So after doing 7 days of meditating for my 30 Day Mindfulness Challenge, I now want to spend the next week doing something else mindful.
I did continue to meditate today though, using Headspace. It was my first one that was 15 minutes, and it felt long! In fact, there was one portion where it was completely silent – no talking at all, and I thought that my phone had died because it was quiet for so long. But no…it was still on and fine. It was much easier to try to be mindful in the morning, there is no question about that. So hopefully I’ll keep doing this every morning.
But for this week, I want to focus on something else.
Since mindfulness is about being in the here and now, and about paying attention to the moment, I’m going to do a week of breathing exercises. While different breathing techniques can be used as a part of meditation, you can just do breathing exercises whenever you want, so I am going to try some different ones throughout the week and see how they help.
Today I tried something that is very simple to do.
Just breathe.
But pay attention to your breathing.
Focus on it.
That’s it!
I thought it was helpful. I’m not sure if it felt “mindful”, but it was relaxing. I only did it for 2 minutes, but I bet doing it longer is better, especially since it’s similar to meditation.
But if you don’t have a lot of time, or you don’t want to worry about having to clear your mind…try just focusing on your breathing in and out. If you’re focusing on that, you aren’t thinking about other things, and are just being in the here and now.
Tomorrow I’ll try a different breathing exercise.
Enjoy,
