🌼 A Mouth-Watering Mindfulness Menu
Choose a daily mindful practice & join us for Mindful May
Here’s an appetiser for our month of mindfulness - can I tempt you?
As I recently wrote in this piece about enjoying things, bringing even a teensy bit of mindfulness to our ordinary lives can add a pinch of sparkle.
This feels especially important as many of us move through dark times - political, ecological, financial and all the rest. Grounding ourselves in beauty isn’t about escaping from reality1. It’s about connecting to what is good, and then using that to give us strength - to hold us together on difficult days, and to help us do the things that need to be done.
During May I’ll invite you to join me as we experiment with a (quick and easy) daily mindful practice. I’ll also be exploring why it’s so difficult to hold onto mindfulness as fallible human beings, how we can counter the insidious effects of rush, push and wish, and how we can gently move in the direction of settledness and open-heartedness.
I just glanced up from my typing to see a goldfinch. He’s pecking at the seeds Angie planted in the temple vegetable patch. The splashes of gold on his side and the crimson on his face are magnificent.
This tiny pivot - pausing to pay attention to the goldfinch for ten seconds rather than diving straight back into my writing - can make a world of difference to the way our lives taste - especially if we repeat it. This month will be all about tiny pivots. And to give us all a little extra practice (me included)…
Daily Mindful Practice Gourmet Menu
Choose one of the below and commit to repeating it every single day during May.
You may be like a kid in a sweetie shop and want to do more than one. That’s not allowed 😉
Well, okay, it is allowed, but make sure you decide which one of your choices you’re properly committing to, and don’t sweat if you don’t manage any of the others regularly. You can see them as gravy on your veggie sausages and mash. Every single extra mindful moment is a bonus.
As with all daily practices, it will really help if you ‘anchor’ them to something you already do every day - i.e. doing them just before lunch or as soon as you wake up.
🐌 Outside practice.
Being outside is a surefire way of connecting into the infinite variety of sensations and experiences available to us. It doesn’t matter if your outside is a lush forest glade or a bench set into tarmac between skyscrapers - as long as you can see the sky and feel the weather on your cheeks, it counts.
Go outside and choose between breathing and being quiet for five minutes, a ten minute silent walk, taking a photo every day, touching a different tree every day or anything else you can think of. If you can’t physically get outside, find a window instead and gaze at the clouds or dive into your favourite nature writing for ten minutes a day or read a Mary Oliver poem out loud.
🐌 Creative practice.
If you’re going to tell me you’re not creative then I’m going to say phooey. There are many ways of being creative. Society ‘counts’ some of them more than others - i.e. those that involve an exchange of money, or those that are ‘serious art’ - phooey to society. Arranging food on a plate for your child is creative. Deciding where to plant the sunflowers is creative. It all counts!
Choose between taking a photo, ten minutes of crochet, doodling a doodle, taking a little extra care over one of your meals, writing a small stone (a short observational piece of writing - instructions here), wearing new combinations of clothes, making up a new song every day in the shower, or any short creative act of your choice.
🐌 Embodied practice.
Our bodies literally connect us to everything. They also quite marvellously keep us alive. How might you love your body a bit more this month?
Choose between ten minutes of yoga, a daily dance to something lively (silliness not compulsory but encouraged), a short run (if that’s your thing - I know some people actually enjoy running!!), a short meditation session, a kind self-massage of your shoulders (or find a friend and do swapsies) or anything else that involves using your body with awareness.
🐌 Practice of your choice.
What do you already do that helps you to become more mindful? How could you adapt that into a daily practice during May?
Just in case you’re curious, I’m going to spend five silent minutes outside every day. The thought of it makes me happy.
Of course there are overlaps between the categories. Making something in clay is both embodied and creative. Doing meditation outside (a personal favourite) is nature and embodied. Writing small stones can be all three…
Which practice is calling to you? Which one feels like it would be a treat, rather than a vitamin pill?
If it would help with your accountability (and also because I am nosy) do let me know in the comments what you choose. I’ll see you on Thursday for the first of our Mindful May pieces 🌼
Go gently,
Satya <3
PS If you’d like to start early - right now - then even better!
Most of my Mindful May pieces (like the next one, the Dark Side of Mindfulness) will be for my paid subscribers - the beautiful folk who make it possible for me to be here at all. If you’d like to come along for the three-a-week pieces but can’t afford a subscription at the moment, just let me know and I’ll sort it.
Although sometimes we totally need a break from reality (well I certainly do) and that’s totally okay too
Thankyou Satya - five minutes quiet sitting outside or at window if wet!
Marion
As soon as I wake, I'll be walking around on the lovely damp grass near to wherever I am each morning for 5 minures then sitting listening to sounds of nature.