Episode 17: Mindfulness

In this episode,

Lizzie practices mindfulness and demonstrates how you can do the same. Tune in to learn some tips for recognizing when you need to employ mindfulness and how it can benefit you.

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Post-pod questions to consider

What are your favorite mindfulness techniques? How can you build a regular mindfulness practice into your daily life?

Episode Transcript

Hey. You're listening to the Midnight Philosopher with Lizzie. Thanks for tuning in. 

Today, I'm gonna talk about mindfulness. Mindfulness is being being in the present moment at its core and it's without rejecting or attaching yourself to your current experience. So, essentially, mindfulness, like a definition, like a colloquial one could be, it is what it is, and it isn't what it isn't. 

Mindfulness is a key principle for working through anxiety, depression, and trauma. Because if you're in the present moment, you're not ruminating about the past or having flashbacks of the past and you're not stuck or worrying about the future. You might how can you tell if you're ruminating or worrying about the future, having anxiety, or worrying about the past? And you might ask yourself this, and for a lot of people and a lot of clients I work with, you can tell in your body. 

This may be your first indicator. So, when you're ruminating, your body might feel heavy or you might find yourself clenching your fists or your jaw. If you're having a flashback, you might find yourself reliving a moment in your past that is not happening at the present moment. And, if you're worrying about your future, you might find that your heart starts to race or your palms start to get sweaty. So, when you start to notice these feelings in your body, mindfulness can be really helpful to help you ease your body and these sensations and help you bring help bring you back to the present. So, let's say, I'm worrying about the future and my heart is beating really fast. If I bring myself back to the present moment, I am more likely to be able to ground myself and calm my body down and bring my heart rate back to a regular pace. 

So mindfulness has helped me a lot in my life, though I have to admit it, I do groan every time my therapist suggests I use it. Because I sort of like thinking about my past and my future. But that's not always helpful for me at the time, and it's okay to think about your past and your future just to be intentional about it. So, when you're doing a mindful activity, you're being intentional. And so, for example, once I was in a group therapy room as a client and we had to balance an egg so that it stood vertically. And here's the catch. The egg wasn't hard boiled and could crack and splatter at any moment if you weren't careful. And I was completely focused and zoned in on this activity. I wasn't worrying about all the things that I had been through in the past or worrying that I wasn't where I wanted to be in my life. I was right there in that room focused on my goal. And at the end of the group, we talked about what the activity did for us. And I said I really liked it, but I also acknowledged that that was attaching to the outcome of the activity, which I had succeeded, if you were curious. This sparked a conversation about mindfulness and mindfulness being the act itself and cliche, not the destination. 
So, in in this case, I was being mindful of putting the egg standing upright, but it wasn't about actually succeeding in that. 

Another time I was mindful was when I was sitting on the beach. I could feel my heart starting to pound really fast. I was thinking about the future. I was trying to plan. I was trying to do all these things. And in that moment, I felt my heart beating really fast, and I decided to try to be mindful to help ease myself, to regulate myself. So in order to do this, I tuned into my senses, And I heard children laughing and waves lapping the shores. And I smelled the salt water in the air. I felt the sun shining down on me. And I had the taste of sand in my mouth - unintentionally - and I saw the expansive ocean. I really tuned into my five senses, which helped my heartbeat slow down because I was grounded in that moment. I wasn't thinking about the future anymore. I was really present in my body. 

And a third time that mindfulness was helpful for me was when I was drawing colorful animals. My mind reached what's called a flow state, which basically means I was so absorbed in the activity that I kind of lost track of space and time. I was so present drawing all those animals that I wasn't thinking about anything else. Flow states are important for boosting creativity and happiness. So mindfulness is important to help your body feel calm and regulated. 

And the best part is the more you practice mindfulness, the easier it is to do. It's like working a muscle out at the gym. It gets bigger the more you use it. So, you might be wondering how can you be more mindful in your life? And you can do this by tuning into your five senses, which means, you guessed it, you can be mindful in literally any moment of your life. You can be mindful when washing the dishes or eating grapes or walking in the woods. 

All you have to ask yourself is, what do I see, hear, touch, taste, feel? And if your attention drifts to a thought, let it go like a leaf floating down a river and bring yourself back to the activity at hand. And sometimes you'll even get into a flow state, which is a creative paradise for your brain. 

So to recap, in this episode, we talked a little bit about mindfulness. We talked about how you can start to recognize when you're not being mindful when you feel things in your body, things that feel uncomfortable in your body. So mindfulness is really the act of bringing yourself back into your body and back into the present moment. You can do this by using your five senses. You can do this by doing an engaging activity, and you can do this and you might even do this in a flow state. What's important is to practice. Practicing mindfulness will help you be more mindful in your daily life, And if you're more mindful in your daily life, your body will feel more regulated, which means you might not clench your fists so much, your shoulders might not be tensed up so much, you might not have a clenched jaw, you might breathe easier. These are all things that can happen when you're mindful. So being mindful is really helpful despite me not really liking when my therapist tells me to do it. I think it I don't like it because it's hard for me. And I think I would like to encourage all of you to practice so it's easier for you. And I should take a page out of my own book. 

Thanks so much for listening. I'm gonna go mindfully drink a coffee now. Follow me on Instagram at TheMidnightPhilosopher and check out my website. Hope you have a good night.