Hey there beautiful!
As we enter into the next phase of the year there have been a lot of changes I’ve been preparing for in my life. Changes like sending the little ones off to school yet again, anticipated changes with my 9-5 work schedule, changes happening with Monarch Serenite, even changes with the weather. Not to mention how all of this will impact the changes needed to be made with my daily routine.
It’s the little things that you don’t think about that really have the opportunity to disrupt our lives in such unforeseen ways. In the past, I’ve been really bad at preparing myself for changes such as these. Usually, I would wait for them to come around and just adjust to the best of my ability. But now that I’ve upgraded the way I care for my mind, body, and spirit I’ve also upgraded the way I prepare for such changes.
So, I thought I’d share with you a wellness technique that I’ve been putting into practice to help me better prepare for changes. What’s great about this wellness technique is that whether or not you can relate to the changes mentioned above, it is something that you can add to your daily wellness routine as a means to just maintain your overall well-being. And of course, it can have a significant impact on any changes you may be experiencing or anticipating at any point in your life.
So, what’s this wellness technique you may be wondering. Well of course it’s one of my favorite topics and practices in the world. Mindfulness meditation. We’re going to look at how this practice can help you care for your overall well-being through all the big and small, expected or unexpected changes life may throw at you.
Mindfulness Meditation and Your Overall Well-Being
Improved focus
Meditation is the process of tuning into yourself, identifying any unmet needs, and centering yourself so that you are able to better interact with the world. Mindfulness is the act of engaging all of your senses as a way to mindfully navigate the world. Combing the two together provides the opportunity to increase your focus and attention on everything that is happening in the present moment.
When you practice mindfulness meditation you are actively engaging all of your senses to be able to identify things that are happening or existing in the present moment as a means to be in the here and now. Typically, we tend to focus on multiple things at a time. Some call this multitasking; others call it a distraction. I call it operating from a mind that if full rather than a mindful state of being.
Through mindfulness meditation you learn skills such as how to slow down and take in the environment around you. Doing so can help to increase your self-awareness and allow you to be able to focus on one thing at a time, fully taking in that moment for all that it has to offer. An example of this is putting your focus solely on your environment while meditating. Typically, you would start to engage your five senses, slowly introducing something new and then checking in with how that feels in your body.
So, think of using your sense of smell, and smelling fresh coffee brewing in the morning, and noticing how it may increase or decrease your heartbeat, and how that may impact your breathing. Sitting with that feeling and focusing on those small changes is just a little taste of what mindfulness meditation can do for your focus.
Better self-control and self-awareness
All too often we move this world and interact with people in it not really thinking about how we are showing up. We get into a routine that becomes consistent for us and we train our minds and bodies to operate off of that routine. I call this operating on autopilot because we are not being mindful about how we are moving though our day, or even how we are showing up not only for ourselves but for others as well.
While operating on autopilot isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does not allow us to truly be present. Mindfulness and self-control really allow you to be able to continually check in with yourself, with the situation at hand, the environment you find yourself in, the people you are currently surrounded by, and decide if that is what is best for you at that moment. You’d be surprised to learn how much of our thoughts and emotions are the result of everything that is happening outside of our control.
While we may not always show out in a way that is considered disrespectful or threatening, when you feel a lack of control over your life and environment, you will always be presenting a ghost of yourself. That is simply the result of not feeling comfortable. To counteract this, you need to take back the control in any way that you are able to.
Mindfulness meditation allows you to be to take some time during the day to check in with yourself and determine where your window of tolerance lies for the day, for a specific moment in time, or even the people you know you have to show up for, and determine how much of you, you are willing to give at that specific moment in time.
Improved loving-kindness relationship with yourself
This is just something that I have personally noticed a change in with myself from practicing mindfulness meditation. Therefore, I thought it would be a nice little tip to add to the conversation. Let’s be honest, we don’t always talk to ourselves in the kindest of ways, and sometimes that can lead to us not treating ourselves in the nicest of ways. Nothing wrong with that, it’s part of being human, you live and you learn and through learning you do better than you did before.
If you find that you are someone who often struggles with extending love, compassion, and kindness towards yourself then mindfulness meditation is a great place for you start in learning how to do so. As it’s been mentioned, mindfulness meditation really helps you tune into yourself and increase your awareness not only of yourself but also the world around you, and develop skills to better show up in this world. All of these are skills that can directly impact the way you interact with yourself.
When you are aware of your emotions, what triggers the bad ones, and you have the necessary coping skills to manage them, you are extending loving-kindness to yourself. When you are aware of the type of environments that upset you, or the type of people that make you uncomfortable, and you feel empowered to not put yourself in that position and so you don’t, you are extending loving-kindness to yourself. When you acknowledge that you may not have done your best at something, or you take accountability for where you may have wronged someone or yourself, and you take the necessary steps to right your wrongs and do better than before, you are extending loving-kindness to yourself.
Loving-kindness goes beyond the physical. It has so much to do with your emotional state of being and how you choose to let those emotions either help you grow or hinder you from growing. When you choose to let them help you grow, you are choosing to extend love, kindness, and compassion towards yourself. Doing so will help you become a happier, healthier, and better version of yourself, which can be accomplished through mindfulness meditation.
Take a pause
Lastly, mindfulness meditation is a great way to take a pause in your day. We are so used to the busy go-go-go daily lifestyle that we never take time to just pause in our day. And unfortunately, this is something that we often see as normal. But I’m here to tell you that while it is “normal” there really isn’t anything normal about it. Yes, we all have daily responsibilities that we need to attend to in a timely manner. This includes, kids, work, parents/grandparents, friends, relationships, pets, leisure time, and so much more, but none of that is a good enough reason to neglect time for yourself.
Take a pause. Meditation allows you to take that pause and to do so mindfully. Whether it’s for 5 minutes or an hour, taking a pause in your day allows time to clear your mind, manage your emotions, and stay focused on all the good that is happening in your life currently. Which, as I’m sure you can guess, will do wonders for your overall well-being.
So, I hope you don’t just take these mindfulness meditation benefits at face value. Instead, I hope you take them to heart and really consider how they could improve your overall well-being, your day-to-day life, and even with getting through all the big/small changes in life. And I hope that you will consider giving this practice a try in order to experience these benefits for yourself.
Will mindfulness meditation be something you will consider giving a try? If so, be sure to let me know how it goes for you. Until next time loves!
Love and Light,
Kimora