Why Should I Care About mindfulness?
Mindfulness is one of the greatest skills I have developed over the last few years. I did not realize how much I needed it in my life until I began practicing it regularly. If you struggle with anxiety, overthinking, perfectionism, depression, or any mental health issues, you may find regular mindfulness practice helpful. If you are struggling with any severe mental health issues, I strongly encourage you to contact a medical professional. Mindfulness is a great practice to develop on your own or in discussion with others, but it is always okay to ask for help when you need it.
Why Mindfulness Is Important
Mindfulness is important because we spend much (if not most) of our lives not being mindful. Humans have evolved to survive, developing a series of reactionary behaviours. These reactionary behaviours make much of our day the result of a series of habits. Habits are actions that we take without thought. We are capable of being rational, but often our nervous system gets dysregulated and we end up in a fight or flight response. In a dysregulated state it becomes much more difficult to make intentional decisions and actions. Instead, we default to the evolutionarily reactive decisions or actions humanity has made for a very long time.
Mindfulness can help provide an alternate path. Instead of reaction, there is action. We can pause, reflect, and make a deliberate and thoughtful decision on how to move forward. Mindfully reviewing the block we had with doing that behaviour can help see the behaviour in a new light in a way. Changing our perspective can enable us to get past the block and continue intentionally with our day.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is, in my view, a way to operate in life. I would almost call it an operating system. Mindfulness is the practice of being present in a given moment and taking life as it is. The goal is not to master a particular style of meditation, but to begin viewing life in a different, more aware way. In other words, mindfulness is about awareness.
Mindfulness often starts with a meditation practice, but it doesn’t have to. Many actions can bring about a state of mindfulness. While there are various ways of being mindful, I think it is helpful not to get caught up in definitions when first starting out.
How I started with mindfulness
I have spent much of my educational and working life in high performance activities. I went from engineering to law school to being an intellectual property lawyer and a patent agent. This path has a lot of pressure and high standards that can be a challenge to keep up with, both mentally and physically.
If you are interested in learning more about mindfulness and how I have been recalibrating my life since quitting my 9-5 as a lawyer, I invite you to join me on my journey through my newsletter: Recalibrating
I found that it could be very difficult for me to turn my brain off after working a long day. Thoughts of what I did and still needed to do, or things I could have done differently, would loop through my mind. Sometimes, I would have difficulty sleeping if I didn’t take enough time to wind down and deal with my thoughts.
That’s where mindfulness comes in.
I started with the Headspace app, one that I had heard of a lot but had not tried. While the app was helpful initially, I found that it was more of a bandaid solution. It wasn’t actually solving my problems of thinking too much. Headspace could perhaps help calm me down and change my headspace, but it did not teach me how to avoid needing it in the first place.
About a year later, I discovered the Waking Up app. I have no affiliation with Waking Up and still recommend it to absolutely everyone.
Waking Up
I found the Waking Up App different and more helpful than any other mindfulness or meditation apps that I tried. The main difference centred around the way the app is organized: Theory, Practice, Life. Each section has a different style of teaching or experience that can help guide you further along your mindfulness journey.
Some of the series I really resonate with, others not so much. The Waking Up app is great because I have a place to explore these different styles and find the ones that have the greatest impact on my life. I also really like that the different series are taught by different experts from around the world, providing a different flavour to each lesson.
There is also a 30 day introductory course to provide an introduction to different styles of mindfulness. This introductory course can help you assess which style of mindfulness you resonate with so that you can find dedicated series in that style to deepen your practice.
The theory section has longer talks about the concepts with mindfulness, almost like a lecture series. To be honest, I haven’t done too many from that section, focusing more on the practice and the life sections. I hope to get into this section more when I have the time.
The practice section is a mix of theory and practice. Each series has a singular theme that is carried across each lesson (between 3-30 minutes depending on the series). I find these sessions very helpful for regulating my nervous system and calming my mind. In other words, if I am feeling overwhelmed, this is the section that I go to to help.
The life section is my favourite. Life brings in a mix of theory and practice, but also ties in some philosophy and modern psychology. The concepts range from ancient and modern stoicism to cognitive behavioural therapy mindfulness. In other words, this is the section I go to if I am feeling a bit lost and in need of greater clarity.
Cost of Waking Up (freeish?)
One of my favourite aspects of the Waking Up app is the way they help people get started. Waking Up provides a discount or free memberships if you would face any level of financial burden from paying for the app. If the money spent on a Waking Up membership would cause you stress in any way, then you would be eligible for the scholarship. That said, here is one month free of the Waking Up App (you don’t even need to include a credit card for it).
I hope that with a month of consistent practice, you will begin to see the benefits on your physical and mental health like I have. If you feel like you are not sold or can’t afford the app after the free month, request the scholarship. It only takes a day or so to receive the free year long account.
Where Is The Best Place To Start?
There is a concept in mindfulness that each moment is an opportunity to begin again and start fresh from that instant. It is a refreshing concept, not having to deal with the backlog of the past or the pressures of the future.
The best place to start with mindfulness is wherever you are. Every moment is an opportunity to begin again. I actually resonated so strongly with this concept that I made an art collection about it using astro timelapses taken in Africa and Canada.
Begin Again is a story about the rediscovery of a half-remember dream, bringing the inspirations of my childhood to my adult life after a trip to Africa. In this case, the dream was of the stars. The unique aspect of this collection is that I animated my astrophotography timelapses to be timed to the ideal breathing rate for improving mindfulness and relaxation, while reducing stress and anxiety. Each piece is a breathing guide; I encourage you to try breathing along with the art.
Why Is Breath The Best Place To Start?
Mindfulness is about being aware of your physical self and your mental self. Really, it’s about being aware of yourself and where you fit in the world. Often, we can dissociate the two, disconnecting our body and our minds. This dysregulation can lead to higher stress levels and (in my experience) overthinking.
Breathing is one of the best ways to bring our minds and our bodies back into alignment. To regulate the nervous system so that we are not in a fight or flight state of dysregulation. By focusing (using my mind) on my breathing (my body), I can take some time to truly be aware of all aspects of myself.
That said, there is a lot more to the benefits of breathing and how that impacts mental health and can improve mindfulness. There is a lot more to breathing than we typically think about, including a mix of anecdotal and scientific explanations. I included more information about breath here to help you get started on you breathing journey. More on breath may be found in the book Breath by James Nestor.
To assist with my journey into better breathing, I researched products that could help me regulate my breath. After quite a lot of research, I came across the Shift by Komuso. There is more information in my breathing guide, but the tl;dr is that the Shift is able to help regulate exhales. By controlling my exhale, I am able to increase my awareness of my breath. Slowing down exhalations is one of the best ways I have found to regulate my breathing and the Shift does a great job helping with that.
If you would like to learn more, here is a discounted link to Komuso’s Shift. You can use the code WANDERLOOTS to get a 15% discount (note that I do make a small commission through this link at no charge to you).
My Mindfulness And Meditation Thoughts
I have summarized some of my favourite series from the Waking Up app and elsewhere into short threads of information including my thoughts on the subject. I encourage you to read these summaries and also practice the series associated with them in the Waking Up App.
My goal with these summaries is to provide a resource that you can return to if you are looking for a reminder about a particular topic without having to redo the practice session. That said, I think that redoing sessions can be some of the most valuable practice. I find the first time I do a session it often makes me think a lot and I miss out on some of the lesson. By practicing that lesson again, I am able to digest more information and deepen my understanding of mindfulness and the benefits it can have on my life.
Mindfulness and Burnout
Mindfulness can also be a great practice to improve and recover from burnout. I have an introductory article on How to Recover From Burnout here.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me through my Recalibrating Newsletter or leave a comment below ✨ 😌