When we're playing a board game, most of us have an understanding of the rules.

In Monopoly, you know that you're going to be purchasing property and building. In Clue, you're finding a weapon, a room, and a perpetrator. In Chutes and Ladders, you're going up the ladder for a good deed, or down the chute for a bad deed.

How about Life? (Not the game, the real thing).

Did anyone ever tell you the rules?

Do you know what rules you play by anyway?

Take a moment to consider the personal rules that you abide by in your day-to-day routine.

You may have a series of small rules like:

Practicing mindfulness runs counter to what much of the typical Western go-go-go culture requires.

We run from dawn to dusk, never taking ten deep breaths to focus ourselves, listen to our hearts, and just be within our environment.

I encourage you to practice mindfulness on a regular basis, by instituting a habit of taking ten deep breaths every hour, preferably more. This pause in your day allows you to get in tune with your lungs, with your breath, with your body, and with yourself.

With that kind of mindfulness, we then have the opportunity to listen to what our body and our spirit is telling us: are we uncomfortable? are we thirsty? do we desire a stretching break or a snack?