Mindfulness - a useful tool in your toolbox for personal transformation
On how the practice can help you in your 'health & fitness journey' and enable you to create sustainable lifestyle changes
In Jan 2017, I started a personal growth group with a bunch of my clients who were as interested in personal growth as me. We dedicated ourselves to strengthening few practices that we felt will help us grow as individuals. Over the years, we realised how regular practice was having far reaching consequences in the way we approached our life, our goals, handled daily inconveniences and experienced personal happiness.
Over the years, I drilled down the 30 odd practices into 10.
In this post I will talk about one of the 10 practices, “Mindfulness”, in depth : what the practice is, how it can benefit you, how to get started, resources that have helped me in my journey, real life client stories with the practice, and finally a task for you to do 🙂
So let's dive straight into it.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is simply accepting the present moment as it is, without any judgement. A practice to be more present with your life, honouring each moment for its ephemeral nature as well as uniqueness.
How can it help you ?
A. Practicing mindfulness increases your awareness of how your actions have a consequence. While slipping is part of human nature, with increased awareness you find that you can get yourself back on track sooner.
This is extremely helpful when you are trying to create a healthy lifestyle change and find yourself going off track.
B. Being mindful with one activity, begins to have a spillover effect and you find increased awareness in multiple activities. Increased awareness helps you get a job done well.
In your workouts, it can translate to greater focus, thereby more effective workouts and less propensity to injury.
C. Mundane tasks don't annoy or sap your energy. You begin to look to them for practice. You realize you can find purpose in everything you do.
D. Your happiness quotient increases as you begin to appreciate simple things in life like the feel of the breeze on your skin or time with a loved one. In other words, you learn to slow down & savor more and be on 'auto pilot busy' mode less.
E. You can tolerate pain ( physical as well as emotional ) better as you begin to understand that a lot of the suffering is caused by your resistance to the situation, exacerbated by your thoughts around the situation . As you consciously let go of resistance, the suffering you experience is lessened too. The equation, Pain x Resistance = Suffering will begin to have a deeper meaning and understanding as your practice grows stronger.
Sounds too good to be true ? Well, it is. And the best part is, it can be cultivated.
So how do you get started ?
To kick-start this practice just pick one routine activity. And do it mindfully. Involve all of your senses into the 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. Doing this can bring you into the present moment and prevent the mind from wandering.
I like to brush my teeth mindfully as that's the first thing I do after waking up and that helps me set the tone for the rest of the day. You can choose what you are comfortable with. Just be mindful with the same routine activity every day. As it becomes second nature, you can begin to add more routine activities to be mindful with.
Resources that have helped me in my journey:
1. The Mindfulness solution - Everyday practices for everyday problems by Ronald D Siegel : One of the first books I read on Mindfulness and continues to still be my 'go to' book for reference.
2. Mindfulness on the Go - Simple meditation practices you can do anywhere by Jan Chosen Bays : This book although not more than 150 pages is a treasure trove of wisdom. It contains simple practices, that you can work with, to cultivate mindfulness. I recommend you pick this and please don't read it. Work with it.
3. Mindfulness daily : A 40 day daily mindfulness course by Jack Kornfied and Tara Brach (two of my favourite teachers) on Sounds true: It is available for free. You can access it here :
https://www.soundstrue.com/products/mindfulness-daily
Each session is bite sized and you can easily do one each day, for 40 continuous days. Again, make notes and do the daily practice.
Real life client stories:
How Mindfulness helped Trupti, who has been training with me since the last 4 years, undergo a major surgery smoothly:
" The brain can get cluttered with speculation, negativity, over analysing etc when one is going through a health crisis. And this can surely cause a hell lot of stress. When I faced a major health crisis and was told to undergo a major surgery, I was thankfully already practicing mindfulness and this practice helped me a lot during that phase. In the hospital the atmosphere can become quite intimidating with all the sights and sounds around you. By practicing mindfulness (awakening the senses) I could face the hospital scene with great ease.
While undergoing the diagnostic procedures and even the surgery, I consciously focused on awakening all the senses one by one and then stacking them up. I became mindful of every smell, sight, sound around me. All this kept my brain busy I guess and that's why I didn't feel any pangs of anxiety. Even during recovery, mindfulness helped me to listen to my body which helped me push myself a bit during the rehab and also to rest it out when fatigue set in." - Trupti Godbole
How Mindfulness helps Vinotha who has been training with me since the last 4 years, handle a high pressure job :
"I started my mindfulness practice with the routine activity of brushing my teeth.
Slowly this translated to mindfulness with cooking, placing vessels gently and also increased awareness of my thoughts.
In office when more people resigned & there was increasing demand to handle situation with releases, being mindful helped me to be precise in my observations, helped me to handle the tough situation in a calm and composed way and enabled me find solutions to the problems I faced. It gave me confidence to take care of myself with good planning.
Now with the lockdown and house hold chores, being mindful helps me to do the work in a better way. - Vinotha Thiagarajan
How Mindful eating is helping Priya, who joined me 3 months back, lose weight. She has lost 8 kgs since she joined :
“I have been incorporating mindfulness practice while having food and eating desserts during the weekends. The multiple heaped helpings have been replaced by a single small portion which is enough to satisfy my sweet cravings.” - Priya Mohan
How Mindfulness helped Sujana go through her pregnancy with ease :
“Mindfulness helps me be aware of myself , my actions and emotions. Being in the moment, mindfully chewing food, walking in the garden looking at the flowers and leaves are so meditative and relaxing. Mindful walking in the garden was a very frequent task I used to do when I was pregnant. My pregnancy journey was so smooth because of my mindful activities which kept me away from fears towards pregnancy and helped me have a smooth delivery.” - Sujana Sharath
There are many more stories, but I will stop with these, for now.
Word of advice :
Mindfulness isn't a magic pill that is going to change your life overnight. The effects of the practice are cumulative and you start to experience the benefits over time. So be patient with yourself and allow the practice to become part of your daily life.
Finally, the task for you:
Just get started 🙂 It takes time to progress in anything, right? So why not start sooner than later?
Are you a mindfulness practitioner? If yes, do share your journey so I can learn something from you. If not, are you inspired to kick start your own journey? 🙂 Let me know in comments💕
If you are a trainer or a fitness coach, then do you have the practice of mindfulness built into your program for your clients ? If not, are you inspired to incorporate it ? Let me know in comments or drop in a mail 🙂
Timely and Thoughtful articulation on Mindfulness. Lockdown times provide us opportunities to reflect on this for our own and family’s and others connected with on WFH to reap benefits of this practice.
One Yoga master recommended Meditation – When it is extremely difficult to control mind, we can do it by controlling the one controls mind – by practicing controlled breathing - and shut out all distractions.
It is easiest to be mindful when you do something you enjoy doing that requires attention of your body and mind. My own mindfulness practice starts with making freshly brewed coffee with lingering aroma and lasting taste in the mouth. You will invariably find this mindfulness extends o others who sip the coffee making it an enjoyable “moment”. How mindfulness can be contagious!