Mind With Heart
Why mindfulness? You can’t focus on well-being if you can’t focus on the tools for mental wellness. Mindfulness is very pivotal to that. With virtual learning taking it’s pace, our homes have now turned into both a personal and a work space. This can be quite challenging and can turn into complex environments, where boundaries are difficult to maintain. Implementing mindfulness provides the much needed brain breaks during these challenging times.
Click here to watch a short video – “Mindfulness is a Superpower”.
- Make time: Deciding to set time aside each day to practise mindful activities is a great place to start. Morning mindfulness can help set the tone for the day. “Do deep breathing, meditate, exercise, whatever mindfulness activity works for you”. Mindfulness doesn’t have to be elaborate: “You can try mindful eating or mindful drinking with a cup of coffee”.
- Limit multi-tasking: Right now it can feel like trying to do ten things at once is the only way anything will get done. But, explains Joanna Stern, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, multitasking rarely works, and can actually increase stress. Instead try to focus on achievable goals for the day, and try to focus on one thing at a time.
- Make it a family routine: Designating time to practice mindful activities as a family will help everyone feel less anxious. It could be a daily family yoga session, or a quiet walk in the community, taking time to focus on the way the air feels, the sound of the birds and the smell of the trees. Another good family mindfulness idea is asking everyone to mention one good thing they heard or saw that day over dinner.
- Acknowledge the uncertainty: This situation is one of extreme uncertainty. We don’t know what will happen, how long it will last, or what things will be like when it’s over. One thing we do know, however, is that worrying about it won’t change the outcome. Learning how to tolerate the uncertainty is a huge part of building healthy coping skills for ourselves, which we then want to model for our children.
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