How To Be Mindful and Develop a Mindfulness Practice

We’re going to talk about MINDFULNESS.

This a really interesting topic because I really do believe that so many of us including myself tend to be thinking about our task list and not living here now.

A long time ago, I was on a hike with some friends and one of them had just finished reading the book called, “The Power of Now” and she said that in order to draw herself to be more mindful, she always uses the word be here now.

Think about this when we get in trouble with something. Like say, we overeat or we over drink or we overspend or we do anything in excess. Most of the time we don’t set that as our intention, we just get caught up in the moment. We lose focus and when that happens to focus on being more mindful. That way, you’re not living in the moment and falling into problems but you are actually being conscious and aware of every choice that you make.

This is a practice and it’s all about catching yourself before something happens.

Mindfulness is something that’s really important in our lives and one way to practice it is by doing things like meditation and yoga so that you can actually you know to program your mind and not let what they call “monkey mind” take you away.

Now, part of the issue is that our conscious mind is only responsible for like five to ten percent of all awareness the rest of it is unconscious. That’s why we need to focus on reprogramming.

When you live in the moment you’re actually able to address what’s really happening and you’re able to engage fully in your relationships and you’re able to be present and listen to the person that’s trying to talk to you. So, it’s a really big life skill that I think we all need to practice more.

How do you do it?

Meditation practice is helpful. So, being cognizant during meditation of where your mind is. Are you controlling it or is it controlling you? Sometimes, we just get lost in thought and when you do meditate don’t beat yourself up.

I’m not an expert on meditation, but when you notice a thought coming in, acknowledge it, get curious about it and then release it. And imagine it floating up into the air like a balloon and then come back to your breath.

If you want to sit in traditional meditation faint in silence you can use an app. The app called calm is good for practicing on your breath.

There are so many ways to practice breathwork. One of them is you can breathe while you’re meditating and another is you can breathe while you’re in the bath and but just consciously focus. It also actually helps you with like lymphatic movement. The lymph is like your garbage disposal, so it processes your stuff in your body and so doing a breathing practice even if it’s just like five or ten deep breaths before every meal actually will help you more mindful and acknowledge that meal.

You can even add a gratitude practice to that. That will train you to be more mindful. Also, when you give gratitude before a meal there’s something that happens energetically to that meal. So, you’re glad and you’re grateful for the meal coming in and being on your plate and you’re also grateful for the food and how it’s going to nourish your body.

Another trick on how to stop your mind from wandering is being “be here” now and try to focus on your present moment like what are you doing right here right now that you can focus on.

When my kids want to talk to me they always say, “mom get away from your computer” and that means that I should get up and be fully engaged in what they’re saying and listen fully and let there be a pause before you respond so that way instead of thinking about what you’re going to say to them, you are actually fully engaged what they are saying to you.

One thing about that also is don’t tell people you’re too busy. If you run into somebody on the street and they’re asking how you’re doing, don’t say that you have been so busy because how do you think that makes them feel? I think it makes them feel like you don’t have any time to talk. Even if you’re busy, that’s great, keep it to yourself. Don’t be telling people how busy you are because I think it’s a little off-putting and just let them be present with you. Everybody has five extra minutes just to engage with each other and I always think that the world would be so much of a better place if we truly engage with one another and responded and listened and just treated each other with a lot of kindness and love and respect.

Next tip, how do you find the time?

My favorite is when you’re driving. Because how often have you been in your head and past your exit off the freeway? How often that you’ve been an on autopilot and you’ve driven somewhere and you don’t remember getting there?

First of all, that’s all very unsafe. Second of all, what did you miss along the way? What trees or what rainbow or what sights did you see? Maybe there’s a brand new store that’s really cool and you didn’t even see it because you’re in your head.

We want to get out of our heads and get into our hearts and think about all the beauty in your world that you can enjoy so much more.

Another good practice is when you’re in the shower. Now, all of us I can’t imagine anybody not loving to take a shower in the morning. So, visualize your gratitude with the warm water. Feel the soap or whatever bath gel that you use when you’re cleaning your body. Enjoy the warmth and the wakeup of the morning and find something to set your intention on for the day while you’re in the shower and ask yourself power questions while you’re there so that you can set your intention for the day and have the law of attraction and track those answers to you.

One of my questions might be, who can I help today? What can I do to make my life better today? How can I serve others today? What can I do to nourish my body today? Just any of those power questions in the shower are great.

Another thing is when you’re waiting in line. How often do you check social media on your phone? Well, guess what? One way to be mindful is to actually stay in line talk to people around you. Maybe you’ll make their day better, or if you’re like waiting for an elevator or you’re waiting for a meeting to start. Learn to keep your phone in your handbag. You don’t need to have it in your hand 24/7 and that’s a really good practice for us. Just get out of our head and get out of that constant need to be doing something and just kind of appreciate your surroundings.

Another way to be mindful is in the morning when you’re waiting for your coffee in a restaurant or when you’re waiting to be served your dinner or before answering the phone.

When you have a call coming in, how often do you want to press ignore? I bet often. If I see a caller on caller ID show up, I always like thinking about what I don’t want to talk to this person. Now, if it’s somebody that you know, be thankful that they’re reaching out to you and calling you. My aunt loves calling me and she drives me crazy because when she calls she always complains about my mom and half the time when I see that phone call come in I’m always trying to flip it around with her and I make it a game and I make it a challenge to try to make her realize that the complaining side of things is just going to bring more negative to your life, and that’s the law of attraction. When you want to attract something in your life whether it’s good or bad, the way you’re going to attract it is by what you focus on. So, what you focus on persist so if you’re going to call somebody to complain you’re going to attract more of the thing you’re complaining about and it’s not just your words, it’s your thoughts, it’s your feelings, it’s everything you think about you bring about.

If you have that power which you do what are you going to focus on today, think about what power you’re going to give your mind and your attention. It is so important to think about that and before answering the phone think about how can you show them love and if it’s somebody you don’t know, how can you just do one little thing to make their day. If everybody did that just how great would the world be?

Practice being mindful this week. It’s all about habit layering and when we do things that don’t serve us, typically, we’re not even aware of it. It all starts off as something that’s just distraction.

One of my favorite magnets I saw says, “I don’t know what the question is but the answer is not in here” and how often do you walk by the refrigerator or look for something mindlessly? How often do you eat like a bag of nuts or a bag of pork rinds or whatever you’re eating that doesn’t serve you mindlessly?

Focus your intention on being mindful of your food, with your thoughts, with your feelings, with your people, with everything that you do. Live mindfully.

Last tip.
Instead of eating when you’re standing up or distracted in front of your computer, celebrate the nourishment and that meal by sitting at the table, setting your plate as if you were serving a guest, put a napkin, a fork, a knife, your water or whatever you’re having and make it be a ritual so that you can actually show appreciation to yourself.

Show yourself self-love. Slow down, enjoy the meal and just take five extra minutes to your food thoroughly so that your body can digest it better. Show gratitude, put your fork down between bites and taste the food.

So many of us eat too fast and so we’re not even tasting the food and we’re not digesting well enough and our leptin which is our full hormone doesn’t have a chance to kick in because we’re eating so fast. So you will actually eat a lot less food when you just slow down and be mindful

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