Day 42 The Skilled Mind
Reflecting on mindfulness practices for nurturing mental self-care
This week we have explored practices for cultivating mental habits of stillness, silence, presence, thoughtfulness, and loving-kindness. How did these practices land for you? Did you find any particularly helpful, or perhaps difficult? How might you integrate mindfulness into your self-care on a regular basis?
For me, it was 50-50 in terms of challenges with the practices of the past week. The Loving-kindness and Lectio Divina meditations landed beautifully. I even did quite well with stillness.
I’ve often used the Pray As You Go app, which uses an approach to scriptures from the daily lectionary based on the practices of St. Ignatius. I will keep using this in the future.
I notice that I struggle most with the embodied practices of Body Scan & Breath Awareness….. and I still haven’t gotten to the silence/wise speech exercise. I definitely prefer to avoid noticing my body, which shows me an area of life where I need more healing.
Right now, I am going to aim for a body scan meditation every 2 weeks. I will need to start with the shortest body scan meditations available … I need to be realistic and give myself some grace because it’s challenging for me. It’s about progress, not perfection. And even 10 minutes every 2 weeks will help me better understand my body.
I will be working on silence during my upcoming retreat- and I’m actually excited about the opportunity for intentional quietness!
It was helpful typing different types of mindfulness. I’m always in two minds of whether I should push myself to do styles of meditation that are more difficult for me… or accept that which feels best is best for me. As I type this though I realise that it probably depends…
I have learned (or it’s been reinforced) that I can’t meditate lying down or I’ll fall asleep.
I still prefer a type of ‘moving’ meditation whether it be yoga, tapping, or while walking.
Embracing silence in my surroundings isn’t difficult for me. Silence in my mind is another thing!
The most powerful practice for me this week was the loving-kindness meditation. I plan to add this into my routines.