Conscious living Practice 8 - Forgiveness

As humans we are bound to make mistakes. Holding very high standards for ourselves and becoming overly self critical can cause us to unconsciously harbor self resentment. 

Unless we are mindful, we won't even realize the critical self talk taking place. We can all learn to forgive ourselves, each day. Forgiving ourselves does not mean we keep committing the same mistakes again and again. It is important to be mindful of the mistake, and learn from it, but there is no need to criticize oneself for having committed the mistake. Allow yourself to be human, susceptible to err. As in our self love practice, be gentle and kind with yourself. 

The more you learn to forgive yourself, the more willing you would be to forgive others. Just as you allow yourself to be human enough to make mistakes, allow others too🙂 Again forgiving does not mean condoning the wrong doing. We can learn to set healthy boundaries in order to safe guard ourselves from future hurt. But we need not continually harbor resentment against the people who wronged us as that will only harm us in the long run. Let go of the resentment and be free. 

Here, is a forgiveness prayer that you can say each night, before going to bed, or just whenever you find the time: 

#consciousliving #practice8 #forgiveness 

Conscious living Practice 7 - Be Consistent

By adopting a conscious living lifestyle, we learn to simplify our lives and be at ease. Many people I know start approaching these practices as something that needs to be done and get on with, like checking a task list. Such an approach may not give the right result.

It is very important to be clear with, "why" we do what we do. Setting a clear intention, so we know what we are striving towards. Once we have that in place, consistency follows. Not just for these practices, but anything that you take up, be it learning a new skill, or getting better at something you are already doing, requires you to put in the effort every single day. And a little effort each day, will add up, to give you the result you seek.

So set clear intention for your practices and stay consistent 🙂

#consciousliving #practice7 #consistency

  

Conscious living Practice 6 - Connect with your heart

If there is one message that should go out from all the teachers/ Guru's / saints, it should be this - connect with your heart. The word "teacher" contains the word heart hidden in it. There is no greater teacher than your own heart. Unfortunately it is the one thing that we keep running away from with most of our attention constantly drawn outwards. Rumi says, " there is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen " and that's the voice of your heart. 

You can't listen to your heart when your mind is constantly chattering. So try to silence the mind first. You can do this by meditating on your breath. Find a quiet place to sit where you will not be disturbed and draw your awareness to your breath. Notice the quality and rhythm of your breath. Just notice without any judgement. Your mind is bound to wander and when this happens, and you realize that your mind has wandered, just gently bring your awareness back to your breath. When you start, just try to sit for 5 minutes, and gradually increase the duration. 

During this quiet time, you may get lot of insights, so keep a book handy to note them down. Try to set an intention to connect with your heart before every "quiet sitting" practice. Be consistent and try not to judge your practice. See how it goes and feel free to share your experience in the comments.

#consciousliving #practice6 #connectwithyourheart

Conscious living Practice 5 - Self love

Now, this one is HUGE, and can be a lifetime practice🙂

Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that we come into this life alone and we have to leave alone. People can walk by our side, but we need to take this journey by ourselves. And in this lone journey, don't you think we need to be there for ourselves more than anything else?

If you pay a little attention, you will notice that most of the time, our attention is drawn outward, which causes us to rely on outside factors for our own self esteem. If someone praises us, we feel happy and satisfied and if someone criticizes us, we tend to take it personally and start believing that we are not good enough. Our self worth eventually starts depending on what other people think or say of us. We also have the tendency to compare ourselves with others and feel good or bad basis who we compare ourselves with. As a result we end up having an emotional state that is not in our control but entirely dependent on outside factors.

Also people give us less credit than what's due to us. As children we used to get a lot of, " Good girl/ good boy / well done " etc but as adults we are hardly appreciated 🙂 But this doesn't have to dishearten us. Instead of relying always on outside appreciation, we can take the time to appreciate ourselves. And when this is done on a regular basis, our dependence on others for appreciation reduces. And we are less likely to feel bad when criticized, knowing very well our own self worth ( that we have taken the time to build ).

Now coming to the "how". You can choose to maintain a journal where you write down all the things that you love & admire about yourself ( it could be a physical feature or an internal quality ) or you could do some exercise to cultivate self love on a daily basis. 

Some ideas for practice: 

Mirror Image Exercise : Every morning look at yourself in the mirror, look into your own eyes and tell yourself, " I love you"🙂 Note, how it feels. If you find it odd, then maybe it's time to get to know and love yourself a little more. 

Some daily journal ideas : 

1. Write down your strengths

2. Write down some of your internal qualities that you love about yourself.

3. Write about an incident in your life where you showed a positive quality. Something you are proud of.

4. Write down one thing you would like to forgive yourself for.

5. Write positive affirmations to yourself. Write what resonates with you. 

6. Create a "nurture plan" for yourself. It could be some quiet time with a favorite book, a mindful walk, a nutritious meal. Your choice. 

7. Write a "self compassion" note to yourself, about a goof up you committed.

Actions you can take: 

1. Just for today, avoid junk food.

2. Write down all the things that make you happy, and do one of them. 

3. Spend an hour moving your body. 

4. Allow yourself to relax & rest 

The list can go on. Be creative and make sure you do something each day, to nurture yourself, get to know yourself, and love yourself "unconditionally". 

#consciousliving #practice5 #selflove

Conscious living Practice 4 - Express Gratitude

We may say that we practice gratitude, but unless we take the time to literally express gratitude each day, we are not really practicing it. 

In order to practice, you can choose to keep a "gratitude journal" ( physical or online ) where you write down/ key in, all the things that you are grateful for or you can make it a point to do a daily gratitude exercise or mix up the two🙂

I get my 5 year old daughter to say thanks to 5 people or things that she is grateful for, each day, before going to bed. And she never fails to surprise me by thanking something unusual :-)

Expressing gratitude regularly helps to train our minds to look at what's going right in our lives. This practice can enhance our happiness quotient and generate contentment for "what is".

They say, "what you focus on grows". So try to consciously practice focusing on the good in your life.

If you don't already have a physical or online journal ( there are several apps these days, though I personally prefer a physical one 🙂 ) , then I suggest you get one. 

Here are some ideas, for daily practice : 

1. You could write down all the things you are grateful for.

2. You can take a gratitude walk and appreciate everything around you in nature. 

3. You can express gratitude to all the people involved in bringing the food onto your table - from the farmer to the grocery guy to the person who prepared the meal. 

4. You can express thanks to a person in your life, you are grateful for.

5. You can write down all those things you are grateful for that you normally take for granted such as a safety pin or your hair rubber band.

6. You can express gratitude for your sense organs.

7. You can express gratitude to all the people who make your life beautiful.

8. You can express gratitude for any incident in your life that's made you strong.

9. You can express gratitude for any one Wonderful memory.

10. You can express gratitude towards little thoughtful gestures made by people.

The list can go on. Get creative and make sure you make "expressing gratitude" a way of life. 

#consciousliving #practice4 #expressgratitude

Conscious living Practice 3 - Create Mindful Moments

Many of us unconsciously practice mindfulness when we are in a state of flow, doing something we enjoy doing. 

At other times, we carry on chores and tasks without too much presence, as our mind is constantly thinking. We can choose to bring mindfulness to even our day to day tasks. To do this, begin to involve as many of your senses into your experience. See what you are seeing, hear what you are hearing, feel what you are feeling, taste what you are tasting and smell what you are smelling. Consciously involving your senses into the experience will keep you in the moment and you will be able to quieten the constant mental chatter.

Whenever there is too much going on in my mind, I like to pause, and become mindful of whatever it is that I am doing. Involving my senses and being present in the moment gives me a break from the various kinds of internal dialogues of my mind, that do nothing more than cause stress. 

Becoming mindful also helps me to have an enjoyable experience, as I am involving as many of my senses. 

You too can look at creating "mindful moments'. Notice how being present helps you to release stress, how even a very ordinary experience of say, eating a fruit, becomes a lot more enjoyable when done mindfully ( see the fruit, smell it, feel it in your mouth as you take the bite, hear the crunching sound as you bite into it, taste the sweetness of it ). 

As you get started with this practice, consciously decide to be mindful with one routine activity a day. It could be - brushing your teeth, bathing, eating a meal, an evening walk etc. Choose whichever you want and notice how it changes your experience. 

As you get adept with being mindful with one activity, begin to add more. 

Feel free to share your experiences with, "creating mindful moments"🙂

#consciousliving #practice3 #createmindfulmoments

Conscious living Practice 2 - Relax

I hope you have been practicing 'genuine smiling' to connect with fellow beings🙂 .

Today, we will talk about practicing "Relaxation as a way of life". 

Most of us do not know how to relax. We think we can finish our work or household chores & set aside some time to relax. But even when we think we are relaxing, there are a million things running in our heads making it difficult for us to truly relax.

If you were to do a quick scan of your body at this very moment, you will find that there are several muscles in your body that are unnecessarily tense. Muscles that are not contributing to the action you are performing at the moment. To release this tension you need to focus on this tensed muscle & mentally send it a message ‘to let go & relax’. You can even breathe into the area of tension and relax with every exhale.  These muscles will then automatically de-contract & relax. 

Sometimes without our knowledge, we constrict our eyebrows, hunch shoulders, tighten chest ( all signs of holding tension ). So become mindful and remind yourself to relax your shoulders, neck, jaw, space between the eyebrows. Be aware and mindful of how you physically tense yourself, and release the tension from time to time. A regular body scan will help you stay connected with your body. 

So continue smiling and stay relaxed. Do share your experiences with the practices in the comments 🙂

#consciousliving #practice 2 #stayrelaxed