Mindfulness Challenge: Recent Episodes
Rahul Shitole
Hello, welcome to the 21-day mindfulness challenge.
Every activity in this mindfulness challenge is designed so that you will be more aware of yourself and your surroundings after every passing day. We hope that by slowing down and tuning IN to what’s going on around you, you might find a greater sense of calm, and maybe even find a greater sense of wonder and joy every day.
For the next 21-days, you will have the opportunity to practice mindful living and to share it with your family and friends. We encourage you to complete the challenge with someone.
Mindful breathing is a very basic yet powerful mindfulness meditation practice. The idea is simply to focus your attention on your breathing—its natural rhythm and flow and the way it feels on each inhale and exhale. Focusing on the breath is particularly helpful because it serves as an anchor–something you can turn your attention to at any time if you start to feel stressed or carried away by negative emotions.
What’s important is practice. It’s a tool you can use to bring yourself back to the present moment in stressful situations, and who wouldn’t appreciate having such a valuable tool on hand for those times when you need it?
Learning mindful breathing is straightforward, and it’s as easy as your next breath.
So, let us understand this technique in the session....
Relaxation techniques are practices to help bring about the body’s “relaxation response,” which is characterized by slower breathing, lower blood pressure, and a reduced heart rate. The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response.
Some relaxation techniques may help children and adolescents with pain, anxiety and depression, headaches, or difficulty with needle-related procedures. But much of the supporting research was rated as low quality, so we don’t have a completely clear picture yet of the possible benefits.
A 2019 review of 17 studies involving 1,165 participants indicated that slow breathing exercisesled to a modest reduction in blood pressure and may be a reasonable first treatment for people with prehypertension or low-risk high blood pressure. The studies in this review, however, differed in how they were done and had short follow-up periods and a high risk of bias. Also, the studies didn’t look at whether slow breathing exercises ultimately influenced health outcomes, such as stroke or heart attack.
If you have high blood pressure, it’s important to follow the treatment plan prescribed by your healthcare provider. Following your treatment plan is important because it can prevent or delay serious complications of high blood pressure. If you’re considering a complementary or integrative approach for your high blood pressure, discuss it with your healthcare provider.
Relaxation techniques might also help with pain after surgery, headache, low-back pain, and arthritis-related pain. Some of the supporting evidence, however, has been rated as low quality. Whether relaxation techniques help with pain related to fibromyalgia remains unclear.
In 2017, the Society for Integrative Oncology updated its clinical practice guidelines on using integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment. The American Society of Clinical Oncology endorsed the updated guidelines. In the guidelines, relaxation techniques were recommended for improving mood and depression. The guidelines also said that relaxation techniques might help to reduce stress and anxiety and to control nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy in some individuals and could be offered to them.
Relaxation techniques are generally considered safe for healthy people. In most research studies, there have been no reported negative side effects. However, occasionally, people report negative experiences such as increased anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or fear of losing control.
There have been rare reports that certain relaxation techniques might cause or worsen symptoms in people with epilepsy or certain psychiatric conditions, or with a history of abuse or trauma. People with heart disease should talk to their healthcare providers before doing progressive muscle relaxation.
Today, we're going to observe our thoughts without resisting or getting involved in them. Just notice them and let them pass. Our thoughts usually come with a bunch of different emotions attached to them. All we need to do is sit back and watch them go by, like cars on a busy street.
Gratitude allows you to notice your blessings and create balance in life’s difficulties. Mindfulness helps you handle tough times with grace, acceptance, and surrender. Together, these practices nurture what Buddhists call the “Higher Self” within you.
Practising gratitude may improve your overall quality of life in a number of ways.
Some of these include:
- better mood
- improved sleep
- reduced inflammation
- increased self-esteem
- reduced heart rate
- lowered stress levels
- enhanced empathy
- lower levels of aggression
- improved zest for life
Hello, welcome to Day 6 of the 21-day mindfulness challenge.
Our today’s exercise is on Deep Breathing. Deep breathing is a simple exercise that involves consciously slowing and deepening your breathing.
Anxiety can present itself in a variety of ways, some of which may be uncomfortable or even debilitating. Deep breathing is a relaxation technique that can help you calm down in moments of stress, and it also has benefits when you practice it in moments of peace and calm.
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Hello, welcome to Day 5 of the 21-day mindfulness challenge.
Our today’s exercise is on Mindful eating. We recommend that you do the exercise while enjoying your morning tea or coffee, or even while having breakfast.
When we're constantly bombarded with work and stress, we often forget to appreciate the simple things in life - like a good meal. This is where the act of mindful eating comes in as it allows you to be present and fully appreciate the food you're consuming without any distractions.
mindfuleating #eating #mindfulness #mindfulnesschallenge
It's important to remember that our bodies and mind are interconnected. Sometimes we focus on our breath or try to be quiet, and we realize that our mind is just too busy. There's too much going on. In those moments, it can be helpful to go for a mindful walk. We often walk without paying attention to where we're going, and we miss the beautiful colours of the sunset, the eyes of the people who pass us by, or the shops and vehicles passing us by.
Walking meditation is a great way to calm and collect yourself, and to live more present and wakefully in your body. Practice at home first, and then extend your mindful walking to everyday activities like shopping or walking to your car. You can learn to enjoy walking for its own sake, instead of planning and thinking all the time. This simple practice can help you be truly present, and bring your body, heart and mind together as you move through your life.
Over the last few days, we've been using our breath as a tool to help us be present at the moment. Today, we're going to use our senses to do the same thing. Our physical body is how we interface with the rest of reality, and our five senses are like tethers that anchor us to the moment. Today, we're going to apply a simple yet very powerful "Grounding Technique." For today's exercise, we recommend you sit either on your balcony or in an open space.
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The goal for today's activity is to use our breath as a tool to be present at the moment. This involves focusing our attention on the breath and halting the constant stream of thoughts and concerns that run through our minds.
Today's challenge will help you understand your thoughts in a better way...
Sometimes when we get up, we go straight ahead into the day without even noticing how we feel. So, today’s mindful activity is just to take a minute and check in to see what’s going on in your body.
Today, let us spend some time with ourselves, just 5 mins...
Let me know if you feel any calmer & lighter...
Hello, welcome to the 21-day mindfulness challenge.
For the next 21 days, Each day, we’ll be suggesting a simple mindful action that you can take. Most of these won’t take much additional time. Most days, we’ll also pose questions to help you reflect afterwards on what you learned or noticed.
Before starting the challenge let's try to understand What is mindfulness?
In this context, mindfulness is simply about paying attention – on purpose – to the present moment, with kindness and, as much as possible, without judgement. Mindfulness does not mean you have to have a blank or completely empty mind. It’s more about becoming aware of the thoughts that may be present but not getting carried away with them. Ideally, you want to notice when you have drifted off, and are no longer aware of what you’re doing. However, even with the intention to stay present, that may still happen from time to time. Minds like to think. Sometimes a lot! so don’t worry if you find that happens to you several times during the exercises.
So let us start with this beautiful Journey for next 21 days