Mindfulness
Why and how I practice mindful meditation.
When we lived in England, several schools were piloting mindfulness programs to help students. As a faculty leader, my husband went through a short certification course. Based on what he learned there, we began incorporating mindfulness into our lives.
There are several definitions of mindfulness, but I like how the Mayo clinic describes it:
Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.
We are still learning about the benefits of mindfulness. The following 2018 Harvard study shows how mindfulness seems to change the brain in depressed patients:
Personally, mindfulness helps me to slow down my overactive brain, practice self-compassion, and take a much-needed brain break. If I need to do this quickly, I use grounding exercises, like this 5-4-3-2-1 process:
5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, anything in your surroundings.
4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet.
3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that counts! Focus on things you can hear outside of your body.
2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. Maybe you are in your office and smell pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell a pillow. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside.
1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch?
I also use the app Stop, Breathe, Think (My Life) to guide me. It allows you to log your feelings, choose targeted exercises, watch videos, and set mindful alerts. Teachers can get a free, lifetime premium membership to Stop, Breathe, Think for free by signing up with their school email address. I highly recommend it!
