Micropractice

By Eli Susman
PhD candidate at UC Berkeley studying micropractice—powerful well-being tools that take 30 seconds or less.

Featured in CNN, BBC, CBS, Forbes, LA Times, Mindful, and named among Greater Good Magazine’s Top 10 Insights of 2024.

01/22/2026

The nervous system reshapes like water wears stone—
slowly, persistently, beautifully.
That’s neuroplasticity.
Consistency is the current.

01/21/2026

You can’t control every thought.
But you can shape the tone of your return.
That tone—gentle or judging—
becomes the atmosphere you live in.

01/20/2026

You're 12 seconds into meditating—and suddenly wondering if ducks have ears.
That moment? It’s exactly why so many people quit.
Not because they’re lazy.
But because they feel like they’re doing it wrong—and alone.
This one-tweak study changed that. And it might change how you relate to the hard stuff, too.
Link to full story in the image.

01/19/2026

Many people breathe like they’re late for something.
Shallow. Rushed. All in the chest.
But your calm lives lower—deep in your belly.
Stretch receptors there send signals that help your exhales lengthen and cue your parasympathetic nervous system—the branch that tells your body it’s safe to relax.
When your exhale lasts longer than your inhale, that system kicks in.
Translation: lower inhales = longer exhales = calmer mind.

01/16/2026

In Sanskrit and Pali—the languages where mindfulness was first named—mindfulness means to remember.

Not perfect focus.
Not flawless calm.

Just remembering when you’ve drifted—
and returning kindly.

That’s the practice.

01/15/2026

Every time you care for yourself
instead of forcing yourself,
you’re reshaping your brain
to learn through kindness, not criticism.
That’s neuroplasticity in action.

01/14/2026

Prairie voles do something extraordinary.
When one gets stressed—say, from a mild shock—others nearby, even those who never saw it happen, rush over and gently groom the shaken friend.
They sense distress—and soothe it.
That’s compassion—etched so deep in our biology it predates language.
It’s not something we learn.
It’s what’s left when we stop armoring ourselves against it.

01/13/2026

Ever noticed how rushing changes your warmth?
Not your efficiency. Not your productivity.
Your warmth.
Four studies. 722 people.
The faster we move, the colder we get.
But there’s one thing that keeps kindness alive—even under pressure.
Link in the comments.

01/12/2026

You don’t need to become a monk
to love like one.
Try this:
1 breath
1 hand to heart
1 kind phrase
—every time you judge yourself.
Repeat daily. It compounds.

01/09/2026

Self-compassion sounds soft,
but sometimes it whispers the hardest word: no.

01/08/2026

The nervous system learns like nature grows—
through care, not control.
You can’t force a seed to bloom,
but you can keep showing up with water.

01/07/2026

You don’t regulate by finishing more tasks.
You regulate by remembering
you’re not the task.

Address

Berkeley, CA
94530

Website

http://www.micropractice.com/, http://micropractice.substack.com/

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