meditation

How to Teach Mindfulness to Your Kids or Grand Kids

December 24, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Teaching mindfulness to yourself and learning to adapt it into your daily life may take a bit of time. You need to work with the different options available to you and find which one is best for you. Overtime you will find that mindfulness is working, but now you want to help your kids find the same peace that you have. The trick with this is to keep them engaged and keep them active in mindfulness. Here is how you do that while keeping your kids engaged and not forcing them to do things they don’t want to do.

Start With Positive Thoughts

One of the easiest ways to bring mindfulness to your kids is to start with a positive thought game or daily task. For example, at the end of the day consider having your children come up with one thing they are were thankful for in the day. You can take this a step further by having them write it down and put it into a thankfulness jar or gratitude jar. At the end of the year they can see how many things they were thankful for which can spur them to find more positive things.

Breathing Techniques

Consider adapting breathing and meditation as part of your daily routine. You can get up in the morning and do a morning walk with your kids while teaching them breathing techniques. You can do this in your home as part of your morning routine. While the kids wait for breakfast, they can work on their breathing. You can also incorporate this as something the kids should do after school. They can put their books down, and sit for a few moments just being quiet and breathing. It can help them sort out their day and remove negative thoughts they may be having.

Healthy Options for Anger

One thing you can do to help teach your kids mindfulness is turn their anger into health. If they are angry over school, a fight with a friend, or something else consider having them take a walk or go meditate. Though this may seem like something they don’t’ want to do, and they probably don’t, eventually it will turn from what they view as a punishment into a coping mechanism that can help with reduce anger and stress later.

By incorporating these techniques into your daily life with your kids, you can keep them engaged in mindfulness. Before long, you will find that your kids are practicing it without your guidance and input. You will also find that it becomes part of their daily lives just like brushing their teeth and combing their hair.

How to Use Mindfulness for Weight Loss

December 12, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Starting a weight loss journey can be difficult in and of itself. You are facing the reality of your current weight, where you want to be, how much you want to drop, and how long that journey will take. This can be overwhelming and sometimes can derail you before you even begin. If this sounds like where you are right now, consider using mindfulness practices to help. If you aren’t sure where to get started, here are some how to tips to help.

Accept Your Journey

The first way to use mindfulness for weight loss is to accept your journey. This may sound either far too easy or like something you could not do in your life for your situation. This is actually an easily attained step, that take some time to work on and develop. The idea is that you should sit down and begin listing the things you like or are happy with about yourself. Determine what your end goal is related to the things you do and do not want to change. Realize what your real weight loss goals and journey are and accept that this is where you are but this is not where you will stay.

Find Your Triggers

Mindfulness, journaling, and meditation can help you find your triggers. You may wonder why this important. Your triggers that send you into anxiety, stress, or depression can also trigger you into unhealthy eating habits that move you into a situation of gaining weight. Once you start to find your triggers, and stress triggers, you can begin moving those toxins from your life and working toward a more positive outlook and healthier choices that help with your weight loss.

Mind Map Your Goals

Instead of just jumping into a weight loss journey, consider using mind mapping to sort everything out. This will help you sort out the related thoughts that come up with your weight loss journey, what your obstacles are, and how you want to go about handling them. Once you begin this mapping you can find a better starting point for your goals and see milestones along the way of your long term journey. This can help you remain focused and see when you have hit achievements that you normally would have overlooked.

Mindfulness can bring several benefits to your weight loss journey, including staying positive and believing in yourself. You will also find that you are more focused and centered on the task at hand, which will in turn help you reach your goals.

3 Benefits of Mindfulness

December 4, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Mindfulness is something you may have seen in the devotional section of bookstores, as part of a yoga DVD, or in various health and wellbeing stores. You may already know that there are different aspects to mindfulness, including meditation. What you may not know are the benefits of mindfulness in your life. Before you think there is too much involved and not enough reward for that involvement, consider these three benefits of mindfulness in your life.

Reducing Anxiety and Stress

There are several techniques in mindfulness that can help with anxiety and the reduction of stress. Breathing techniques, meditation, and mind mapping are just three of these methods. The key point to remember with each of these methods is that they benefit you by helping you refocus and reduce the triggers in your life. They help you sort out the issues that you would normally stress out over and eventually have anxiety over. Mindfulness also helps you cope with future issues to avoid immediate reaction and increase your anxiety regarding the situation.

Body Acceptance

Body acceptance is something you may not think of when you think of mindfulness. The truth is, body acceptance can play a great deal into your stress and anxiety and how you view the world around you. Over the course of using meditation and other techniques you may find what is triggering your body related issues, including your weight loss obstacles and unhealthy options that you are moving towards during triggered issues that cause stress. Once you begin working with mindfulness techniques you will start to see a better appreciation for yourself, your body journey, and where you are in the moment.

Life Acceptance

Sometimes we just aren’t happy with our lives. We aren’t happy with different aspects that we feel we can’t change and must simply deal with. This can lead to depression and other issues including body issues. Mindfulness can help you find gratitude for various things in your life, find issues and people in your life that are toxic, and find ways to keep what works and get rid of what doesn’t with grace and acceptance. This can lead us to life acceptance and accepting the events that happen for what they are in that moment.

These benefits are just a starting point for mindfulness in your life. There are other benefits that will start to reveal themselves to you as you become deeper and more involved in the process.

Learn How To Meditate and Live in the Moment

December 3, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

As you might already know, mindfulness is a way to be in the present and only the present. You focus on what you are doing or thinking at this moment, without worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. Mindfulness can be used for so many things, from helping you to lose weight, to re-gaining your focus on important work projects. It is really important for your mental and emotional health, as well as your physical health.

One specific method of being more mindful is through meditation. The two things combine to allow you to be a happier, more fulfilled and more balanced person. Here are some things to know about mindfulness meditation.

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

First of all, it can help to learn a little more about what mindfulness meditation is and how it can help you. The following information is going to give you more insight into what meditating in a mindful way means and of course the different ways it can help you.

You now know that mindfulness is a way of being, thinking, and living in the moment. If you are eating a meal, you are focused only on what you are eating, including the textures, flavors, and sensations. You aren’t watching TV or thinking about your budget meeting. You only focus on your meal. This practice can also be used with meditation.

Mindfulness is not easy to pick up right away, especially during a busy day when your negative thoughts and stressful situations creep up in your mind constantly. This is why you should start by also practicing meditation.

How to Start Meditating

Instead of trying to stress yourself out with both mindfulness and meditation at the same time, start slow. Just start with basic meditating. Find yourself a quiet space where you can really focus on the meditation. This can be anywhere from your bedroom at night before bed to even the shower or when you are going for a walk. If you can do it at home where you can sit comfortably with your eyes closed, that can be helpful.

Start your meditation by focusing on your breathing and only thinking about the breathing. Focus on taking in each breath and letting it out. Think about your lungs, and not about your next meal or all the appointments you have next week. This simple act will help you to retrain your mind to think about just one thing, which is the essence of both meditation and mindfulness.

Using Mindfulness With Meditation

Now that you have a good introduction to meditation, you can start using mindfulness. Once you get used to sitting quietly and trying to clear your mind of all those nagging thoughts and only think about your breathing, you can then start with the practice of mindfulness. This is when you are only concerned with the present moment. Once you have the breathing practice down, choose just one thought to focus on. Only one thing happening in this current moment. This is a good introduction into how mindfulness meditation works.

The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Before discussing more tips on mindfulness meditation, it helps to know why you should start this practice. There are actually many advantages to mindfulness meditation, from lowering your stress to helping with your mind’s focus, memory, and concentration. Mindfulness meditation can also help your physical health, which is something many people are not fully aware of. Take a look at some of these benefits of mindfulness meditation.

Stress Reduction

One of the top reasons people like mindfulness meditation is because it helps reduce their stress. When you start meditating and living in the present with mindfulness, you learn how to think about things differently. It isn’t going to magically get rid of all those stressful situations and people in your life, but it helps you to deal with them better. You develop a healthy coping mechanism where you understand and appreciate things for what they are, and stop dwelling on how much worse they could be. It truly is remarkable how helpful this is for your overall stress and anxiety.

Improved Memory

If you struggle with memory issues, this might be more to do with how much you are trying to keep track of in your mind. Memory issues are often linked to negative thoughts and overthinking. When you start the bad habit of overthinking, it tends to lead to over-analyzing things as well. This is only going to make everything more stressful and frustrating for you. If you can start mindfulness meditation, you will notice that you are focusing on one thing at a time, so your memory starts to improve as well.

Better Focus and Concentration

Other cognitive functions can also be improved with meditation, including your focus and concentration. Once again, you are changing the way you think about things, developing positive attitudes like acceptance, appreciation and gratitude, patience, and nonjudgment. This in turn allows you to focus on one thing at a time, whatever is happening in the present, instead of trying to think about too many things at a time. With proper mindfulness and meditation, you are learning how to adapt to everything around you, let go of the negative emotions, and appreciate all of the positivity in your life. It is very fulfilling and improves your overall focus in the long run. This can help with work, school, and anything else you are trying to achieve.

Lower Blood Pressure

As far as physical benefits, the first is lowering your blood pressure. This comes from a lot of the mental and emotional benefits, therefore lowering your blood pressure. Things like stress, anxiety, and lack of focus can overwhelm your mind, and actually have a negative effect on your body. When you start meditating and using mindfulness in your daily life, you will feel less stressed and overwhelmed, which can then cause your blood pressure to get a rest.

Weight Loss

Don’t forget about the benefits for eating and weight loss! Mindfulness isn’t just done in a meditation session, but throughout the day. By living more in the present, you can also focus on what is good for your body, starting with mindful eating. This is when you really think about your food choices and indulge in each meal, instead of being distracted and just grabbing any snack without thinking twice about it. Through mindful eating, you learn to notice the signs of actual hunger and not boredom or feeding your emotions. Over time, you will notice that it changes your eating habits and ultimately leads to weight loss.

Future Success

Finally, all of these benefits can help you future. You become more successful by being less stressed and more focused on the task at hand. You stop trying to multi-task and become a unitasker, which really does wonders for you. All of these things you learn through mindfulness meditation are going to help you in the future.

How to Start Doing Mindfulness Meditation

You have already have a brief introduction into what mindfulness meditation is and how it works, but let’s go a little deeper into the practice. You will also learn some helpful method, tips, and tricks that can help you if you are new to meditation.

Where to Meditate

As mentioned briefly in the previous section, you need to start by choosing the right place for your meditation. Schedule a time of the day when nobody else is home or when you have few distractions. Wait until the kids are at school or asleep, your significant other is otherwise engaged, and let the dogs outside for a bit. Every little distraction, from a knock on the door to a cell phone ringing is going to break you out of the meditation. You only need about 15-20 minutes to start with. For now, try to choose a place in the house where you can sit quietly and close your eyes. Eventually, meditation can be anywhere you find it relaxing, from driving to work to going for a walk or hike. However, right now you want to practice with your eyes closed, so choose your bedroom, living room, or even on your patio if it is quiet and peaceful enough.

Sit in your location with your eyes close and in a relaxing position. It should be a position where you will not be fidgeting or moving around constantly. Keep your back straight and hands relaxed.

What to Focus On

Once you have gotten into the right position, you can start with your mindfulness meditation. Traditional meditation calls for clearing your mind completely, so that is a good first step. Focus on your breathing first to clear your mind of all distractions, stressful situations, plans, and schedules. Put your to-do list away and watch your negative feelings and thoughts float away. Once you are only thinking about your breathing, your mind is clear, and you can start the mindfulness portion.

This is when you are focusing on just one thing, one thought, one scenario. You are being mindful about the present, so it can be as simple as thinking about the act of meditation or a scent you smell in the air. What you focus on is not as important as the act of meditation to relax your body and mind.

Find a Singular Object

It can also help to focus on a single object with your eyes opened or closed. If you want to close your eyes, get an object that is simple to hold in your hand. This can be anything that is small and easy to feel in your hands. You will close your eyes and hold this object, touching its details and curves, focusing on the sensations, shape, and size, and not on any other thoughts that try to creep in. You can also choose a visual object, such as focusing on a painting on the wall or placing an object right in front of you. Look at the colors, textures, and design of that object. What you are doing is training your mind to release all other thoughts and focus on one singular thing.

Be Patient

Remember to always be patient. Both mindfulness and meditation will take practice and is not something you are going to pick up right away. People need time to get used to clearing their minds and having a singular focus. You have lived all these years trying to multi-task, do everything at once, think about every little thing that could go wrong, making plans and schedules and to-do lists. It takes time just to relax and be in the moment, so make sure you are patient with yourself.

Incorporate Essential Oils With Meditation

As a final note, we want to discuss using essential oils in combination with meditation. This can be really helpful, especially for beginners. You are not only going to focus on the scents to help with mindfulness, but certain scents can actually help you relax even further.

Not All Oils Are Created Equal

The phrase, Truth in Advertising, has always felt like a bit of an oxymoron to me. There are many unscrupulous people out there selling adulterated essential oils. This means you are definitely not getting what you’ve paid for and that’s a shame because essentials oils are a powerful addition to your empowered health toolbox. So, buyer beware!

Thankfully, there are watchdogs out there working on our behalf like, Consumers Advocate. They’ve done the research for you. Since none of us like to feel “had”, check out their report HERE before purchasing your essentials oils.

My two personal sources I trust are doTERRA and Organixx.

Good Essential Oils to Use

You can use any oils you want, but there are some that are good for relaxing and calming the mind. Here is a list of some essential oils to try out, and the reasons why they are so helpful.

Lavender

One of the best and most relaxing essential oil scents to start with is lavender. Lavender is perfect for stress relief, lowering anxiety, and helping your mind and body to fully relax. You will feel calm with a scent that isn’t too strong or overbearing.

Lemon

You can also try lemon, which is especially good when you are doing the mindfulness meditation in the morning or when you want to be a little more alert. This is a fresh scent that also helps with improving your mood, reducing allergies, and improving your respiratory system.

Peppermint

Peppermint is a bit of a stronger scent, but you can dilute it even more or put a little less into your oil diffuser. Peppermint is good for oral health, respiratory support, and better focus and concentration. Like lemon, it is also a great mood lifter.

Rose

Rose is a light floral scent that will calm and relax your mind, while also helping your body to relax. This is good for beginners, and can easily be mixed with some of the other scents.

Mindfulness 101

December 2, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Mindfulness is something that may sound very mystic and out there to most people. You may think it is all about meditation and how to find out more about yourself. What you may be thinking is that you don’t have time or that the process just won’t do anything for you in your life. There are actually several things you should know about mindfulness before you toss it out the door as something that won’t work for you or isn’t for you. Here are a few of those key points.

Mindfulness Helps Focus

One of the key points to mindfulness is how it helps with focus. By working through the stages of mindfulness and learning different techniques, such as breathing, you will start to learn to focus on certain stages and aspects of your life. For example, instead of focusing on all of your tasks for the day, the week, your friends tasks, and everything else going on you can focus on the task at hand and be present in that task. This allows you to get the task done quickly and easily.

Mindfulness Helps Stress

Stress can be brought on by a number of issues. One of the main issues is having too much on our task list and not enough time to focus on each item to completion. Other stressful aspects can be the outside influences of others including gossip and friends issues and problems. Mindfulness helps you by showing you ways and methods to avoid immediate reaction and instead focus on issues and decide what you need to take on and what you do not. For example, you can still be there for your fitness without allowing your friend’s issues to become your issues and cause more stress.

Mindfulness is a Routine

In addition to viewing mindfulness as a way to handle events and aspects of your daily life in order to be happier and less burdened, you should also remember that mindfulness is not a one time event. Mindfulness is not a quick fix and it is not a BandAid for your issues. Mindfulness is a routine that you incorporate into your life. By doing mindfulness techniques each day, you will find mindfulness becoming a part of you instead of something you just do.

This is just a very quick overview of mindfulness and what it can mean in your life. Consider these points along with some research on the benefits of mindfulness and how you can put it in your daily routine and life.

Benefits of Guided Visualizations

June 14, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Meditation provides a lot of amazing benefits for your mind, attitude, and physical health. If you have been wanting to try meditation, but find it intimidating, you might want to start slow with guided visualization. Here is a quick rundown on how that works and what you need to get started.

Benefits of Guided Meditation on the Go

Guided meditation is a type of meditation where you listen to someone’s voice instructing you throughout the entire process. While you can definitely do this at home, you can also do some guided meditations while on the go. Here are some benefits to choosing this method.

You Can Get into a Different Headspace

Guided meditation, whether on the go or right at home, can instantly transform your mind and thought process. It is helping to clear your mind of worries and negative thoughts, and replacing it with images that bring you into an entirely new place. This alone causes a lot of relaxation that is wonderful for anxiety and self-care in general.

No Worries About Home Distractions

The reason you might want to try this on the go is because you won’t have to worry about home distractions. When you try to do any form of meditating at home, there tend to be a lot of noises and excitement around you that bring you out of it. From barking dogs to demanding kids or just a loud TV in the other room, it makes it really hard to focus.

Guided Meditation is Less Stressful for Beginners

Guided meditation is also perfect for anyone who is stressed by meditation. It does take practice to get used to it, but when you are using a guided meditation, you just imagine what the person on the recording is telling you.

Tips for Doing Guided Visualization

Guided visualization, or guided imagery, is a type of meditation where you don’t just clear your mind, but you enter a different place that is guided by your own imagination or an actual recorded voice that is encouraging your mind to go to a certain place. This can be just as therapeutic for you as traditional forms of meditation.

Try it with a Recorded Meditation First

Guided visualization or imagery is not something you can master immediately, though for some people it is actually easier than other forms of meditation. However, if you are having trouble really getting into that visualization you are hoping for, listening to a recorded meditation session that actually guides you through the imagery can help tremendously. Get into a comfortable place, close your eyes, and listen to the voice to imagine what they are describing.

You can find recordings in many places, both free and to pay for. If you want something free, either look online in places like YouTube, or go to your local library. You are bound

Experiment in Different Environments

Once you get used to guided visualizations, you can start doing them on your own, imagining anything and everything you want. You will be able to choose whatever relaxes you and helps you to clear your mind the best. This not only differs based on your personal preference, but also in different environments. Try heading to different places like the beach or park or hiking trail and see what visions come to you.

Practice Makes Perfect

The more you practice, the easier this type of meditation is going to be. Keep at it every day and soon you will be able to do the meditation exercise with ease.

More Styles of Meditation

When you are ready to get into different types of meditation, you can try the following:

Loving-Kindness

Do you feel that you should live everyone, even your enemies? Loving kindness meditation is a type of meditation used to create peace within a person. It does this by channeling the natural urge to avoid or dislike things into loving and cherishing energy. When you try to find the power to love something that is uncomfortable, you can grow an attitude of appreciation.

This can be done by repeating a love message that is directed towards a person or a thing that has negatively affected you. As you continue to think of the things that bother you, simply place your message of love over the object of focus. This helps you to fight off depression and many aspects of PTSD.

Progressive Relaxation

This type of meditation teaches you to be more aware by having you try to find any part of you that might have a lot of tension. Once the tension is found, then you focus on it until it releases. This can help people who suffer from anxiety, and has some effectiveness for chronic pain. This method relies heavily on visualization so that you can mentally interact with the areas.

Mindfulness

Sometimes it can be easy to attribute negative feelings toward certain environments and situations. In many of these cases, it will be suggested that you use Mindfulness as meditation. This attempts to get you to absorb the sights and sounds of the world around you without any kind of judgment. You stay focused on the day instead of worrying about the past or future.

Breath Awareness

Another great form of meditation is breath awareness, which is exactly what it sounds like. You simply focus on your breathing. This can be very helpful towards reducing stress and anxiety. In this technique, you will slowly focus on deliberate breathing for a period of time, and focus on the silence.

Zen

This is typically referring to a type of meditation found in Buddhism. Zen is generally taught by teachers who have studied the positions and breathing found in the Buddhist practices. It takes a bit more practice to utilize but can be rewarding for many people. It fosters peace because you attain through a comfortable position and non-judgmental feelings about your thoughts. This helps reduce stress and anxiety.

Just start…

I hope something resonated here for you. I would’ve never imagined I could tame the Monkey Mind and just Be. But I can. And I do. What a gift to give yourself!

Let me know how it goes!