Here’s a Present for You...
Who doesn’t love a present? At Calm Mind Project we are massively WRAPPED (see what I did there) with giving a present to everyone we talk to. But I get it, it can be kind of weird to get your head around. So let me break it down and get you set up and ready to be mindful. And that is a key, but subtle part; Mindfulness is being, not doing.
Let that one settle for a minute. When you are doing, it’s kind of exhausting right? You are making a lot of effort, and it can feel really big and unsupported. When you are being, you just are. Think about some of the things that are being all the time. How about the breath? Do you have to tell your lungs to suck in that delicious air that keeps you alive? Nup. No. Way. Since the day you took your first screaming HELLO WORLD, those lungs have been rhythmically going at it, no matter what stresses and strains you put on them.
Our body is great at just being. It gets on with living without any doing, just being. So back to mindfulness. To really embed mindfulness in your being, you need to start with a little doing, just until you build a strong enough neural pathway in your brain to not even have to think about mindfulness, so it just happens on it’s own – like breathing.
Why don’t we combine both of those things for a super simple mindfulness moment. Think about your breath. Whatever you are doing don’t stop, just bring your attention to your breath, and let everything else that is happening in your mind disappear for a moment. Just you and your breath, hanging out, in your nose, down your throat, into your lungs, and all the way back. And again. Right then, right there, you just gave yourself the present of being mindful.
You can do this with anything and everything, in fact, that is what mindfulness is. Walking the dog? Just walk the dog. Notice the dog, your surrounds, the people, houses and cars you pass. The sky, the weather, the smells and sounds. Key word here is notice. You don’t have to make up any stories or have opinions about them, you just have to notice and keep going, ever present to what is happening right here, right now. From the moment you wake up, everything can be mindful. Of course it won’t be, but it and you have the capacity to be, and building that capacity is like any skill; it takes time, resilience and commitment, and my other fav thing…practice.
You’re on your way. Start being mindful. NOW!
Love,
