The Wise Open Mind

Your path of self transformation.

by Ronald Alexander, Ph.D.

4 Simple Steps for More Composure and Calmness

We all know that we live in a very stressful world and have been reminded over and over that too much tension can lead to chronic illnesses and abuse. Instead of immediately turning to drugs instead learn a simple technique called Meditation in Action. Read More

Learn How to Stop Procrastinating

Procrastinators are more in love with the act of wanting and live in the tide pools alongside the stream of life. They are very good at creating excuses or stories for putting off an activity. What's your excuse to stop living your life to the fullest? Read More

Different Options for Coping with ADHD

Adults with ADHD exhibit signs of depression, mood swings, anger and relationship issues, poor time management skills, and procrastination. Mindfulness helps create the capacity to not only calm and sooth but increases the ability to focus. Learn more about how to mindfully manage ADHD. Read More

5 Steps to Make Affirmations Work for You

Why can one person have great success using affirmations while another see's no results at all? An affirmation can work as it has the ability to program your mind into believing the stated concept. Learn how to make them more effect for you. Read More

6 Techniques to Ignite Your Inner Creativity & Passion

Most of us were taught that creativity comes from the thoughts and emotions of the mind but the greatest singers, dancers, painters, writers, and filmmakers recognize that their most original ideas actually come from the core of their being. Learn how you too can access your inner creativity & passion. Read More

Six Mindful Strategies to Recover from the Shock of Loss

I don't believe we ever get over a significant loss, but we do learn to move through it and live with it, and perhaps even learn to use it creatively to find our life's purpose as well as harvest its lessons. Here are 6 strategies to help you recover from loss. Read More

Expressing Mindful Love Through Service

Everyone from young to old is aware that St. Valentine's Day is Feb 14th but did you know that starting Feb 13th it is also Random Acts of Kindness Week? Today being of service is essential for one's transformation, personal growth and tapping into their creativity. Learn how easy it can be. Read More

Three Steps to Creatively Transform Any Crisis, Loss or Change

Within us all of us lies dormant the potential for tremendous transformation that can lead to greater happiness. As a mind-body psychotherapist, I've watched many let go of their false beliefs about who they are and what roads are open to them, and observed them as they found new paths to fulfillment and happiness that were previously hidden by their fears. Read More

Mindful Reframing: A Pre Diet Plan

Many of us right now are starting 2011 with the realization that we added extra pounds to our waist over the holidays and now want to shed them. So what is the key to maintaining a success diet, or exercise regime? Well the first step is to learn how to mindfully reframe your image or thoughts prior to initiating any change. Read More

Too Busy to Meditate? Think Again!

The benefits of meditation are many & varied from reducing stress, blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes to increasing one’s cognition and creativity. As well meditation decreases our need for sleep by heightening our concentration, allowing us to be more productive. Learn three easy meditation tips to reduce stress & improve your relationships. Read More

Learn How to Mindfully Resolve Arguments

Research has shown how stress can alter the levels of certain hormones in the blood that can weaken one’s immune system, increasing their vulnerability to disease. The studies also include the effects of conflict. This is because when people are in a reactive state while arguing they often shift into unwholesome emotions such as blaming, criticizing, judging, attacking or finding fault in order to justify their position. Read More

Improve Your Relationships with Wise Speech

Recently there has been a great deal of media focus on Mel Gibson’s abusive outbursts against his girlfriend. As a psychotherapist working with couples and families I know that there are always two sides in any relationship although no one has the right to verbally or physically attack another individual. From both a Buddhist (non violent) and a healthy psychological view, if you have an unwholesome intention and are consciously choosing to manipulate or hurt others, you’re limiting your own capacity for change and stunting the creative unfolding of your own life. Learn how to improve your communication skills with wise speech. Read More

What Are The Limitations of Your Ego Mind?

Doesn’t everyone desire happiness, joy, bliss, and peace? Then why are so many people stuck in unhealthy or unfulfilling jobs and relationships? Traditionally, we’ve been told that to achieve happiness, we should use our minds to figure out what would make us happy and then work hard to achieve our goal. The problem is that even the sharpest, most clever mind is limited in its ability to create opportunities and see possibilities. Without guidance from the heart, we’re merely playing notes on a piano, not composing a melody. \ Read More

The Wanting Mind of Depression & Unhappiness

One common personality trait I’ve found in patients who are depressed and unhappy is their unwholesome thoughts and beliefs that come from what I call the “wanting mind.” In wanting mind, we feel that our current state of unhappiness can only be cured if we have more money, recognition, fame, or power. Learn more about this unwholesome state of dissatisfaction and how it can lead to competitiveness and feeling resentful toward, or envious of, those who seem to have an easier life. Also learn a mindfulness meditation that can help you replace feelings of envy and desire with the more wholesome feeling of satisfaction. Read More

Recovering from Sorrow, Loss and Heartache

Sometimes, when we are recovering from sorrow, loss or heartache we feel the need to push aside our grief lest it overwhelms us with its intensity. This is understandable, but the longer you avoid your paid and attempt to push it away, the more difficult it will be to break out of your paralysis. Learn an effective exercise and meditation to help you transition from sorrow towards feelings and sensations of vitality, passion and well-being. Read More

Mindfulness Meditation & Addiction

One of the first steps in dealing with addiction is to discover the emotional cause of it, whether it is fear, depression, anxiety, or pessimism. Many times these unwholesome thoughts and beliefs come from what I call the “wanting mind.” You can never completely avoid the wanting mind or any other hindrance. Desire is part of being human. It causes us to strive toward bettering our lives and our world, and has led to many of the discoveries and inventions that have provided us with a higher quality of life. Yet despite all that we can achieve and possess, we can become convinced that we won’t be happy or contented unless we acquire even more. This unwholesome belief can lead to competitiveness and feeling resentful toward, or envious of, those who seem to have an easier life. A Mindfulness Meditation practice helps us develop the capacity to see clearly exactly what we’re attached to so that we can let go of it and end our suffering. The hidden areas of resistance that emerge into our awareness can be noted and examined later so that we can make the conscious choice to reject them. Read More

Mindfully Managing Stress

Stress is primarily caused by external triggers and how we deal and process it depends upon our constitution and temperament. The key to dealing with a stressful situation, especially for those who take things personally, are empathic and/or thin skinned is to develop a deeply grounded core rudder so that no matter what size of wave one encounters they can recover quickly and proceed with more focus. One very effective tool to keep grounded is to develop what I call “mindstrength” through a mindfulness meditation practice. Learn how mindfulness affects the brain and how to stay focused when during a challenging time. Read More

How to Make Real Change in Your Life

To make real and lasting change in your life you can't do it alone. Ronald Alexander discusses his theory that one should first build a Council of Support to help them achieve success in their endeavors. Read More

Learn How To Become a Mindful Leader

Learn how becoming a mindful leader provides you with clarity and calm in a crisis, protects you from the temptation to panic and jump from one bad situation to another, or blame others for the crisis and avoid looking at your role in it; plus it gives you the power to change it. Mindful communication is an extraordinary tool for problem solving. Read More

Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions by Learning How to Embrace Your Resistance to Change

It's that time again to make your New Year's Resolution. For many that means making the same resolutions we’ve made—and haven’t fulfilled—year after year. Make 2010 the time for REAL success by learning how to work with and embrace your resistance to change instead of trying to struggle or over come them. Also understand the payoffs that we have to this resistance, as these are what are holding you back from moving forward. Read More

Four Myths About Mindfulness Meditation

Many people resist doing meditation for various reasons such as lack of time but the payoffs for taking even five to ten minutes a day can be enormous. In addition to helping with anxiety and stress, meditation allows you to hear even the subtlest messages from the unconscious. You can be awakened with a gentle nudge instead of a splash of icy water. Typically, those who resist doing it are buying in to one of four common myths that create hindrances to a regular mindfulness meditation practice. Learn what these resistances are so that you can cultivate your own mindfulness meditation practice. Read More

How Mindfulness Can Help in a Crisis

Learn how mindfulness meditation can help you deal with the overwhelming feelings of panic, sadness and pain of a crisis or challenge in your life. Often we resist change and give in to fear of the unknown. Yet the ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness, remaining fully aware of what you are experiencing in the present moment, is the key to bringing yourself out of suffering and back into happiness. Read More

You Can Let Go of Negative Self-Judgments

Don't let negative self judgements prevent you from discovering your power to change your life for the better. When we switch to more positive thought patterns, crisis stops being overwhelming, and it’s far easier to let go of resistance, tune in to our passions and inner resources, and move forward with confidence. Read More

Is Your Intuition Real Gold or Fool's Gold?

Your instincts may be like fool’s gold instead of the genuine article. Learn to trust your inner wisdom and to tell the difference between true intuition and inner resistance such as hidden fears that can cloud your insights and steer you wrong. Read More

Ronald Alexander, Ph.D., is the director of the OpenMind Training Institute, and teaches at UCLA, Pepperdine, and Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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About The Wise Open Mind

Pioneering psychotherapist Ronald Alexander combines ancient mindfulness practices with leading-edge positive psychology and creative thinking to guide readers past their pain and create fresh personal visions for joy, contentment, and vitality. Readers of Wise Mind Open Mind will learn how to: let go of the past, tune into the present and their core creativity and move forward with passion and purpose.