November 13, 2018

Practicing mindfulness in small, practical bites.
❤️ breathing. Take up all the space. Connect to your breath. Take up the space. Its free, it’s there, and it’s supportive.
? gratitude is the pathway to joy – Brené Brown. The simple practice of gratitude rewires our brains to feel joy more quickly.
? increase well-being. That looks different for different people. For me that looks like being creative, playing, storytelling, collaborating, seeing a small project through to completion (repainting my cabinets, installing hooks), listening to audio books and Ted talks.
? slow down. When I feel anxious and feel out of time it seems counterintuitive to TAKE time to slow down. Pause. Breathe. But it’s necessary and good self and soul care. You can’t show up efficiently if you aren’t well rested, nourished. Invest in you.
? I oscillate between intra- and inter-personal connection. Between needing self-connection/quiet and needing friends and family support. Noticing when my soul needs decompression time (exhale) and when it needs connection to others time (inhale) was important in my journey towards finding balance.
? practicing grace towards myself. What messages was I telling myself? Why? Did I believe them? What is the true story? What do I actually believe? Working to peel back the layers; to not feel guilty or upset with myself when I messed up … to offer myself grace, compassion, self love, and the opportunity/space to acknowledge it, apologize if needed, and try again. A cycle of noticing/reflecting mixed with self-love and self-compassion.
? anxiety can sometimes come on suddenly. When I feel anxious and need to feel more grounded I literally take an Epsom salt bath. There is magnesium in Epsom salt and magnesium helps with anxiety. Learning simple grounding techniques when I felt spirally was helpful to my life recalibration.