Successes and Challenges
Understanding the benefits of mindfulness, and choosing some mindful (not mindless) practices to start to include in your daily routine, is a wonderful thing, and the benefits will be amazing………… now comes the commitment and the challenges!
As suggested in the previous blog you could attend a retreat to kick start your mindful journey, or sign up for meditation class, or even try Yoga, however, you may not have access to attend a meditation class,
Also attending a retreat to unwind, may not be in your budget, or the right timeframe for you, so finding another way to help is right here.
You could download some meditations to help you.
You can find some by conscious waves, specifically recorded to guide you through a short (approx10 minutes) meditation to fit into your day. They can be found on our shop page, and you can start with a morning one, if that suits. There is also one for midday, and a relaxing evening meditation to help relax you before sleep.
There are also many other sites or apps you can use to help for example: Head space.
Also, this too may be a challenge, not everyone can start to meditate anytime they are facing stressors in their day.
If you are really committed to make a mindful difference in your life you just need to get CREATIVE.
For example: Frustrations can occur many times throughout your day, sitting in traffic, at a meeting, sitting at your computer, or a family member has bad news or is sick. If we can meditate to calm us down to best deal with the situation then fantastic, however there are also a few things you could do to help you clam and stay mindful and focused.
BREATHING.
Breathing is our source of life, and we tend to take it for granted! Most of us when we breath, breath shallow, so shallow we don’t even notice.
A great technique I have found is to take 10 deep relaxing breaths.
Breathing in through the nose ( for at least 3 seconds)
Hold that breath for 3-5 seconds and then exhale through the mouth.
This slow breathing technique will help reduce your heart rate, and help to clear your mind.
This is so easy to do in any situation, anywhere, and anytime.
WALKING:
If possible a nice walk, change your scenery if you can.
I love taking my dog with me if possible, or even better my place to calm and reconnect is walking along a beach.
However, if that’s not possible we just need to get creative, walk out of the office or meeting, take in some fresh air (you could even try the breathing while you are out)
AFFIRMATIONS:
If you have started to use affirmations, you could try to remember one or two of them to say to yourself, either aloud or in your head.
For example:
If you have not started this we can help.
Affirmations on the go, are short positive affirmations that you can listen to anytime anywhere. They are available on in our Shop page.
These take only 2 minutes of your time.
Commitment is the next step in the mindfulness practice.
Overcoming obstacles is another.
However, as you have now chosen that mindfulness is a path worth taking, you do need some form of commitment to the practice, and the ideas of mindfulness.
I hope that some of these suggestions will help you on your way.
Another wonderful idea is to have a mindfulness buddy. That way you can connect and share your experiences, and support each other each day.
If you do not have anyone to share this mindful journey with, I suggest that you start a journal. Note how successfully you are using mindfulness in your day, what things did you overcome (or not) in your day. Journaling is also a form of mindfulness.
By continuing this practice along with your mindfulness, you can see how you are going, what works and what needs changing.
You will notice over time that you are being creative and doing something so positive for yourself that you will be grateful you started this wonderful journey of mindfulness.
I wish you well on this path, and I hope to meet you in person at some stage so we can share our mindful experiences together.
