How to start your daily mindfulness practices:
Mindfulness is not an uncommon phenomenon and you probably heard about it a lot, these days! In this post I am not going to board you with more explanation and scientific support for its benefits. Instead, I want to provide you with a simple, practical, step by step guideline to start practicing it yourself. To me, mindfulness is opening your heart to infinite love and kindness. When I’m talking about mindfulness, I’m talking about integration, integration of mind and body and integration of consciousness and compassion. To me mindfulness is being aware of your awareness and exploring the present moment, fully with openness and compassion.
Here is the guideline for your daily mindfulness practice:
- Set your timer for 10, 20 or 30 minutes. Start with shorter time periods.
- Sit in a comfortable, yet aware position and take three deep breaths. Then close your eyes and notice your body sensations.
- Find an object of attention. it could be an external object like a flower, simply an image in your mind, a word such as “peace”, or your breath. Choose the object as an anchor for your attention that you feel comfortable with. Pay attention to your breath. Notice the sensations of the breath in your body. This is commonly noticed through the feeling of air flow in and out of the nostrils, expansion and contraction of your belly , or the rise and fall of the chest. Notice wherever it is most dominant, and just pay attention to your inhale and exhale.
- Continue with monitoring your breath and whenever you find yourself lost in your thoughts, simply come back to the present moment by bringing back your attention to your breath without judgment.
- Continue this practice until the timer alarms you
- At the end of this practice, do a quick compassion check in. How am I feeling? Is my mind and body more calm and at ease? Am I feeling more grounded? Notice any aspect of this practice that you felt was beneficial to you and write it down in your journal.
- Finally, end your practice with appreciating yourself to spend some time for yourself and your wellbeing.
Have any questions about this topic?
As always, if you want to know more about this topic, or need additional support you can flip us an email or book an appointment, here.