Mindfulness Practice
Why include mindfulness into your daily routine?
Mindfulness is knowing where you are emotionally, and how you want to focus your energy in the moment you’re currently presented. For those not familiar with this practice, it may sound silly. We understand!
However, the art of using thoughtful and purposeful action doesn’t have to happen in some scenic spot like above. It can happen everyday, and in anyplace. Mindfulness will help you:
Understand who you are and what you want.
Focus on what you want when you want.
Be calm and relaxed more times than not.
When you workout is a great time to start!
We believe that when you exercise is a perfect time to work on your mindfulness practice. Simply just breathe and focus on the movement.
But it doesn't end there!
Think about the ingredients you cook with, the way you spend your day, all of it can be thought of more so you reduce things you don’t need in your life (artificial chemicals, stress, excess sugars, etc.) and emphasize what makes you content.
Here are a few great exercises to start your practice in Mindfulness.
Calm as Water
Start the day out when you first wake and concentrate on the feeling of being calm and relax before you think about anything else in your day.
Throughout the day when you drink water rewind your day to the last time you felt calm and peaceful. Reconnect with being calm and relax if only for a few moments.
At the end of your day rewind your actions in your mind until you get back to feeling calm and peaceful at the beginning of the day.
Gratefully Grounded
We are all interconnected and thrive on interdependent relationships. Send messages of gratitude (either in a letter, text message, email, or in person) to the ones that help you. Let them know what a difference they make in your life. Or try saying a thank you to them in your head.
Lifting Affirmations
Pick 1 to 4 characteristics you like to develop in yourself and repeat them in your head whenever you encounter a triggered your choice.
Examples:
- When you see your boss, tell yourself you are smart, confident, and determined.
- When someone says hi, tell yourself that you are beautiful and interesting. Give a greeting back!
- When you see your significant other, tell yourself that you’re so in love and lucky to have them in your life. Then give them an embrace.
Tensing and Relaxing
Sit in a relaxing chair or lay down. Tense your muscles fully for two breaths then relax your body for six breaths. Each time you repeat the cycle reduce your muscle tension by a half.
Relaxed Breathing Breaks
Once every hour, take five minutes to just sit and breathe. Start by sitting down both feet on the floor and hands on your lap. Focus on the sensation of air passing your nostrils. Slow down your breathing and count each out breath. Count to 250.
Mindfully Eating
When you sit down to eat, before you take your first bite, think about the other times you have enjoyed a similar dish. Think about the people you were around and the experiences you were having. Now saver and enjoy each bite of your meal.
Mindful Observation
Sometimes we lose touch with how wonderful and complex our world is. Pick an object – pen, hat, river, bird, cloud, chair – and observe it as if it were new to you. See this new object with all your senses. Study how it works and what it is doing.
These exercises are all about thinking of things in a different light. Sometimes is about how we control our emotions so they don’t control us. Sometimes it’s just about approaching life with a fresh set of senses, so that you may find joy and wonder even in the smallest of objects.