Let’s hit the pause button for a minute.
How are you doing, after the self-learning exercises you did over these past few days?
If you are reading this text now, you have completed four days in this program. That’s a wonderful accomplishment! And a testimony of your dedication to take good care of yourself. You should be very pleased. You are giving yourself the gift of self-appreciation, which is wonderful.
How did you experience the last two mindfulness exercises?
Were you able to be mindful to your senses during a meal or a small snack, like you learned it from the raisin meditation? If not, maybe you can try it some time today. Doing this will further what you’ve learned into your everyday life. It will also give you confidence in your ability to continue the things you are learning here on this blog on your own – self-determined and completely independent from my instruction. This success will feel empowering!
Were you able to stay awake during the body scan? If you struggled feeling yourself during the body scan, don’t worry. We cannot always feel something everywhere in our body. With further practice, you will develop a more refined sensibility for your bodily senses. Be patient, it will come!
How have you been doing since we parted ways yesterday? Did you tune into your mind once in a while, to observe whether your mind is anchored? How frequently did you notice it navigating into the future or the past – or dramatizing or downplaying things that were happening around you?
Try to start observing yourself mindfully when you are not on this blog. Gently get yourself used to observing yourself in your everyday life routines. Doing this will help you further your learning.
Also take a look at your notes briefly during the day, maybe while you’re drinking a cup of coffee or tea. This will keep your learning active in your mind while you are not on this blog, and it will contribute to much quicker outcomes and successes in your life.
Troubleshooting
Are you struggling to find time for doing the exercises I am introducing in this blog?
If you are, then please take a moment to look at the reasons.
Often times, we say we just don’t have the time.
But is that really the reason?
If we are honest to ourselves, sometimes we have to admit that we set our priorities that way.
We probably have good reasons for ordering other things as more important than our exercises. Mindfulness teaches us honesty with ourselves, and self-responsibility. If we say we didn’t have time, then we make external circumstances responsible. We put ourselves in the position of helplessness. We become the victim, and in that role, we deprive ourselves of our own decision-making capacity.
As soon as we realize that the person who actively sets priorities in our lives is only ourselves, then we can start to revisit our priorities. Often times, we simply do what we have grown accustomed to doing, and we no longer look at the effects our doing has on our health and well-being. Maintaining our patterns may feel like the easier option compared to needing to make an effort to change them. So we accept our tiredness, for example, as a result of working overtime. But we don’t realize that in the long run, such behavior will deplete our reserves. Eventually, this is going to affect our health.
So we need to allow ourselves to be honest and revisit your priorities mindfully – with the same self-compassion that brought us together here on this blog.
Write down some notes if you wish, and then continue to the next section.
— Annegret Hannawa