http://www.findmindfulness.com
When I heard that the social method option for this week’s prompt was to think of something that you can perform but that you do not understand, or something that you can repeat daily, I immediately thought back to a project I was apart of while I was studying abroad in Florence this past December. It was called the Mindful Project and was basically a 30 day self-exploration course to find mindfulness. Its purpose was designed to “awaken joy and offer tools to help guide you to the realization that you are in charge of your wellbeing.” I decided to join because I knew I needed to learn to calm down and take in the world around me; especially while living abroad, I knew that being mindful of my surroundings was something I could not take advantage of, as this was a once in a lifetime experience in my teenage years. Thus, I signed up and began to receive emails from the Mindful Project everyday for 31 days. These emails contained exercises that would allow me to get out of my head and into my body, my environment, and my emotions. These exercises could be done in as quickly as 5 minutes, or extended to 10, all depending on my mood and effort that day. These exercises also offered ways to be carried throughout your day, so that they could be easily repeated whenever you wanted.
One example of an email and exercise I was instructed to do was:
Day 1: Focus on your breath
Set aside your to do’s or your have to’s for the next few minutes.
Read the following prompt before carrying out the exercise.
Close your eyes and take 5 deep breaths.
Notice your chest fill with air as you inhale.
Notice the release as you exhale.
Take 3 more deep breaths and with these breaths, take a moment to reflect on your intention for this month.
Throughout the day
Keep checking in with your breath. Notice the inhales and the exhales.
Notice when it is at rest or when it speeds up.
Sneak in at least 2 more deep breaths as you move through the day.
Another sample exercise and email I received was:
This morning, take three or more deep breaths to center yourself. Allow yourself space to be with a sense of gratitude for the big or the small things.
Throughout the day
Tell three people thank you for being. Without any expectation, notice how those people react to your appreciation.
However, when I saw this week’s prompt and thought back to this project that I signed up for and was involved in, I realized that I didn’t fully invest myself in finding mindfulness. Sometimes, I ignored the daily emails and didn’t do the exercises to completion. To be honest, sometimes I didn’t understand them or didn’t think they would truly impact me. This is why I am writing about this experience for my work this week, because these tasks were things that I was performing, but that I did not understand. Thus my idea is to improve upon this Mindful Project experience in my final prompt based work #6. In addition, because this was done in December, I didn’t document any of my experiences with the project. However, now I will have time to document and redo many of the exercises in the emails, as well as take more time to figure out how to understand them and how they can positively impact my life. I look forward to improving this prompt-based work #5 by re-immersing myself in this choice to become more mindful and to this time, find exercises that I can perform daily that will impact me positively. Wish me luck!