In this instructional video, Charlie Hugh-Jones, founder of Living On Purpose, shares his personal story of losing his career, marriage, and family, which led him to a crisis of anxiety, rumination, and restless judgment. He explains common misconceptions about achieving happiness—namely, the futile attempts to over‑analyze past events (rumination) or to escape discomfort through distraction—citing psychological research that shows these strategies increase stress. Drawing on Harvard professor Ron Siegel’s definition of mindfulness as "an awareness of present experience with acceptance," Charlie outlines five concrete, low‑effort practices to cultivate present‑moment awareness: (1) conscious breathing, (2) observing thoughts without judgment, (3) noting and labeling thoughts, (4) walking mindfully, and (5) unitasking (single‑task focus). For each step he provides specific cues (e.g., feeling the temperature of breath at the nostrils, labeling thoughts as "planning" or "criticising," walking without a phone, working in 25‑minute focused blocks). He emphasizes that these habits reduce anxiety, improve concentration, creativity, and relationships, and invites viewers to try them. The video concludes with a teaser for a future video on stress reduction, a call to like, subscribe, share, and visit his website for further resources and email updates.
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Hi, it's Charlie Hugh-Jones here, creator and founder of Living On Purpose, unlocking the power of inspiration, imagination, and innovation to live a richer, more fulfilled, and more abundant life. Welcome to this video. I help people who recognize that they want something to change in their life make powerful decisions and then follow through on them so that they experience more clarity and focus, more energy, greater contentment, and often financial freedom. In this video, you are going to learn how to be more mindful so that you enjoy more of the life you are living now rather than the pain of the past or the anxiety and stress of the future. People often used to think of me as pretty enthusiastic about life, full of energy and optimism about the future. And as a successful lawyer, I was also very focused and able to concentrate for long periods to accomplish so much. Well, that was easy when everything was going okay, when everything was in order in my life. But when I lost everything through a number of personal tragedies— my career, my marriage, and ultimately my family— I quickly became someone who was super intense, judgmental, restless, unfocused, and regularly on the edge of losing my patience. I fooled a lot of people that I was calm, but that was just supreme discipline, expending so much energy to appear calm when actually inside I was anything but. My mind that had previously been focused began to loop back over past events, replaying them incessantly as I became more and more distracted. The future held more uncertainty than I felt I could bear. Eventually, when I almost completely broke down and had no more energy to pretend, I began to see other people who went through stuff that was far worse than mine, but who managed to be calm, focused, patient, and even happy. So I made a deliberate decision. I was going to explore what made those people truly happy, what superpower enabled them to be calm and give them purpose, and then I was going to equip myself to live like that. One of the most common mistakes that people make is believing that if they could just understand why something happened in the past, they would be happier. If they thought hard enough about it, if they rehearsed it enough and re-experienced it enough, they could make sense of it and it wouldn't threaten their future. But research has shown that for the majority of people, this is just not true. Psychologists call this rumination, and all it does is activate the emotions and physical sensations of the past. Yeah, I know. Response that you experienced when that painful or scary event happened in the first place. Another common mistake people make in searching for more happiness is to believe that if they distract themselves enough with entertainment, or change their circumstances, or if they can avoid all pain and discomfort in the future, then they will be happier. Again, research has shown that this categorically is not the case. It just isn't true and may even leave you feeling even more unfulfilled and more frustrated. But savouring a existing experiences, actually paying attention to what you are experiencing in the present, is key to enjoying more happiness, not having more happy events. Harvard professor Ron Siegel uses this definition for mindfulness which I find helpful: an awareness of present experience with acceptance. So now I'm going to give you 5 simple steps to help you do just that, to increase your awareness of your present experience with acceptance. Step 1, breathe consciously. Give your restless mind something physical to focus on. Examine the sensations of your in-breath and notice the temperature of the air as it passes the tip of your nose. And then there's an interesting turnaround, a momentary pause before you out-breathe again. Notice the temperature of the air as you feel it brush against your top lip. And if that doesn't work for you, try following the rise and fall of your belly with the in-breath and the out-breath. Why not set yourself the challenge of concentrating Try concentrating on breathing like this for say 3 minutes and see how you get on. Step 2, observe and don't judge your thoughts. Now you can't stop your thoughts coming into your mind, but we can take them a lot less seriously. They're a story we tell ourselves, and when we dwell on the negative ones, they make us anxious and bring us down. So what happens if rather than expending energy in fighting these thoughts or trying to process them rationally, we instead just observe them? We let them go. The key to this is to pay more attention to the world around us than our thoughts about what we've got to do or are planning to do next. Try noticing the sights, sounds, and smells of standing in line, waiting at a traffic light, buying a cup of coffee, or walking down the street. Now, I recognise that step 2 doesn't always take away those worries that you always seem to carry around, so that's where we turn to step 3. Step 3, note and label your thoughts. Noting them is not dodging or disputing your thoughts, it's simply acknowledging them and then turning your attention back to your senses. To your breath, to the feel of your chair at work, the taste of your coffee, the various shades of green or gold or orange of the leaves on the trees outside. So when thoughts arise, label them silently before letting them go. You might give them labels like planning, doubting, judging, fantasising, obsessing, or criticising. It doesn't matter what you label them. What matters is using them to avoid being captured by the stories that go round and round in your head. And once you've used a label, return your attention to what's going on in your senses. Step 4, walk more. Given we're all pretty much connected 24/7, suffering with crushing burnout, and are distracted from the things that we all know really matter, how can we reconnect with our senses? Well, we can get physical, and it doesn't have to be a session in the gym or intense exercise. Simply walking more has been shown to improve concentration, inspire creativity, unlock wisdom, and increase our capacity for wonder. So go for a walk. Take 5 minutes to walk around the block at work, or in the morning before the rest of your household wake up, or at night just before you go to bed. One of the secrets though is to be quiet while you do this. Perhaps concentrate on the cadence of your footsteps. Oh, and don't take your phone with you if you can. Step 5: Unitask more often. Why? Because multitasking is the enemy of focus and concentration. When we allow our attention, the key to mindfulness, to be divided and pulled in multiple directions at once, once, we automatically put ourselves at a disadvantage in terms of reduced productivity, concentration, creativity, and increased anxiety. Our mind more easily wanders to the pain of the past or worries about the things that will happen in the future. Research shows that we are also much more productive, focused, creative, and less stressed when we use one-pointed attention, i.e., we do one thing at a time, even if that's just for short bursts of 25 minutes. Psychologists have proved that our concentration improves the more we do this, as do our relationships, because we end up more deeply connecting with others. So why not try it for yourself and see how it affects your day and your awareness of the present moment? Perhaps try not checking your email or texts for the 100th time and put your phone aside, or turn your email program off for 25 minutes to finish that report, or when you first talk to your partner when you get home from work, or when you speak to the kids when they— when you first see them after their school day. These 5 simple steps will help you be more mindful. But sometimes we're so anxious or stressed out and have so many negative thoughts that we can't be still enough to begin to practice mindfulness. So I'm going to be exploring ways to reduce stress and manage anxiety in another free video that I'm going to release soon. But in the meantime, I hope you got value from this video, and if so, please like it and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. Feel free to share this video on your favourite social media platform and join me over at charliehughjones.com where you can stay connected and sign up for a exclusive email updates and get access to more content from my Living On Purpose program. Thank you so much for watching. I look forward to continuing this journey together in the next video. So until then, bye for now.
