From the first chapter of Search Inside yourself I took two lessons. The first was the concept of mindfulness, which I'd learnt about before, but only in the context of a psychologists saying stuff like "imagine your problems floating away on leaves down a gentle river" or meeting really intense hippie's who were so calm that they never seemed to have an opinion on anything. So I got polarized to the idea early. But thinking of mindfulness as just a way of holding your attention appeals to me, cos I can see the implications for both productivity and healthy relationships.
The second was that we can understand emotional through physiology. I think I kind of understood this intutively, cos whenever I'm making a bad decision my body seems to know before me. I get really tense and my brain gets foggy. It's interesting to think I could figure out my emotions faster if I learn what the physiological triggers are.
I gave the two minute meditation a go, but I realised pretty fast that monitoring my breathing is something I usually do when I'm anxious, so doing that was freaking me out. I'm going to try 'just being' this week. Like Jasmine I am a smoker, and I like her idea of using smoke breaks to unwind. Although I want to quit so who knows how that's going to work!