new year resolution 4 u: more mindfulness
I wish I could say that my first few weeks of the New Year were full of energy, optimism, and clarity – but hardly my friends. I was, however, feeling guilty because I couldn’t artificially create it. And I found myself firmly looking backwards. I was over analyzing some of my biggest life choices, rethinking my perceptions about what I do and don't do well, and creating new to do lists of the things I want to do better than I’ve done them before. It was just this weekend that I started digging myself out. How? Playing Boggle with my husband – it’s this word finding game where you try to find as many words as possible across 16 lettered dice in a short amount of time. God, what a great form of mindfulness!
Mindfulness at first glance can seem a bit amorphous therapy, but the best way I can explain is that it is a type of self-care that involves being focused on a present moment, while calmly noticing and accepting what you’re feeling, thinking, and sensing in your body. When playing Boggle, all I was focused on was kicking my husband’s butt and the feeling of competitive energy running through my body. Suddenly, I was and still am in a better mood. Another thing that helped – getting on the scale of all things. It read 162.2 pounds – I know weight is different for everyone, and for me, the low 160s is my fighting weight. For most of my adult years, my weight has wildly fluctuated from 145 to 245, and for the last 5 years, it has finally stabilized at 160ish. It was a nice bit of mindfulness to see the 162.2 and feel a feeling of satisfaction – and not the need to set another weight goal.
Who knew that playing Boggle and getting on the scale could knock me out of my funk? I guess that’s the lesson here. Mindfulness doesn’t have to be complicated (e.g., Boggle) and can sometimes happen when and where you least expect it (e.g., stepping on the scale). Yoga is and always will be my go to for getting to my mindful state of mind, but I also realize that I get it when I notice how beautiful my nieces are when I FaceTime with them or when I feel the warm breeze in the air during a Nationals baseball game.
Mindfulness can be a hard habit to sustain, but my New Year’s resolution is to do it more often for myself while also bringing its healing power to more women, like me, who are facing the challenge of balancing career with self-care and all of life’s many other responsibilities. This is the major theme you’ll find running through this blog – a call for you and me to be more present in our minds, bodies, and souls through mindfulness.
To make this idea of mindfulness more real for you, I offer below the meditation that I lead my yoga students through at the beginning and ending of every class I teach. Let me know how it goes and please stay tuned for more to come!
Sit in a comfortable chair or on a flat surface
Close your eyes (and keep them closed)
Take three inhalations and exhalations (to the top and bottom of your lungs)
After your third exhalation, begin breathing at your own pace (keeping your eyes closed)
Listen to the room around you
Pick one sound you’re hearing – and one sound only
Listen to that one sound such that it is the only sound you hear
And just listen to it and nothing else for a minute or so
And then slowly roll those other sounds back in…one by one, until you hear all the sounds in the room once again
Open your eyes – and you’re done
