When everything seems uncertain, people get stressed. That's one thing we all have in common. But there is always one thing you can control: your reaction to the situation.

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Mindfulness helps you to develop a healthier relationship with your thoughts and emotions. And scientific research shows that practicing mindfulness builds emotional resilience and enhances your immune system.

Luckily, MarketingProfs has an in-house mindfulness expert. MarketingProfs founder Allen Weiss is also the founding teacher and director of Mindful USC and a senior teacher at Insight LA.org, where he's taught mindfulness classes for 12 years.

I invited Allen to record this special episode of Marketing Smarts live in our MarketingProfs PRO Facebook group two weeks ago. (If you're a PRO member, come join us there for sneak peeks, livestreams with marketing industry stars like Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, and Ann Handley, and other exclusive content!)

In this episode, Allen and I talk about incorporating the practice of mindfulness into your life, reducing stress, and gaining inner peace (and how all this helps us to be better marketers).

Here are just a few highlights from our conversation.

Practicing mindfulness will help you to successfully navigate stressful situations (02:21) "It's always been the right time for mindfulness. It really helps people through anxiety and fear. Anxiety and fear is probably the thing that's going on most in the world right now. And that's why the free seminar we did [on mindfulness] for MarketingProfs had more than 1,500 people who signed up. It's all because people are trying to find other ways to deal with all of this stuff. Mindfulness helps resilience, it really helps with clarity. It helps us deal with all these problems we're having right now."

Mindfulness doesn't just mean being aware of the present moment, it means meeting whatever comes without judgment  (03:17) "Mindfulness is really the practice of being aware. Just being present for whatever is arising in your mind, in your emotions, in your body. And doing so without reacting, without judging, with a very relaxed mind. A lot of people think that mindfulness is just being aware of the moment, but it's actually much more about having a relaxed mind without judging. Just being open and receptive to whatever arises. That's the practice."

When you're feeling overwhelmed, take 10 seconds and just breathe (16:07) "When you get really stressed out and you're really in the middle of everything...one thing you can do is put your attention on the breath for just 10 seconds. If you feel like you're getting anxious, just put your attention on the breath for 10 seconds as you breathe in and breathe out. And see if you can just keep with the sense of breathing for 10 seconds. At the end of 10 seconds, what you'll realize is that the anxiety that you had is not increasing anymore."

To learn more, check out Allen's free MarketingProfs webinar on mindfulness, and be sure to sign up to learn about any future mindfulness courses he's got in the works. You can also follow Allen on Twitter at @allenweiss.

Allen and I talked about much more, including how mindfulness can help you professionally as well as personally, so be sure and listen to the entire show, which you can do above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can also subscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode!

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"Marketing Smarts" theme music composed by Juanito Pascual of Signature Tones.

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Published on May 7, 2020