Hey guys! This is Trixi. Welcome to The Thoughtful Beast! Today we’re gonna be talking about some exercises for mindfulness.
Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword. It’s mind control!…It’s more like controlling your own mind. Mindfulness is about acting in a way that’s like helpful for your life and how you actually want to live, rather than you’re just reacting to whatever’s happening to you, right? Cuz sometimes, that’s a bad thing. Say I’m teaching a class and someone who starts degrading me in front of my face. I can’t just start yelling at them and going off. I could get fired for that even though someone else is harassing me.
Making sure that my emotions don’t take over my decisions of how I want to react to something is really important.
“Excuse me sir. Ma’am, that’s really inappropriate.”
…rather than going…
“Hey! You son of a…You don’t know! You don’t know me!”
That’s not effective for me being at work and wanting me to keep my job. So how do we go about controlling our minds, exactly? The great thing about skills are that there’s no talent necessary. Skills are available to anyone. You don’t need talent. You just need the dedication and put in hard work.
I’ve chosen some exercises that will hopefully cover different people’s preferences.
[Liz] Cut. There we go.
Ah! Haha! I said different people’s preferences!
1. Motivate Yourself with External Cues
So for my Pinterest people- the ones who love inspiration boards and quotes- keep going with that! Find some quotes or motivational words that will help you to practice your mindfulness skills, whether they’re reminders or straight up just like motivation…
“Hey girl! You can do this! Practice your mindfulness skills!”
You want to find things like that, and then you want to put them in strategic places in your house. So if you make coffee in the morning, put a nice little frame right there. The door you leave out of, put a nice little frame quote right next to it.
2. “This a Celly. That’s a tool.”
For my people who are addicted to their phones and it’s just with you at all times, use it to your advantage. Right?…setting alarms being like…
Oh at 11 a.m., I’m going to practice breathing and concentrating on my breath for one minute. Yes?
2:00 p.m., I’m going to take a moment to enjoy my favorite piece of chocolate and just focus on that.
9 p.m., I’m just gonna say to myself it’s great that you’re working on your mindfulness
…on my phone.
I don’t have skill reminders, but I actually have positive affirmations. So I don’t know if you can see it, but I have it timed out where at 11 a.m., I have a reminder that no feeling is final. At 2:00 p.m., I have the reminder that you will always survive, and at 9 p.m., breathe and be grateful.
3. Slow Your Roll with Meditation!
My meditation friends, this one is for you. So find a comfortable place to sit or lie down, preferably somewhere where you won’t be bothered and that has dimmer lighting. You’re gonna sit and relaxed and you’re gonna focus on your breathing, inhaling and exhaling. Feeling your abdominal wall expand and contract. Feeling all that. Feeling your body relax, and that’s it!
I would say for beginners, give yourself a timer start with; a minute. One minute can be a really long time because you’re not just breathing but you’re solely trying to focus on the breathing. So making sure, again, that your mind doesn’t wander, and that’s a skill! It’s going to take time, and then from there you can increase the amount of time you meditate.
4. Describe with Facts, NOT Judgements!
So for those who like to describe things and maybe talk out loud, this one is for you! So you’re gonna pick up an object. I have a pen. It could be a leaf. It can be a mug, something kind of simple, and we’re going to literally describe it!
I would definitely set a timer for this as well so it’s not just you feeling like you have to fill up time forever and describe it till the world ends.
” It says, “Uniball.” Tt’s black. There are piece stripped from it. There’s an etched word, “Japan”, in it. There’s a very shiny metallic piece.”
So you’re gonna state facts and observations, and you’re definitely gonna try to stay away from the judgements like, “This pen is old and gross,” because that’s not really helpful. Especially if you have mental illness, that is a negative thing we do for ourselves. We need to practice not being negative and be able to see things for just what they are, right? No judgment!
That’s All Folks!
So those are skills for today. These skills are based upon DBT, Dialectical Behavior Therapy. These are just some ways to approach mindfulness. There’s a lot of different mindfulness exercises out there. These are just for trying out!… and remember that they’re skills! Skills take time to work and for you to get good at them. So just because you’re trying something out, especially something like the meditation, which can be harder and harder for you just to focus on your breathing, don’t get mad at yourself. Don’t get discouraged. Skills take time. You build upon them.
That’s all for today, guys. Thanks for joining me! Remember to like, comment and subscribe if you want to follow me. Search down in the links, and you can find me on Twitch, Discord and all that other good stuff. Have a good rest of your day!
With skills!*me laughing*
[Liz]Okay. Don’t blow out the mic.
