Your assignment is due and youre cutting it close. Your ability to keep your body and mind calm and clear can keep the creative juices flowing. How? Take frequent mindfulness breaks.

Mindfulness is your ability to remain aware of the present moment, of what is going on in and around you right now. Worry about the future (will I make the deadline?) and anger about the past (why did I procrastinate?) are just two common feelings that take us out of the present moment. Returning your attention to the present moment can calm these feelings so you can get the job done with clarity.

The best way to stay in the present moment is to take mindfulness breaks. I have a clock in my home that chimes on the quarter hour. Each time it chimes, I stop, turn my attention to my breath and observe my in-breath and out-breath for three cycles or more if I need it to feel calm. I train people to use their breath as their anchor to the present moment. It is always with us as long as we are alive, and it is always in the moment. You cant breathe in the past or the future!

The telephone is a helpful bell of mindfulness. I stop what I am doing and follow my breath for two rings before answering. Not only do I feel calm, but I greet my caller with presence instead of interruption or distraction. Even sirens can be a mindfulness break. You can think of many more.

You can install a bell of mindfulness on your computer. You can set it to chime randomly, on the hour or on the quarter hour. Download it at http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/mindfulclock.html.

Deadlines are a fact of life. Deadline stress does not have to be. By connecting to the present moment via your breath, you can remain calm and meet your goals with greater ease.

Bethany Klug

Bethany Klug, DO practices holistic medicine at the Kansas City Holistic Centre. She recovered her own health with whole foods nutrition and has developed extensive expertise in the healing power of whole foods cooking. Dr. Klug founded Heartland Sangha, devoted to the mindfulness meditation practices of Thich Nhat Hanh and teaches regularly. An avid yoga practitioner since the late 1980s, she is currently exploring yoga therapy. Dr. Klug offers bioidentical hormone replacement, whole foods nutrition, nutritional supplementation, homeopathy and biodynamic cranial osteopathic treatment to her patients. She is boarded in family medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine. The Latin meaning for doctor, ?teacher,? inspires her to write for general audiences to empower them to discover their self-healing ability through holistic health. She writes the monthly column ?The Doctor Cooks? for the Kansas City Wellness Magazine. She lives in Kansas City with her husband David and their Birman cat Shanti.