Practicing Mindfulness

Mindfulness, Stress and Health - 3 Tips on Practicing Mindfulness

By Stacy Phillips, MSOPE, NDTR, Certified Independent OPTAVIA Coach

I can’t think of a time better time than now suited to broaching the topic of how to begin
developing a mindfulness practice as a habit of health. Empowering people to get in the
driver’s seat of their personal health, and become the dominant force of what they CAN
control in this arena is what my husband David and I do as Independent OPTAVIA Coaches!

Chronic stress is a killer, and in fact research has shown it is, in fact, an underlying
contributorto many of our lifestyle diseases. Who knew? This decade certainly has had
its fair share ofpotential contributing factors to all of our stress levels. If we were stressed
going IN to 2020,suffice it to say the events of 2020 have had an exponential multiplying
effect on our baseline stress. No one has been untouched by the compounding effects of
potential stressors. Covid-19, civil unrest, job security, the upcoming Presidential Election,
our basic way of life and our way of DOING life has been altered.

So what do we do about it? How can we navigate this season in a way which can leave
us in abetter position in our health than we were on January 1, 2020? 

Research has shown that “pattern disrupts” are THE BEST TIME to make successful
majorchanges in our life and health. Why? Because where we are currently in our life
(including ourhealth) is largely a direct result of our past habits and choices, and many of
the routines we follow have become automated over time, because our brains are wired to
simplify things and to group sequential actions together to conserve brain energy.  So much
so that we forget that those repeated sequences are actually a series of separate actions or
choices strung together. 

Think about when you used to drive home (or still do) from your place of employment, for
example. Do you remember making each turn? No, because you’ve done it so often that
your brain kicks into that one series of repeated automated behaviors as soon as you get in
your car. Much different than when you have to navigate to somewhere you’ve never been
before, which takes a lot more concentration and therefore brainpower! Learning how to drive
a manual transmission car? Same thing. What was cumbersome and a series of individual
sequential actions is now one flowing, almost unconscious, move. It’s hardly even a thought
anymore, it just “happens” automatically when you drive!

Because where we are today is largely a result of the repeated choices, actions and behaviors
we’ve made up until today, in order to make major changes we need to re-wire those automated
“non-conscious” behaviors that DON’T serve us any longer, and develop the new attitudes and
behaviors that can become our NEW healthy habits to create the outcome (life and health) that
we desire.

When I used to think of “Mindfulness and Meditation” I pictured yoga, Indian gurus, incense, and

the notion that meditation meant I needed to “empty my mind”, but that couldn’t be further from

the truth. In fact, if that WERE what it meant, it would be called “Mindlessness”. No, mindfulness

is becoming aware of our emotions, thoughts, and sensations in the NOW, with an attitude of
gentle loving-kindness. Not banishing them, or searching for some nirvana experience of a loss
f self, but simply becoming aware of the present in a way that greets it as it is, accepts it as it is,
in a curious and open way.

Here are 3 tips to starting your mindfulness practice today:

1. Schedule it into your calendar

Make a commitment to yourself to be consistent with practicing mindfulness. It won’t matter how

elaborate or long you intend your mindfulness session to be if you never do it. Either put it in
your calendar, or tie it to something you do at least once every day, for example “walking to the
mailbox and back”. No, you aren’t in a dark room on a mat with no distractions, but it doesn’t
matter where you do it, it is THAT you do it. Even the 5 minutes it takes to walk to your mailbox,
if you set your intent to practice mindfulness or open up your mindfulness app and DO it, you
are ahead simply from your consistency. For me, I’ve been practicing mindfulness twice a day
every day while hand watering my 100+ plants I’ve procured for the “Health & Hope”

Tropical Garden I’m creating. I go out in the morning and at night, and it takes me at least 30

minutes each time. I go out with the cares and worries of the world swirling around my brain,
and I don’t come in until I’m fully present and focused on my trees, vines and shrubs, in the now.

2. Start Small

You don't have to start with a one-hour session! In fact, you could do mindfulness meditation
right now, for 1 minute, 5 minutes, or longer. I have to tell you if you’ve never done it before
you will likely need to work up to longer timeframes. It’s about putting focused attention on the
he NOW. It isn’t about KEEPING your mind from wandering, it is about noticing when it does
and bringing it back to what you were focusing on every time. There are two Apps I can
recommend, the first for bringing mindfulness to every healthy habit in life is the "Habits of
Health" App, which we use in the program we coach. A great App focused solely on developing
a mindful meditation practice is “Headspace”.

3. Attitude Matters

The attitude and intent we bring to our mindfulness meditation matters, in fact it makes the

difference. If we go inward to examine our thoughts, emotions and sensations in the present

but we bring to it an attitude of negativity or harsh critical judgment, we are not practicing

mindfulness. Intent matters, and the attitude we bring needs to be one of gentle
loving-kindness. Greeting what we find as if it is a welcome friend at our door. Focused
attention without a gracious attitude towards what we are putting our attention on can
do more harm than good, this is NOT a "search and destroy” mission. 

You can develop mindfulness in any activity, but start by simply asking yourself “what am
I feeling (emotion), thinking, or sensing (physical sensations) in this moment, right now?
There are many resources to begin developing a more formal mindful meditation practice
of your own, reach out to me if you’d like some of those at mycoachstacy@gmail.com .

Ultimately, mindfulness is a choice. We can either view the world as happening “to” us,
or “for” us and mindfulness meditation can help us be fully present in the moment, and
responding wisely for our own benefit and the benefit of others, instead of always “reacting”.
And the real benefits for our health and longevity are undisputed.  

I’m still a student of mindfulness and mindful meditation, and I’m learning more every day.
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to test and expand my skills, as my son Julian and husband
David are in the Bay Area right now while Julian awaits his second kidney transplant. We don’t
know how long they will be there, as my son is on dialysis at Stanford Children’s Hospital
while they search for a match. We’ve rented a tiny house for them, close to the hospital.
It could be 3 months or 13 months or longer, we simply don’t know. For me, I’ve chosen
to begin the process of creating a “Health & Hope” Tropical Garden in our backyard so that
when they return we have a beautiful place where we can spend time in nature. The
creation of the garden is an exercise in continuing my mindfulness practice. I’m choosing
to view this time as an opportunity for growth, to revisit and relearn my healthy habits, as
this major “pattern disrupt” is playing out in our lives. 

The world we live in will never be free of stressors, but how we respond to those stressors
can make all the difference to our health.