If you know me, you'll know that I've struggled with anxiety and panic for more or less my entire life in varying degrees of severity. I have a long standing history of crushing panic attacks, both from generalized anxiety and chronic PTSD. My life used to revolve around avoiding anything that might inflame my fight or flight system (if you experience anxiety attacks or panic attacks you know how miserable they are and how much energy you're willing to put into keeping it under wraps.) I ended up spending a lot of time alone and focused on finding solutions, ranging from art to therapy to special diets and breathing techniques and visualizations, exercises, fancy vitamins, you name it. Some of the skills I've developed over the years proved to be helpful with regular practice and made a huge difference in my quality of life once I integrated them as habits. When committed to using them regularly, a foundation began to form that made for an easier landing when my system was trying to self-destruct, and over time it made those experiences less frequent.
Around 2017, I was chatting with a friend who is also an artist (an extremely talented one (I might add) who was struggling with panic and stress. For him, it seemed most often to hit at work or in the car, and it was difficult to remember to take time to breathe or to decompress his muscles on a regular basis throughout a demanding work day. I realized that before I had integrated a lot of these practices as regular habits and foundational skills, I used to struggle to remember them, too. Especially when I needed it most. At that time, it struck me how something simple could serve as a reminder in those moments throughout the day, much like the classic example of a string tied around our finger, to remember to take 30 seconds or 3 minutes, to pause and practice these mini breaks throughout our day. And when stretched across a daily commitment for 30 days, became deeply ingrained and much easier to remember. For my friend, I developed a magnet with instructions for quick and easy focused breaths that could be conveniently stuck to a fridge, range hood, toolbox, filing cabinet, etc. And this is how the first set of "mindful reminders" were born!
So, what exactly is mindfulness? First and foremost, mindfulness is a practice. Our brains are highly developed to think and that's what they do best (sometimes a little too much!) Most of us can relate to having racing thoughts, worries, busyness, internal movies and radio stations that clamor for our attention. Sound familiar? It can be exhausting. Most of the time we bounce between trying to tune out this internal noise through external distractions or we get so swept up in it that we worry ourselves into a frenzy or maybe we get distracted from our tasks at hand or reminisce ourselves into a deep sorrow. The more we have going on, the harder or more daunting it is to be left "alone with our thoughts." Mindfulness is simply the practice of letting things be exactly how they are in the moment. It means staying right here and just noticing and accepting this moment 100% without trying to change anything at all. One second.
Go ahead and try it right now. Just take in a breath, notice what is happening around you, notice what is happening in your body or your mind, notice how your feet feel on the ground or your butt feels on the chair. You don't have to change it, even if it's uncomfortable, for just one short second just notice it.
And that was a successful second of mindfulness!
That's all there is to it.
After that, every second counts as a success and they can be built upon and restarted at any time. Even catching our mind wandering or noticing we've drifted off into daydreams or thinking is a mindful act. You don't even have to try to stop thinking (which rarely works), just noticing that you're thinking... is mindful! Once we really start to understand this, the opportunities to practice are infinite.
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