The practice of mindfulness – of being fully present in this moment – is often first learned as a formal “sitting” practice, but as we become familiar with the landscape and language of mindfulness we begin to bring it into the rest of our daily experiences and interactions.  We learn to think mindfully and act mindfully, further reclaiming our lives from the habit of driving ourselves too hard and without passion or purpose.

Today being Valentine’s Day and hailed as the day of love, let’s make the day about true love and kindness by becoming present and fully experiencing the gifts, goodness and good fortune we have in our lives.  Here are some quick mindfulness practices that will help to ground us and increase satisfaction in life and relationships:

Mindful Movements:  The practice of mindful walking is a classic mindfulness practice in which we walk at a slow pace, fully experiencing all of the sensations of movement.  It is a focusing exercise and can result in gratitude for the fact that we have the ability to move and control our movements, as well as bringing us a sense of calm completeness.  The practice can be done with any movement at all.  Simply bring your mind to the movements you are making and become fully aware of how the movement feels as you are making it.   Today, when moving from one place to another, become aware of your movement, as though it is the first time you’ve ever moved.  Notice how this differs from your usual way of moving about.

Listening  Mindfully:  Whenever you are next in conversation with someone, bring your attention fully to that person.  Notice urges that call you to move around or check smartphones, or any other distractions that surface by habit, and see if you can choose instead to fully attend to the person in front of you and listen, without answering, to what they are saying.

Speaking Mindfully:  Take a moment to gather your thoughts after listening to someone else before responding.  Sounds simple, yes, but this act of creating a “productive pause” tends to change the feeling of communication between parties very quickly.  Not only does the productive pause allow you time to choose your words with care and greater wisdom, but the silence brings down stress levels and reactivity in both parties and brings patience and trust to the relationship.

Eating Mindfully:  When digging into your chocolates or any other special foods today (pssst, all foods are special!) choose to eat with complete awareness of the act of eating.   We are in the habit of inhaling our foods, rushing as we eat to the next task in the day or, at the very least, thinking of other things while we eat.  Just once today, choose to eat mindfully, if not for a whole meal, at least for one bite of food.

Begin by becoming aware of how you are holding the utensil or the food itself, then become aware visually of the textures and colours and any other qualities of the food you’ve chosen.  Next, close your eyes and inhale any scents from the food, and while doing so scan the body and mouth for any reactions associated with taking in these scents and aromas.  With awareness of and gratitude for the many people who were involved in bringing this food to you, and awareness of our interconnectedness, put the food into your mouth and before biting down, savour the food, feel the textures, and again notice the body and its reactions.  Finally, mindfully bite down and chew, and see if you can notice how the food tastes, feels and then travels down and becomes part of you.  Reflect on the experience after doing so.

Indulge Yourself:  To really pamper yourself today, take a few moments to try a very short mindfulness meditation to help calm and soothe you, and bring your mind and body into a wonderful state of relaxation, calm focus, wisdom and inner strength.  Read the instructions below and then follow them as best you can from memory, or have a loved one read the instructions to you and then you can reciprocate, leading each other through a mindfulness meditation.  Either way, set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and try the following:

To begin, sit comfortably and close your eyes.

Become aware of your natural breath.  Without moving to change the breath at all, just become aware of how it feels in the body.  Bring the mind to where you feel the breath most at this time, maybe at the belly or the chest or in the nose.  Just become aware of the feeling of breathing.

On the next in-breath, bring the mind to following the breath as it moves into the body and feel all of the sensations of the in-breath, noticing where and when the in-breath pauses in the body and turns into the out-breath, and then feel the sensations of out-breath as it leaves the body.

Again, bring the mind to the next in-breath, and become aware of the mind’s tendency to wander and assume that this breath will be the same as the last.  Knowing that tendency of the mind, really tune into the breath and feel it as though for the very first time, without assuming that you know anything about the experience of breathing.  Become curious.  Notice where the breath pauses after inhaling and really feel the out-breath as the air is released.

Continue breathing mindfully until the timer rings, and when finished this mindfulness meditation, bring that feeling of better health, satisfaction and inner strength to the rest of your day.

–

An audio track of this kind of breath awareness mindfulness meditation will soon be posted on the site for you to use at any time during the day to help calm and de-stress yourself.  We look forward to sharing it with you.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.   Take care of each other.  We’re all in this together.