Fall is my favorite time of the year. What’s not to love? Warm days, cool nights, my favorite color of orange is everywhere you look and I get to pull my boots out of the closet. It’s the perfect time to practice mindfulness and staying present.
I’ve been busy harvesting my herbs and hanging them to dry, repotting plants to bring inside for the winter, getting my fall recipes planned out and cleaning out much-needed areas of my home. Of course, being a photographer October is the busiest month of the year for me as well and I’m thankful to be completely booked up this month. All of that and blogging is keeping me with plenty to do.
It would be easy for me to get stressed out, right? It’s not like I have one job to focus on. I have two businesses and my guy works full time and has his own business as well. We pretty much have something going on seven days a week.
A few days ago, when I realized how crazy this coming month would be, I made a decision. I was going to increase my time meditating each day by twenty minutes. I normally meditate twice a day, so I would add ten minutes to each meditation.
Why? Because as the old Zen saying states: “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”
Meditating longer will help me stay grounded and enjoy each moment of this beautiful autumn as it happens. Guess what? Everything is going to get done regardless and I’d rather spend my autumn with peace than chaos.
That is what I want for you as well. With the holidays approaching I want to take this next month and focus solely on staying present. Each week I will give you a list of ten items that you can do to celebrate the fall season. You can print this week’s Fall Idea List and journal page here. We are going to practice living in the moment until we get it right!
Your Mindfulness Challenge for this week is to fall into the present.
Carefully look over the list of items I provided.
Choose one item that you can accomplish within the next week. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done it before (even better if you have), this time you are going to do it mindfully.
Write it down in your journal or use your printout provided (print here).
Why did you choose this item? What drew you to this particular fall activity?
When the day comes, and you are ready to complete the Fall idea of your choice practice staying present. The best way I found to do this when I started practicing being mindful was to tell myself what I was doing.
For instance, let’s say you chose to go on a nature hike. As you prepare for your walk you may notice your mind is in a million other places. Gently tell yourself, I’m going for a walk. I’m putting on my walking shoes, I’m grabbing a light jacket in case I get chilled, etc. This is called single-tasking. Focusing our thoughts on one thing at a time as we do it.
It’s easy to let our minds go and think of all the things we need to be doing, instead of enjoying what we are doing. However, when we continually refocus our thoughts on the present is when we become mindful. It is then we can feel and notice.
Another way to bring yourself back into the present moment is through deep breaths. If you catch your mind wandering, try taking deep breaths and refocus on the experience.
As you complete your item, listen to your five senses and notice what they are telling you about this experience. If something or someone is touching you, how does that feel? What smells did you notice? Did you see anything new that you’d never noticed before? What did you hear? Did you taste anything?
Look around and notice things as if you were given brand new senses and they are experiencing this for the first time.
If you find your mind starts to wander, gently go back and refocus using the breath or the single-tasking technique.
When you have finished, write down what you noticed in your journal.
If this was something you’d done before, what was different about this time then other times?
Did any part of your experience make you feel uneasy or upset?
What brought you peace and joy?
Umm, did I mention that I love fall? I do and I would love to hear any comments on how you are mindfully spending yours.
Other articles you might have missed this week:
Want to Better Your Life? Practice These 10 Tips for Learning to Say “No”
Best Meditation Apps for Beginners and Beyond
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