What makes mindfulness useful?

Research has shown that mindfulness can increase gratitude, bring someone out of intense depression or anxiety, connect a person to their most essential self, and even move them into self-actualization.

Arguably so, practice in a quiet place with little distraction might make mindfulness easier, especially at first. However, one of the most effective mindfulness traits is the person’s ability to practice at any time. There is not anything specific that needs to happen to practice.

Working with a trained practitioner who practices mindfulness is a partnership in finding what works best for you as an individual.

In our practice together, you will receive options and be able to discuss your internal and external responses to mindfulness techniques candidly.

Meditation
A Journey to Self-Love

"Meditation is the act of falling in love with yourself." This idea transformed my view of meditation. It's a journey from the mind to the heart, offering comfort to the soul like a warm blanket or a gentle touch.

Meditation isn't about sitting cross-legged and chanting “OM”—it’s a personal practice that can take many forms. You can sit, stand, lie down, chant, or simply breathe. The key is to find what lights up your soul and brings peace without expectations.

Meditation invites you to connect deeply with yourself and others, quiet the mind, and heal from within. It’s about embracing unconditional love for yourself and all beings. Explore guided meditations with me on Insight Timer and discover a practice that resonates with you. Your journey to inner peace and self-love starts here.

What is meditation?

While meditation does tend to focus your thoughts on a specific story, imagery, mantra, or word, it differs from mindfulness in that it does not always bring your mind to the present moment. For more on mindfulness, please follow this link.

Like mindfulness, meditation requires both action and practice. When thinking of meditation, you may envision an image of a person sitting cross-legged on a cushion, hands resting on the knees, fingers in a mudra, and mouth chanting “OM” repeatedly. If this image makes you sick with nausea, anxiety, and self-doubt, you are not alone. Indeed, this is one way to practice meditation, but it is not the only way.

Meditation can be unique to each individual. You can lie down, stand up, or truly find any comfortable posture. You can chant, imagine, focus on a candle, or even move or not do these things.

Meditation should light up the soul, allowing you to notice thoughts, feelings, and emotions without any expectations. Practicing meditation allows for emotional and mental stability and peace.

In our time together, I will encourage you to practice meditation independently by listening to guided meditations. I may suggest we practice meditation together, in which case, I will lead you through guided meditation, or we will listen to one.

Practicing meditation has many benefits.

The benefits of practicing meditation are endless. Meditation can help you connect with others, yourself, and your community. It can improve focus, quiet the inner critic, reduce stress levels, heal your past, and more.

In addition, practicing meditation with others provides accountability, spiritual support, and the power of shared experiences.

Regardless of your unique practice, finding what works for you is important. And, if you hate it, you are in no way required to do it. But I recommend giving various techniques a try before negating it entirely.

Becoming more aware is a journey that requires continuous action.

No one ever truly arrives at the present and remains there. It’s a unique journey that requires practicing awareness.

Mindfulness is the journey from past to present or the future to the present. Mindfulness is an awareness of worry and stresses, teetering into anxiety, sadness, and isolation, moving toward depression, and an awareness of thoughts and simultaneously allowing them to drift onward.

Mindfulness can be abrupt or slow-moving, but mindfulness is never judgmental and always accepting. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it, and the more aware you’ll be of the mind and the body.

Try a mindfulness technique now.

If you’d like to try a simple mindfulness technique now, I invite you to tune into the senses.

First, try closing your eyes and listening to the sounds surrounding you, starting with sounds closest to you and then outward. Name each sound one at a time, isolating each sound in your mind’s eye.

As thoughts begin to wander off, bring the mind back to your focus on listening to distinct sounds. Now, try opening your eyes and noticing objects closest to you; name each one, color, and shape, breaking down each aspect as much as possible. Again, as thoughts wander, notice and bring them back to the objects around you.

Now, notice that your thoughts become focused on what you hear and see around you. These sounds and sights represent the present moment, and this is mindfulness. When the mind focuses on the present moment, it is impossible to be thinking of past regrets or worried about possible future events. Thoughts begin to dissipate completely.

However, if the mind becomes judgmental during your practice, you are no longer practicing mindfulness. You are practicing judgment.

Mindfulness takes practice.

Suppose you got a little frustrated doing the exercise, no worries. It’s normal. Trying something new often generates frustration due to challenges.

The more you practice, the more effortless mindfulness gets.

It’s just like when you go to the gym. You cannot expect to be able to lift the heaviest weight on the first day. Or, if you stop going to the gym for a month and return to doing the same gym routine later, your muscles will have loosened and lost some strength.

Practice makes progress.