3 Ways to Be More Mindful Every Day
Are you ready to feel more aware, caring and mindful?
Do you want to appreciate the spring flowers, savor that fresh cup of coffee, or be fully present with others?
Instead, you find yourself distracted in the moment, either internally by the cascading river of thoughts, or externally by demands from traffic, job, family, smartphone… in other words, the chaos of life.
What if there was a way to step into the silence even if only for a moment?
Are you ready to feel more aware, caring and mindful?
Do you want to appreciate the spring flowers, savor that fresh cup of coffee, or be fully present with others?
But instead, you find yourself distracted in the moment, either internally by the cascading river of thoughts, or externally by demands from traffic, job, family, smartphone… In other words, the chaos of life.
What if there was a way to step into the silence even if only for a moment?
Of course the best way to do this is through meditation, having a daily practice, (click here to get started).
AND by taking that essence out into the world and living it.
Here are three ways to bring mindfulness into your every day:
1. Intend Your Day
Every morning when you wake up, decide how you want your day to be.
Happy? Disappointing? Exciting? Frustrating?
Take a moment to envision it.
What will you do? How will it progress? Will it be easy or hard?
Intentionally or unintentionally, you decide how you want your day to be from the moment it starts.
Infuse this time with clarity, with mindfulness, with right thinking. So that your day can reflect exactly what you want.
I like to use affirmation to support my visioning.
“I see myself vibrant and healthy, engaged and creative. I know I will live this day to the fullest and savor every moment of it.”
2. Cultivate Appreciation
Appreciation is perspective.
Appreciation is noticing all the little things in life that are working, going well, successful. It’s recognizing the love you feel for your husband, and appreciating the bond you have. It’s honoring your body, and having gratitude for it’s incredible capacity to heal and support you. It’s recognizing all the abundance and beauty that surrounds you in every moment.
When I lived in Hong Kong, a very busy, dirty (and smelly!) city, most evenings as I boarded the ferry to head home, I’d gaze out at the shimmering harbor that perfectly reflected the sun setting across the skyscrapers. Sheer beauty.
It’s even about appreciating the hard things in life as lessons to be learned or challenges to overcome.
3. Return to Now
If you find yourself distracted during the day by the chatter in your head, take a deep breath and come back to now.
I have a very active mind so it is common that as I do a task or listen to someone, a voice offers ongoing commentary in my mind.
Nowadays this voice is quieter and I’m able to more easily silence it.
But the first step is to become aware of this mind habit. “Oh look, I’ve just gone down the rabbit hole and am miles away, thinking about my trip to Hawaii instead of here sitting at the table with you.”
When this happens, take a deep breath, oxygenate yourself and re-focus. Listen to your friend in the here and now, finish that assignment, close the deal.
Mindfulness is really about mind training and creating new habits. Use these three tools to help you build those muscles and experience more happiness, gratitude and love in every moment.
What will you do?
I'd love to hear which one of these resonates with you? Leave me a comment below ~ I'll see you there!
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Pushing Through- 5 Tools to Achieve Your Goals
We all have dreams and goals.
The question is: How do you successfully achieve them?
Often, in order to attain your goals, you have to push yourself a little harder, a little bit more.
You have to move out of your comfort zone, and into a space of uncertainty, of unknowing.
When you come up to the edge of what you know, do or know how to do, it frequently feels scary, and kicks up insecurity, vulnerability or fear.
In spite of these scary feelings, how can you succeed anyway? How can you move into that next level of creativity, success, satisfaction or weight goal
We all have dreams and goals.
The question is: How do you successfully achieve them?
Often, in order to attain your goals, you have to push yourself a little harder, a little bit more.
You have to move out of your comfort zone, and into a space of uncertainty, of unknowing.
When you come up to the edge of what you know, do or know how to do, it frequently feels scary, and kicks up insecurity, vulnerability or fear.
In spite of these scary feelings, how can you succeed anyway? How can you move into that next level of creativity, success, satisfaction or weight goal?
Here are Five Ideas to Help Get You There:
1. Anger
Anger might seem like a counterintuitive emotion because normally we equate anger with hurting ourselves or hurting others. But here’s how anger can be channeled positively: Have you ever been furious that something didn’t work out for you?
Think about a time when you failed. Perhaps it was an experience where something didn’t go as you planned.
Last year I was going for a certification and needed to demonstrate my mastery of the technique. I was nervous because, like most people, I can be self-conscious AND the test required that I both memorize a procedure and the “exact” wording. My fear and insecurity got activated because I’m not a brilliant memorizer.
I’m sure you can guess what happened. I failed.
I walked out of the testing room fuming mad. I was angry at the test, at the person who developed it, at the entire workshop but mostly at myself.
What did I do?
Instead of turning that anger inward, feeling sorry for myself, and bolting to my car, I used the anger as fuel. Because here’s the thing with anger, when used correctly, it can provide an enormous adrenaline charge.
My fury propelled me into determination to pass. So I channeled all that frustration into focus and, twenty minutes later, re-took the test.
Think about a time when you’ve experienced anger – because things didn’t go as you expected - and it launched you to take action.
This is exactly what I’m talking about.
2. Insight
Have you ever had a moment of total clarity when suddenly you see exactly what you need to do? Having one of those a-ha moments can give you the momentum to move out of cloudiness or non-action into action.
Insight often comes when we least expect it (of course!) Steve Jobs loved to walk. Others find inspiration while driving. Some of us get clarity when we meditate, others from doodling.
Typically, our minds are in a state of rest, creativity or contemplation when insight strikes. So make sure to give yourself time for that to happen.
Go for a stroll, buy a coloring book or start a meditation practice.
3. Support
Knowing that you aren’t alone can be a huge help in pushing through.
When I was in my early twenties, I was the assistant sales manager for a knitwear factory in Hong Kong. My job was in a heavily industrialized area far from central Hong Kong and, because I didn’t speak Chinese, there was little for me to do. (Looking back on it, I’m not sure why they hired me.)
I was depressed and frustrated. But because I was alone, I felt incapable of making a change. I internalized all that anger and gained thirty pounds.
Fortunately, my situation changed a few moths later when I bonded with a young British woman. We became fast friends and I finally was able to confess how much I hated my job. Having her there, knowing that I wasn’t alone, made all the difference. I quit and made a list of what I needed in my life. Soon I found a job teaching at an international school.
All because I felt supported.
Where can you get support? Is there a spouse, friend or family member with whom you can speak honestly?
What kind of support do you need? A listening ear, a helping hand, a mastermind partner?
Make a list of people and what you need from them.
4. Knowledge
We all know knowledge is power. When I feel scared about pushing myself, I seek out experts. I read, follow them on social media or talk face to face.
When I started my new company two years ago, I didn’t know anything about having an online business. So, I began researching and looking for guidance. It’s amazing, once we begin to ask, to look, what we can find!
There are so many online business experts, social media gurus and techies.
Where can you go to find the learning you need to push through? The library, a website, someone you know?
5. Awareness
Ultimately everything comes down to this: Fostering awareness.
By choosing to be awake, aware and centered in your life, opens you up to see where you limit yourself and where you may need help, support, guidance or knowledge.
Cultivate awareness in every moment by learning to look at yourself objectively, as the observer. Where are you and where would you like to be?
Awareness comes with the breath. Breathe in quietly and ask – where am I stuck? Listen for an answer. And then ask? How can I push through?
Mindfulness is the art of awareness, paying attention, being fully present in life.
When we incorporate mindfulness into the equation, it offers us a way to get clarity, understanding and tools to manifest what we most desire. It also helps us effectively utilize all of the above tools.
The exciting news is that you have everything you need to succeed. Use these tools to help you accomplish your goals. The world needs you to be and feel successful! Get started today!
Let me know which ONE resonates most with you!
Leave me a comment below the form!
Being In the World But Not of the World
How do we take our spiritual practice and live it everyday?
Those of us who are committed to a spiritual path can sometimes feel split in two. There’s the contemplative, ascetic side of our nature, the part that loves meditation, silence and oneness with God. Then there’s the other side of us that’s out there in the world earning a living, being a consumer, friend and partner.
How do we merge these two aspects of ourselves that seem disparate but in reality are one?
Is there a way to apply our spiritual practice into everyday living?
The exciting answer is, YES!
As Pema Chodron reminds us, “Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.”
How do we take our spiritual practice and live it everyday?
Those of us who are committed to a spiritual path can sometimes feel split in two. There’s the contemplative, ascetic side of our nature, the part that loves meditation, silence and oneness with God.
Then there’s the other side of us that’s out there in the world earning a living, being a consumer, friend and partner.
How do we merge these two aspects of ourselves that seem disparate but in reality are one?
Is there a way to apply our spiritual practice into everyday living?
The exciting answer is, YES!
As Pema Chodron reminds us, “Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.”
Enlightenment isn’t just happening on an ashram or in a cave or in front of your altar, it’s happening in every minute of every day in how you choose to show up and live your life.
Here are 5 ways to apply your spirituality into your everyday life:
1. Don’t Take the World So Seriously
One of the main reasons I meditate is because it creates space around me, space that gives me room to not be so reactive to life – to the chaos, confusion or intensity that swirls around us all the time.
It gives me room to be reflective instead of reactive.
And from this place, I don’t take life so seriously.
I used to wear the face of intensity everywhere. Life was painful. People were suffering. The climate was being destroyed. There was nothing funny about any of that. Being an adult was serious work.
Until I realized that my intensity and seriousness wasn’t helping. It was making me miserable and was turning other people off.
Think for a minute about His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. He’s always smiling and laughing. He loves to tell jokes and he has certainly experienced suffering. His people no longer have a homeland.
2. Recognize that Life is Happening For You Not to You
When we reframe life and look at it through this lens, it allows us to make a positive shift. Instead of obstacles we see opportunities. Rather than challenges we see growth.
What is life trying to teach you today?
Is it to slow down and enjoy more? Perhaps it’s about taking action and implementing one of your ideas.
Having an issue with another person? Some of my profoundest teachers have been the most challenging people in my life – from family members to customers.
Look at life as a great game we are playing to teach us lessons we’ve come here to learn.
3. Practice Mindfulness
What exactly is mindfulness?
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness means, “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”
In other words, mindfulness is being fully present in every moment.
When you’re driving, are you looking at the road, watching the other cars and people or are you distracted by your phone or thoughts – pushing you into the future or ruminating on the past?
When you’re listening to another person, are you really hearing them or has your mind wandered to your shopping list or the movie you want to watch later?
The challenge – just as when we meditate- is to bring our minds back to the present, to what is happening right now.
Being fully aware is about being conscious in the moment and doing whatever it is you’re doing one hundred percent.
4. Loving Kindness
What would happen if you made the decision to show up as your best self every day?
What would that look like? How would it feel?
Take your spiritual practice and put it to work today in the form of loving kindness. It’s easy to have compassion when we sit and pray. Extend that into the here and now, into your relationships with your family, friends, colleagues and customers. Even beyond that to everyone.
Could you choose to say hello to a stranger? Offer help to someone you don’t know? Smile for no reason?
5. Remember that You Are a Vessel
My Course in Miracles lesson today was a reminder that my mind can only serve. So who should be its master? I choose: The Holy Spirit, God, the Universe, Source, Oneness to guide me.
When I get out of the way and allow spirit to work through me, I remember my function. I remember to be the embodiment of love and forgiveness, kindness and patience.
How can you get out of your own way and allow the flow of higher knowing to pour through you today?
Every minute of our lives, we’re on this path. Instead of leaving your spirituality behind with your meditation pillow, try incorporating these five principles into your life today. See how it goes!