Mindful Moments (Breath) - A Slow Experiment
"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally." Jon Kabat-Zinn
It’s a new month, which means it's a new Slow Experiment. Hooray! For September, we're are playing with Mindful Moments, and invite you to do the same. Considering how full-on and intense the book tour has been over the past few months (and continues to be for much of this month) we really wanted to keep this Slow Experiment as simple and achievable as possible, while still experimenting with the question of whether it is actually possible to live a slower life amidst a fast and busy season of life. As a result, this is probably the most accessible experiment of all time, and in this episode we share their our personal intentions for the month and explain how you can start to bring more mindfulness into your daily life - no matter how full and fast and busy it is.For us, mindfulness is all about paying attention without expectation or judgment. We're all about stripping mindfulness back to its essence, which means this is not a meditation experiment (although you can meditate if you like) and doesn’t require any apps or colouring books. Instead, it's simply an exploration of four different mindfulness practices. We're committing to 5 minutes of mindfulness a day (because that seems do-able to us at the moment) but you can choose your own adventure. Two minutes is better than nothing at all - and the busier you are, the more likely you are to benefit from a mindful moment, regardless of how brief.In this episode we look at breathing as a mindfulness practice, and specifically focus on deep breathing (or square breathing) and lion’s breath. We break both techniques down, and you can also find links to tutorials in the links below. The benefits of deep breathing have been proven: it relieves stress and anxiety by impacting the nervous system, as well as positively impacting stress hormones. Plus, stress reduction is a win for our physical and mental wellbeing.So this month we simply invite you to have a play, see what works, and commit to a few minutes of deep breathing every day this week. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to download the Mindful Moments guide for more ideas and suggestions for the experiment.
——
Head over to iTunes to subscribe to the show and play the episode.
Or you can listen to the show directly, simply by hitting the Play button above. Enjoy!
——