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How To Use Mindfulness In Daily Life - Cory Allen

Cory Allen is an audio engineer, meditation coach and author. Mindfulness meditation is great. But it is supposed to be in service of a mindful life, rather than simply a way to spend 15 minutes of your day. I wanted to ask Cory about how he advises people to take their practise off the meditation cushion and into their daily life. Expect to learn how to use touch to bring yourself back to the present moment, Cory's favourite cues for reinforcing daily mindfulness, why the clothes you're wearing offer endlessly interesting sensations to meditate on, how to recognise when you've become lost in thought, how to reframe unwanted emotions and much more... Sponsors: Join the Modern Wisdom Community to connect with me & other listeners - https://modernwisdom.locals.com/ Get 10% discount on your first month from BetterHelp at https://betterhelp.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get perfect teeth 70% cheaper than other invisible aligners from DW Aligners at http://dwaligners.co.uk/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Follow Cory on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heycoryallen/ Check out Cory's Website - http://www.cory-allen.com/ Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #mindfulness #meditation #calm - 00:00 Intro 01:33 Where to Begin with Mindfulness 08:03 Why Meditation is Important 13:32 Being Mindful of our Interactions 18:45 Learning to Switch Off from the World 24:19 Pay Attention to your Movements 41:27 Reminding Yourself that Thoughts Aren’t Things 45:55 How to Successfully Deal with Bad & Good Situations 56:50 Habits & Triggers for Mindfulness 1:00:36 Where to Find Cory - Join the Modern Wisdom Community on Locals - https://modernwisdom.locals.com/ Listen to all episodes on audio: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Cory AllenguestChris Williamsonhost
Dec 20, 20211h 1mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Turn Everyday Moments Into Mindfulness: Practical Tools From Cory Allen

  1. Chris Williamson and Cory Allen explore how to move mindfulness from formal practice into everyday life, emphasizing awareness of bodily sensations, actions, and thoughts in real time.
  2. They explain how modern overstimulation keeps people in a chronic fight‑or‑flight state, and how simple practices—like sensory awareness, silent time, and breath checks—shift the nervous system toward calm.
  3. A major theme is learning to notice impulses and emotions before acting on them, creating a “mindfulness gap” that allows for intentional, rather than reactive, behavior.
  4. They also discuss common traps, such as becoming a ‘mindfulness zombie’ or using calmness to repress emotions, and offer strategies for engaging with difficult feelings constructively.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Use your senses to anchor attention in the present moment.

Deliberately feel everyday sensations—the texture of a steering wheel, your clothes on your skin, your feet on the ground—to interrupt autopilot thinking and reconnect with direct experience.

Note your actions and impulses to reveal how automatic you are.

Silently label simple movements (“lifting cup,” “walking,” “itch arising”) and then notice the urge to move before you move; this exposes unconscious habits and gives you more choice in how you act.

Schedule daily quiet time to desaturate your senses.

Even 20–30 minutes of silence without devices or content—whether seated, lying in bed, or driving without music—helps shift your nervous system from panic to rest-and-digest and lets your own thoughts surface.

Treat thoughts as transient events, not as your identity.

Like smelling an orange and knowing you are not the smell, you can observe thoughts (including self‑criticism) as passing mental formations rather than truths about who you are.

Create a deliberate pause when strong emotions arise.

When anger, anxiety, or sadness shows up, first notice it (“I’m getting really pissed off”) and pause—relax your body, take a few breaths—before deciding how to respond or what, if anything, to say.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

You are traffic as well. You are the traffic.

— Cory Allen

Life needs to be lived by design, not default, because so many of the default settings that we’ve got are horseshit.

— Chris Williamson

It’s not that people want peace of mind, it’s that they want peace from mind.

— Chris Williamson

Your thoughts are really not you. You are the awareness observing the passing of the thoughts, not the mind itself.

— Cory Allen

One of the big misnomers is that people mistake being more tranquil and self‑aware with passivity. It’s actually kind of the opposite.

— Cory Allen

Bringing mindfulness off the cushion and into daily lifeSomatic and sensory awareness as entry points to presenceManaging information overload and chronic fight‑or‑flight statesRecognizing impulses and creating the mindfulness gapRelating wisely to thoughts and self‑critical narrativesHandling emotions without repression or reactivityBuilding small, repeatable habits to automate mindful responses

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