Today I’m sharing the two cues I use to settle in to my POD. These cues allow me to transition from a state of go-go-go, into a relaxed and focused awareness. I am also going to delve into one of the biggest obstacles many people face when starting their POD, faulty expectations.
If we compare ourselves to the Olympians of mindfulness it is easy to become discouraged. However, it is important to remember that being mindful is a set of skills and like any skillset it improves with focused practice. The Olympians of any sport have logged hours of practice to obtain their skill level. Today I pass along a few thoughts and ideas to help us mindfulness mortals get through our POD when the effort seems so big and the rewards of mastery so far off.
Enjoy
Hank
CC Transcript Below
CC Transcript Below
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Cues for settling in quickly to our mindfulness practice.
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Today we are going to work on the
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first part of any mindfulness practice of settling in.
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A lot of times how we begin something
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helps to set the trajectory of where we want to go
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and when we start settling in those first few moments
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of mindfulness practice, we want to take a minute to do two
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important things, at least two important that have been important
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into my practice, it’s going to be your practice, but I want to
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pass on this little tool that has helped me.
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As I settle into whatever posture I’m in
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and I take a nice deep breath and
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I begin to turn that On switch Off,
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I make a mental note and actually tell myself
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okay, it’s time to turn the On switch Off.
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It’s time to go from brrrrrr where I’ve been here all day
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go go go go go to shhhhhp.
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just bring it down. It’s time to recover and start to relax.
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And I’m mentally just kind of tell myself that as I begin to breath.
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So the first part of your mindfulness practice
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where you get going on and just take that bit moment
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and begin to settle in with that important
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cue and saying okay, On switch Off.
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The second thing is establishing the correct attitude of practice.
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Now, you know,
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it can be very frustrating because what we’re doing is practicing
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and I don’t want you to think that what we’re doing is
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any different than piano practice, than sports skill practice,
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than cooking, than writing than any skill
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you know, braiding hair,
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working on a car, whatever it may me be,
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what you were acquiring here is a skill and it’s going to take practice;
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that’s why we call it A Daily Practice.
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And what happens a lot of times when people get going and start doing
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some of the exercises that we have coming forward in the next few days
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and even with a few that we just done with the diaphragmatic breathing
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people get themselves frustrated.
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I want to get it right or then compare it to some
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standard that they have in their head, that they picked up somewhere.
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We want to let that go. We want to set the right attitude
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into our practice at the beginning. And that attitude is really
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one of a forgiveness to ourselves
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of not getting it right. It’s an attitude to simply coming back.
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And that’s a phrase you’re going to hear me say it often over the next few days,
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is “come back to the breath”. And that’s all it is.
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When you recognize that you’ve gone away from the breath and your mind is off somewhere else,
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your attention is somewhere else, whatever it may be –
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in a loving, forgiving way to yourself, come back.
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It’s not going to do you any good to beat yourself up.
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Okay? So we want to start my mindfulness practice
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with an attitude of forgiveness and encouragement
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to gently come back to the breath whenever we stray from it.
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The thing to remember with all this mindfulness practice is that
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it’s not an Olympic sport, at least not yet.
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Now, are there Olympians of mindfulness,
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of mind training and all the other different forms of meditation that are out there?
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Absolutely, and they can do
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things that are far beyond my scope, are far behind your scope.
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Why can they do that? Because they’ve had a daily practice.
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Not for days, not for weeks, not for months, but years,
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they’ve spent hours practicing.
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So like any Olympic athlete, basketball, tracking field,
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whatever, skiing, whatever the
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sport is, those Olympic athletes have spent hours
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and it’s going to be no difference with your mindfulness training
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and whatever other mental practices you choose to take up.
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The more often you do it, the better you’re going to be at it.
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There’s going to be no hurry in it and
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there’s no use comparing your efforts to those of an Olympians.
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Why? They’ve dedicated their lives to this.
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But it’s a valuable tool that you can bring into your life,
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even you may never achieve their standards, and that’s okay.
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So today’s “Lesson” and today’s practice
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is to add these two simple cues to the beginning of your practice;
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the first is to take a nice deep breath in and say
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“I’m turning the On switch Off.”
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And the second cue you want to give yourself saying
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take a breath in – “I’m giving myself permission to come back to the breath”
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And let’s build on that practicing that we’ve been doing.
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Just take 3-5 minutes and just bring yourself to
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our breath and with that hand on your stomach,
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that card deck on your belly and just breathe.
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If all of a sudden you find yourself thinking about the kids
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or what the other things that you need to do, and you know
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did you snap back? Just come back to the breath.
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You know, you’re going to have days and practices
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where the end of the song happens and that’s okay.
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Wait a minute, what happened, I got distracted.
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It happens to all of us. Be gentle to yourself and
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say hey, tomorrow I’ll come back for the different breath.
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Alright? So today’s practice, start off with your two settling in questions.
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Go to your breath. Enjoy!
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