28 12 / 2011
Mindfulness Exercises
- Focusing on the Breath - Get into a comfortable position and just notice the experience of your breath going in and out. Pay attention to what each breath feels like coming in through your nose or mouth, and notice your lungs expanding. Then notice how it feels when you exhale. If you recognize that a breath is long or short, do not judge it. Simply accept the breath and continue with the next. If your thoughts wander, gently bring them back to your breath.
- Half-Smile - Accept reality with your body. Relax your face, neck, and shoulders and half-smile with your lips. A half-smile is slightly upturned lips with a relaxed face. Try to adopt a serene expression. Try to half-smile when you are awake, in your free moments, when irritated, when in uncomfortable situations. When you half-smile with your body, you are telling your mind that you can make it through the present situation.
- Ice Cube Exercise - Hold an ice cube in your bare hand and let it melt. Observe and describe the experience. Use this exercise when surfing the urge to do harmful or self-injurious behavior. When seriously triggered or in crisis it is always best to consult someone you trust first, but if you are currently alone or unable to contact someone, try this exercise. Try holding it for ten seconds, then twenty, then thirty. If the ice melts before you get to at least one minute and you still feel triggered, try another ice cube. Continue until you no longer feel triggered. This particular exercise will be uncomfortable. Holding the ice until your emotions have calmed and focusing on surfing through an uncomfortable situation shows that you can get through those current and future uncomfortable situations. If you start to feel pain from the ice in your hand and you use that pain to quickly and momentarily cut off emotion like a harmful behavior, then STOP.
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28 12 / 2011
Tips on Mindful Listening and Speaking:
Listen to everything around you. Especially yourself. Become aware of your words. Try not to interrupt or think about your own reply while someone is talking.
Be attentive.
Try to say only words that build a person up instead of tearing them down.
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27 12 / 2011
Peace.
It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart.
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27 12 / 2011
Like a lotus flower that grows out of the mud and blossoms above the muddy water surface, we can rise above our mistakes and sufferings of life.
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27 12 / 2011
Instead of learning how to multi-task in our hectic everyday lives; we must learn how to uni-task. To be able to do things one at a time, slowly, completely, and mindfully.
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27 12 / 2011
Everyone is fighting their own battle. To be free from their past. To live in their present. And to create their future. So have heart.
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27 12 / 2011
"Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment."
Thich Nhat Hanh
To help in recovery, one must be able to breathe. Breathe in and be aware.
27 12 / 2011
Mindfulness is a light in a dark room which alerts you to all the things which you were previously unaware were around you.
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