Mindful May

Welcome to Mindful May! During the month of May, I'll be introducing you to Mindfulness.

I'll introduce to you practices and techniques that are mindfulness-based, and supply a calendar that will act as a Mindfulness challenge.

Each week there will be a new mindfulness tool or practice you can integrate into your day, and reflect on how it impacted you. When you have tools like mindfulness to use, you can be more aware, and when you have more awareness you are more able to reflect before you react. These practices can help you with the relationship you have with yourself, your loved ones, and humanity.

Here is the calendar so you can follow along:

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is going on around us.

That might seem trivial, except for the annoying fact that we so often veer from the matter at hand and get ahead of ourselves. Our mind takes flight and we lose touch with our body, and soon we are engrossed in thoughts about something that just happened or fretting about the future. This causes us to feel anxious.

No matter how far you drift away, mindfulness is right there to take us back to where we are and what we are doing and how we are feeling. If you want to know what mindfulness is, it’s best to try it for a while. Mindfulness is a practice.

Mindfulness and Meditation usually go hand in hand, and when we picture meditation, we often think of long periods of sitting with our thoughts in the quiet. That is certainly one form of mindfulness but I assure you there are many different approaches to the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness involves taking the time to pay attention to where we are and what’s going on—and that starts with an awareness in your body.

Mindfulness Technique: Body Scan

Our first mindfulness technique is called the Body Scan. Often, our body is doing one thing while our mind is elsewhere. This technique is designed to sync body and mind by performing a mental scan, from the bottom of your feet, to the top of your head.

Start by sitting somewhere mostly quiet and comfortable. Close your eyes, and plant your feet firmly on the floor. Starting with your feet, slowly scan up your legs, up to your thighs, into your pelvis, hips, belly, chest, arms, neck, and finally--your head. Notice any tension or uncomfortable feelings as you scan, and if you find a place of tension, breathe into it for 3 deep, slow breaths, allowing the tension to evaporate into the air.

When you're done with the scan, open your eyes slowly, bringing your awareness back to what is going on around you. Notice how you feel, now.

Use this technique during the week and see how it impacts you. I find that if I start my day with a body scan, it makes me aware of where I am holding tension, or if I am feeling tense or anxious. Just using my breath to breath out those feelings, brings a lot of relief.

I would love to hear how you experience the body scan practice! Leave your comments below!

I'll see you next week for week 2!