How Mindfulness Can Enrich Your Experiences
Have you ever been experiencing a moment so good you took time to stop and just enjoy it? Maybe it was a sunset, a dinner with family, maybe even a moment you accomplished a goal. It was an experience you knew would mean a lot to you when you thought about it in the future.
The truth is we are experiencing these moments more than we realize but we are just too preoccupied to enjoy them. You have seen or been a part of it as it happens, two people are spending time together one or both of the people are deep into their phone, they are ignoring one another. We are all guilty of it.
Between tv, music, work, social media…it seems like our minds are every where except where we are right now. We are anxious about the future, sad about or longing for the past, and completely ignoring the present moment.
What mindfulness training does is help us practice having a single point of focus, free of distractions. Just like any exercise, it gets easier with practice. Once we know what it is like to be completely immersed in a thought or moment, we notice more often when we are distracted and it will be easier to bring yourself back to into a more focused state. This can become a useful tool when spending time with family, when you are trying clear your mind of an unpleasant experience, or when you trying to enjoy a vacation.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 mindfulness training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
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Body Positioning During Mindfulness Practice
Although mindfulness can be done during daily activities such as walking or doing dishes, it would benefit you to learn formal body positioning in case you want to practice mindfulness more intently. I will be recording audio and video, you can use this blog post to help you learn body positioning before doing these more formal training sessions.
One example of proper body positioning for formal mindfulness training:
Take a few moments to get into a comfortable position. I recommend seated, on the floor, legs folded in a position that is comfortable to you. You can sit on a pillow so that your knees are below your hips. You can also be seated in a chair, have your feet on the ground sitting back. Make sure your back is upright, gently leaning forward, back and neck straight and tall. Your eyes can be closed or slightly open, gazing downward.
Your hands can be in your lap, thumbs touching, when your thumbs start drifting apart, you know you are too relaxed. Bring attention back to your posture. You can also position your hands in any position that is comfortable to you.
From here, take a few moments to consciously let go of everything that is pressing on you: your to-do list, your chores, work or school…just let it all go and fade away from your thoughts.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 mindfulness training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
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Mindfulness and Health
So many times we navigate through life on autopilot. We rush from one engagement to another, texting or facebooking at every stop light- we are always multitasking. We are so distracted from what we are actually doing. We grab food that is already made, thinking very little about where the food came from or how it would affect our health. Mindfulness helps us control our attention, our thoughts. Observing our thoughts and our motivations can help benefit many factors in our lives. Many people believe that even just setting your intention or “game plan” for the day can help make the day more successful.
Even by slowing down when we eat and thinking only about the food we are eating, experiencing the consistency and flavors, can help us eat less because we become aware of what we are doing. We often eat fast, while distracted by something else, our phone, the TV etc. We often eat to much or don’t chew or savor our food. Additionally, by noticing that feel sluggish or have indigestion after we eat a specific food, we can better choose foods that make us feel good when we eat them.
Another place I see mindfulness playing a role in our health is our breathing. Being able to bring your attention on your breathing not only allows you to be present in the moment but can also be very calming. When we allow ourselves to breathe deeply, we allow more oxygen in our blood and more to our brain. When we learn to breathe properly during exercise we avoid injuries, such as hernias, which are cause by holding our breath at the wrong time. We breathe constantly and take for granted all that can breathing do for us.
Every pivot towards good health is a step in the right direction, no matter how big or how small. Please call to schedule your complimentary initial consultation and sample 1 on 1 mindfulness training session.
Call or text: 407-205-7488
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WHY STUDY MINDFULNESS?
According to Wikipedia, “Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions.”
Are you or someone you know a worrier? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about what could go wrong? I agree, it’s hard to tell your mind to stop thinking about a problem. However, there is a point where worrying will have no benefit towards the outcome at all. Some things are truly out of your control. Would you believe that controlling your thoughts is a skill that is built just like building a muscle, it’s gained with repetition and practice. The truth is most of the time our minds are running wild and we don’t even know it.
When we study mindfulness, we train to become aware of the thoughts that flow though our consciousness. It is actually a very powerful tool to have. We not only become more aware of our thoughts but we also begin to notice our reactions to circumstances. We feel our heart rate speeding up, we become aware we are having a stressful reaction to a situation. We can take a moment to step back and not allow our emotions to get the best of us.
Once you begin training in mindfulness you develop skills that allow you to quickly get back to a calmer mindset. We can make more clear decisions and are less likely to REACT out of emotion. How many times have you wished you had reacted differently after you had a moment to clear your head? When you are calm you can focus on finding a solution, when you are upset you are more likely to act out. We all have experienced that before. Training your mind not to run away with itself really is just like building a muscle or training for any skill really- the more you practice the better you get.
Being able to tame an uncontrolled mind is truly one of the most powerful tools you can wish to have.
For a complementary mindfulness training session please contact Pivot to schedule an appointment.
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HOW MINDFULNESS CAN BENEFIT YOUR WORKOUTS
There is a lot of misconception about mindfulness. As mentioned previously, there is a type of mindfulness practice that is very formal. There are special postures, you want the environment to be relatively calm and quiet. This type of training is great and certainly has a place in our wellness routine. However, there is a type of mindfulness that can be done anytime, even while completing our daily activities. This is the type of mindfulness I am addressing in this article.
All mindfulness truly means is single pointed focus on the present moment, or an object, or a thought, even on your feelings and body sensations. It does not have to be spiritual, it is more like a brain exercise. Complete awareness. Allowing all your senses to soak in the present moment. When we work out we really need to be there mentally.
Have you ever heard someone say “Show up to this work out, give it your all”? Well, having worked with athletes for most of my life I will tell you, that you can 100% be able to be somewhere physically and not mentally.
When we don’t show up mentally for our workout our form is sloppy, our effort is inconstant, and this is when injuries happen…..
When our mind is a million miles away we may not notice all our bodies feedback ques. One que I get from my body is when I’m dehydrated, even to a small degree of dehydration, my muscles get a little ache in them. This is a precursor to a cramp.
Another way to use mindfulness in your workout is during the muscle contractions. When I am using weight to strengthen the muscles, there is usually a contraction phase. This is when we are demanding the most out our muscles. Let’s say a bicep curl is our example. We have a weight in our hands. When our hand are down my our thighs, the arm is in extension. When we curl our arms by bending our elbows and we get to the top of the curl, we give a little extra contraction at the end. Really experience that moment and listen to your body. Feel how it feels to get that intense contraction at the end of the motion. Feel the blood rushing in. Hold it for a couple seconds, then slowly move out of your contraction.
When doing squats you feel that contraction the whole way down. Go slowly through the motion. At the end points stop motion completely. This helps prevent momentum from fueling the next portion of the exercise. This also helps us pinpoint the muscles we are targeting. Accessory movement causes muscles we do not intend on training to assist us in the motion we are completing. One example of this accessory muscle kicking in to help with the motion is when we accidentally use our hip flexors while we are trying to train abs. That is very common.
The low back is very easy to strain. There is training that shows you how to tighten your core as you do motions that can easily harm your low back.
All these are examples of becoming aware and able to focus on your body, and listen to the feedback. When we train mindfulness regularly it is easier to get your mind to focus during workouts. Mindfulness is a mind exercise and just like other exercises you get better and better the more you practice.
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Mindfulness- How it affects the quality of your life.
Have you every been spending time with someone and they seem so wrapped up in their own thoughts, as if they are physically here but mentally they are a million miles away. You know from experience that the quality of your time is not the same as if they were fully here and engaged with you and your interactions. This is an observable quality of someone who is not practicing mindfulness. Our society has so much input- TV, internet, phone, radio, work- there are millions of other places for our mind to be other than where we physically are. For someone raising children or trying to build a meaningful relationship with someone, this distracted mind may actually prevent us from connecting and bonding in the way we want to with the people that mean the most to us.
Often we are mainly unaware of our mind running wild, going wherever it wants to wander. Just like a child, they see something over there that looks interesting and off they go to explore. Many times where we allow our mind to wander is not a thought that is going to benefit us- it is not a constructive thought. There is a point where worry is beneficial, it helps us plan our future actions and explore options to outcomes. However, there is a point where we cross a threshold and we have started obsessing over something we just can not change, no matter how much we think about it. This increases our stress, our distraction and can prevent us from enjoying the things we should.
Mindfulness has been around for thousands of years, it is not new. It is relatively new to the United States however. We are just now realizing all the benefits of practicing mindfulness, I have included an article that highlights these many benefits below.
When we start to practice mindfulness, we become aware of our thoughts on a whole other level. For instance, if I said to you today: I want you to become aware of everything you came across today that is red. Make a list write it down and turn it in at the end of the day. You would probably see all kinds of things, many things that you see everyday that you may not have even noticed before. This is because we are bringing attention to it, when normally we don’t- this is exactly how mindfulness works.
We practice exercises that help lasso our mind and pull it back in when it gets distracted. Just by having the realization that you are having a thought that is not constructive, you can refocus your mind on something that is more constructive or even just be there in the moment. Being in the moment can be great when spending time with loved ones, or working on a project, or when you are on a hike or walk. We get to fully experience all that moment has to offer. Believe it or not even when we are experiencing something not so pleasant, such as an annoying co-worker, we can lessen the discomfort by becoming aware of it and using the tools we gained in mindfulness training to help us deal with these uncomfortable experiences. Even how we experience anger becomes transformed when we implement mindfulness.
You are in control, don’t forget that. When you get the tools through mindfulness training you open all kinds of doors to help you have the most constructive, fulfilling and enjoyable experiences possible throughout your normal day to day experiences.
Further reading:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/ce-corner.aspx
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Mindfulness, First Concepts
I’m here to shatter a common myth most people have when I comes to mindfulness training. Mindfulness is often misunderstood as often people picture someone sitting crossed legged, eyes closed, in a silent room…meditating. Although there are lots of great benefits to this type of practice you don’t need to be that formal in your training. It also doesn’t have to have any spirituality associated with it, even cognitive behavioral therapists are seeing the benefits of mindfulness!
You can practice mindfulness as you do chores, as you workout, as you play with your child…
All mindfulness really means is 1) being aware of your thoughts- some people call it observing your internal dialog 2) being fully present and in the moment and 3) being NON-JUDGMENTAL about your observations.
The last one is often the one people have particular trouble with. Humans are often conditioned to think if they did not get the optimal outcome we have failed at our task. Well, that is not how I have been taught at all. Every time we make an effort to practice we be sure to thank ourselves for taking the time to practice. Even if we had the worst session ever, even if we couldn’t control and focus our mind, we don’t judge ourselves, instead we observe and say- well, I was really distracted today. Some places my mind wandered are X, Y and Z. Observe without creating judgement.
The most vital concept: Single point of focus. You can use almost any experience as a time to practice mindfulness. Be fully there in that moment. We rush though life, trying to get from point A to point B without enjoying or even really experiencing the journey because our minds are so focused on the destination. While brushing your teeth, eating a meal or even doing the dishes- just observe the whole experience. For example when brushing your teeth: watch how the toothpaste comes out of the tube onto the brush, feel the temperature of the water, listen to the sound it makes as it falls to the sink, feel the bristles of the brush on your gums….
Let your mind be here, not at work, not about the last facebook post you just read- be just be in THIS moment.
This is a practice and by practicing now, you strengthen your ability to do it in times you really need to focus your mind and you will become so much more aware in general.
Often, when we are anxious we are living in the future, when we are depressed we are living in the past. That is a paraphrased quote by Lao Tzu but I really think it makes a great point. Especially today, when we have so much input, so much distraction, so many comparisons. We see something and it reminds us of something that bothers us or something we have yet to achieve. Our mind gets in a rut, focused on that one negative thing. This concept leads right into another benefit of mindfulness, learning to control rumination. According to Wikipedia, rumination is defined as the “compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions”.
Having now been introduced to these concepts you can now see how mindfulness, particularly observing and learning to better control the flow of your thoughts, can be very useful. When you observe your mind going down a stressful path, stop it, then refocus the mind on something constructive.
Further progression in mindfulness training: There is a threshold we cross when worry becomes more harmful that beneficial. There is a nice training session where we experiment with this concept and learning how to “lean into” the thoughts that are bothering us but this session is paired with a powerful method to get your mind back into a more positive mental space afterwards. I recommend that session be done in person. It is a powerful tool indeed. If you are interested in incorporating either of these practices in your consultation package the first one I call the “Present Moment” training and second one is called the “Lean Into” session.
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How our Mind Tricks us into Living in a Constant State of Stress
I think the fist step in understanding how mindfulness can help you, is understanding how and why our brains are wired to automatically assume the worst case scenario and how that affects our thoughts and our bodies. What I find fascinating is that not only can we change the tenancy to assume the worst case scenario but these changes can also be visualized on brain scans. Our ancestors roamed the planes and forests, honestly they did so with very little defenses. Humans don’t have tough hides and sharp teeth and claws…but we do have greater reasoning abilities than any other animal. Here is our advantage. We have foresight, we know if we see a gator in the water we are swimming in we better get out of the water as soon as possible to prevent any chance we might become that gator’s dinner. Well, this hyper-vigilant state served us well when we were in survival type situations on a daily basis, it helped keeps us alive, truly critical. Even if the “gator” ended up just being a log, we still reacted as if it was a gator but it was totally justified because one error and we could be eaten. In those times, we might face several real dangers like that every single day. Today however, we are rarely in these type of life and death situations. Our bodies still act like we are. Even in our thoughts, we worry about things that haven’t even happened yet or worry things that are in the past. This is called rumination and it’s a natural human condition that developed from our ancestors and the high stress, life and death conditions they faced in the past.
The unfortunate thing about how our brains evolved is that in high stress situations, our bodies create cortisol in high amounts. Cortisol in high amounts is linked to obesity, fatigue, decreased immune system, cravings, GI problems….the list goes on and on. Our bodies are living in a high stress state and our minds are also slated to assume the worse. When you practice mindfulness, you become aware of those body sensation and you become aware of your mind drifting to the negative outlooks. Simply by noticing it, becoming aware of it, in a NONJUDGMENTAL way we can begin to fix it. Every time you dedicate time or incorporate mindfulness in you daily activities is a step in the right direction. That’s right you can practice mindfulness while you do chores or even while on a nice evening stroll. It is called mindfulness PRACTICE because it is something we can do everyday to cultivate our skills. Becoming a master of your mind won’t happen over night but I can tell you the more you practice the better you will become. Even when you do become a master you will still use the same steps you used in your very first session. So now, get started!
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