Remembering to Slow Down
|
During meditation or throughout our daily activities, we may notice our mind becoming restless, distracted, or agitated. We may find it very challenging to control the mind when we feel busyminded, stressed, or unbalanced, but in these moments we can return our attention to our breath and encourage our mind and body to be more at ease. By breathing more slowly and deeply, we can calm our autonomic nervous system and we’ll have a better chance of skillfully responding to a situation. Inhale deeply and exhale slowly to train your mind and body to slow down. We practice stillness and relaxation each day to balance the perpetual busyness of the mind and body.
“If you don’t see anything inspiring, you’re walking too fast.” —Unknown
|
|
How to Cultivate Calmness
It can be a good practice to visualize what we look like being fully calm. What would our face look like? What we be doing? What would our breathing feel like? What feelings would we experience if we were in a state of complete inner peace? What would we feel like if we were free from chaos? Would our breathing be deep and slow? What would be around us? What wouldn't be around us? When we visualize ourselves in a stage of ease, we plant a seed of that peacefulness inside. The more often we think peaceful thoughts and practice peacefulness, the more peaceful our actions will naturally become. Visualizing can help us transform difficult habits by strengthening our thoughts, ultimately leading to us acting in a more thoughtful way. When we practice and solidify our thoughts and actions by focusing on the fine details of them, we inherently honor our best selves by investing in our future behavior.
|
Deepen your Understanding: Taking a Day of Rest is a core mindfulness concept for us to balance the busyness of our daily activities. Reconnect with peace, increase self-awareness, and take a break with a designated Day of Rest. If we've recently rested and we still feel stressed, we may need to invigorate our spirit with some fun! Don't forget to refresh your sense of ease by engaged in enriching, fulfilling activities regularly.
|
Quick Relaxation Meditation: Tensing and Releasing
Sometimes, we’ll find ourselves overwhelmed by painful emotions. When we realize that we’re caught up in a storm of stress, we can invite ease back into our practice with a simple relaxation meditation. Wherever we are, we can inhale the present moment, and exhale any accumulated tension.
 Inhale, present moment Exhale, relax Inhale, awareness Exhale, release |
Breathe mindfully with these words, repeating them a few times, then close your eyes and concentrate your awareness on your body. Use your mind to look for tension hiding within your physical body. It can be helpful to clench and unclench each part of your body as you scan, as you’ll relax the muscle more with the release, consciously relaxing. Start at the top of your head, move down through your eye muscles, temples, and jaw, and bring your attention down to your shoulder area. If you find any stress knitting itself in your back, gently tense the surrounding muscles, then relax them deeply. Continue to breathe as you repeat this pattern of tensing and relaxing. Extend this practice all the way down to the tips of your fingers and toes. Give especially tight/tense places extra attention and continue to focus on relaxing each part of your body more and more until you feel a sense of fulfillment and ease.
|
Breathe In, Refreshment
Whenever we breathe mindfully, we can refresh ourselves.
|
Breathing in, I become aware of my body,
Breathing out, I relax my body. Breathing in, noticing my stress, Breathing out, I calm my body. |
Breathing in, I refresh my body,
Breathing out, I enjoy this ease. Breathing in, I smile to my body, Breathing out, I dwell in the present moment. |
When we inhale and say these things, we can experience a wonderful freshness in our body like when we drink a cool glass of crystal clear water.
We can silently recite this line anytime we need to replenish, calming our body and mind.
We can silently recite this line anytime we need to replenish, calming our body and mind.