Mindful Monday Week 1 - A New Beginning

Hello Steemians!!

Before I start, I just wanted to let you know of some good news and minor changes. I was approached by @riverflows from @naturalmedicine to help add a Mindful Life community to @naturalmedicine's Discord channel. I'll put details below for those of you that are interested in that path and meditation. It is in the works to hold regular meditations though this community. So besides our normal covering being mindful, we're going to feature someone in the community who complements what we're trying to accomplish. After a few conversations, with @riverflows we're going to change the name to Mindful Monday. It's more encompassing. Mindfulness is the practice, being mindful is a way of living. In addition, there will be a few other curations during the week using #mindfulmonday tag. It's a work in progress so any feedback is appreciated.

As I mentioned, in last week's post, we're going to start back at the basics and reacquaint ourselves what what mindfulness is and what being mindful means.

Just to remind everyone I am by no means an expert. This is purely me presenting what I have learned. Yes, I say this A LOT. I also repeat myself a lot on several points as you will come to find. My goals when I originally started this series and even now is to

Try to help prevent anyone from suffering the way I have over the
years.
To help teach coping skills that are practical in a work environment
or public situation.
To learn from our past but live in the NOW, the present.
How to find your way back when the past pulls you back.
To find the positive when things are dark.
Most importantly work towards removing the stigma of mental health diseases and concerns.

What is mindfulness?
Wikipedia - is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, which can be developed through the practice of meditation and other training.

The Great Good Magazine (UC Berkley) Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.

Simply put, it is the practice of living for now. It is the practice of using techniques to cope when anxiety, depression, PTSD, stress or any number of other things that come up in day to day life. To live a mindful life means to accept our feelings and ourselves and not beat ourselves up over it.

An angry thought passes through your mind. What do you do? Do you lash out to whoever is around you? Do you let it ruin the rest of your day? Are you able to pass it off as nothing? or Can you acknowledge the thought take a deep then let the thought move on? If you can let it pass WONDERFUL!! That is ideally how things work or should I say that's what we all have been lead to believe is the 'normal' response. There are many of us that would simply enjoy for that to happen. Some of us dwell on the thought. Overthink, over analyze and drive ourselves crazy, get mad at ourselves for having that kind of thought. We get mad at ourselves for our overthinking minds. We have basically two choices, we can continue on this path or we can learn to accept the thought and move ok, not allowing ourselves to be victims of our own minds.

So the 'rules' I have

No negative self talk. You are not dumb, stupid or incapable. You are a beautiful human being and you need to start being nice to yourself.
Baby steps. Change does not happen overnight. With those of us who have been through trauma, it takes even longer to relearn behaviors. Each day is new, so is each moment. The ONLY person that can take control of this is you. We can support and I hope that you do have a support system at home.
No beating yourself up for a step back or tumble. We pick up and continue on.
The thoughts you have are NORMAL. No one ever tells us that, but they are. It's what you do or how you deal with those thoughts. When this happens refer to rule 1.

I hope this is enough to give you all an idea of what you're instore for. I HIGHLY encourage open communication. I have my Discord name in my banner please feel free to DM any time. I don't ever want anyone to feel so alone that they don't have anywhere to turn to. I will message you back as soon as I can.

The next step is consider joining our Mindful Life Community. As I mentioned we're still working on getting a few things off the ground, but it helps to be around like minded people.

Now for my 'feature.'

@noraflora

Featured Posting

This is a wonderful and beautifully written article about dealing with trauma, setting intentions and working on renewing oneself. I absolutely enjoyed this posting. She includes a breathing exercise with intent. It is a wonderful practice. In away, it's a start to meditation if you have not taken the time to meditate. Please check our this article. From my other half from @pifc PayItForward give her some support. A comment if you can or a simple upvote.