For Cori. You brought me back to my path. I am grateful for you. I miss you eternally.
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ISBN: Print 978-1-64876-851-4
eBook 978-1-64876-852-1
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CONTENTS
Welcome to your mindfulness journey. Take a deep breath and get comfortable. You have everything you need inside you.
Why are you here? Maybe you tried formal meditation practices and struggled. Maybe you examined your relationship with stress and realized it was time for a change. Maybe you recognized youre having trouble being present and feeling joy in your life. Maybe you are coping with loss and change, and you hope to open your heart again. No matter the impetus, you are in the right place.
I have been practicing yoga and mindfulness since age 17. My early childhood was traumatic, and I attempted to dissociate myself from difficult experiences. I pushed down rejection, pain, and anger. In young adulthood, I struggled to make safe choices and often found myself wondering why my behavior didnt align with my core values. Who was I becoming?
Yoga and mindfulness helped me shape my mind and body. I began to chip away at the fortress I had erected around my heart. I started to feel like my thoughts and actions reflected the truth of who I was inside. Yet, to this day, I struggle with the fight-or-flight impulse when I feel triggered, so I lean on my mindfulness practice to put distance between my impulses to act and my actions.
We can grow and heal ourselves to shift our patterns of thoughts and behaviors throughout our lifetimes. Every moment presents an opportunity to use a kind, gentle mind to examine what we are experiencing without judgment and with curiosity and love. These shifts in mind-set are not permanent. Like a gardener tending to a plot to remove weeds and nourish the harvest, we too must work consistently and incrementally to experience the growth commensurate with that of a garden in full bloom.
Daily practice has a significant impact. When I was in my mid-20s, I was studying yoga and mindfulness and decided I wanted to think more positively. For six months, I journaled for about five minutes per day. I had to write my way back to gratitude no matter how challenging things got. Ive felt the positive effects of this practice for years. Now, when I feel my old doom and gloom, I can reach for this practice to bring myself back to positive thinking. You can do the practices in this book in just a few minutes at a time. When you do them consistently, you will notice a big impact on your mind and body. You can come back to the practices that support you anytime you need them.
So what is the deal with mindfulness? Mindfulness, while secular, is derived from Buddhism. It has been practiced in the West since the late 1970s, when Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in a clinical setting, where he gathered empirical evidence that mindfulness practices help practitioners experience life with less reactivity and more equanimity. In this book, you will learn some basic mindfulness activities, along with yoga breathing and pose sequences, to work toward a body and mind that feel like home. Whether you are a beginner or have experience with mindfulness practices, youll find that the activities in this book can shift your relationship with time, attention, presence, and joy. Grab a journal, a pen, and a warm drink, and lets get started.
Mindfulness is about bringing the mind back to the moment when it wanders, and doing so with kindness and curiosity: Hey, mind, where did you go? Thanks for letting me know you care about that thought. Now, lets return to the intended focus.
Mindfulness can be a mental state of clarity, an awareness of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. It can also refer to a character trait that results in a sense of equanimity, which allows practitioners to become less reactive while remaining openhearted and caring. Mindfulness can also refer to big M mindfulness (formal seated meditation), which this book does not cover, as well as little m mindfulness, such as establishing intentions, moving your body, journaling, and breathing. This book focuses on these activities.
