Practical Mindfulness Practices And Ideas

James and Lisa discuss how to build a practice of Mindfulness . There is so much power in being in the now. Mindfulness is the essential foundation to Consciousness. They introduce real simple activities and practices. They also offer resources That James and Lisa have developed for their Mindfulness Training they provide to businesses and clients.

Transcript

Welcome to the Practical Consciousness Podcast with James and Lisa,

Where we help you tap into your highest selves in everyday life.

Hi,

Welcome to Practical Consciousness,

The podcast with James and Lisa.

I'm James.

And I'm Lisa.

The always lovely Lisa.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Baus.

Today we wanted to kind of go back a little bit.

We're kind of doing this going back to the roots a little bit.

It's going back to the roots,

But we're really kind of diving a little bit deeper into the practicality,

I think,

Of some of these things so we can drive the concepts home.

And so today we wanted to go back and go back into mindfulness and the practice of mindfulness and really go into that more kind of leaning towards the practice of mindfulness and the different various ways we can do it.

And the kind of what's driving us to go here with you guys,

Our listeners,

Is Lisa and I have put together this program that if in case you haven't joined the Practical Consciousness and haven't done the free 30-day trial of the Practical Consciousness Tribe,

A little plug here,

We're actually going to be doing this course with the Tribe members,

But it's something that we offer together.

And it's a course on mindfulness.

And so it's hot in our minds and it's got some really good exercises and practical things.

So we wanted to introduce it to our podcast listeners so they can kind of experience that a little bit.

Yeah.

Can I say something about going back to basics?

No.

Because this came up.

This came up.

This is a podcast where we communicate.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Yes.

It's a conversation.

So this has come up for me recently,

Like just this past week and last week,

Is that I teach my clients some of these different concepts about mindfulness or meditation or judgment or self-love or whatever,

And I give them tips of things that they can work on.

And I'm starting to realize that,

Oh,

That's something I used to do,

But I don't do that anymore.

So I've gone back and especially with us creating this new material for mindfulness,

I've gone back and started some of these practices again.

It's ongoing.

It's life long.

It does not stop.

You don't advance to a new level and then stop.

It doesn't work that way because we're human and our habits are really ingrained in us.

And so you just got to keep practicing.

So you might stop meditating for a while.

For me,

Meditation's come in and out of my life.

It's been more constant lately,

But there were times when I didn't meditate for a year or two or whatever.

You just go back to it.

I think that's a really great point because I noticed the same thing as we've been pouring over the contents of this course.

I've had the same experience where it's like,

Oh.

I forget that myself.

I contributed on my side is you can only invest so much attention to certain things.

I think our higher consciousness practice evolves.

It's like there's a 101 and a 201 and a 301 and a 401.

Sometimes you just have to go back to the basics because you kind of lose touch with them.

So let's talk about mindfulness and let's talk about the practice of mindfulness.

So real quick,

Super,

Super fast primer for those who maybe are just starting to tune into us.

When we talk about mindfulness,

Our definition of the mindfulness is really just bringing your awareness to something conscious that you want to bring your awareness in.

In the course,

We talk about,

Think of your awareness as a flashlight and wherever the beam of light is shining on,

That's your awareness and that you're not the flashlight.

You're the one holding the flashlight.

So you're pointing it to wherever it goes.

Right?

Yeah.

So it can be just like my awareness is now on this pen.

Yep.

And it kind of bleeds out everything else.

And that's the start of becoming mindful.

Right?

And we talk about meditation is one way to do it because you're quieting your mind and you're bringing your awareness to your breath or you're bringing your awareness to your body or you're bringing your awareness to the smells or the sounds or whatever it is.

You can be mindful going on a walk because you're bringing your awareness to your feet,

The pattern of your feet or the birds singing or the smell,

Whatever.

That's mindfulness in its simplest definition.

Would you agree or anything you would add to that or?

No,

It's everything you do in your life.

You can be mindful doing it.

Yes.

Yes.

And that's what we're talking about when we talk about the practice.

Now the advantage of being mindful is most of the time,

Most of us,

I would say 99.

9999999% of us,

90% of the time are,

We're stimulated by something.

Something occurs.

Somebody says something,

Something happens and we have thoughts and emotions,

Usually subconscious,

And then we react based on our judgment or whatever it is.

And so we can get pissed,

We can get excited,

But it's a reaction.

Or we can just go into a line of thinking that never stops.

Cause you can be alone when this happens.

You can ruminate on something or whatever.

Tell yourself the story.

And so when we talk about being mindful,

We're talking about really,

And especially the practice,

We're talking about building up that muscle so that when the thing occurs,

The difference is when the thing occurs,

Whatever it is,

And you,

You suddenly step out of,

Out of,

You take a pause because you're mindful.

You take a pause and you notice how you're reacting.

The story you're telling yourself,

What you're thinking,

What you're feeling,

You notice it.

Yeah.

And then you respond,

You make a conscious choice of how you're going to respond.

Right.

And in that we start becoming higher conscious.

That's the foundation to consciousness.

Yeah.

That's what,

Yes.

Because then you're,

Then you're awake and you're making conscious choices and not just whatever the habit is or whatever the,

You know,

We get stuck in these ruts and we just stay down in our rut and we don't even think about it.

We just ride along in the rut.

Stimulus reaction,

Stimulus,

Reaction,

Stimulus reaction.

And like you said,

Sometimes that just a spiral.

So and then also,

You know,

When you,

When you're,

When you're making conscious responses to what's occurring in your life,

You're higher,

You're hiding,

You're increasing your awareness,

You're increasing your vibration and you're manifesting the,

You know,

And back to kind of law of attraction,

You're manifesting the life you want.

You're creating your life versus,

You know.

Okay.

So that's kind of the,

That's why we're talking about this,

But you don't just do it.

It's a practice.

It's a muscle.

Unless you've built that muscle up,

It's really hard to just do it.

So an example of that is I was talking about how I,

In the past I'd studied or I had practiced some of these things way back when,

You know,

Trying to be mindful.

And so I would,

Every day when I ate my breakfast,

I would pay attention to how it tastes,

Would taste and feel in my mouth and smell and all of that.

And then you and I have been working on this content and I was eating my breakfast the other day and I was swiping through Facebook.

I'm like,

What am I doing?

I'm not,

I'm not being mindful at all.

I'm not enjoying this breakfast at all.

So I stopped doing that.

Yeah.

And I was on there because somebody had told me about something that like,

I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook,

But somebody had told me about something that I wanted to go and check on.

So anyway,

It's easy to get,

It's easy to fall into the trap of not being mindful and,

You know,

With something as simple as eating your breakfast.

Yeah.

Our ego wants to distract us.

It really does.

And so kind of like,

So the difference between this episode and the episode where Crystal and I talked about mindfulness and some of the practices is we talked about some of the ways in which you can become more mindful.

What we're talking about today is a way you can build a practice.

And so it definitely is going to incorporate these different activities that we might do.

But what Lisa and I really wanted to talk today about is really establishing a routine or building a practice in a way that you can build that muscle.

That episode was a long time ago.

If you're a long time listener to us,

Then you're already,

You're probably already done some of those things.

We're really kind of talking about how to make it a practice,

Build it into your life.

Yeah.

So Lisa,

My first question for you is,

What would you say is the enduring practice that you've brought into your routine in your life that has helped you strengthen that mindfulness muscle?

What's the one and most enduring practice?

It's going to be meditation for me.

Yeah,

Of course.

Yeah.

Because I met it because it's something that I decided that I was going to do every day.

And so I meditate every day.

And for me,

Meditation is usually either like all the things you said,

Either I'm just focusing,

I do it different every time,

Focusing just on my breath,

Focusing on sort of on my body,

Maybe a part of my body.

Sometimes I even think about how am I feeling,

You know,

I don't think about it,

But I just kind of sit with that.

So meditation for me is the is the main one.

I do also find that I'm very mindful when I'm like showering and getting ready in the morning.

For me,

That's just a time when I notice I've noticed over time,

That I actually pay attention to what I'm doing.

Yeah.

Because I enjoy it so much because I really love hot,

Really super hot water.

I enjoy it,

You know,

And I enjoy getting ready and picking out something to wear.

And so I'm not like thinking about,

You know,

What am I going to do next?

Yeah,

I gotta go grocery shopping.

I gotta go get to work.

I gotta do this or that.

I actually am pretty mindful when I'm doing so for me,

Those are,

You know,

Other than meditation,

That's an area of my life where I tend to be more mindful.

We have a running joke that Gus,

God Universe source,

Likes to talk to us when we're in the shower.

We seem to get all this insightful ideas.

Yeah,

Lots of people do say that.

They get like these ideas.

Yeah,

That and three in the morning.

Well,

Yeah.

Usually three in the morning is fear for me,

You know,

Like,

Oh,

I think that you're worried for me anyway.

I get insights.

I get ideas at three in the morning.

Then I'm,

What are you going to do with it?

Okay.

So I think a lot of people would say meditation is that kind of basic discipline that they can start to establish that helps to build that muscle.

As you've practiced meditation,

Um,

Because you can't always meditate right through it through the year through your day.

Yes.

What anchor have you discovered through your meditation and,

And yeah,

Go ahead.

I would just say the connection to my body.

Okay.

So,

So,

So paying it,

Focusing on what you're feeling in your body has become an anchor for you.

Yeah.

And even my breath is part of that,

But yeah,

Just like here,

Right here.

Physical body.

Yeah.

What I'm feeling,

What I'm sensing,

You know,

Maybe how,

How I feel my skin feels or my clothes feel on my skin or,

Or my breathing,

How am I breathing feels that kind of thing.

Yeah.

Interesting.

So you can do that anywhere.

You can do that standing in line at the bank,

Six feet apart from everyone else.

Well,

That's why I asked you the question is because that's where,

Um,

As you,

As you establish a practice,

Sometimes starting with a meditation helps you become aware of an aspect that you can anchor into.

And then that anchor can be utilized in any situation.

It just pulls you into,

Into the present moment.

It holds you in the present moment.

So you can start painting that you can have that pause.

So you,

An example would be like,

So you,

You know,

You might be standing in line at the bank and some lady cut you off or some lady,

You know,

Um,

Jumps in line or man or whatever.

And you can say to yourself,

That's rude.

And then it's like,

You take that pause and you start paying attention to your body.

Oh,

I'm tensing up.

Yeah.

You know,

Lisa is reacting to this in a negative.

She's got a story she's telling herself about the negative pieces of this.

You just notice it,

Right?

But it's only cause you,

What's yours,

What's yours,

What's your anchor?

Um,

I also found my anchor through meditation.

Um,

I have,

I actually have,

I have three,

Um,

When I'm meditating,

My anchor is,

It's going to sound funny,

But I've,

I,

I'm very visual.

And so I drift by visually drift into the stars.

I just drift into a sky of stars.

And it just,

It brings me,

It just settles me down.

It brings me into that meditative space.

Um,

When I'm out in the world running around or whatever,

Um,

It's my breath.

It's it's,

I have this four by four thing I do where I inhale for four seconds,

Hold for four seconds,

Breathe out for four seconds,

Hold for four seconds.

Just repeat that.

That grounds me.

Um,

That brings my mindfulness to the forefront.

Um,

And then the other one,

Um,

That you actually introduced me to,

Um,

Is to check that I have this,

You know,

Not,

I've,

We talked about this in other podcasts,

But at nine,

Six,

Every three hours,

I just put my hand on my heart,

My hand on my stomach and I just check in with myself.

And that's just a,

That's just a timed routine to mindfulness.

Um,

Just,

Just stop for,

Just stop the madness for a little while,

Three minutes.

Cause give,

Give myself three minutes to just,

To just be.

And um,

That's actually,

It's,

I'm glad you asked that question because that's actually the,

That's probably been the most effective.

Yeah.

That one to me seems like a really good one to start with.

Yeah.

Set a timer,

Set a timer and just check in with yourself.

That's it.

Just how,

How's my spirit right now?

How am I feeling?

How,

What's going on?

Yeah.

What's,

What am I reacting to?

What am I not?

And even get,

And take that opportunity just to get a little quiet,

You know,

Don't go into,

Oh,

I'm thinking I'm pissed because the guys jumped in front of me and like,

Don't do,

That's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about just like,

Get quiet,

Take a few breaths.

How am I feeling?

Yeah.

I mean,

I still do that,

But so when I,

When I,

What I do is,

So it's a,

It's a pause.

It's a centering and I center and,

And get in the moment,

Anchor into the breathing and feeling checking in with myself.

But then I allow,

Because that's the other essence of mindfulness is you don't resist anything.

And so don't stuff anything.

Yeah.

I don't stop anything.

So if I'm,

If I'm like oftentimes for me,

Like during the week or whatever,

Um,

Like I might be in between clients,

So maybe the,

The hour mark or whatever comes in and I'm,

I'm in with a client,

So I can't necessarily stop then,

But then I'm in between clients and so I'll stop and I might notice that I'm hustling,

I'm pushing.

Yeah.

Um,

Or I'm having a reaction to the previous session that I'm going to carry into the next session.

And then I just,

I don't stop it.

Don't resist.

I'm like,

Hmm,

That's interesting.

That's,

That's coming in.

And then what do I do with it?

Well,

I don't maybe do anything with it,

But just let it live its course,

You know,

Let it have its time,

Let it have its focus.

Sometimes I was actually just meeting with a client this morning and this is coming up.

It's kind of random.

Sorry.

Um,

I was meeting with a client this morning and this client,

She noticed that like she's working on being more mindful and she's working on.

She's trying to practice and build that muscle.

And she notices that she'll feel something and she'll recognize what it is,

But then she shifts into her head and she tries to find a meaning for it.

And so,

So she's a,

She's a pretty far along on her path.

Um,

But she all of a sudden realized in that moment,

She's like,

Sometimes it doesn't have to mean anything.

Yeah.

It's just,

It's just energy that needs to move.

Yeah.

We rationalize the heck out of everything.

I know.

We have to understand,

We have to understand everything.

Well,

We're curious beings,

So,

You know,

Oftentimes we want to understand where's that,

What's,

What's that all about?

Yeah.

So sometimes not,

Sometimes we're asleep and we don't know,

We don't care.

Lisa has created this really cool tool.

Um,

It's just a simple spreadsheet,

But it's still pretty cool that she uses with her clients on mindfulness practice.

And um,

You want to share that because that'd be,

That could be a nice tool that,

That you could go onto the practical consciousness podcast Facebook group under the units.

And there's a file,

This,

This spreadsheet is there and this spreadsheet does what?

So it just is a way to build your mindfulness habits.

So I got the idea.

My husband has a spreadsheet that he uses when he's working out and he tracks,

He finds that it's better for him to track what he's doing and that helps him keep that habit going.

So this is just for mindfulness.

So I've listed things in there like meditation,

Exercise,

Having coffee,

Eating my breakfast,

Like whatever,

Getting dressed.

I just put some things in there.

You can change it.

There's a spreadsheet that you can change.

Yes.

Edit it.

Yeah.

But um,

But it has a column for every day of the week and I was thinking some clients like to put a little star in there.

I have one client that really likes gold stars.

She uses them all the time.

Back to kindergarten.

Back to,

You know who you are,

But um,

Smiley face or you can put,

Um,

A comment in there,

You know,

Didn't,

I ate my breakfast without being mindful,

Rushed through it or,

You know,

Quite little,

Whatever your,

Or you can say yes,

It was very mindful and enjoyed every bite of the strawberry or whatever.

No,

But yeah,

You can,

Um,

Conversations I think is one that's in there.

So you know,

You can start to pay attention to how mindful you're listening to others and you can mark that in your,

You can put like a name in there from Tuesday.

You know,

James had a conversation with James and I was very mindful of listening to what he said.

So very cool.

Um,

There's a tool and there's,

I'm sure you can even find many of these kinds of tools and books and these other kinds of resources like this.

Um,

And so certainly meditation,

We talked about as a core one,

Um,

The practice of being mindful in your routine is very important.

Um,

One of the things I do with my clients is I say,

Just pick three basic routines that you,

Um,

You know,

Brushing your teeth,

Whatever makes sense to you,

Taking a shower,

Cooking,

Whatever,

And just make yourself be mindful as you conduct that activity.

Um,

And just,

Just shine that flashlight on a conscious,

Consciously shine that flashlight and and,

And,

And then what do you,

What do you experience after a week of doing that?

And then pick three other things.

And another really good one that I,

I did early on in my practice,

Um,

That was surprisingly interesting because of how much I react was this is when I had a corporate job.

I spent a week being fully mindful on the commute to work and from work.

I've done that before too.

Painful.

That's not easy.

Painful.

And I was shocked at how much I react in that circumstance,

In that environment,

Because I've,

I felt myself to be,

You know,

Pretty,

Uh,

Pretty open guy,

You know,

I'm pretty at that,

Especially at that stage.

Um,

When it came to getting behind the wheel,

Not so much.

And then the other one I did,

This was a little of,

Uh,

I consider it an advanced practice,

Um,

Is my,

I was fully mindful in all my meetings for one week at work,

All of them.

And there was a lot of them.

Don't let your mind drift and yeah.

Another painful one and a very,

Very reactive one.

Uh,

And so it helps,

It really helps just to just build that muscle up and strengthen up that muscle.

Um,

And yeah.

So that's kind of what we wanted to bring for today.

We really wanted to talk about the practice.

We really wanted to hit home the idea that,

That,

You know,

There there's,

There's resources,

There's tools,

There's books.

There's so much around mindfulness,

Especially today,

Because it's become so very mainstream.

Yeah,

It has.

And it is the,

It is the essential pillar to higher consciousness.

But you have to practice it.

You have to have to practice it.

There's you can't intellectually understand it and get anywhere with that.

You have to practice it.

Yeah.

And so,

Um,

Yeah,

So go out to the Facebook page for practical consciousness podcast.

Um,

Join that page,

Download the resource,

The spreadsheet.

Um,

We'll,

We'll maybe put some other resources out.

Um,

Yeah,

There's one there now I think that's creating a meditation practice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um,

We'll let me put some more stuff out there.

Um,

Being on the lookout,

If you,

If you want to join the practical consciousness tribe,

We have a separate page.

Um,

It's,

It's going to be a pay to play,

But we're offering a 30 day free trial.

And if you're just getting started in a mindfulness,

Um,

We've got a course that we both teach that is going to be in that,

Um,

In that,

That tribe.

And um,

Yeah,

So there's,

There's resources there to reach out to.

Um,

There's some great books.

It's a hot topic right now.

So,

Um,

But that's a,

That's an essential beginning.

Yes.

Very essential beginnings.

Very good place to start.

Yeah.

Um,

And if you want to join the conversation,

Please do.

Um,

You want to share your ideas about,

Uh,

Some of the habits you've built around consciousness or some of the approaches you take to it that you've built that muscle.

We'd love to hear it.

We really would.

Yeah.

You never know who you can help by sharing some of your ideas.

That's right.

Yeah.

So with that,

I think we're,

We've run out of time and,

Uh,

We are so grateful for all of you that listened to this podcast and,

Um,

Beyond our moms and,

Um,

Yeah.

And watch the,

And watch the YouTube video,

Um,

That we've been posting the last few episodes.

So if you want to,

If you're watching us,

Yeah,

Lisa is a very lovely lady.

Very grateful.

Um,

And with that,

Um,

I think we'll say goodbye and again,

Appreciate you guys listening.

So bye bye.

Thanks.

Bye

Reviews

Great! I'll look for other talks on here! Thank you!