Mindfulness and Embodiment - Tools to Come Back Home to the Loving Awareness that You Are!
with Stephanie Janis
Ease Your Anxiety by Living In The Present
Are you feeling detached from the present moment?
Constantly worrying about what’s ahead?
Looking for ways to process emotions in a healthy way?
With so many stressors out there, you might feel detached from yourself.
Reminding yourself to “be present” might bring you back to the real moment, but what if it has turned into just a phrase you tell yourself that doesn’t actually change anything in your emotional state?
How Do You Live in the Present?
Here are some methods you can employ in your everyday life to actually live in the present:
Notice Your Surroundings
This technique works well to ground you and calm you down quickly.
Close your eyes and take a deep, slow breath. When you open your eyes, absorb the physical characteristics of your surroundings. What color are the walls and the floor? If you're indoors, count the number of windows or chairs in the room. If you’re outside, what color is the sky? How many trees are nearby?
Practice Gratitude
Try to be grateful for everything you have now, leaving behind regrets or longings for what could have been.
Make practicing gratitude a part of your daily routine, morning or night. In a journal, write down at least 3 things you are grateful for that day. They can be anything, from major life events to seemingly inconsequential moments, like getting lunch with a friend or treating yourself to coffee and a donut. In the long run, these moments are vital to your overall happiness. A dedicated “Gratitude Journal” is nice to have, as it will encourage you to write more often.
Try Out Mindful Meditation
Another way to live more in the moment is through mindful meditation. When you truly listen to your body, your thoughts and your feelings and let your stream of consciousness flow, you learn to exist fully in each moment as it comes. Mindful meditation helps you to be aware of exactly where you are and what you’re feeling at the present moment. Other benefits include relaxation and destressing about the uncertainties of the future. If you are someone who tends to worry about the unknown, mindful meditation can ease your anxiety. It allows you to be more aware of the basic sensations and pleasures of your existence, ones that we might otherwise forget in our busy modern lives.
Practice Deep Breathing Exercises
Deep breathing exercises are a part of mindful meditation, but they can also be done on their own as a quick and simple calming method. Even for just 5 minutes at a time, deep breathing exercises have the effect of getting your brain to slow down and appreciate the present moment.
Your own breath is a powerful tool if you use it correctly. Make sure to take deep, slow breaths all the way down in your stomach instead of short, shallow ones in your chest. A basic method to start with is the 4-7-8 breathing method:
Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, one that allows you to focus solely on your breathing.
Exhale through your mouth.
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, letting your stomach rise as it fills with air.
Count to 7 while holding your breathing.
Breathe out through your nose for 8 seconds, feeling your stomach slowly fall.
Repeat for at least 5 cycles, or keep going until you feel fully relaxed.
There are many other ways you could practice deep breathing exercises, modifying them to suit your lung capacity and do whatever feels best for you. Deep breathing could be paired with progressive muscle relaxation, which involves clenching and releasing different groups of muscles to release tension.
Another option is to repeat positive affirmations while breathing, such as “I breathe in strength and hope.” Similarly, as you breathe out think of something such as, “I breathe out stress and negative thinking.”
Whichever way you do it, deep breathing has the power to clear your mind and bring you back to reality.
Turn Off the Technology For a While
Technology has become so pivotal in our lives for work, entertainment, and everything in between. Screens are the first thing many of us see when we wake up, and the last thing we see before going to sleep. How frequently do you eat dinner while watching TV or scrolling through social media?
Surrounding yourself with technology further distances you from the present moment. Social media sites especially bury your connection to your inner thoughts with a constant stream of content.
Spend a couple of hours each day completely screen-free. Also try taking a hiatus from social media sites for a while, and spend that time engaging in some of the mindful activities suggested above. In that time, feel your thoughts slow down as you free yourself from the endless cycle of information that overwhelms our brains on a daily basis. As a bonus, abstaining from using technology, even for a short while, improves your attention span and ability to focus.
Accept Your Thoughts As They Are—Positive or Negative
Embracing both the positive and the negative thoughts can make you feel more aware of your own unique human experience–and how to make it truly count. Knowing the tools to process your emotions in a healthy and productive way makes all the difference.
Living in the present can be difficult at first, but gets easier with practice and is infinitely rewarding. Learning how to do so is the core of Stephanie Janis’ new masterclass on Sol TV – which teaches how to feel more aware in the present moment and learn the art of processing emotions.
Who?
Stephanie Janis is a reiki healer and spiritual life coach, and is certified in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.
What?
Three live sessions (available to watch later) revealing techniques to feel more grounded in the present moment and your emotions.
Why?
It’s hard to feel happy when you feel disconnected – and noticing what emotions come up in your day-to-day life and knowing how to approach them is key to the most valuable moments of the human experience.
When?