I remember the first time my therapist suggested I start practicing mindfulness with little counting exercises and/or daily meditation. Poor sweet Dr. F was on the receiving end of an imperceptive eye roll, insincere smile and dismissive nod. In my defense, I was in my mid-twenties and barely 5 years off the plane from Boston where "that hippie shit" just didn't fly. Raised in an Irish Catholic household in a conservative Republican town in Connecticut, I wasn’t exactly primed to receive alternative approaches to stress management or behavioral change very well. As is the tradition in such circles, emotions are not to be indulged, feelings are not to be had, therapy is not to be invested in, meditation is for the birds.