Tell your readers a little about yourself, where you grew up, where you live now, where you went to school etc. Let them get to know the personal you.
I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was a teen. I was fascinated by how our bodies work and even more interested in a deeper understanding of life. For example, how do we get the energy we need, and why do we behave the way we do? At the same time, I frequently thought about bigger-picture aspects of life, what makes us happy, and how we seek deeper fulfillment.
I’ve worked in various capacities as a professional
scientist for over 25 years. I’ve been a senior global manager responsible for
teams of scientists and laboratories around the world. This opportunity allowed
me to travel and learn about many cultures, especially in the East, including
India, China, Thailand, and Japan. I often took the chance to explore Eastern
viewpoints and understand personal spiritual perspectives from my friends and
coworkers overseas.
I remember one instance where a Japanese colleague told me
they don’t like recognition because it creates unhealthy pride. Until then, I
had never considered pride a negative personal characteristic. He was teaching
me that we must monitor ourselves to prevent ego-motivated actions. I felt that
was a very important lesson I’ve taken with me ever since. Accomplishments are
just accomplishments. Don’t let them change you. Just feel confident and apply
yourself to the next thing that will help others.
My formal education includes a Master of Science in Chemistry degree and
experience as a senior business team member, where I gained much respect for
business performance. At the same time, I’ve attained certifications in Applied
Positive Psychology from UPenn, and Meditation Instruction through the American
Institute of Healthcare Professionals. This combination gives me a fundamental
understanding of the science behind behavior. Why does the way our brains work
drive us to behave differently?
I also have been a speaker at many prestigious universities worldwide, including Harvard, MIT, and Princeton, and those in India and Asia. I’m driven by wanting to convey important learnings to other people.
What inspired you to author this book?
I am passionate about mindfulness and continually seek ways to make it more mainstream in our everyday personal and professional lives. I often say I want to bring mindfulness out of the yoga studio and into our everyday lives. I’m a long-time meditation practitioner and member of an internationally recognized community, and I attended an event with the Dali Lama about ten years ago. His teachings were so profound, simple, and true that I want to spread that sense of mental and emotional wellness we can all achieve, even if surrounded by difficulty and chaos.
Mediation practice can be hard, and I’m not so sure that it really is for
everyone.
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Meditation is a formal sitting practice where one spends
dedicated time focusing the mind on an object, such as the breath or a phrase.
Mindfulness is different. In my book, I describe “the meditation break,” which
is all of the time that we’re not formally meditating. Any time, we can focus
on the present moment, whether joyfully bonding with our kids or frustratingly
stuck in our work commute. We can soak in the moment, keep our cool, or find
inner peace in any situation. We deepen our experiences and grow when we focus
on each rich moment. This present focus is mindfulness. It’s clichĂ©, but
mindfulness is “stopping to smell the roses” and deeply absorbing the beautiful
richness of life when we do so.
My experience allows me to use my scientific knowledge and
behavioral understanding to deliver clear insights about mindfulness to other
people, especially those new to it. I use the scientific perspective to gain
credibility towards meditation and mindfulness since many people still perceive
it as “new-age” or “touchy-feely.” It’s not. There is ample concrete evidence
showing that mindfulness benefits anyone’s daily life. I wear a suit or
business casual rather than yoga pants đ I want everyone to know
there is a place for mindfulness in our everyday personal and professional
life, no matter who we are.
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Where did you get the inspiration for your book’s cover?
The book cover is a combination of simplicity and a beachy vibe. I love the succulent plant because it's simple, clean, and pure. At the same time, it's also a plant that can survive in harsh conditions, whether in rocky soil or suffering from low water. Finding joy and happiness in life is similar; anyone can find joy, even in the face of difficulty. In some cases, you can only find joy through difficulty. The crisp green of the plant contrasts with the pure white container, and that's a reminder that we sometimes see things with too stark of an opinion. It's right, or it's wrong, it's good, or it's bad. When we let go of judgement, we can finally see the beauty of the plant without giving any special meaning or opinions to it.
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The beachy vibe comes from the blue-shaded background, much like a clear open sky, which I often use to represent our clear minds during mindfulness practice. The bleached driftwood symbolizes how our bodies can weather a challenge and still come through as beautiful.
So, a lot of symbolism in the cover, clear, focused, peaceful, all of the things I want my readers to enjoy about mindfulness.
Who has been the most significant influence on you personally and as a writer?
This wasn't a notable factor in the writing of this book.
What were your struggles or obstacles you had to overcome to get this book written?
I work full-time as a scientist in marketing for a large
scientific company which I love. I work on a great team, and my company's
culture supports wellness at work. I'm very fortunate to work from home.
Nonetheless, my days are busy and filled with meetings, obligations, and
deliverables, and since I have a high personal standard, I devote my day-to-day
hours to my primary job. So, finding the time to stimulate creativity and commit
to my passion was challenging.
One area that I aimed to improve upon was my writing skills.
A great way to overcome this is by writing about something I know a lot about
and am passionate about. I often worked late nights on my book, section by
section. I also love my coffee times, and when the weather is nice, I would
grab my laptop later in the afternoon and spend a few hours at a café working
on my book. My boyfriend and family were also very supportive of my efforts,
and I kept a watchful eye on keeping the right balance without letting the book
add too much to tip my work-life balance into a stress zone.
It took several months, but I finally ended up with a draft that I was proud of. The next phase, review after review to ensure a quality result, was also tricky for me because I often fall into an easy-going "good enough" mindset. In this case, I felt strongly about creating the best result and being clear about helping lead others into a mindful life. Therefore, I devoted more attention to detail than I had initially anticipated. What was uncharacteristically difficult was stopping myself from making more changes! I didn't let perfection stand in the way of progress, but I was changing my book even after my professional editor edited it. Finally, once I had the printed proof, I only made minor adjustments and felt great about the result.
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Tell your readers about your book.
Mindfulness in Everyday Life is an easy-to-understand book
about elevating your mental and emotional well-being using the deliberate and
purposeful thinking that comes from strengthening our minds. This book was
created to normalize mindfulness for school teenagers, busy parents, corporate
leaders, workers, and HR professionals. For example, busy parents might think
they don’t have the time to add anything more to their obligations. In reality,
when you find a way to gather your mind and thoughts with a few minutes in the
morning, you’ll realize this time comes back to you by being more organized,
calm, and intentional through the rest of your hectic day. Also, at work, we
tend to think we must do it all, and multi-tasking will help us accomplish
more. However, scientific studies show that our brains aren’t built for
multi-tasking, and our results suffer when we juggle too much. This book
teaches you small, practical, and effective ways to succeed by using clearer
thinking accompanying mindfulness training.
This practical guide is written to be relatable and uses a coherent scientific
approach to gain credibility. It’s not a spiritual guide about dogma but based
on research and results that people will grasp. The goal is to motivate people
to bring just a little more measured thinking into their routines. It’s
surprising, but some people believe that angry or stressed thinking is effective.
We now know through functional MRI brain scans that this kind of animalistic
thinking comes from a different part of our brain and drives the
fight-or-flight response. The area of our brains that differs from animals is
highly developed for rational decision-making, and if we shift back to the
animal brain, our logic and reasoning are discarded. Yes, this thinking will
help you escape a lion if you’re being chased in the jungle, but not so
effective in the board room.
Finally, at the end of each chapter is a quick ten-minute practice that is simple to do.
The reader can read this practice and incorporate it into
their daily routine, or they can visit the link to the recorded version online
at www.TenMinuteMindfulness.com.
I believe these are the best part that facilitate a daily practice.
It is empowering to strengthen your brain through mindfulness practice. You don't need any special tools nor much time. You need to do it regularly and hold the belief that it is effective at improving your life. In a way, I suppose that's having faith in it working.
Who is your target audience, and why?
The target audience is anyone who has heard of mindfulness but isn't quite sure how to get started. Readers may be curious about what it is or how to incorporate it into their lives. They may still have old perceptions that you only do it in a yoga studio or if you're a hippie. I want people to consider mindfulness a higher form of thinking and behaving. That it is something of strength that we can all work on. Anyone who wants to create a better life for themselves should explore mindfulness.
For workplace professionals, it’s about finding that intricate zone where you can
achieve impactful overall success for yourself, your teammates, and your
organization while prioritizing your personal satisfaction at work. It’s about
transcending emotions and ego-driven goals to look for insightful ways to
achieve the greater good. That takes real skill, not the knowledge you can get
from traditional education.
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Consider the senior citizen demographic. They are in a significant phase in their lives and face real challenges, like losing physical capabilities. These can be very weighty or troubling feelings. Yet nobody should want to spend their day lamenting about the things they no longer can do; rather, they should be inspired to find the best in their days. With an 83-year-old mother, I see her being less confident about things that used to come easy for her. While I can understand this, I can't fully relate. But I do have the faith that strengthening her mind through focused and clear thinking will build her ability to keep doing those enjoyable social activities.
Likewise, the teenage years also have unique situations where they're testing
out their concept of self-identity while finding a comfortable position amidst
social structure. These feelings can be unsettling and uncomfortable, filling
their hormone-flushed bodies with anxiety. In fact, this is very common. But
think about hormones. Our bodies control them; our brain regulates these
chemicals. So, when teenagers practice directed and purposeful thinking, they
put themselves in the driver's seat to manage their anxiety. It can be so
simple when we think of this in scientific terms. Train your brain, reap the
benefits, and improve your wellness.
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Finally, using mindfulness will improve your physical health, too. It's known
that over 80% of visits to doctor's offices and most diseases are rooted in
stress. Again, when we manage that stress, we also manage our physical body
wellness.
What do you consider your greatest success in life?
My greatest success in life so far has been learning that I can control my well-being. Early in life, I thought happiness was something that comes to you. You have it, or you don’t. Later in life, I faced challenges in my work and personal life that took away some of that happiness. Through meditation and then mindfulness, I realized that daily joy and, ultimately, fulfillment was something that I could attain through determined effort and intentional pursuit. The pursuit lay in mindfulness, the ability to rewire my brain to find the good in things. That’s not to say I ignore the bad. Instead, I look for the good in a situation and build upon that. When you encounter something terrible, you face it head-on, give it thought, control your emotions, and take action on the parts of it that you can solve. And then you must let go of what you can’t control. That brings a lot of liberation.
Mindfulness helps you focus on these aspects:
The ability to look for the good in a situation, even when
the bad is easier to focus on. Then to build upon the good aspects.
To know that you can purposefully reign in your emotions and
make decisions with a clear mind instead of an angry animalistic one.
To look at difficulty head-on rather than hiding from it, or
worse, pretending to yourself that anger, ill-will, or hatred is the best way
to deal with problems.
To focus on and act upon what you can control.
It is tough to acknowledge what you can’t control and then let go of it.
All of these aspects helped me create the wonderful life I have today. To make
less-obvious professional decisions that ultimately increased my personal
fulfillment. To transcend tough stuff and ill will, and to have patience for
trying situations. And to know there is always something to learn in a
challenge, even if it’s one I’d rather not encounter.
What one unique thing sets you apart from other writers in your genre?
This one is easy. I'm a scientist writing about something people think is more "out there." People tend to think of meditation and mindfulness as mysterious or non-structured. Philosophers or people with spiritual direction would typically write books in this genre. However, I take a more evidence-driven and rooted-in-science approach.
That brings a lot of acceptability to the work. People
embrace a concept or practice more naturally when they clearly understand the
proven benefits. My goal is to make it convincing to practice mindfulness for
oneself. And then, once you experience the benefits first-hand, do more of it.
Adjust a practice to suit your personal needs and stick to it to gain
compounded and profound benefits.
My genre is also fascinating in that Mindfulness in Everyday
Life is classified in Self Help on Amazon, and it's also classified in Business
Culture, Health & Stress, and Work-Life Balance. Bringing the work
component in the categorization means that we're normalizing a healthy work
environment where people are mindful of their personal needs plus the needs of
others and the business. It's where leaders say it's ok to take care of
yourself and bring your best self to work so you can shoot for the stars. It's
not saying that you zone out at your desk; it's saying that you take a mindful
break to refocus your energy and then come back with original insights into
your work.
