Introduction to mindfulness training.
I'm Sean Fargo.
Mindfulness is simply paying attention on purpose in the present moment,
Non-judgmentally.
In other words,
It means bringing kind,
Curious awareness to your experience.
We can bring mindfulness to many aspects of our life.
We can bring mindfulness to walking,
Standing,
Lying down,
Eating,
Or just about anything at all.
Simply the practice of being present.
There are many health benefits to mindfulness.
Thousands of studies conducted by many of the world's top researchers and scientists have shown that mindfulness is helpful for reducing chronic pain,
Depression,
And anxiety.
Mindfulness helps increase emotional intelligence and immune function.
Thousands of people have reported better communication skills and feelings of connection and compassion.
We don't expect you to take our word for it.
We hope that you'll try some mindfulness practices for yourself and see which ones work for you.
Over the next several sessions,
We'll introduce new mindfulness exercises that you can practice at home.
They'll be very simple,
Very short,
And easy to understand.
I'd like to introduce a simple one to you right now.
It's called mindfulness of breathing.
If you have two or three minutes and are in a safe space,
I encourage you to put both feet on the floor,
Sit or stand in an upright position,
Feeling relaxed and alert at the same time.
Relax your belly,
Drop your shoulders,
And see if you can soften some of the muscles in your face,
Like your jaw or the muscles around your eyes.
Invite a sense of relaxation in the body.
Mindfulness is not hypnosis.
It's actually the opposite.
We're bringing more clarity to our actual experience.
So bring awareness to your body and see if you can feel the weight of your body,
Sensing into gravity as it pulls you onto your chair or the ground.
We're simply grounding our experience where we are.
Now shift your attention gradually to the movements of your belly as you breathe.
See if you can stay with the right balance of your body as you breathe.
If you're feeling a little bit of a sense of relief,
If you can stay with the rising and falling of your abdomen with each inhale and exhale,
Keeping a natural rhythm of breath,
Bringing kind,
Curious awareness of the body as you breathe.
So now,
You're breathing right now.
Simply notice the experience of breathing in this body right now.
Because you're a human with a thinking mind,
Your mind will wander from time to time.
That's completely normal.
The practice of mindfulness is noticing when we're mindful and bringing our awareness back to our object of mindfulness without too much judgment.
So we're bringing our attention back to our breath each time we're distracted.
Simply resting in this awareness of breathing with a sense of kindness.
With a sense of kindness.
Great.
Good job.
This is a brief mindfulness exercise.
Mindfulness of breathing.
So as you can see,
Mindfulness is not religious.
It's not complicated.
And it doesn't require any new beliefs about anything.
It's simply the act of noticing your experience as it's happening without judgment.
It's about bringing a kind,
Curious awareness to your body and your mind.
Over the next several sessions,
We'll introduce several mindfulness practices,
Explain a few more of the medical benefits of mindfulness,
And get you on your way to mindful recovery.
Thank you for trying this exercise and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
