Don’t Forget to be Mindful…
Back in California, I spent three and a half beautiful years working in a DBT Skills-Informed IOP. I miss it every day *sigh.* Each morning, my co-therapists and I would start our group with a mindfulness exercise. At the beginning of my training, I really struggled with any desire to facilitate these exercises. I often wanting those precious 5-10 minutes to knock something off of my to-do list. Clearly, I was missing the point of mindfulness and was not practicing what I preached.
Mindfulness is essential in taking a moment - it needn’t be a long moment - but taking a moment to bring awareness to ourselves…our thoughts, judgments (good and bad), emotions, physiological sensations, urges, and more importantly to bring awareness to the current moment. How many of us get lost in our thoughts worrying about the future or ruminating about the past? *Raises hand.* Even after teaching mindfulness for as long as I have, I still struggle to be mindful. That is natural. It is also important to remind myself (and hopefully all of you) why it is necessary to take 5-10 minutes daily to be still. To be aware. To be non-judgmental. To be mindful. That 5-10 minutes is not going to make or break the items that needs to be scratched off your to-do list, but not taking time for yourself certainly will. I know it can be hard, especially when the stress of our to-do’s are constantly nagging in the back of our mind. Even still, mindfulness can give us the opportunity to truly appreciate the present moment without judging it, to be more effective in our lives, and give ourselves the ability to reign in our minds, thus reigning in our emotions.
I challenge all of you to take a very deserved 5-10 minutes today to practice a mindfulness exercise and take care of yourselves. I’ve listed a few of my favorites below:
1. Mindfully eating – Do you feel like you ever sit on the couch with your favorite snack, and BAM! The next thing you know, that delicious snack is gone – this is mindlessness. Try enjoying the food that nourishes your body. The importance with this mindfulness practice is to focus on the senses and be in the present moment. How does your food taste, smell, what is the texture like, etc? My commitment to myself is to enjoy my first few sips of coffee every morning, for example.
2. Leaves on a stream – a great guided mindfulness exercise that helps decrease racing thoughts. It brings awareness to our thoughts but places an emphasis on not getting stuck to these thoughts and subsequently allowing them to impact our emotions so intensely. Try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1C8hwj5LXw
3. Sitting in nature – Sit outside and identify five things you see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. If appropriate, try touching and noticing the textures of different things or the smells of flowers, etc.
4. Listening to a song – When we are on autopilot, we frequently miss out on opportunities to enjoy the small things in life that can make a big impact. Take a moment to really throw yourself in to listening to one of your favorite tunes.
5. A conversation – Put. The. Phone. Down. (I’m working on this, too). Lean in to the person you are speaking with, ask questions, act interested, and let the phone rest for a minute…you can thank me later and the people you are trying to connect with will thank you too :)
