A mindful break.
By learning to break our normal cycle of thinking and coming into a place of awareness,
Refreshing our mind,
We can become less reactive,
More conscious and mindful and boost our focus and creativity.
The purpose of this practice is also to rejuvenate you so that you are fully present for the remainder of your day,
Aware,
Alert,
Energised.
How good does that sound?
It all happens when we get into this space of awareness and as we do this,
Stress dissolves.
Relax and settle into these next few moments.
These next few moments are for you.
Let's have a check-in,
A mindful check-in.
We're going to start off with a mini-practice,
Then we're going to reflect upon some questions about your day,
How you could potentially make it more meaningful,
To re-energise you for the rest of your day.
Body,
Mind,
World.
Let's get into this practice.
Our attention can be in three different dimensions,
Body,
Mind and world.
This practice is about working through these three dimensions of body,
Mind and world in this particular order.
Phase one,
Body.
Bring your awareness to the waves of your breath as you deliberately take control of your breath by slowing down both your in-breath and your out-breath.
This is an excellent starting point to get mindful.
Making your breath just a touch softer and slower than what it usually is.
Now take attention to the emotion that you're feeling in this moment.
How are you actually feeling?
Taking attention to that place where you usually experience emotions and being open and receptive here.
Energies in motion is a great way of describing emotions,
A nice neutral description.
Maybe you have thoughts along the lines of,
I don't feel anything in this moment.
And if so,
Just take attention to that place where you usually do.
And see if you can do the fine tuning,
Noticing the subtleties of any energies in motion that you're aware of.
Where exactly is this located?
Does it change or is it still?
And if this had a shape,
What shape would it be?
Tuning into the subtleties of this.
Now taking attention to the sense of touch anywhere from your head to your toes,
Vice versa or in no particular order at all.
Just noticing the sense of touch and as you acknowledge these,
You can gently count each one.
And you'll know when you get distracted because the counting disappears.
Just coming back again to these sensations.
This is simple head to body stuff to help you get more grounded and connected to this moment and counting each sensation as you acknowledge it.
Phase two,
Mind.
Turn your attention towards your mind.
It can be helpful to close your eyes in this moment and even though your eyes are now closed,
Notice what you can see from behind your closed eyes.
This is a bit like being at a cinema as you notice what you can see behind your closed eyes,
Patterns,
Shapes,
Colours.
And then it's not long before you have thoughts that intermingle with these.
So noticing what you can see behind your closed eyes and then watching and waiting for thoughts to appear as they do.
Notice whether your thoughts appear as pictures or streams of words or like sounds.
Let these thinking patterns play out,
Pictures,
Streams of words or like a sound recording in your mind.
If you notice your thoughts as words or sounds,
Gently state them in your mind after this sentence.
I'm noticing the thought that.
.
.
I'm noticing the thought that.
.
.
Simply noticing what your mind is showing you or telling you and letting this play out just like a movie at a cinema.
Letting your thoughts float.
Phase 3.
World.
Come into the external world,
You can open your eyes and focus your attention upon what is around you.
Notice three things that you can see.
Focus attention on purpose by taking a curious look,
Like you're looking at these things for the first time.
Now notice three things that you can hear.
Focus attention on purpose by listening intently as though you're listening for the first time to these things.
Gently broaden your awareness now to the entirety of the space that holds all the sounds around you.
Expand this experience by noticing what you can see,
Hear,
Touch,
Taste and smell with open awareness.
Finally,
Notice the space around all of the things that you can experience.
Noticing the space around these things.
Sometimes people like to look up at the vastness of the sky to do this.
And now you're ready to go about your day.
Thank you for being part of the change.
