There’s a good chance you almost scrolled right past this — because you already feel like you know what mindfulness is.
That’s the trap, and it catches lifelong practitioners as easily as beginners. If you’ve practiced for years, part of you says I’ve got this. If you’ve tried it before, part of you says that’s not for me. Either way, the mind quietly closes the door.
I know this trap because I fell into it myself. Despite years of practice, I kept returning to my old habits — especially in the moments I needed mindfulness most. That’s why I wrote Return to Mindfulness: eight skills drawn from Buddhist teachings and verified by science, each one paired with micro-practices small enough to actually use when it counts.
Because mindfulness isn’t really tested on the cushion. It’s tested in the everyday moments where we make choices — about our relationships, our work, what we buy, how we show up in our communities and our politics. That’s where change happens: in our own lives, in the lives of the people we love, and rippling outward into the world.
Research suggests up to 95% of our daily decisions are made on autopilot. These eight skills are how we learn to meet that 95% awake — and by choice.
The eight skills
Everything this summer is built on the same eight skills — one map for a skillful (sama) life:
Awareness · Compassion · Curiosity · Energy · Appreciative Joy · Inner Calm · Focus · Equanimity
Each one helps us see our patterns in ordinary moments — and, little by little, transform them. In the course you receive all forty-eight micro-practices (six per skill), yours to keep and return to whenever it matters most.
Four ways to practice this summer
1. Free Orientation — start here One hour, no strings. Come get a feel for the practice and the people, ask your questions, and see if the journey is for you. 🗓 Tuesday, July 21 · 7:00–8:00 PM Eastern · Zoom → Reserve your spot
2. The Skillful Life Foundations Course — the eight-week journey One skill each week, learned in community. We’ll meet live on Zoom once a week to explore what each skill really means in the real world — using guided meditations to uncover the patterns running underneath, and practicing how to catch and transform them in our everyday choices. 🗓 Tuesdays 7:00–8:30 PM Eastern · starts July 28 · Zoom · sliding scale, so cost isn’t what keeps anyone out → Join the course
3. Daily Sama — a live micro-practice every day For course participants and Sama Life paid members: every day of the eight weeks, I’ll lead a short, live five-to-six-minute micro-practice, so the week’s skill lands in real life — not just in class. It’s how we build these skills a little at a time, on the ordinary days when it’s hardest — and you keep all forty-eight practices on a platform you can come back to anytime.
4. The Sama Life Circle — keep practicing, together Beginning in September, the Circle gathers once a month to take up one skill at a time, practice together, and answer the questions that surface when we bring mindfulness into real life. A steady community to keep the practice alive long after the eight weeks end.
How it all fits together
Taste it at the free orientation, build it over the eight weeks, live it daily with Daily Sama, and sustain it in the monthly Circle. Step in wherever feels right — each one stands on its own, and each leads naturally into the next.
This is the reset I’d wish for anyone this summer: not one more thing on the list, but a way to return to mindfulness in the moments that matter most — awake, kind, and by choice.
I’d love to practice with you.
With appreciative joy, Shalini
Shalini B Bahl, Ph.D. — author of Return to Mindfulness · asamalife.com
