Challenge Day #1
I’m so excited you’re here. Welcome to Day 1 of our 5 days to mindfulness..
This program is an introduction to mindfulness for beginner practitioners, and a reboot or recharge if you’re more experienced. It’s also a taste of what’s to come if you choose to join the one month program Mindful in May, which is starting soon and features daily meditations and expert interviews from the world’s best teachers.
This week I want to offer you one of my guided meditations to use every day. It’s the first step to training your brain to be calmer, less stressed and more joyful in everyday life. If you’ve never meditated before – no problem. Just jump right in and follow my guidance.
Mindfulness of the body meditation
Tomorrow, you’re going to hear some truly mind blowing science from Kelly McGonical, one of the world’s leaders in stress and mindfulness.
The original word for mindfulness in the Pali language of the ancient Buddhist texts is ‘sati‘. This has a number of different meanings, including ‘to familiarise’ or ‘to remember’.
Mindfulness training familiarises us with the nature of the mind, helping us recognise what leads to suffering and what leads to happiness. The training sharpens our ability to ‘remember’ to return to the present moment, especially when we get lost in unhelpful thinking – the kind that unnecessarily amplifies our stress, entangling us in worries about things that usually don’t end up happening.
Many other definitions of mindfulness have emerged over time, but in essence, it is:
… a clear, curious and present-moment awareness of what is happening within us and around us, from moment to moment.
This week, practice with the guided meditation each day and make sure you’re in the Facebook community here where I’ll be hosting the live guided meditation on Thurs April 11th 8:30pm AEDT. Let us know you’ve done your daily meditation and share what observations you had during the practice!
Mindful Daily Tip:
As you move through the day today practice #mindfulnessinmotion.
Consciously tune in to your senses. Perhaps as you walk down the street take a moment to listen to the sounds around you, notice the colours, shapes and light and shadow, feel your body in space (warmth, coolness, your feet on the ground). In this way you are beginning to train in mindfulness not only while you meditate but as you move through your day as well. It might feel like nothing when you begin, but through practising in this way you are slowly training your brain to pay attention to what is happening in the present moment, rather than be constantly hijacked by thoughts – which so often causes us stress and take us out of the here and now.
