Hello! I’m a resident in counseling who’s been lurking around on Lemmy for a while and I want to use this lovely community to both uplift myself and others. I had a period of time in graduate school where I was able to maintain daily meditation sessions, but with the stress of entering the workforce a lot of my good habits fell by the wayside.
It’s time to fix that.
For my first exercise today I spent some time this afternoon in my yard listening to birdsong - I could hear 5 different birds, even though I’m not sure what species they were other than whippoorwills and cardinals! I love feeling like these cute little guys are my neighbors, maybe I should put out some seed for them.
How do you use mindfulness in your own life? Would this community be interested in daily mindfulness check-ins? How else can we uphold each other as a community?
You must log in or # to comment.
Im new to lemmy. im laying in my gaarden and just enjoying nature and also the sounds around me. helped me alot.
how do u stay connected as a community on a daily basis on lemmy? im new and i dont think i can follow people only hashtags
I could hear 5 different birds, even though I’m not sure what species they were other than whippoorwills and cardinals
While not necessarily compatible with mindful moments, the Merlin app can aid in identifying birds based on their songs and calls.
Heck yeah thanks for the suggestion! My wife and I just moved in here so I’m excited to learn about all the wildlife in my new neighborhood
I love Merlin. I turn it on when I go for my daily walk and see what birds it picks up. I’m building a fun “Life List” of birds and it’s cool to see which ones are full time neighbors and who is around for just a visit!
Technically yeah i practice mindfulness meditation, though not in standard way.
Mostly to help with my alexithymia(emotional blindness), learning to notice bodily sensations more can be helpful in figuring out what emotion i might be experiencing.
I’ve tried the typical of sitting still type of meditation, but it never really worked ADHD and such.
Then i started resistance training and over time i noticed that while I’m lifting. I have to focus on my body, i have to focus on breathing, i have to focus on keeping my attention on the weight and my body to make sure that the weight moves correctly and with control, that my form stays somewhat correct, that I’m using right muscles.
All of that works kinda like mindfulness meditation and has been helpful in teaching me to notice my bodily signal and how my mind works and eventually even slightly controlling or directing it to avoid negative spiraling.I love seeing examples of embodied cognition thesis out in the wild! I always try to encourage people to view the activities that help them be present as it’s own form of mindfulness or meditation. Many terms for it - ‘flow state’ is also common.
I alos have ADHD and struggled with sitting still at the beginning, but I’ve learned that my mind is like an untrained puppy and it will go wherever it wants. Mindfulness is acknowledging the puppy and then guiding attention back to the present through our senses (for you, touch). Like putting a leash on my brain when it gets too distracted lmao
I haven’t had many people with alexithymia, have you found this to be the most helpful way to deal with it?
Sry that came out kinda long.
Honestly that’s a good point, mind can be trained. I should try it again now that I’ve had some more practice with it.
It’s one of the most recommended and accessible methods to deal with it. Mindfulness meditation or just taking time, sitting down and focusing on the bodily sensations is one one of the most recommended method to deal with alexithymia as over time it teaches the person to become more aware of their body and teaches to associate different bodily sensations with corresponding emotions. Other is some form of journaling as writing down different sensations and what was going on at that time can indicate what emotions i might have been experiencing at that time.
Of course it would be slightly more effective with a therapist, but as it is a years or more long process. The price of that can stack up rather high.
Personally I’ve been trying to use “Animi” app, which is specifically created for people with alexithymia. It combines both approachs with regular logging of different body signals and sitting down, focusing and taking time to reflect back. It does use a different approach than other emotional tracking apps as it already takes inro account that the user doesn’t know what emotion they might be experiencing by starting to guess based on whatever sensations i might be having.
My mindfulness practice has recently sort of fallen to the wayside. I try to meditate twice a day but as I’ve been struggling with psychosis/paranoia, I find a lot of the time that I sit to meditate instead ends up being spent ruminating. I’m trying to gradually get back into it though, making more of an effort each session to spend more of the time actually meditating vs caught up in worried thoughts.
Something I used to do that I think could be useful to start up again was “slow mornings”, basically I’m very much internet/computer addicted so what I would do sometimes is when I wake up, rather than checking my PC, avoid all technology for as long as I could. It was usually just a few hours, but being unable to check my PC or my phone during that time meant I spent the time doing other things like meditation, exercise, reading, or just sitting and enjoying the silence. I found it had a massively positive effect on my mental health when I was doing it. Maybe this is my cue to restart it.
For about 15 years I’ve been doing what I call “thankfulness,” where I force myself to acknowledge that I’m thankful for something. Often it’s just little things in the flow of the day because that’s easy to incorporate (like being thankful that there’s a still a couple of Oreos left to have with tea — really basic, low-hanging fruit). Other times it’s thinking about more meaningful things in a deep way. But it’s habitual now, to the point where I find myself being thankful for being thankful.
I’m thankful for you 😊
I went along to the local Soto temple for 6 months or so a while back and learned the basics of zazen and managed a few 4-6hr sits.
I found that very helpful, the tradition seemed rather wise in the ways of this stuff and made me realize I had not been meditating all those years and more just sitting in fancy way and indulging in daydreaming for chillaxing, zazen is fucking brutal.
Much of what I’ve consumed under the brand of ‘mindfulness’ is not all that great imo, the soto teacher was not amused at all with it. The material I’ve gotten via medical services, and the stuff provided to my kids in times of need, is often not worth the paper it is printed on.
That sounds like quite the experience! I’ve gone on a few vipassana retreats that were quite intense, but it is where I got the most “in touch” with my inner self and my local mindfulness community. I’ll have to look up what zazen entails!
Mindfulness as a category is so broad in my experience. I work with kids in middle school, and while those that are able to focus on small practices seem to be benefit it’s difficult to provide something deeper within a 1-hr format where I’m also supposed to meet specific treatment goals. I totally agree that much of the stuff printed is pretty worthless, when I take the time to engage and show what mindfulness does is when it is most effective.
I’m glad you found something that works well for you!
I try to do at least two of the following every day: journaling, walking, art, yoga, meditation, therapy, breath work, gratitude practice.
Recently, I’ve been working on being my own witness and that being enough. When my nervous system starts to react, I try to pause, take a breath, thank whatever protection program is trying its best to serve me, remind myself that I am safe and that I see myself, and then try and respond rather than react. It takes patience, curiosity, and a ton of self-compassion. The more I turn inward, the easier it is for me to turn outward.
Your post reminded me of my favorite Viktor Frankl quote! “Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
I’m a big fan of walking meditation. I sometimes do still-posture meditation, particularly at night when I am troubled by unceasing thought, but it’s not nearly as pleasant as walking with an empty head, seeing without looking and hearing without listening, feeling my footfalls and the motion of my body through the air. It’s harder when it’s hotter than Satan’s swampass outside, but I still get something out of it. Being present isn’t just about feeling nice things, it’s about feeling what’s present.
This was always my favorite one at retreats, I try to walk mindfully at least a few minutes whenever I step out for a walk! The only time I’ve seen the bears near me was while doing this. It’s oddly felt to me at times that the more I intentionally put myself into the present, the more the world has to show me (clearly just me paying more attention to everyday stimuli I guess lmao)
