#86 | Intro to Mindfulness with a Mindfulness of Breath and Body Meditation

These days many people can be feeling overwhelmed by pressures of our constantly connected, always-on society. There also can be pandemic-related stress. Then, that pressure can translates into stress while at work which it can also bring up even more stress. In general, Life can get really challenging. I mean, whether it's just dealing with your day at work ,at home, whether it's trying not to react in a negative way when feeling triggered, or to even watching the news or to the larger environment around. It can be difficult sometimes to just be in the present moment, enjoy your life and not get stressed about it. And that's what mindfulness meditation can help you learn how to do.

But what actually is Mindfulness?

This is how mindfulness meditation teacher and clinical psychologist, Tara Brach defines it,

Mindfulness is a way of paying attention moment-to-moment to what's happening within and around us without judgment.

So, said differently, when we attend to the moment-to-moment flow of experience, and recognize what's happening…fully allowing it, not adding judgment or commentary, then we are cultivating a mindful awareness.

And Meditation is the deliberate training of attention. So, when you do a mindfulness meditation, you are deliberately cultivating mindfulness by using strategies to enter the present moment and to let go of judgment and so on. Research has shown it is also a reliable method for reducing stress, including at work. Put most simply, meditation is a way to train the mind.

What drew me to mindfulness was I needed tools to support myself staying embodied and present, no matter what kind of stress was around me. For years, as I mentioned earlier, I had been working in TV, 14-to-18 hour days, sometimes 7 days a week. I needed tools to support releasing stress and not be reactive but staying grounded and aligned in mindfulness while managing a high-volume job. Mindfulness Meditation was the answer for me.

These are some common misconceptions of meditation: It Takes Years of Practice to Get Good at Meditation, I’m Not Good at it, I can’t sit still, I can’t meditate because my mind is very active, Meditation Takes Too Much Time. All of those are misconceptions.

So mindfulness meditation is a method of meditation that you can learn to do. And when you learn it, you learn how to be present and observe what's around you and not react automatically to it. You are actually retraining your brain. To not be so reactive.

The four aspects of practice: seeing things as they are, learning to be here in the present moment, noticing how things change, and non-judging awareness.

A mindfulness meditation practice has benefits that contemporary neuroscience has confirmed. Research shows it can lead to stress reduction and can have a positive impact on mental health and wellness. Once you learn how to practice mindfulness, you might find yourself in a consistently beneficial headspace at home, work, or anywhere else.

You'll find that you're able to live in the present moment and observe what's going on around you and not react in a stressful way. You'll learn to be more calm, to enjoy your life more and to live in a more beneficial way.

Press play to tune in! Let me know if you decide to do this! I would love to hear from you!