Hi!
Welcome to Morning Mantras.
This is a series I have developed for myself,
Using what I've learned in my own mental health journey.
I've offered these audio files to the world in hopes that they may help or inspire others to do the same.
Morning Mantra Sinko is the second half of my Back to the Basics reminder.
I shared that meditation helps me find my emotional center.
It's one thing to know that I need to be kind to myself,
And it's another thing to feel that kindness,
That gratitude.
In the last mantra,
I shared a body scan meditation,
But today I want to offer two mindfulness practices that I use throughout the day to create space in search of my center.
First is a breathing exercise,
And in a bit we'll go for a walk,
So find your shoes as I give the following lowdown on mindfulness.
So what is mindfulness?
Many would call it simply being present.
It's fascinating to learn just how often we are not present in our own lives.
The act of washing your hands or taking a shower are two things where you can really see how distracted your mind is.
We don't observe or feel the water hitting our skin.
Unless it's scalding hot or freezing,
We're busy thinking about what's next,
What are the things I need to do today,
Or now that I've used the restroom,
After I'm done washing my hands,
I need to send those emails,
Schedule that appointment,
Etc.
Etc.
The act of showering or washing our hands is routine and it's not at all savored.
Mindfulness is about observing ourselves,
Where we are,
What we're doing,
And what we're feeling.
Back to the example,
The shower.
In the winter,
After a morning walk in minus 20,
I tried to let go of my task list for the day and just be present.
And you know what,
The water was warm,
But after striking my shoulders,
It was cooler at my feet.
My body temperature cooled the water down,
Obviously.
At the same time,
That loud task list kept coming at me,
But I observed it instead of reacting and planning.
I observed the growing anxiety as well.
This is mindfulness.
Like meditation,
It's about observation,
Not reacting.
It's me saying,
Oh hey anxiety,
Versus oh man,
I'll never get this done,
I don't have time for the shower,
I gotta go,
I gotta get out the door,
What am I gonna wear,
Oh my god.
That's getting caught up in those thoughts and emotions versus just observing them.
Enough talk.
Let's just try a really simple exercise.
Many therapists recommend the act of grounding,
Which is focusing on the present moment via your connection to the earth.
It's never been my thing.
Instead,
I learned a quick breathing exercise.
Four seconds of inhale and eight seconds of exhale.
It calms that fight or flight nervous system that's triggered by stress and anxiety.
Thus it clears my head and helps me get back to the present,
Back to observing and being mindful.
So you ready to try?
No need to close your eyes,
You can sit or stand.
The counting of seconds is some nice busy work for our mind.
I find it helps me tune out all the other worries and thoughts.
So we'll do this for two minutes.
Believe me,
It'll go quickly.
Take a nice slow inhale for four seconds and then exhale for eight seconds.
Sometimes I purse my lips as if I was blowing out a candle to slow myself down.
I'll do this exercise with you,
But I'll count silently starting right now.
So inhale.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
How do you feel?
Did it go fast?
Personally I always find it goes by really quickly.
If you feel like you can't spare two minutes at your desk at work to do this mindfulness exercise,
Guess what?
You probably need it.
A hundred and twenty seconds is not a lot of time.
I do this throughout my day.
Sometimes I may not even make it to two minutes.
I do it until I feel settled.
So are you ready for the second part of this?
Ready to take a walk?
This exercise is useful because we're always walking throughout our day.
Like breathing,
Walking is something we do on automatic.
So let's jump right in.
Stand up.
Make sure your knees aren't locked.
Similar to the last exercise,
I like to take a few deep breaths to clear my head and set my intent on walking mindfully.
So breathe in.
And exhale.
So before we walk,
Let's observe our bodies for a second.
Let me tell you,
When I first started doing this,
My brain was screaming at me.
I must look like a moron standing outside not moving.
This is a perfect example of the distractions I'm trying to clear my head of.
This worry about what others will think,
It conveniently takes me away from what I'm feeling inside and what I'm doing.
The fear of what others will see is hiding a deeper fear that I'm not liked.
I would have never understood that without clearing away that first fear.
Okay,
So lift up your right foot slightly off the ground.
Feel the weight shift in your body.
Your left foot,
Knee,
Thigh,
And hip are all absorbing your weight now.
What about those sensations?
Let's shift to the right foot now.
Placing it on the ground,
Knee slightly bent and not locked,
Raise your left foot.
Is there any part of your body that you felt the weight more in,
Your calves,
Upper thighs,
Maybe your lower back?
Observe,
No need to diagnose.
All right,
Both feet back on the ground.
Before we start to move,
I want you to make one more observation.
We're gonna take two very slow steps observing the sensations in our feet.
There's gonna be an urge to simply plop your foot down and go,
Forget this guided mumbo jumbo.
However,
The goal is to be mindful of our walk,
So I want to get familiar with the sensations.
Lift your right foot and slowly place it heel first in front of you.
Roll on the heel to the middle of your foot and now the toes are on the ground.
Daily I walk the dog but I don't ever pay attention to the sensation of the cracks in the cement or the texture of the ground under my shoe and foot.
These are the sort of things that we're trying to notice.
One more,
Let's do the left.
Lift the left foot,
The knee is bent,
My lower leg braces for what comes next and all my weight is shifted to the right leg.
Place the heel,
The arch comes down,
Now the toes.
Weird right?
Paying attention to something you do daily on automatic?
All right,
Let's give this mindful walking thing a try.
As you move forward,
The goal is focusing on your body.
You can observe the sensations of your feet,
The weight shifting as your leg and back muscles compensate.
Go ahead.
When thoughts of what's next after this recording is over pop up,
Simply return to all the sensations we're trying to observe.
One foot in front of the other.
The weight shifts slightly and then returns.
You can also observe the world around you.
Obviously react when necessary,
When you get to a corner or to duck a tree limb.
We're not leaving this world like meditation,
We're here and present.
See the colors around you.
Are they vibrant?
Muted?
Any smells?
Are you picking up exhaust from the city or a scent of flowers blooming?
Pine?
One foot in front of the other.
This is the act of being present.
Those thoughts about the dentist appointment this month or the deadline this week may pop up,
But we observe them.
One foot in front of the other.
No need to react to those thoughts in this moment.
I notice there's a tightness in my lower back at the end of the day.
I feel it now as I walk,
But it's looser.
How does your body feel as you walk?
What do you think of mindful walking?
I'm going to wrap this up,
But by all means continue your walk if you wish.
I find that after a mindful walk I feel more calm.
I'm not as reactive when I get the panicked email or text.
Believe it or not,
There's a great mindfulness driving exercise in the Insight Timer app.
I love it.
It focuses on the sensations and observing the road and reminding myself that in each car is another human like me.
It's a lot better than getting filled with road rage.
This gives us the space to connect with ourselves and how we're feeling.
I'm turning down the expectations of society,
All the ways I've learned to pressure myself in order to please others.
It's all noise.
What do I really want?
What do I need?
These questions are hard to answer when I don't make space for myself.
Thanks for listening.
Now that I've revisited practices that work for me,
I want to get back to the monthly mantras next.
I hope that morning mantra stays and the following mantras will be simple and executable without all the introduction.
Furthermore,
I am abandoning my goal of doing a single mantra for a month.
That sort of repetition doesn't seem to be working for me personally.
Instead,
I think I'm going to revisit each of my mantras.
After all,
When I finish number six and number seven,
I'll have enough mantras to fill a week.
Thank you for trying this out and thank you for all the amazing feedback that I've received.
It really means a lot to me.
My depression told me not a single soul would listen to these files.
So thank you for that amazing reality check.
And as always,
A reminder to myself and you.
Be kind to yourself.
