From the course: Mindfulness Practices

The basics of good practice

From the course: Mindfulness Practices

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The basics of good practice

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- Let me start by sharing a confession. When I was learning mindfulness years ago, I wanted to be the first in my class to get it right. I wanted to be the best, do it perfectly. Yes, I'm a little competitive. I now realize that in mindfulness, and in life, there's no getting it perfect. Just like you lift weights to stay strong, you practice mindfulness to develop a strong, peaceful, and agile mind. There are three basics that will help you get mindful. I call these the three Ps, posture, patience, and practice. Remember these three Ps as you experiment with mindfulness. Let's start with posture. I remember my mother telling me to stand up straight when I was young. Turns out good posture is good for our body, has an impact on how we feel, how others perceive us, and how we impact them. Here are the basics of good posture. Let's practice together. Sit on a chair with your spine straight, your shoulders relaxed, your chest open, your hands on your thighs. This posture will help you be relaxed, alert and breathe more deeply. You can close your eyes or soften your gaze. This allows you to focus inward. Now place your hand on your lower belly, below your navel. As you breathe in, you'll feel your belly rise. As you breathe out, notice your belly fall. We will breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, each for a count of four. Let's start. Inhale, (inhales) two, three, four. Exhale, (exhales) two, three, four. Congratulations, you've taken a mindful breath. In this course, we will be using breath to train the mind and to relax the body. The second P is patience. This is especially important today when we expect everything on demand. We want everything we want now, and we get stressed when we can't have it. But patience is an important trait if you want to learn something new and stick with it. You may have expectations about how quickly you will progress, what results you will get, how to be perfect, or you may judge yourself when you're not doing it right. Practice noticing what's going on without any judgment. If you notice yourself being impatient, don't judge yourself about that. Our judging thoughts can discourage us, so just notice what's happening and keep practicing, which brings us to the third P, practice. You get the benefits of mindfulness with even five minutes of daily practice. If you can't practice daily, practice when you can or when you really need it. When you start a practice, your brain creates new neural pathways. With more practice, neural pathways are actually deepened, so it becomes easier to practice and get the benefits of mindfulness. So remember, posture, patience, and practice. With these three new friends, you will create new neural pathways to experience work and life with much greater richness and impact.

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