Mindfulness Exercises

“Mindfulness” is a well-researched and scientifically-proven approach to developing coping skills. It is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. Below you will find Mindfulness practices and prompts organized by category. Each one should take you no longer than 5 minutes. You may decide you’d like to try one mindfulness exercise per day and use them sequentially as listed below, or you may wish to scroll through the categories, and chose one that serves you that day.

Theme / Week #1: The Heart

1. The heart is where energy begins and ends in the body. Make a list of what you KNOW about your heart: what it IS, and what it IS NOT. See mine here.

4. May today mark the beginning of a chapter in your life with a soft, open heart, released of past pain and anguish. The back body is representative of our ability to ground, release, and... you guessed it, “Reset & Re-Energize!” Today, try laying on your back for 5 minutes, with your hands behind your head, supporting the weight of your skull, choosing whatever style of breath feels good to you. Enjoy a daydream while the muscles and tissues of your ribs, shoulders, and back get a nice stretch, opening the thoracic (meaning thorax, or chest) spine. Also don’t forget your list of what your heart IS and IS NOT as you lie there, enjoying.

5. Today is our last day of building awareness of our hearts. As such, here are one of my favorite poems and a few songs about the heart. Take some time to read this, or perhaps find a quote or poem about the heart that you enjoy.

Need a good cry?

Song: “Speak Your Heart” by Liz Wright.

Song: “True Love Will Find You In The End” by Daniel Johnston

Feeling the rockstar vibe?

Song: “What About Love?” by Heart

Wish an angel would sing you to you?

Song: “One Voice” by The Wailin’ Jenny’s

Theme / Week #2: Power

1. Get out of a piece of paper ad write down what your gut responses are to the word, “power.” Here is mine.

2. Take the notion of power - which is very linear - and write down as many places in your life that this concept shows up. Be specific! Who has more power, where are you “subordinate,” and where are you the one in power as compared to someone else? No labeling as good or bad. Examples may be a boss, someone who pays for your livelihood, someone you pay to take care of your children, your lawn, your taxes, being a parent… write as many of these examples as you can think of.

3. Verbalize out loud - or to a friend or family member for more punch! - something that you are willing to give your power away to. It could be a person, a job, a specific instance such as “I’m willing to pay top dollar to the fastest postal delivery service, and I’m happy to give away the power of my dollar because I want guaranteed fast delivery” or “I am willing to give away my need for things to be clean in my home because I have a partner who is terrible at keeping things clean and I would rather relinquish that argument than to keep my sense of power (aka control) around this issue.”

• This exercise must be written down or spoken out loud! This puts our idea into the physical plane, and we engage in the process of manifestation, which is a deep lesson in yoga philosophy. Thoughts in our heads can only work in our heads! Put the ideas out in the world, and we can start to do something productive with them.

4. Get out a recording device if you have a smartphone, or grab a friend and sit them down on the couch in front of you and do the following: Say out loud (with emotion! Conviction! Become ONE with your feelings!) one thing that TRULY makes you FEEL powerful. It might be something silly, something that seems like it has nothing to do with yoga, or something you would never say out loud to someone because they’d think you’d gone nuts. 🥜

5. Get out a journal, and write down a one-sentence intention of how you will practice being powerful in the week to come. Make it something small and achievable, something you can put into practice right away.

• Examples: committing to a daily habit

• noticing your emotions around a particular subject or person

• owning your reactions around a particular subject or person

• initiating a long-overdue conversation

Theme / Week #3: SENSING

Do the following exercises in the nighttime, which is when our bodies and minds are at their most receptive.

1. Delight your senses for five uninterrupted minutes! Here’s why 5 minutes: It takes the average person anywhere from 2-5 minutes to complete a full mind-body neurological circuit, where the neuropathways can “feel at home and present” on their path, so that they relax and a deeper sensory awareness can start to emerge, activating both sympathetic (fight or flight - aka ACT! GO! DO!) & parasympathetic (rest & re-set - aka CHILL! RELAX! BE!) nervous systems in balance.

• Smell a flower

• enjoy the detail of a piece of artwork or item in nature

• taste your food slowly and thoroughly

• listen intently to a favorite record or song

• give yourself a good nighttime moisturize session with some self-massage

• something else that feels indulgent!

2. Take one minute of resting your left hand on each of your body’s seven chakras, or energy centers. Think of each part of the body as having its own voice as you rest your hand on each of the chakras on the front of your body. Sense what that part of your body is telling you. Allow thoughts to come freely, without judgment.

3. Take the chakra that felt the most receptive. Give yourself five minutes with just that chakra, hands resting right on top of left. Close your eyes and see if you can move any energy using just your hand and your breath. Feel for the energy like water, with its own force, separate from your body. Happy sensing!

4. In an interaction with someone else (or with yourself in the mirror) notice what the body language is saying about this person’s mood. Is it consistent with the sound of their voice? The look in their eyes?

• Additionally, notice your own reaction to this body language? What thoughts pass through your mind as a reaction to your observations?

5. An exercise in resilience: Find a quiet place for five minutes. Create a supportive rhythmic pattern of your breath. Allow this rhythm to take up all of your awareness, comforting you like the waves of the ocean. Now notice where there is tension in the body. Breathe through this tension, try to stay with the feeling of the tension and use your breath as a “weapon” or “dance partner” (whichever you like better) against this tension in order to not wiggle, squirm, or otherwise “escape,” the tension. Stay rooted in your breath!

Theme / Week #4: Grounding

1. Find a “happy place” within your home where you feel a sense of peace, calm, and “at-home-ness” in your body. This could be a whole room, it could be the act of lighting a particular candle, it could be sitting in a favorite chair, or snuggling under your covers and closing your eyes. Make this some place that does not involve a screen (TV, smartphone, tablet, or otherwise). Chose a place that you feel like you can just sit for five minutes and let time pass pleasantly. Notice your surroundings. Notice what it is about this place that feels good to you. Feel your body relax more with each passing minute.

2. Go to your home happy place with a journal. Sit with your breath, noticing the rise and fall, fill up and release, expansion and contraction in your body. Sit with your eyes open or closed -your choice. Release thoughts as they come, and just notice your breath and surroundings. Write one word to one sentence - no more - encapsulating what you feel. Sit as long as you like and enjoy!

3. The Small Pile project! A big part of feeling grounded, supported, held, and cared for is making sure that our environment feels supportive. Find a small project around the house such as organizing a pile of magazines, doing a repair, or installing/implementing something new. This should NOT cascade into an “All The Piles” project! Choose one thing, focus on it, and enjoy the completion of getting it done!

4. Prompts to help ground!

NEED: Take a deep breath in: What does your heart need? Wait for an answer that feels true, even if its something small and silly like, “I gotta pee!”

WANT: Once you have your answer of what your heart needs, ask yourself what you want today in this moment. Sometimes wants get confused with needs, so you might need to go back to step one to clarify.

WHY: Why would it feel good? What is the sensory experience attached to the thing you’re craving? Freedom? Comfort? Relaxation? Ease? Excitement?

HOW: How can you create a combination of your need, want, and why into an activity that will serve your heart, body, & soul today? Something as small as enjoying the taste of your coffee, indulging in your favorite re-run / netflix, or snuggling with a pet, partner, friend, or lover!

Theme / Week #5: POTENTIAL

1. It can be challenging to remember that there is immense potential in the process of destruction. It usually requires a good fight, and a lot of work, but the opportunity to end up in a better place than you were before is at its highest!! So for day ONE of POTENTIAL, we’ll set our sights on a self-assessment. Where do you routinely underestimate your own potential? Maybe in your work. Maybe in a relationship. Maybe a talent or skill of yours that you’ve routinely been praised for. Take five minutes to sit quietly with this question, get out your journal, and write down what feels true. And enjoy releasing that info out of your body and getting it on paper! See mine here.

2. Take what you wrote yesterday about how you underestimate your own potential and come up with a way to put a barrier between you and this thinking so that there’s no more room for it.

For example: Mine was not giving into “the shoulds,” because that’s an energy killer for me. So my way of practicing shrinking space for that idea is when I think to myself, “I should... XYZ.” I instead give myself permission to think about if I NEED to do the thing I think I should RIGHT NOW, and if I could do something else first that will motivate and energize me.

3. This potential will expand on yesterday’s exercise as it was kind of a big ask... how do you edge something out when it’s lodged in your habits... so today, take a piece of paper and write down 1-3 instances where you can remember not “living up to your potential.”

4. Now - instead of focusing on the fact that you “missed the mark” for whatever reason, recall what the circumstance was at the time. What was creating the barrier to expressing your full potential? Was it something within your control or not? Is there some way you could have influenced the situation differently, or did you have to let sleeping dogs lie? Write down / unpack one situation if it’s what you have time for, or do multiple and look for patterns.

5. Write a list, or bring this notion of “reaching your potential” into a breath practice (from week 1) to think about what resources are needed to actualize your potential. Or do both! Give yourself some time and space around these thoughts and visualize yourself in the space where your potential is being realized. Do you need money? Other people? Certain clothes? Information? Skills? How will you attain these things? If you don’t know, who might? How could you “go on a treasure hunt,” to figure out a pathway to getting the resources you need? Allow your list to become a piece of artwork if you like.

Theme / Week #6: INSIGHT

1. What does the word “insight” mean to you. Take out a piece of paper, and write down the first 5 things that come to mind. Keep it simple.

2. We are all good at something, and therefore have an ability to be insightful in a particular topic or situation. Today’s exercise is to give your insight a name!

Example: This is Francesca. She has a very good time laughing behind my back (with loving affection). She sees everything while I have my eyes closed.

3. An exercise in using your body’s insight: As you eat your next meal, ask yourself the following 3 questions:

• Why are you eating it?

• What is it doing for you?

• How does it make you feel?

Try not to label as good or bad, just make your observations, and write them down if you like.

4. Today’s exercise is about , sitting with eyes closed, keeping quiet, and imagining your thoughts as a silent film. Whatever images come in are part of the film. Whatever thoughts come in are part of the film. Whatever characters come in are part of the film. After a few minutes, when it seems like the film has ended, open your eyes and write down what happened, who was there, and where it happened. Write any details you remember. Now notice if any of these people, places, or scenarios are somehow metaphorically linked to your own life. What do these characters and this “movie” have to teach you?

Theme / Week #7: Verbalize

1. Sometime this week, find a brand new person to have a conversation with. Within the conversation naturally, try to find out the following information about this person:

• their name

• where they were born

• something else interesting that’s not about the weather or the news of the day.

2. Processing our emotions verbally has been documented in various integrative medical and psychological studies as showing a positive effect on the immune system, as well as levels of happy-inducing hormones serotonin and dopamine. Today, have a conversation with yourself about how you’re feeling. You might feel a little crazy, so if you want to feel less crazy, get out your smartphone and record yourself, and anyone who looks at your funny, feel free to blame me. Say out loud the things you normally only say inside. Notice how you feel at the end of a 2-3 minute conversation with yourself. ☺️

3. Listen back to your recording! Or - if you didn’t record yourself - see what you can remember of the conversation. Get out a piece of paper and take note of what you remember. Is it the content of what you talked to yourself about? Is it that you were nervous and felt funny? Is it the exact feelings you were having at that moment? Practice observing what came out of your mouth when directed.

4. Seek out someone who is uncomfortable to have a conversation with. This might be someone who talks too much for you, or never quite seems to say enough. As much as possible, see if you can hold a conversation for at least 1-2 minutes where the only thing you say after your greeting (“Hello! How are you, Dale?” etc…) is either “uh-huh” with an affirmative tone, or “mmmmmm” or “aaaahhhh” with any other tone: shock, disappointment, disgust, anger, surprise, excitement, etc. Assign feelings to the conversation instead of words to your best ability and see what you notice.

5. Bring a sticky pad with you throughout your day, and notice what goes through your head throughout the day. Try to find 5 times throughout the day to notice what your thoughts are, and write them down. No judgment, no controlling them, no altering what you want them to be. Just write them down like you would a shopping list.

Theme / Week #8: LOVE

Love is the universal healing principle.

My words:
I believe there is one universal, and that is love. The absence of it brings chaos and the presence of it is what heals us.

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Explanation of Sutra #45:
The world itself is God***. All that is outside is is God. When we dedicate our lives to the benefit of humanity, we have dedicated ourselves to God. Whatever we do can easily be transformed into worship by our attitude. We can do anything and everything as long as we do it with the idea of serving the world at large. We can serve our tables, our chairs and everything around us. If we don’t pull chairs mercilessly from one corner to another, we are serving them. If we drag them, they cry. Anything handled roughly will feel pain. There should be a gentle, Yogic touch with everything - even our spoons, forks, plates.

***Please note that I believe in the use of “God” as an all-inclusive term for that which you believe in that is bigger than humanity. Whether you call it God, Buddha, Allah, The Universe, Science, Art, Love, or the Great Poobah, I believe the intention is the same. Please use whatever word makes your heart sing.