The Practice of Mindfulness (Author, Dr. Nagasawa)
Mindfulness is a key component of self-compassion. Mindfulness allows us to face the truth of our experience by being present with our thoughts and feelings. A common mindfulness practice is to become aware of your breathing, noticing any time your mind wanders away from the breath, catching its wandering, and redirecting it back to the breath as your anchor to the present moment.
1) To begin the practice, sit down in a chair and adopt a comfortable posture, then ask yourself:
What am I experiencing right now?
What thoughts and feelings are around?
What body sensations are present?
Allow yourself to just acknowledge, observe and describe these experiences to yourself, without judgment and without trying to change them or make them go away. Spend 30 seconds to 1 minute just doing this.
2) Bring your awareness to your breath, focusing on the sensations of your breath as you inhale and exhale. Bring your awareness to the back and forth movements of the
sensations in your abdomen from moment to moment, letting thoughts go with each out breath. Saying to yourself, “calm”, “relax” or “let go” in each outward breath. If your mind wanders away to other thoughts, feelings and sensations – do not try to change
them or make them go away. Simply acknowledge their presence, allowing them to be there, then letting go with your attention and focusing back on your breath. Spend
about 1 or 2 minutes doing this.
3) Now expand your awareness to sensing your whole body breathing, being aware of sensations throughout your body. If there are any strong feelings around, maybe say to
yourself “whatever it is, it is okay, just let me feel it.” Allowing yourself to breathe with these feelings, and if your mind wanders to bothersome thoughts or sensations, just acknowledge and let go of these - focusing back on sensing your whole body breathing. Continue doing this for about another 1 or 2 minutes.
A Different Way to Think about COVID
C - connect with others (i.e. telephone, facetime, zoom, etc)
O - observing what I am grateful for
V - validating my feelings
I - imagining a happy and healthy future
D - decompressing with meditation/yoga/exercise