Being mindful

[cryingbaby]

So I've always been interested in mindfulness and I have practiced it before with the kids. I hd therapy today and she gave me some resources to read and I think I am going to start making more of a concerted effort to be mindful everyday. To an extent. I think I have to plan somewhat. Otherwise, I don't know how I would find time to teach

Comments

[jelazakazone]

I want to know about your mindfulness project. Maybe you can post about how you do it? For me, ideally it would be every day, but I get that not everyone is glued to LJ like I am.

By the way, our Thanksgiving tradition is to make pizza and watch a movie. We've done it for at least five years now. It's great!

[cryingbaby]

I adore your thanksgiving tradition! I am not going to copy it, but hm... maybe I will. heh..

I can try to post every day but I don't always have time. I am reading a book called "Choosing to Be" by Kat Tansey (they MUST be a pen name!). It's about this woman who suffered from severe depression and learned how to meditate and be mindful from her Maine Coon cat. The cat actually talks to her in the book- she has conversations with him. It's basically learning how to just be from a cat. And what better teacher than the cat? heh. I haven't tried meditating or visiting painful thoughts or anything. If I feel my mind wandering with "could/should/would haves" I refocus and just breathe and concentrate on my breath. I am also just practicing just doing tasks- like this morning, cleaning all 4 bathrooms in the house- without thinking about what was happening next. I hate cleaning the bathrooms and I did acknowledge the thought without judgement and then I let it go. It was easier than I thought it would be. ;)

[jelazakazone]

Yeah, I get that you don't have time to post every day.

Copy it! It's an awesome T-day tradition:) I'm looking into movies now, actually.

Ok, that's good to know. I think that quilting is good for me for that reason. I can really focus on it and I am not thinking about other things.

Er, wait, that's not mindfulness, is it? I see. Wow. That is big. I definitely need to work on that. Don't feel resentful, disgusted, whatever, just take a deep breath and do it. Leaves more time and energy for the good stuff, right?

[cryingbaby]

From what I've read so far, it's ok to feel the feeling, acknowledge it and then release it. I think the point is not to hold negative emotions.