Hi everybody,
We are back for our fourth episode of season two's Just Be Mindful podcast.
I'm Mindful Nikki,
Co-host of this podcast.
And I'm Narielle August,
But you can call me Nari,
Host of this podcast for parents,
Teachers,
And teens who want more calm,
Connected moments where they can just be.
So today's intention is the Godfather,
So to speak,
Of all the intentions.
Being that this is the most important intention of all,
I think it needs some kind of like drum roll,
Because this intention is called,
Peace begins with me.
So I know that sounds kind of simple,
But this one intention truly can change how we perceive situations and how we feel.
It really can transform difficult feelings.
So Nari,
Are you wondering how is this possible?
Well,
Yes I am,
But Mindful Nikki,
I'm excited for peace begins with me.
Yes,
Yes.
So what I love about this intention is that when we really start to believe that peace begins with ourselves and see how this plays out in everyday experiences,
That's when it gets really interesting because we see how this mindfulness practice helps us see more clearly what's happening outside of us and helps us notice when we are strengthening what's inside of us.
Then we begin to notice how we soften our reactions and helps us also understand ourselves better,
Truly,
And how we operate.
It's easy to say though,
Right?
But it's another thing to really practice it and then a step further to really believe it.
That's when it really creates change inside of us,
When ourselves really start to believe that when we work from within the inside out,
That's where the change really happens.
When we're trying to rely on what's happening outside of us to feel happy,
To feel loved,
Then we're kind of like a leaf blowing in the wind.
We really don't know what the environment is going to be,
But when you put all of this energy inside of you and work from,
Like I said,
The inside out,
Then that's something you can really draw into when you need to.
About a week ago or two weeks ago,
We tried to do an Instagram live.
I do remember.
Yes,
It went terribly wrong.
My Instagram was freezing.
I couldn't join her live so that we could talk about this podcast.
At the time,
I was just thinking I could really use some mindfulness right now.
Yes.
I remember a year ago when we were starting to do lives and it got a little choppy here and there.
I remember one time I deleted it by accident after I went live.
I really noticed that my frustration,
But also how my mindfulness helped me in those moments because it's super easy to get mad and frustrated with things that arise that don't go your way.
Then it just kind of like steals your energy away when you allow yourself to get taken aback by these things that just inevitably happen.
That's just kind of like what I chalked it up to and not really put too much energy into wanting things to be different than how they are.
That's some good wisdom.
With that being said,
I'm ready for some mindfulness.
Being mindfulness,
Let's get this piece ball rolling.
All right.
I think that's a great idea.
Let's come into our mindfulness posture.
As always,
It's best to do this practice when you have a few minutes to sit and just be.
Definitely don't do this practice if you're driving,
Please,
Because we want you to be safe and focus on the road.
All right.
Let's come into a comfortable seated position.
If you are sitting on the floor or a cushion,
Cross your legs comfortably.
If you're on a chair like me,
Come to the edge of your seat and just ground your feet flat into the ground.
You can feel all four corners of your feet resting on the earth.
So now let's make our spine nice and straight,
Not holding your torso too tight or too loose,
But somewhere in between.
Now I want you to place your hands on your thighs,
Palms down.
And next,
Just place your tongue on the roof of your mouth,
Just behind your two front teeth,
Allowing your jaw to become slightly open.
And relax our shoulders back and down so our chest is nice and wide open.
All right.
So we're going to take three mindful breaths,
As always,
Making your exhale a little bit longer than your inhale and breathing in and out of your nose if that is comfortable to do so.
All right.
So let's take three mindful breaths together.
Breathe in and out,
Nice and long.
Again.
Last one.
So let's just now take another deep,
Long,
Mindful breath together by placing our left hand over our heart and your right hand over your left.
And I want you to just calmly observe what arises.
Without judging your thoughts,
Just allow your thoughts to be as they are.
And notice what is true for you in this moment.
So let's just close our eyes for one minute and breathe with awareness and just be.
So I'll let you know when that minute is up.
20 more seconds.
Okay.
So now I'm going to slowly ask you three questions for us to contemplate together.
So I want you to keep your hands over your heart for this next part.
Okay.
So take a deep inhale and fully exhale.
I want you to just notice what are my thoughts right now.
Close and just allow your thoughts to flow naturally.
And the next question is,
How does my body feel in this moment?
Now the next one,
We're going to drop into our heart space and just ask yourself,
How is my heart feeling right now?
So Nerea,
What did you notice?
I'm weirdly enjoying it.
You know,
I think just like sitting down and asking yourself these questions,
Sometimes like we don't really think about our feelings.
We're just moving,
Moving,
Moving.
We have like whatever we have to do up next.
To just check in with ourselves and really just notice.
So we're not just like on autopilot.
We're aware of what we're doing and why we're doing it.
It makes a difference.
With each practice we're getting a little bit more used to doing this and it becomes less weird.
And then you start to crave this kind of,
It's like kind of like a self care checking in.
We check in with our friends,
Right?
We just say,
How are you doing?
What's happening?
We notice what's maybe if they're off or not,
But we don't really do this for ourselves.
So we want these practices to change that.
There is an interesting metaphor that I think might be helpful in regards to what I'm talking about and has to do with scuba diving.
So I personally am not a scuba diver.
I would kind of freak out if I had to put on a thing and go under the water.
It would be amazing to explore the underworld,
But it kind of scares me a little bit.
But I like this metaphor nonetheless because scuba divers,
Us learn to come up very slowly to the surface.
That is a necessary safe thing that they need to do.
They come up little by little by little.
And so if we can use that same kind of tactic,
So to speak,
With our feelings to go slow and come up to the surface safely with awareness plus kindness,
Then it kind of changes the whole game.
I just really love the uses of metaphors because it makes you see a situation in a whole different light.
Just you mentioning that and talking about how they need to come up slowly.
That's a skill that we need to learn.
Yes.
That's a skill that we need to learn.
Thank you.
Yes,
Exactly.
And so it's also important that when you start to touch into these feelings that may feel weird or foreign or buried down deep inside of us,
When they start to bubble up,
It may feel overwhelming,
Honestly.
So it's a good idea to kind of put it to the side consciously with awareness and maybe reach out for support with your friends or an adult that you can trust.
So that is also very important because we think once we start to open something that it's going to be all joy,
But it may not feel that way.
So you need to check in with yourself and see how it's feeling.
Sometimes I just shake out my hands super fast to release energy if it feels like anxiety is building up.
Or you can tap alternate thighs with your palms,
Like our palms in our mindfulness posture are on our thighs.
If you just alternately tap,
That's a self-regulating practice and it just helps bring balance back into your mind and your body.
So speaking of that,
Why don't we do the hand jam because that's another practice that we always do with each practice that helps bring balance into our minds and our bodies.
Take it away,
Nuri.
Listen,
Everyone knows that the hand jam is my favorite,
But I want to mention that if this is your first time listening in,
The hand jam is a finger tapping practice that helps bring peace and calm into our mind and body through rhythmic tapping of our fingers.
The tapping sends a gentle message to our body to just be,
Okay,
Let's do it together.
Alright.
At the same time,
Tap your thumb to your pointer finger,
Then tap your thumb to your middle finger,
Then tap your thumb to your ring finger,
And lastly,
Tap your thumb to your pinky finger.
While we tap,
We also recite the intention,
Which for us today is,
Peace begins with me.
Once you get a hang of the tapping,
We can do it with both hands.
It's best to bring in your elbows into your side,
Palms open to the sky while you're doing the hand jam.
So I think we're ready to begin our hand jam.
While saying our intention,
Peace begins with me.
So let's take a deep mindful breath in,
And exhale fully.
Now we're going to begin to tap while saying our intention.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Alright,
Now we're going to do it five times silently inside of our minds.
Continue to tap.
Alright,
We are done with our hand jam.
Feeling peaceful,
It's giving peaceful vibes.
Awesome.
Really practice this hand jam when you need some peace.
You can do it inside of your pockets,
Under your desk,
On a road trip,
Or when you're bored or nervous.
Get creative as there are so many times where we're doing the hand jam will just be what you need to do to create calm moments.
Exactly.
And remember,
Once you begin to believe that your peace begins with you,
Like really believe it,
The less you'll feel yourself getting bothered by people and experiences that are bothersome,
Which is really a bonus for not only ourselves,
But everyone we come in contact with.
So you see,
When we attend to our inner self by taking a few mindful breaths or doing a hand jam and inquiring into the three questions we ask ourselves in each practice,
This is all going to serve you well and strengthen the peace within you.
If there's one thing you can control,
It's how you respond.
So if you learn,
Which we all can,
To be at peace or mostly at peace is a good starting goal to reach for,
Especially in challenging situations,
Then you know that peace begins and ends with you.
But this takes time to remain calm when chaos hits,
Of course.
So be kind to yourself and take one step at a time.
Yes.
And Mindful Nikki,
I'm going to take a step right now.
Take a moment to breathe that in.
Me too.
Good.
All right.
So let's place our hands back over our hearts.
Close out our practice today.
Left hand over our heart,
Right hand over our left.
And let's just rest here for a moment once again and just breathe.
So now we get to honor all of you because you have completed your Just Be Mindful Map for today and you have added more Just Be moments inside of your being.
Plus,
Wherever you go,
You are going to take this goodness with you,
Spreading it into our world.
Yes.
I really,
Really,
Really love what we are co-creating here,
More self-awareness and how we each can add bits of peace into our world by intentionally cultivating that peace within ourselves.
Yes.
We want to take a moment to thank 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 Map.
The link will be in the description.
All right.
That's a wrap,
Everyone.
Remember to take a moment out to just be.
See you next time.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
You
