on Mental Health: March 2012

Mindful.org's "On Mental Health" blogger, Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., has recently published a book—The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life. Read Dr. Susan Albers's review of it here on The Huffington Post. The following is an excerpt adapted from The Now Effect.

Dr. Christopher Germer is a friend and colleague of mine who grew up with a great fear of speaking. It wasn’t always easy, but over time he began to cultivate an awareness of the feeling of fear as it arose and practiced systematically relating to it with greater mindfulness and compassion. Chris trained his brain to have what I call “The Mindful Instinct.” What actually happened?

In a chapter titled “Compassion is a Verb” from my new book, The Now Effect, I share how this practice led to an experience that changed Chris’ relationship to his fear of speaking: