''I know that for next time ....''

"That phrase has actually changed my life", said my daughter last week.

She had just bought a dress that she really liked, but it was too long, so she decided to alter it. Unfortunately, she accidentally cut it too short, so much so that it was unwearable. She rang me, quite upset, asking how she could fix it. She later told me that while she was initially beating herself up for making, in her eyes, such a silly mistake, she began to look at it as a learning experience, knowing that she would never make the same mistake again.

She thereby gave me a perfect illustration of mindfulness in action - becoming more aware,

catching a negative thought, and replacing it with a positive one.

Try it out: next time you start thinking "I wish I'd ........." or beating yourself up over something, try to think of it as a learning experience rather than a mistake.