I find that I cannot stay with being emotionally aware for very long at all. Just mere fragments of time–bits and pieces–during the day. I am very easily distracted and then do not remember to go back to practicing awareness. Usually when I do remember, it is when I am alone, often when I am driving my car. So I do so at those times and have deep thoughts about my life and relationships. In a class that I’m taking, a fellow student gave a presentation recently about stress reduction. He showed a video and in that video, it was discussed as to “watching your breath”. The author of the video basically was describing emotional awareness and the fact that if one is aware of their breathing, (thereby being aware of themselves), then they could make better choices in the moment as to how they would respond. He said to come back to your awareness of your breathe again and again and when it seems boring, to do it anyway. This resonated with me and so I have been trying to look at emotional awareness from this perspective, and to practice just “watching” my breathing. I still get distracted easily but am continuing to try doing this. I have noticed that this can help me to get to sleep easier at night as it helps me to relax and let go of thoughts which keep me awake. I thought perhaps sharing this might help others as well. The video also talked about mindfulness meditation which I would also like to experiment with. I was able to meditate successfully way back when I was in high school and had some guidance from a Quaker minister but as an adult I have always had difficulty letting go of all of the “oh so important” worries of life. Must go for now and get ready for work. Love, Cindy