w i t h J a i m e
Guided Meditations
There are many different ways to practice mindfulness. Some people find listening to a guided meditation helpful. Using an audio track to help practice presence and facilitate a journey through self-discovery creates a sense of well-being for most humans.
Short Pause Practices
Pausing throughout our day provides an opportunity for a micro-mindfulness practice.
A mindful pause can be as simple as practicing S.T.O.P. (Stop moving your body, Take a conscious breath, Observe what is happening internally and Proceed with intention).
Or it can be finding a quiet place to do a 5 minute meditation. When we connect with our breath and body and do a little check in about how we want to be with a moment, we get a choice for how to respond, rather than reacting without any awareness.
Breath Meditations
We often take breathing for granted. It's a constant activity in the background of our daily lives and yet the breath also acts as a reflection of how we are in any given moment. It is full of information if we're willing to pay attention.
Breathing is one of the only systems that happens in our body that is both automatic and manageable. Taking a long intentional in-breath, with a longer out-breath is one of the best ways to send a signal to our nervous systems that we are safe-enough in that moment and can shift into a calmer state of being.
The breath is the most popular anchor used in meditation. However, if meditating with a focus on the breath creates discomfort, many other anchors can be used instead.
Embodiment Meditations
Mindfulness Meditation helps us reconnect with our bodies. Instead of living in our minds all the time, we start to notice the sensations that are constantly moving, changing and living in the body. We start to check in with those sensations and get curious about them.
As we live more fully in our bodies, we come to understand that they live in the present moment and can help us be more aware in our daily lives.
A regular mindfulness practice helps us regard our body with more intention and compassion and we learn that kindness begins with ourselves.
Resilience Meditations
Mindfulness helps us build resilience. It does this by helping us confront the challenging parts of our life, our feelings and our thoughts with clarity. The practice helps us metabolize difficult emotions through meditations that help us see our experience with perspective and compassion.
When we can remain steady in the face of difficulty we are practicing what is called equanimity. It relies on our tender hearts to understand first hand that life is full of change and that our hearts are strong enough to handle that change with skill.
There are many strategies for developing resilience and meditations are one way to develop enough safety, strength and intention to have the grit needed when necessary.
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