Greetings from sunny Los Angeles. Many Joyful Heart staff and Board members have congregated in LA for a series of meetings and events. We look forward to sharing more about what we've been up to (including the launch two new joyful products, meetings with program partners from the west coast and hosting an amazing cultivation event) in the days ahead.

But before that, I wanted to take a moment to kick off the Wellness Section of this blog. We've got a number of experts queued up to share information on a range of topics. We'll launch a series of winter wellness tips this week. And we look forward to engaging you all and hearing about your wellness activities in the comments section of this blog as well as on our JHF Facebook page.

Additionally, we plan to share the efforts of our staff and practitioners in a way that will engage and inspire readers who are on their own healing and wellness journeys.

For me personally, this has always been a challenge. Busy schedules at work and at home--coupled with a natural tendency to worry more about external things than my own health--have made my process and self-care practices inconsistent at best. At times, they've been virtually non-existent. I've tried a number of efforts to reform my behavior. I've joined gyms and participated in group fitness daily for months at a time. I've tried to avoid the bad habit of doing work on a laptop in bed. I've given up soda, fried foods, refined sugar and coffee for stretches of time. All of these efforts have had varying degrees of success.

But to me, more important than any one wellness practice or its outcomes has been the way I've viewed these efforts. I always attempt to approach new opportunities to improve my health and well-being with an open mind, a tremendous amount of curiosity and a willingness to forgive myself if it doesn't work out. Which leads me to the inspiration for today's post:

Back in the hotel room between meetings, I stumbled onto a link shared on twitter for a website called DoNothingFor2Minutes.com. This site's concept is pretty simple: sit still, relax, look at a pretty picture of an oceanscape and listen to the sounds of waves for 2 minutes. If you touch your mouse or keyboard in that time, you'll need to start again.

This is a practical example of what could be considered meditation or a mindfulness exercise. And for anyone who's new to meditation knows, it can be really hard to do. Two minutes doesn't seem like a long time to sit quietly and do nothing, but this is how my first attempt went (the times are approximations):

2:00: "Okay, this should be easy. Clear your mind, Nate. Clear you mind. Relax. No, stop thinking about relaxing and just... relax. NOW!"

1:50 - around the 1:37 mark: Nothing. I might actually have cleared my mind for a few moments. Huzzah!

1:36 - 0:29: "This is an interesting site. It's a simple exercise. Hmmmm, maybe we should share this on the new Joyful Heart Blog as a brief introduction to meditation. Great idea. I bet I can share this post before the next meeting. It'll be perfect. I'll include a link to site along with a screencap of the ocean image and I... wait. I'm supposed to be relaxing, not planning blog posts. Okay, focus, focus, focus. Clear your mind and relax. Quickly! The time's running out. Don't worry about losing that time. Remember what Sharon Salzberg always says about how during meditation you have the opportunity to 'simply begin again...'"

0:28 - 0:14: Nothing again. Ahhhhhh, bliss.

0:13 - 0:00: "You should include a mention of Sharon Salzberg and her philosophy on beginning again. That'll be a nice way to tie everything together. Oh. Times up."

So while I managed to keep my hands off the keyboard for two minutes, I didn't exactly accomplish the objective of relaxing and doing nothing for that solid 120 seconds. But what I was reminded of during the process is that even if a brief foray into wellness doesn't work out, we always have the choice to start over and try again. They don't call it meditation practice for nothing. And that's what I've resolved to do: practice. Whether I can carve out 2 minutes or 20, I'm going to try quieting my mind and practicing mediation as part of a daily ritual. Care to join me?

Give it a whirl. Try out DoNothingFor2Minutes.com or find your own way to practice and comment below to let us know how you did.