Five Ideas to Inspire Your Mindfulness Journey
There's an aura about mindful people, and it's not some esoteric glow that only empaths and tooth fairies can see. It's a certain calm in their presence, a gracefulness in their speech that is universally recognized.
Sure, mindful people lose their s#!+ but never without a smile. They are the pal that you always call back because they already left you an emoji-filled message, even before you knew you needed a friend. They are the co-worker who inspires your competitive edge because they believe in abundance, even when there isn't any toilet paper left. They are the ones about whom the Illuminati conspiracy theorists are skeptical.
Indeed, being mindful these days is a rare, coveted quality and tbh a prerequisite for survival. But can anyone become mindful? Of course.
“Mindfulness is a commitment to live in the present,” psychiatrist and life consultant, Dr. Candace Good explains. “[It’s] noticing a moment, finding gratitude in difficult times, and caring for yourself during the journey.”
She founded Sig: Wellness to help people cultivate a self-care practice with breathing, meditation, and conscious movement techniques. Her one-part-memoir/one-part manual, Own Your Present releases this fall.
“Mindfulness practices not only helped me build my energy stores, but also brought back some more of my creative energy,” Dr. Good says.
She recommends 10 simple steps to forge your “Mindfulness Journey.” Start with these five.
1. Define Mindfulness.
A moment:
An awareness of a moment in time and having the space to take in experiences as they are happening.
A journey:
A regular practice can awaken joy and creativity that takes you places you never imagined.
A gift:
The ability to give someone your undivided attention is a powerful present. Finding gratitude in difficult times teaches us about ourselves.
Make it your own. What would being present mean to you?
2. Mindfulness Is a Choice.
Our world moves at a fast pace and we are pulled in many different directions with email, texts, voicemail, and social media. There is a lot working against us! A mindfulness practice can be a daily intention to notice. Are you giving from a state of depletion? Choose to unplug for a few minutes.
3. Listen to a song.
When is the last time you just sat and listened to a song from beginning to end? Pick a song you enjoy and just listen. No driving, checking your phone, or working out. When the song is over, play it again. Did you notice anything new? What if we listened to our body or our partner in this way, uninterrupted for 5 minutes?
4. Take a Seat.
Welcome to seat, your home for meditation and breathing exercises. You can practice sitting meditation on a chair or the floor. If you choose a chair, ideally it’s a straight chair and you can sit with your feet on the floor. Your spine is away from the back of the chair so you are supporting yourself.
If on the floor, ideally you’ll be on a cushion to elevate your butt a few inches off the floor. When comfortable, you can just draw one heel close to the body and drape the other leg in front of it. If you still feel like a pretzel, try sitting higher, or kneel while sitting back on an even fatter pillow, high enough to ensure no knee strain.
5. The Breath.
We are meant to breathe from our bellies, not our chest. Relaxing the abdomen allows more room for the diaphragm (muscle that separates the organs from the abdomen from the lungs) to contract. The diaphragm drops giving the lungs more room to fill up with air. When this happens, we naturally breathe more gradually and deeply.
A more complete breath is breathing from the abdomen, filling the lungs with air and then breathing out with a little extra drawing in of your belly button at the end. There is no need to strain, and allow yourself to slow down as needed. Ideally, you are breathing in and out through the nostrils.
Next, notice if your inhales and exhales are equal. You can do this by counting. If you breathe in for 10, try to balance the breath by exhaling to the count of 10. Over time, your exhales may become longer.
For more tips, download Dr. Good’s complete guide and countdown with her to the launch of Own Your Present!
Photos: Laura Smestsers, Darius Bashar, Jonathan Borba, Aiony Haust, Cotton Bro, and Motoki Tonn
Words:
Candace Good, MD is a psychiatrist, author, business owner, and advocate. She founded Sig: Wellness, LLC in 2018 to make breathing, meditation, and the conscious movement of yoga more accessible to the people who can benefit the most, people like her with anxiety and other stress-related conditions.
Dr. Good has extensive experience in child & adolescent, college, and inpatient mental health. She received her medical degree in 1999 from the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA where she maintains a clinical faculty appointment.
She has her Health Professional Training from the Maharishi Integrative AyurVeda Institute and is completing her meditation teacher certification through the Veda Center.
Dr. Good serves as a board member for the Pennsylvania Medical Society and is a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
She enjoys knitting and spending time with her family, especially her daughter and two rescue hounds. Own Your Present, her first book and its accompanying course releases August 2020.