Mind! Sit the f*ck down, NOW!

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

I don't know how many challenges have had mindfulness as a part (if not the main part) of them. Throughout these challenges, one thing has remained consistent: mindfulness not happening beyond the initial few days. That is, if it happens at all. This needs to stop. Or mindfulness needs to actually start, either one.

 

I am screwing myself over by not doing mindfulness, and from now on I will do it for a few minutes, multiple times per day. I am going to suck at mindfulness, and some sessions will be less good than others, and that is okay. The more I do it, the less I will suck.

 

I have no idea what the hold up is where mindfulness is concerned. There shouldn't even be a hold up since I'm good at establishing positive and healthy habits in other areas of life. Relatively clean diet? Check. Regular high intensity exercise? Check. Mindfulness? 404 not found. UNTIL NOW.

 

The more I do it, the less stressed I will be. The healthier I will be. The more awesome and glowing and younger I will look. The better I will feel.

 

I will stop telling myself that my mind is like an attention-deficient monkey on PCP, because this merely enables the "oh, that's just the way my mind is and I can't do anything about it" type of bullshit thinking. My mind is simply not trained very well, and mindfulness will change that. You hear that, mind? Shit's about to get real!

 

I just got a timer app on my phone that dings every hour. When it dings, I will make it a point to be in the now, as opposed to in the clouds or in the future.

 

Even though this is a part of my challenge goals, I won't log the days and number of times that I do mindfulness. I want to do this for myself and my own health, not to tick off a certain amount of boxes in a spreadsheet.

 

Also, if I get good at mindfulness and meditation, I'll feel like a freaking Jedi (or Sith lord, based on my cosplay preferences).

 

Let's do this!

[Raincloak]

I can tell you why mindfulness is difficult for you.  It's difficult for everybody.  People get very wound up with themselves and their thoughts.  We're pretty much the only species that is even capable of noticing this, let alone controlling it.  And it's quite a new development, both on the evolution level and the individual level.  It comes later in life, and sometimes not at all.  Annoyingly, the modern world is configured to make mindfulness more difficult, but I guess that just makes the few of us who work on it more elite ^^

 

getting an app to remind you is a good idea, but I would suggest you not push it too hard at first.  Overdoing meditation just teaches you to hate it, and then your instinctive mind will resist it more than before.

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

I'm not pushing too hard, just pushing it more often This way if one or the 5-minute sessions is a fail and the non-now thoughts take over, there are plenty of other opportunities to try again later during the day. I am hoping that by doing it often with a hourly reminder, I'll eventually get into the habit of doing it in several tiny chunks throughout the day on my own eventually. Habit building, woop woop!

 

Yesterday I did about four chunks of five minutes. One of the sessions was much better than the others (the others all being at work), which left me rather satisfied.

 

My main problem before was to get wound up when I was doing badly at meditation, as you've mentioned. After repeating to myself that I'd probably suck at first and that this was normal, though...I don't feel so bad when a thought pops in here or there. Small victory?

 

On the looooong road to eliteness!

[fitnessgurl]

This is something that I really need to focus on as well. I'm tired of monkeymind (my brain chattering at itself nonstop) over things that I cannot control.

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

This was going well last week after I made this post. The weekend was a different story, which makes no sense because mindfulness should have been easier while not at work.

 

I will need to find a better strategy than the hourly timer if I want to be mindful on weekends. The main problem was that, whenever the timer went off, I was always too focused on a task and told myself that "oh I'll be mindful after I'm done (task)". Tasks like sealing cosplay props with ModPodge, where the brush will dry and get perma-gunked if I stop for 5 minutes.

 

I do take frequent breaks whenever I do anything, so I'll make it a point to be mindful during breaks next weekend.

[fitnessgurl]

Going to make a point of slowing down today and refocusing. Right now my mind is completely fogged because of my crazy life. Maybe even do a brain dump.

[Closet Librarian]

This might sound strange, but. . . sometimes whilst commuting, I'll turn off the music and focus on what's happening around me and try not to get distracted by my brain or other forms of entertainment.  It's almost easier because you HAVE to be present in order to not rear-end someone.