Mindfulness Challenges

Posture

The challenge and invitation this week is to become more mindful moment to moment of your posture. Do you really have a truthful picture of what your posture is like? We all see ourselves from the front. And, from the front, we do not look too terribly bad no matter how twisted our posture actually is. What about from the side? How do you really look from the side when someone else sees you from that angle?

Why not go to a mirror and in your natural way of standing, look at yourself from the side. What does your posture look like when you actually look at yourself in a mirror from the side?

Are you humped over?
Is your belly sticking out quite a bit?
Is your head lunged downward?

What do your family members and your friends say about your posture? Ask them.

“Tell me about my posture. Is it good or am I slouching a bit these days?”

Perhaps your response immediately is:

I don’t need to look in the mirror.
I don’t need to ask my family members.
I know my posture stinks.

What thoughts have been rattling through your mind as you have been reading about this week’s challenge? Have you been thinking thoughts like:

“Oh, I can’t do anything about my posture. I’m too old. We all know as people get older their posture gets worse.”

Challenge that thought form. It’s not true.

“There’s no way I have strong enough muscles to do anything about my posture. You know, I have neurological challenges.”

This thought form in itself is perfectly designed to ensure that you will be a hunchback permanently as you age.

Challenge all such thought forms. None of them are true. Everyone can improve posture in the moment.

How is this accomplished? I don’t think by going to one particular training session and getting a trainer to help is the answer. I believe posture is improved moment to moment. As you sit, if you happen to watch the TV or if you happen to sit in front of your computer, be attentive. What is your posture like?

Is your back straight?
Are your feet solidly planted onto the floor?
Are you sitting on the edge of your seat where it is possible for your posture to be improved?

If not, why not for this week at any rate, sit on the edge of your chair when you eat? Many people have a habit of slouching when they eat. Why not challenge yourself with sitting up right and bring that food proudly up to your mouth?

Notice when you walk what your posture is like. Be attentive – how does your body feel? Are you feeling strain in certain muscles? Poke that chest out as you walk. Notice how your head will lurch not forward, but upward so that you walk proudly and confidently. Chest forward as you walk.

When you stand notice moment by moment whether it feels as though more weight is on one leg than another. This places undue pressure on one particular hip joint. Become attentive to your posture as you stand. Even out the weight from the left and the right and guess what? You’re never going to need any attention to your hip in the form of a hip replacement or supplements to repair damage to your hip joints. Healthy hip joints are a function of good posture and frequent movement.

The mindfulness challenge this week is become more attentive to your posture when

Sitting
Eating
Walking
Standing

It is particularly useful to be attentive when you are standing and simply waiting perhaps at a grocery store line waiting to check out. How are you standing when you are waiting while your gas tank fills up? Are you slouched? Shift the posture and see how you feel when you do so.

Become mindful moment to moment of your posture. Of course it is not possible or practical to be mindful every single moment. That intensity of focus would not be very functional or useful. It would also likely be stressed which is precisely what we are working to reduce.

But – if you can at a minimum be mindful five or six different times during the day it will be possible to shift your posture for the better. Make it so. Your body thanks you.

Robert

Deeper Implications Behind How You Start Your Day

Here is my report with practicing the mindfulness exercise of stating a positive expectation for the day upon waking whether the statement is — today will be a magnificent day or spectacular or stupendous or terrific or amazing or whatever you might actually say. I have actually been working on this particular Mindfulness Challenge for some time now. My personal experience has been that I am likely to forget to do it. Remembering is my biggest challenge.

When I do remember to make the statement upon first wakening, my day does become magnificent, spectacular, stupendous, terrific and amazing. It is really a magical formula for how to set a positive template for the upcoming day with the right intention.

My experience has been that if I don’t have this thought as my first thought, my thinking tends to rattle around in a somewhat negative vein. As I begin to get up out of the bed I may be thinking to myself,

“Oh my goodness, looks like it’s raining again today.”

That is not a positive thought or a positive statement. Or as I’m getting up I might be thinking,

“Boy, I sure have an achy back! My goodness, what did I do last night?”

Or, I might think to myself,

“That was sure a long nightmare that I had last night; oh yuck!”

These thoughts may sound familiar to you or not – but we all certainly begin our day with thoughts that are often negative. I’ve actually noticed (as I’ve become more mindful with my thoughts) that my thoughts at the start of the day tend to be much more negative than positive.

My experience has also been that when I remember to make my affirmation at the outset of the day, I set in motion a positive expectation. My thoughts all of a sudden spin in a positive direction. I’m thinking positively rather than negatively from the get go. My day is magnificent, spectacular, stupendous, terrific and amazing. I do notice a difference in how my day unfolds.

My experience has little to do with what is happening to me from circumstances outside my control. The difference is in the way that I respond to those circumstances even if I’m confronting something that is challenging or unexpected, I am able to take the blows in stride, shake them off and move forward to more positive experiences.

As you are well aware, our thoughts have a profound impact on our lives. Start each of your days with a positive thought. Discover that that then sets into motion an experience of more positive thoughts rather than the rattle trap of negativity which will drag you down into the gutter.

Give this challenge a chance, not just this week but for subsequent weeks. I say again I’ve been working on this now for some time and I am quite pleased with the outcome from actually doing it. In summary, it is simple to make a positive affirmation in the beginning of the day. It takes at most ten seconds out of your day. The real challenge is to remember doing it. Perhaps I have an unconscious voice deep inside that insists every day be horrible. I now prefer to override that voice before the day even begins.

May the rest of the days this week and may the rest of the weeks in the year be for you absolutely amazing.

Robert

Jump Start Your Day

My Mindfulness Challenge for you this week will consume at most ten seconds each and every day. The exciting news I have for you is that it will transform your day and your week if you actually do what I’m about to suggest that you do.

The minute that you become conscious in the morning after sleeping the night, the first thought that you have needs to be the following;

“Today will be a magnificent day.”

You might want to change that adjective from day to day or simply say whatever comes to mind since you are just coming to consciousness. When waking the first thing in the morning it can be a bit difficult to think clearly. The statement might be as you think to yourself silently,

“Today will be a spectacular day.” or

“Today will be a stupendous day.” or

“Today will be a terrific day.” or

“Today will be an amazing day.”

You get the point. Whatever adjective comes to mind simply state that magnificent expectation as your first thought of the day.

This challenge is actually difficult, not because it consumes time, but rather because it is very difficult to remember to do it as you are waking up. The challenge then is to remember each and every day this week. If you’re up after five minutes, ten minutes or even an hour and you think to yourself, “Whoops, I forgot to do it today,” you can still do it even if an hour has passed. Best however if the minute you come to consciousness, before any other thought creeps through your consciousness, to state the affirmation either out loud or silently,

“Today will be a magnificent day.”

“Today will be a spectacular day.”

“Today will be a stupendous day.”

“Today will be a terrific day.”

“Today will be an amazing day.”

Of course because you are still half asleep you are probably not going to make your affirmation with much enthusiasm, but make the statement as best you can.

To summarize, the challenge of the week is – before any other thoughts creep into your consciousness as you awake in the morning – state in your thoughts or out loud your positive expectation for the day about to be lived.

Robert