share about a current or former situation. Share your joys, share your struggles, share your doubts. Ask questions. Listen to feedback. Be willing to accept insight, help, and accurate views about yourself. And take note of how this response in no way negates their high opinion of you already. To other person—you will begin to become a real person, someone human and able to be related to.

* Lastly, begin to slowly extend this new adventure of trust to other people around you. It is important that in beginning you become vulnerable to trustworthy people. If you open up to someone you respect and value. Inappropriate people will always give you feedback that you discount. Your goal is to realize you don’t have to be superhuman to be loved, accepted, and fit in. So choose wisely.

Until next time-- all best, Kate

No need to spin your stories. You don't have to get involved in any mental arguments. There's no reason to get caught up in any emotion. Just use it as a trigger to be mindful.

By saying this phrase--"I am mindful"--you are actually starting a complex process in your brain. You are creating a powerful link to a visual image, and taking control of what it does for you. You are building a self-fulfilling prophecy--if you notice golden arches, then you are indeed mindful.

Since being mindful is not something you normally associate with McDonald's, it serves as a sort of balancing mechanism. Because only emotion associated with mindfulness is a calm sense of paying attention, you can strip McDonald's of its "good" and "bad" properties and just note it without judgment.

This is what mindfulness is all about. By picking a trigger that is ubiquitous, you are automatically giving yourself plenty of opportunities to include this brief mindful moment in your day.

You will find that you will begin to be mindful every time you see golden arches. That might expand to other images of your choice--the Coca-Cola logo, Disney logo, Starbucks, whatever. Choose something you can't avoid, and take advantage of it.

Take comfort in taking control of your mind. Mmmmmm. I'm lovin' it.