Mindful in May

With May upon us, and a change of seasons settling in, it seems to be a good time to reflect on our mindfulness strategies we have explored so far this year.

Mindfulness is bringing an awareness to this present moment.  A moment we have never come to before nor will we share again.  This deliberate attention takes practice as our 21st Century minds are crowded with ideas, thoughts, problems, fantasies, hopes, dreams and pressures.

Just like learning any new task we will have moments when this is easy and moments when it just doesn’t work for us.  Mindfulness asks us to bring a non-judgmental approach to our practice.  To be gentle on ourselves when our minds go wandering and recognise that our thoughts and emotions are just a passing parade.  We don’t need to get hooked into our thoughts or get stuck on any one of them.  By tuning into our bodies, our senses and our experiences we learn that we have many sensations and not one needs to be given any more attention than the other. This takes patience and practice!

On our Mindfulness journey we started looking at bringing an awareness to autopilot in our daily lives by noticing when our mind starts to wander while we are performing everyday activities such as showering, brushing teeth, getting dressed, driving etc. and bringing it back to this present moment.

We used three breaths to punctuate the day, when washing hands, waiting for a meeting or an appointment, sitting in traffic, washing dishes.  Mindful eating showed us that the first mouthful of a meal is a banquet.  We are now noticing habits we had fallen in to and we release ourselves from their burden in habit releasing.

By tuning into touch in our world brings a gentleness to our connections with others.

Becoming aware of how we can create our own suffering by the way we process our world and focus on things that we don’t like, gives us a greater understanding of the power of our minds.

We decided to become more present in our conversations with others, and release the tension we hold in our bodies.

We are now noticing blue and other colours and also getting in touch with the child inside.

We noticed how our monkey minds time travel re-living the past and pre-living the future.  Our world is full of motion and we started to bring our awareness to movement in our bodies and things around us.

Sometimes it’s good to sit in silence and notice the sounds around us.  We can encourage silence into our lives by turning off electronic devices, not reading or talking or singing.

Becoming present we can notice transitions in our day, coming from one moment to the next and when we are present we can notice the unusual as well as how water flows around us.

Last week we learnt a cuppa meditation which of course can be adjusted to whenever you stop to drink.

All of these practices continue to bring us to this very moment, the only moment we really have.  This practice sets us up to developing a regular meditation practice should we wish to try.

Another thing happening in May is a wonderful project here in Australia called Mindful in May.

By joining this project you can participate in daily meditations for the month of May as well as contribute to raising money for  clean water in Ethiopia.

Research shows that daily meditation has great benefits.  We can train our wandering mind to be more focussed, calm and centred.

By stopping daily you will gain clarity in your thinking and also become more connected with your environment and with people in your life.

By joining the cause you can become part of a community of like-minded others bringing more kindness, compassion and consciousness into the world.

Mindful Moments has set up a team in the Mindful in May project called “Mindful Moments in May”, if you would like to join us and raise funds for this great cause that would be great. So far we have been practising a body scan meditation.

If you prefer however, you may just want to revisit the mindfulness practices we have been implementing so far, continue to notice your own monkey mind, be gentle on yourself and look forward to our new challenge next week.

Whatever you do, remember to stay present, moment by moment.