Mindfulness

Namaste All!

Do you all know what mindfulness is? According to Cambridge Dictionary, it is defined as the following: “The practice of being aware of your body, mind, and feelings in the present moment, thought to create a feeling of calm.”  When I first heard about mindfulness from friends and family, who recommended I meditate, I thought it was a bunch of baloney.  I tried it a few times and found my meditation practices and I felt frustrated, because I felt more stressed out with my to-do list than relaxed from meditation.

Then in therapy, one day I asked, how to remain happy, eternally. What are the tools and strategies to remain happy? He said to meditate, and he said it’s a state of dissociating from your subconscious from your conscious mind. I felt frustrated again. However, when he explained the principles again, I thought I’d try it again, and it really struck a chord for me then.

I’ve been practicing meditating 5 minutes a day in a quiet room with no sound and my eyes closed. These are the principles I’ve been following per my therapist:

-     Observe
-     Describe
-   Participate
- Non Judgment
-     One Mindfully

When I’m meditating, I’m observing my breath and how my body is feeling in the present moment. I also observe if I’m thinking about something besides focusing on my breath like things I have to do, and I’m describing that in my mind. I participate in the moment by allowing myself to be completely lost in the moment. I also don’t judge myself if my minder wanders as I’m focusing on my breadth. I do this one-mindfully, meaning that I focus on my objective of paying attention to my breathing and how my mind is separating from my body.

I plan on increasing my meditation process from 5-10-15 minutes a day and onward, as I get better and better at this exercise.

Thoughts? I’m new to this! Let me know what you think!

Also, now that you’ve learned about mindfulness, how cute are my leggings? I’ve been wearing them around the house and for stretching exercises! They are from a company called JoriKi, and they focus on giving a portion of their sales to different organizations. For the leggings that I have, they give a portion of their sales to SPINNA. This organization brings traditional skills mainstream to empower women working in fashion. I just love their message and their leggings! My leggings are linked!

Vulnerability

Happy Friday All!

Today, I want to talk about vulnerability. I think it’s important to show your imperfections to the world, because what makes you vulnerable, makes you makes you human, connects you to the world, and let’s face it, your imperfections make you beautiful. This article was inspired by the Ted talk by Brene Brown on the Power of Vulnerability.

I don’t want to live my life pretending that I’m someone that I’m not. I also believe that it’s very important to share you struggles to be raw and real. These are some things that make me feel vulnerable and things I’d like to admit:

-I couldn’t swallow a pill until two years ago. I finally can swallow a pill, but I swallow each one slowly, and I can’t still swallow large ones.

-I struggled with spending conservatively in my early 20’s. I’ve turned that around now.

-I can’t swim and I’m super frusturated with that. I really want to do be able to do, but the mind over matter fear is all consuming.

-I struggle with my weight; I’m constantly self-conscious about it. I’m definitely not a size 6; closer to double that and I admit it.

-I’ve been very depressed at many points of my life, while being completely happy looking on the outside. In fact, the times when I was thinnest were actually the least happy.

-I’ve gone to a therapist many times in my life and I’m okay with admitting that. 

This is what Dr. Brene Brown says:

- They believe they are worthy; they are enough

- They have courage to be imperfect

- They have the compassion to be kind to themselves first

- They had connection as a result of authenticity. They were willing to let go of who they thought they should be, and pursue themselves.

- They fully embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable, made them beautiful. They didn’t think it was comfortable.

-They don’t numb negative emotion like grief, shame, fear, and vulnerability. Because when we numb those, we numb joy and happiness.

- They love with their whole hearts even though there is no guarantee

- They practice gratitude

How will you be more vulnerable and let people inside the deeper parts of you? I promise to share my insecurities, and show you how I’m always working to be better.