Mindful Expat Episode 41: Living with Health & Safety Threats: The Present Moment as a Place of Sanctuary (With Guest: Amanda Zetah)

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Today’s Mindful Expat Guest is Amanda Zetah!

Amanda is originally from the United States, from the state of Colorado. While she was in college, inspired by the dream of becoming a travel writer, she started traveling independently and soon caught the travel bug. As soon as she graduated, she jumped at the opportunity to start traveling full-time. Over the past 6 years of traveling independently, Amanda has been to over 60 different countries. She has spent time living in Sierra Leone, Iraq, Myanmar, and she now lives in Azerbaijan, where she works as an English teacher.

In addition travel, Amanda is also passionate about staying healthy – both physically and emotionally. From her own first-hand experience, she knows that travelers face some extra challenges in this realm, so she has started a website and blog for fellow health-conscious travelers called Health Nut Nomad, where she shares ideas and insights on ways to stay healthy and grounded while on the move.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• About Amanda’s experiences of facing the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone as well as a car bombing in Iraq — and how she has learned to both face her fears as well as continue to live in the present moment as she continues her journey of traveling the world.

• Amanda’s journey of discovering a mindfulness practice that works for her and allows her to feel more present in her day-to-day life.

• Some of Amanda’s favorite parts about living in some of the amazing places she has now lived — experiences that she might have missed out on if she had been solely focused on potential dangers rather than living in the present moment.

• Breaking down some misconceptions about mindfulness and discussing how the simple practice of coming back to the present moment can actually get us out of our heads and back into our lives.  Read More

What Are You Waiting For?

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rosesAre you waiting for something, thinking that when you reach that next step, then — then! — you can finally start living?

Or relax?

Or allow yourself to be happy?

Many of us struggle to live in the present moment. We spend a lot of time thinking about either the past (ruminating about things that happened or didn’t happen) or the future (worrying or anticipating things that may or may not happen). But relatively rarely are we really living our lives in the present moment, the here and now.

And one of the many things that can get in the way of our really living in the present is our goals.

Now, I have nothing against goals. Goals are great! The problem isn’t having the goals, it’s telling ourselves that we can’t… SOMETHING… until we reach them. That we can’t give ourselves a break. That we can’t be happy. That our lives won’t be complete.

Until X.

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An Introduction to Mindfulness

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leaf with water dropletMindfulness is getting a lot of hype in the news and media these days. Sometimes it almost feels like it’s just become the next trendy thing, with people promoting it without truly understanding what it is. However, this is a trend that I think is actually worth your attention — so what’s the hype all about?

Mindfulness is not some mystical or mysterious experience. And although it comes out of the Buddhist tradition, it is not inherently a spiritual or religious practice (although it can certainly be integrated into such practices).

So what is mindfulness?

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness is the intentional practice of being fully present, grounded in the here-and-now, and taking a non-judgmental, compassionate attitude toward our experience, whatever it may be. Or, as Jon Kabat-Zinn — founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and author of a number of books on this subject — has described it: “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Read More