Mindful Monday

Self-care is your active role in safeguarding your mental and physical wellness proactively by doing what is good for you. It helps to increase your emotional and physical stamina, improve your self-esteem and builds resilience. Daily self-care creates improvements in your life and has immediate and long-term benefits. It’s not easy or selfish to put yourself first when you have a long to do list but its necessary work. But when you commit to prioritise your own needs, consistently show up for yourself it lays the foundation of personal wellbeing and the ability to show up for others as your well is not empty. Self-care is different for everyone, there is not one size, it needs reviewing and revising frequently. 

Today’s meditation is called “Self-care meditation” and is adapted from a meditation by Katie Krimitsos. The intention of this meditation is to give you a space to practice and understand your worthiness to care for yourself. To help you create boundaries, articulate what do you need right now to nourish yourself now and later. This can be done sitting or lying down. 

Sadness grounds you. And yes, it’s painful and often seems long lasting. But it’s a natural part of being human and it visits all of us at some time. Learning to ride its waves, to welcome it in enables you to have a less painful relationship with it. Is it possible when sadness comes to acknowledge it is here and be open to what it look like right now rather an avoid it or distract it? Can you apply mindfulness to being present to those darker unpleasant or uncomfortable places that sadness brings? It might be the opportunity for deeper insights and being more compassionate with yourself.

This meditation accompanies our 22 November and Podcast No 33 on Working with Sadness.  This meditation is called Exploring sadness with RAIN (RAIN is a Tara Brach meditation).  RAIN is an acronym with 4 steps and this version focuses on sadness particularly when it’s a challenging situation or struggling with an intense emotion like sadness. Honoring it as part of the human experience, accepting and dealing with it can help. This can be done sitting or lying down.

Dr Kerry Howells’s book, Gratitude an Education:A Radical View says, “If we were to meet gratitude face to face, she would say ‘take action that serves others’, ‘give back’, ‘let go’ and ‘connect’. Acts of genuine gratitude that seek nothing in return can restore relationships and help us remember what we have received from others. Practicing gratitude can have far reaching effects, from improving your mental health to boosting relationships with others. Living gratitude helps you notice the small things, and these create well-being that strengthens your ability to notice the good. It helps you to step out of yourself and connect with others, open yourself up to joy, wonder and awe and to a sense of meaning greater than yourself.  Building your capacity for gratitude isn’t difficult – it takes practice like exercising a muscle. You start by observing – how you are feeling when you express thanks, to noticing your kind words. You just have to start easy, with one interaction a day. 

This meditation accompanies our 1 November and Podcast No 30 on Cultivating Gratitude.  This meditation is called Cultivating Gratitude.  For many of us we say thanks in some form every day – our family or close companions, to our friends, and colleagues. In this meditation, I would like to explore how we might just go a little deeper and add a spoonful of gratitude along the way. Given that science has proved that by practicing gratitude there is also a correlating impact on our relationships, humanity and our brain – it offers us a way to connect on multiple levels. 

This meditation accompanies our 25 October Guide and Podcast No 29 on Braving Trust.  This meditation invites you to float in the ocean, to bring some peace and open your heart as best you can to trust. This is best done in a quiet space either sitting or lying down. 

In this podcast we turn the spotlight to Braving Trust.  Trust is the natural result of tiny actions, words, thoughts and intentions. It does not happen instantly, rather it takes work and is fundamental to success of any kind. Genuine trust yields decreased stress, solid friendships and a legacy.

Trust means that you rely on someone else to do the right thing. You believe in the person's integrity and strength, to the extent that you're able to put yourself on the line, at some risk to yourself. It’s the backbone of healthy, happy relationships and it fosters closeness. It’s also important to trust in yourself, trust that your body will work as it should and that you can rely on it.

This meditation accompanies our Catching Joy edition of Mindful Monday 18 October No 28 Guide and the Podcast. Today’s meditation is called Catching joy and it gives you the opportunity to just settle the body and mind whilst bringing to mind any small experiences of pleasantness you experienced in recent days and acknowledge the joy that may have arisen. 

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary “Joy is an emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. It’s a simple and light-hearted spark that transcends through your body and leaves feeling good vibrations. It carries no burden or expectations”. Whereas happiness (also an emotion) is a state of well-being and contentment, a pleasurable or satisfying experience. What each of them means to you though resides with you. Do you know and experience the difference for yourself? Do you recognise happiness more than joy? You can find joy easily in everyday things such as the wagging tail of your dog, or the bud on a flower. Bringing awareness to some of the things you do regularly may heighten your sense of joy. Take a moment and consider what gives you joy. There is a side benefit to joy, in that it is proven to boosts our immune systems, fights stress and pain, and improves our chance of living a longer life? Being joyful could quite literally add years to life.