As I’m writing this blog, I’m getting ready to jump into another holiday season. Year after year I make promises to myself that I will NOT overdo it, and then have the added self-criticism of overdoing it again. Follow this with the bombardment of diet and fitness ads designed to make us feel MORE guilt about the indulgences of the holidays and I am not so much feeling the love, peace and joy. As a good yogi and healthcare provider, I know that getting back toward my meditation practice will have the effect of bringing me back to a place of gratitude and I wonder why it is so hard.
Finding peace through meditation is a great thought in theory. Mindfulness meditation has various benefits including reduced stress, improved focus, enhanced emotional well-being and better self-awareness. Great! But where do we start?
Meditation by definition is the practice of focusing one’s mind for a period of time in silence, or to think deeply or carefully about something. If meditation brings thoughts of buddha or uberfexible yogis chanting, you are not alone. Many people think Meditation is not for them, find the task daunting, or try and then give up because “they aren’t good at it”.
In my yoga training I was told that the person who doesn’t have 30 minutes to meditate should then meditate twice a day for 30 minutes. Wait…what? As a working mom, I think that advice will do nothing to shift the needle in favor of this practice. Changing the stigma around meditation (i.e. it needs to be in a quiet place sitting on a pillow) has allowed me the benefit of finding the small bits of calm throughout my day.
Mindfulness is the mental state achieved by focusing awareness on the present moment and calmly acknowledging one’s feelings, thoughts and sensations. We can all do this right now! The good news is that mindfulness is a type of meditation and we can all sprinkle these small actions into our day .
Sneak These 5 Moments of Mindfulness Into Your Day:
- Breathe– think about how you are breathing. Breathing into your chest is often a sign of stress (acute or chronic). Can you breathe down into your belly, sides, and back?
- Notice the sensations in your body– and appreciate them! Something as small as that thawing-out feeling when you come in from the cold.
- Feel your feelings and notice how they are affecting you at this moment.
- Move mindfully– As a PT, I am always thinking about the mechanics of movement, but am so surprised at how many people I see are disconnected from their bodies. Feel your hips engage as you walk up a hill, reach out of your side body as you take the lights off the tree, and ground through your sit bones when you sit on the floor with your kids.
- Relax– Common areas to hold tension are in the jaw, shoulders, glutes, and inner thighs. Check into these areas when you are at your desk, standing in line or laying in bed.
Now ideally, we should take the time for a longer practice, and more benefits will be reaped with more time spent. My favorite mantra is that something is always better than nothing. Healthy habits aren’t going to start unless they are easy, so try dabbling in these little “snacks” of mindfulness and see where the practice leads you.