Make time for Mindful Moments – Denise’s feature on Rejuvenated

Here’s another fact: mindfulness is simply being present.
Here’s the last fact: Meditation boosts mindfulness and can take many forms.

We’ve been hearing a lot about the benefits of meditation lately and there are many proven ones. If you are one of those people who has tried meditating …but find that whenever you’ve tried it, instead of getting a sense of calm and peace, you’ve basically redesigned your entire house and reorganised your ‘to do’ list then read on – all is not lost.

The first thing to remember is that one person’s hour of deep chanting meditation is another person’s 15-minute simple breathing meditation – the point is that there is no set style of meditation that you have to adhere to it is not prescriptive – what matters is that you feel refreshed by yours.

If you’re anything like me then your mind can feel like the Duracell bunny …it just won’t shut down.. – so giving yourself a break can be so restorative PLUS the more you do it the better you’ll get at it AND the more benefits you’ll get.But if you haven’t quite managed to develop a regular meditation practice there are a few simple ways that you can introduce mindful moments in your day.

Making time for mindful moments

Ask any meditation guru and they will tell you that achieving a completely empty mind is not the objective it is more about learning to be present: thoughts will appear and take you into the future or the past, but the skill is to gently push them away and regain your focus on the here and now … And there are times when your session will consist of just that
maintaining presence.

• Start your day by just taking a few minutes to do a brain dump ….jot down how you’re feeling and practice some deep breathing.
• Make your personal care routine a mindful moment by focusing on each process
  …brushing your teeth, conscious cleansing ….the feel of your cleanser on your skin, the scent, the feel of the water and do the same in the bath or shower.
• Your meals can be made mindful by simply consciously focusing on the preparation of them as well as eating: take time to savour the flavours and textures of each meal. Let’s face it …many of us treat our breakfast and lunch especially as something to be done while we catch up on emails, social media, phone calls..so much so that we sometimes can’t even remember what we ate or the flavours.

Focus on your surroundings …be more conscious when you are walking around…notice the simple things like the sky, the trees, the people.

So, join me and make a commitment to yourself to make mindful moments a part of your day.