Calm Heart, Calm Mind

Hi,

Everyone,

We are back for our second episode.

I'm Mindful Niki,

Co-host of this podcast.

And I'm Nuri El-August,

But you can call me Nuri,

Host of this podcast for parents,

Teachers,

And teens who want more calm,

Connected moments where they can just be.

Yes,

Yes,

Let's begin today's practice with the intention for our Just Be Mindful map,

Which is called Calm Heart and Calm Mind.

Nuri,

Are you ready to cultivate a calm heart and mind?

Yes,

I'm ready to cultivate more of a calm heart and a calm mind for sure,

And getting into navigating our inner navigation system,

Which we call the Just Be Mindful map.

In the last episode,

We introduced how this practice will flow,

But I don't want you to worry that you have to remember the many parts to each of the Mindful Map practices,

Because in each episode,

We will guide you through it.

Each practice has an intention,

Mindful breathing,

A check-in,

Reflection questions,

And a hand jam or finger tapping practice.

And then as always,

We take a moment at the end to close out our practice together.

Yes,

That all sounds about right,

Mindful Niki.

I think we're ready to begin.

Yes,

I am ready.

So Nuri and all of you listening,

Let's start with the very first step of our Mindful Map practice,

Which is coming into our mindfulness posture.

So it's best to do this practice when you have a few minutes to sit and just be.

And what I mean by that is do not do this practice if you're driving.

We want you all to be safe.

Okay,

So let's come into our comfortable seated position.

Legs cross if you're sitting on the floor on a cushion,

Or if you're on a chair like me,

Come to the edge of your seat and place your feet flat on the ground.

Now I want you to make your spine nice and straight and place your hands on your thighs,

Palms down.

Now I want you to place your tongue on the roof of your mouth,

Just behind your two front teeth,

Allowing your jaw to become slightly open.

Shoulders are relaxed and rolled back and down so your chest is nice and wide and open.

Now let's settle into our mindfulness posture for three mindful breaths together.

And I just want you to make your exhale nice and long.

Breathe out of your nose if that is possible.

Okay,

So let's do three mindful breaths together.

Okay,

Good.

How are you doing,

Nery?

I'm good,

I'm good.

I'm following along in my mindfulness posture and getting more settled in.

Nice.

All right,

So now we're ready for our check in.

So being or non doing is really not something we're used to.

So don't worry if it feels a little bit odd as we first begin to slow down our minds and our bodies.

We are so used to doing and busyness.

But today in each practice,

We are going to cultivate some peace and calm in non doing,

Which will help us have more focused energy in whatever we're doing.

That's right,

Nery.

So now we're going to do our check in.

We begin by taking a deep,

Long mindful breath.

And as you can probably already tell,

We place a lot of deep breaths within this practice.

When we intentionally focus on our breath and make it a bit longer than usual,

Our body begins to release and settle.

But this takes some practice.

So don't worry if you're feeling like,

Okay,

This is not happening for me right now.

Remember Nery said in the last episode that it can actually take about a month for our body to get familiar with these practices to relearn and remember and feel comfortable with all this being stuff.

So hang in there.

Okay,

Let's connect into our hearts now by placing your left hand over your heart.

Now place your right hand over your left.

Calmly observe what arises without judging it right or wrong,

Good or bad.

Just allow your thoughts to flow naturally.

Notice what is true for you in this moment.

Now let's close our eyes or half close your eyes,

Which just means looking down at a spot in front of you with a soft gaze for one minute.

We're going to breathe mindfully making our exhale nice and long as we just be together.

I will let you know when one minute is up.

And let's begin.

We're about halfway through.

Keep mindfully breathing.

Good.

Let's keep our hands over our hearts through this next practice if you're able.

Now it's time to connect and reflect by asking ourselves three questions.

Allow the questions to swirl through your being.

Notice your response within when you ask yourself these questions.

It's okay to not know the answers.

We really want to emphasize that because this is about opening up and curiosity,

The answers will come.

Exactly.

So when I ask each question,

I will pause for a little bit for just a few seconds to allow the words to come into your entire being.

Okay,

So let's take a mindful breath together to begin our reflection.

Breathing in fully and exhale deeply.

What are my thoughts in this moment?

I want you to just pause,

Reflect and just be.

Now I want you to take in this question,

How does my body feel in this moment?

This last reflection question,

How is my heart feeling right now?

Your hands are over your heart.

Just notice what the heart is wanting you to know in this moment.

Okay,

Place your hands back on your thighs,

Palms down.

You may be left wondering what are my thoughts right now?

How do I know?

And how do I know what my body is feeling and how to name it?

Or how do I even know what my heart is feeling right now?

So again,

It's really not so important that you are spot on knowing these answers.

It's the inquiry and the asking that helps us cultivate a deeper knowing.

What's cool is in time,

The mind,

Heart and body will start kind of like a conversation with one another and they really appreciate you attending to them.

I know that might sound a little weird,

But in my experience,

It's really true.

It's a kind of kindness or self-compassion to do this practice.

And when we have a deeper knowing of this connection between our mind,

Our bodies and our hearts,

We find ourselves acting and speaking in ways that are more in alignment with what we value to be true.

I love what you just said,

Mindful Mickey.

That was a great gem right there.

I think it's super important to not only know what you value to be true,

But to then do the actions.

And this practice itself helps us act and speak in ways that are in alignment with what we do value to be true.

That being said,

Let's practice the next part of our mindful map.

My personal favorite,

The hand jam.

The hand jam is a finger tapping practice that helps us bring more peace and calm into our mind and body through rhythmic tapping of our fingers.

Did I say right?

You did.

Okay.

This tapping helps you to settle and be more present in the moment.

At the same time,

Tap your thumb to your pointer finger,

Then your thumb to your middle finger,

Thumb to your ring finger,

And lastly,

Tap your thumb to your pinky finger.

While we tap,

We also recite the intention.

Once you get a hang of it,

Do it with both hands and also rest your elbows into your sides,

Palms open to the sky while we're doing the hand jam.

Okay,

We are ready to begin our hand jam while we say our intention,

Calm heart and calm minds.

All right,

Bring your elbows to your sides,

Palms open to the sky.

Take a deep mindful breath in,

Exhale fully,

And begin to tap as we say calm heart and calm mind.

Calm heart,

Calm mind.

Calm heart,

Calm mind.

Calm heart,

Calm mind.

Calm heart,

Calm mind.

Calm heart,

Calm mind.

Now five times silently inside of our minds.

Continue to tap.

Last one.

Okay,

Now let's close out our practice together by placing our hands back over our hearts.

Left hand over our heart and right hand over our left.

Let's collectively take one more full inhale and exhale nice and long.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Just take this moment to acknowledge taking some time for ourselves to just be.

And I want to say,

Nuri,

I don't know how you're feeling in this moment,

But just doing this practice together for these few minutes,

I feel more dropped out of my busy mind thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

And just more into like an open,

More spacious,

Connected,

Calm feeling.

What are you feeling in this moment,

Nuri?

Yes,

I'm feeling that same calm feeling.

It's just like nothing is really occurring to me in my mind at the time.

It's just a really positive vibe.

I know,

I can feel it between us.

It's really cool.

I love that.

Not only do I feel great,

But I am actually excited because our listeners have just completed their Just Be Mindful Map for today.

So thank you to all our listeners who stuck around to the very end of our Just Be Mindful Map practice.

Together,

We are truly creating more moments in ourselves and one another to just be.

Remember to subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend who could benefit.

Also try out seven free days of Mindful Nikki's Just Be Mindful app.

The link will be in the description.

Yes,

Definitely check that out so you can see a little bit what's inside the app and get more beautiful practices that'll help you have more calm,

Connected moments like this.

And I think that's a wrap everyone.

Remember to take a moment out each day to just be.

See you next time.

See you next time.

Bye.

Bye.