March Mindfulness, Not March Madness
For basketball lovers, this month marks the beginning of March Madness. But for me, who has never really followed the sports phenomena, it is March Mindfulness!
Mindfulness is about exercising the skill of being emotionally present, living with intention and alignment with your values. In a world of intense fear, constant pivoting and high judgment, it’s likely that you sometimes do things to escape reality rather than be clear about it. You probably eat fast, move fast and think fast, and that pattern of constant busyness brings fatigue, overwhelm and body pain. If you don’t slow down, the cost in your physical and mental health will be huge.
In order to regulate stress, you need to be skilled at observing your thoughts and feelings, reflecting on those patterns while examining intention. By observing your speed and stepping back to gain a big-picture view, you gain perspective that diffuses stress and directs you forward.
Here are some things you can journal to keep your focus on well-being:
What thoughts are weighing you down when you face a challenge? Examine your past, present and future fears. Make a list so that you can spot those fears, reminding yourself to let them go when they pop up in your thoughts. When you acknowledge your fears, you have the ability to work through them rather than block your emotion or ruminate on them.
What are the healthy habits aligned with your values that keep you on track with your personal goals? What behaviors are not aligned with your goals? How can you notice when you are off-track and pivot toward your desired behavior?
Create a mindfulness mantra that shifts you from your old default habit to your intended one. By affirming your intention, you repair the old way of thinking and doing.
A tool that nurtures this technique is known as the “Ps of Perseverance:” Ponder, Plan and Practice. When you ponder on what you are doing and why you are doing it, you notice and direct your behavior better. Observation helps you spot your unhealthy impulses, plan another route and redirect the behavior toward your intended habit. When you do this systematically, you retrain old behaviors, pivoting and reinforcing a new habit. Finally, mastery involves practice — a lot of it! It often takes longer to create a new habit than you think it will.
Let’s say that I am planning on improving work distractions. Implementing the three Ps would look like this:
Ponder: Notice the moments when I am distracted. Observe the racing and chaotic thoughts about everything vying for my attention. Notice the feelings associated with my thoughts and how it is impacting me in that moment.
Plan: Slow down with cleansing breaths and relaxing the body in a healthy pause. Once still and clear about intention, write down the priority of items on my list, keeping in the present moment and tackling one item at a time based on that priority.
Practice: Take time to slow down between meetings, being mindful of your emotional presence in completing tasks. Recite an affirmation that empowers you to stay in your best version of you. For example, “I am slowing down to examine my priorities. I choose to tackle ____ in this next hour and keep my focus on these areas, taking a break when I am done.”
As a human, you likely perform much of your day from an automatic pilot state of mind. Being mindful is about being fully present in your thoughts, emotions and choices, pulling them toward the same direction. Your alignment occurs when all three of these areas are in unity. Although you can never sustain this congruence all the time, you improve your skill level, noticing when you need to shift your focus away from stress back to peace.
When you incorporate stillness into your day, you prevent the release of cortisol (your stress hormone) and adrenaline from burning through your body, causing fatigue that steals your time and focus. As this month passes, if you are a basketball fan, enjoy the madness. If you are a mindfulness fan, let your presence lead you to mastery over the priority of your focus. Mindful living may lead to enjoying your work, personal time and quiet time even more. With everything going on in our world today, this is a needed part of a healthy lifestyle.
Join me in some March Mindfulness this year!