Posts Tagged ‘mindfulness’
Mindfully Connecting with the Body Through Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is the practice of paying attention to food – engaging with it, consuming it, and experiencing it in a highly mindful way. Mindful eating isn’t so much about nutrition and more about the experience the mind and the body has surrounding the entire eating process. Mindful eating comes from the Buddhist concept of…
Read MoreThe Wandering Meditating Mind
There are many misconceptions about meditation. One is that you can’t meditation because your mind wanders. Some people believe you should be able to automatically and perfectly silence that nonstop, chattering, mostly negative inner voice that’s always talking to you. I certainly did and it’s why I took more quickly to mindful movement Qigong than…
Read MoreLetting Go of Toxic Stuff
It is easy to pick up all of the negative energy around us whether it be from a political, social, work, relationship, or home environment. There is plenty of it to go around. Being mindful about when you are unnecessarily exposing yourself to toxic energy is an important part of bringing peace into your life. This means considering…
Read MoreActive Relaxation
In Qigong, an ancient Chinese mindful movement practice, there is a foundational principle of active relaxation (versus slouching and lazy relaxing 😊), called Fang Song Gong. There are a number of components to the Fang Song Gong Qigong practice. At the heart of it, of course, is a mindful awareness, without which one would not know where they…
Read MoreActive Waiting
One of the foundational attitudes of mindfulness is patience. The importance of this characteristic is underscored by its central presence in all major religions as well. In my re-reading of the late theologian Henri Nouwen’s book Discernment, he highlights that patience is not passivity but an “active waiting”. This spiritual view of patience as an active waiting applies in the secular…
Read MoreMeditation Tips to Get Your Practice Started
Meditation is a simple (though not always easy) practice that we often make more complicated than it needs to be. It is well worth the effort as a wonderful to get out of your head and into the body. If you’re new to meditation, here are some tips to get started. Settle into a comfortable…
Read MoreTiming Your Mindful Pause
Taking ten to twenty minutes out of the day for a sitting meditation is not for everyone. Short pauses during the day works best for some people. This can also be a part of a mindfulness practice. To practice this method, you take several short stops, or “pauses,” throughout your day. During this pause, you…
Read MoreTapping Into Your Subconscious With Meditation
Meditation is one of the best ways to connect with your subconscious. It has been used for that purpose for thousands of years. Calming the mind clears out the interference and provides space for the layers beneath to come to the forefront. Many forms of meditation exist. You have probably heard about a simple (though…
Read MoreLearn to Detox Your Mind
Most of us are familiar with what a physical detox is, but what about a mind detox? When you’re trying to make major changes to your life, you can get stuck. A mind detox can help you internally clear out what is keeping you from moving forward, align with the shifts you are making in your life,…
Read MoreCommon Misperceptions When Starting a Mindfulness Practice
The practice of mindfulness is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream of western society as more people are turned on to the benefits of leading mindful lifestyles. Just like anything else that achieves a lot of media attention though, mindfulness is not without its misconceptions, many of which are quite off base. The following are…
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