Hiking in the Lake District of England, I stopped for lunch in a cemetery. There was a headstone with a name and this simple inscription: “A Life Well Lived.” What does a life well lived look like? It’s a question that we’ve all asked in one form or another.

Perhaps you’re interested in living your life well, or you have a nagging feeling that your life isn’t quite as you’d imagined, or maybe you appreciate that you have a good life and you’d like to keep it that way—or even build on these foundations, because who knows what the years ahead may bring? What does mindfulness have to do with this?

Perhaps you’ve been intrigued by mindfulness or taken a course or practiced mindfulness for a while, but let it lapse, as so many of us do. Now is the time to try it. Mindfulness offers three keys that can help you unlock a life well lived.

“My mind can be my worst enemy or best friend," said Raheem Sterling, a young English soccer player. Sterling is known for inspiring others through his work ethic, for his family values, and for raising awareness of important social issues. He meditates because it helps him befriend his mind, which in turn helps him with his sport, mental health, and wider work.

In order to befriend your mind, first ask yourself: What does friendship mean to you? What words or phrases best describe your friendships? What does a good friend do for you—now and over the years—through the good and the bad patches of your life?

I’ve posed these questions to hundreds of people in workshops around the world, and here is what people say most often.

“Mindfulness is about our mind being and becoming our best friend.”

Does your idea of a good friend describe how you feel about your own mind? Maybe you already talk to yourself in affirming........

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