1 Bring Awareness To Your Spine

It makes such a difference when you honour the precious moments of your own practice by sitting tall in your body as you meditate. In class I always refer to the spine as the antennae of awareness. A slumpy back is likely to translate into a half-hearted practice. A tall free balanced spine opens you to mindful awareness with the energy of dedication. It signals to your higher centres that you are open to listen with depth and to receive the subtler streams of information that flow through your body and being on the breath. If you struggle with lengthening the spine due to back issues, make yourself comfortable with cushions, bolsters, or a chair, and simply visualise the spine becoming aligned, long, and open.

2 Allow The Energy Body To Come Online

Increasingly in my own practice I perceive the need to connect my mindful awareness with the energy body. You can do this simply and at your own pace by taking three breaths to each of the chakras in turn: Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown. As you breathe, imagine the energy of the breath travelling to each of the energy centres and simply observe your perceptions. Next, breathe all the way through the energy body to the hands, feet and head. Include all the extremities. One body breathing. Notice the sensations, images, feelings and thoughts that arise.

3 Learn How To Savour Your Practice

As I sit to meditate, sometimes I notice a thought pattern arise that wants me to rush through practice so I can just tick it off – it feels like I’m back at school and I’m trying to act like the ‘good boy’, but underneath it all, I don’t really want to do it. When that happens, I try to name what is occurring and explore what aspect of my practice I am resisting. I remind myself that mindfulness is about savouring, the very antidote to rushing. The best way I know how to move from rushing to savouring is to open my heart to the practice, give myself full permission to be curious about what comes, and to set a timer to release me from practice at a known time. With those aspects in place, whether I am meditating for 5 mins or 50 minutes I am free to drop in, to explore and to savour. Give it a try!

4 Invite Intuitive Movement In

Mindfulness is a practice of embodiment by which we invite the warmth of awareness in and through the body. In doing so we make contact with the inner reality in a profoundly authentic and revealing way. Whilst stillness is often the most harmonic holding for the body, occasionally allow intuitive movement to accompany your practice. When I do this, I find myself brushing the body, holding the body, moving in tune with my breath and experiencing the warmth of making contact. In some of the wilder streams, I find myself in touch with the harmony of body, mind and spirit in new and expansive ways. Explore!

5 Look For The Edge Of Your Awareness

I was in a lecture with John Kabat Zin one day when he said – “Have a look for the edge of your awareness: I don’t think you’re going to find it.” It is a great mindfulness inspiration – try it for yourself. What did you discover? The window of mindfulness opens!

6 Take A Course

One of the things that we have all realised through the pandemic is how learning can be so successfully offered online. The traditional 8 week courses such as the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course (for generalised stress) and the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy course (for depression and anxiety) are still the gold-standard in adult courses and you will find many teachers offering these online and in person across the UK. If you are not sure if these are right for you and you still want to learn the foundations of mindfulness and embed the skill of meditation, my new course Zen in Ten is a ten-day online programme which teaches the basic theory and practice of mindfulness in just 15 minutes a day. You might use it as an on-ramp to one of the longer courses, or simply treat it as a kick-starter to your practice this year. Find out more at neilseligman.com.

7 Forgive Yourself Often

Finally, remember that even experienced meditators fall out of their practice sometimes. Do not treat this as a failure when life inevitably sweeps you up in another direction. Simply notice the call of the cushion, forgive yourself immediately for the time away from practice, and reclaim your seat.

Your body and being will thank you!

By Neil Seligman

*The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post 7 Ways To Cultivate Your Mindfulness Practice In 2022 appeared first on The Conscious Professional.

This may explain why the annual battle to get fit, lose weight and change habits feels like a bit of an uphill struggle. Have you also noticed how your energy for exercise and transformation feels much more buoyant in the spring? So perhaps this year, instead of listing your resolutions this month, might I invite you to turn inward and consider these 5 reflections instead…

1. What did 2020 teach you about life, love, and what is important?

The wisdom traditions point to the purpose of adversity, conflict, and hardship as doorways to both self-knowledge and insight. The teachings reveal that we need the bitterness as well as the sweetness of life. In fact, this recipe of ups and downs gives life its full flavour.

It is therefore our very human vulnerabilities that give us access to the fleeting preciousness of every day and our commitment to living, powered by the inevitability of our own demise. In this way the energies of transformation, and the birth/death cycle inspires our ambitions, hopes and dreams.

So what did 2020 reveal for you? And if you had ordered 2020 on Amazon – how many stars would you give it in your online review?

2. How ready are you to embrace your shadow?

As Carl Jung teaches: ‘One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.’

So it is true that you will never grow as a professional, particularly when you take on management and leadership responsibilities, if you are not open to seeing, understanding, and overcoming the shadow aspects of your personality.

Your shadow nature, rather than being your burden is the doorway you must use to access your gifts and super-powers. If you are not sure what your shadow characteristics are, ask the people you are closest to for some friendly constructive feedback or ask yourself what negative traits have been pointed out by others, which you find difficulty accepting… Perhaps 2021 is the time to embrace the shadow a little closer and find your way through the darkness into the light of your own increased awareness.

3. In what new ways will you bring awareness to your work this year?

The process of human endeavour on the surface appears to be all about progress whether it be technological, industrial, or social, but really the hunger of the human species arises from the desire to know and experience itself fully. Eckhart Tolle says that we all have the same ultimate purpose which is to awaken. We do this in our own ways by increasing our capacity to hold more truth within awareness.

We can see this play out currently as the world grapples with an increasingly urgent environmental calamity. The facts of this have been known for decades, perhaps over a century, yet only now is there enough stable intentional awareness of the issue that we can begin to deal with it seriously.

So on a local level and within your own relationships what are you ready to bring more awareness to this year?

4. What have you been waiting to feel ready to talk about?

Over the years I have realised that much of my work is about giving people the language, confidence, and skills to have difficult conversations about important topics. We all struggle with this. Our desire to bond and please works against us here – it is often just easier not to say anything. Yet, years of silence creates mistrust and distance. So this year, what difficult discussions can you prioritise and how can you set yourself up to represent yourself with integrity and lead with compassion in those conversations?

5. Having been through 9 months of disruption and given your new routine, what do you need more of and less of to feel balanced, healthy and well this year?

This question is all about self-nurture and self-compassion. How can you best serve your own needs and by doing so increase the amount of care you are ready and able to visit upon those around you? All conscious leaders know that dedication to their own wellness is foundational to their best output. What do you need?

Here’s to the emergence of conscious awareness in your life and work in 2021!

By Neil Seligman

Here are a few more lessons you might want to reflect on from 2020: 2020: A Year in Review – 5 Lessons We Will Remember

P.S. Whenever you are ready… here are 4 ways we can support your personal and professional Conscious Goals:

1. Access Free Live Meditations & Energy Transmissions

Inside our private Facebook Group, The Conscious Professional Mindful Community where Neil leads live weekly community events. Join now for free.

2. Learn To Meditate With Neil Seligman In Just 10 Days!

Zen in Ten, our flagship online course, is a ten-day mindfulness challenge for people who need to slow down.  

3. Work With Neil One-To-One

See if a Conscious Coaching Partnership is right for you. Book a 15-minute discovery call with Neil here.

4. Bring The Conscious Professional To Your Business

See if The Conscious Professional training and coaching programmes are right for your team or workplace. Book a call here.

The Conscious Professional is dedicated to delivering inspiring corporate mindfulness and professional resilience training, conscious leadership coaching and workplace wellbeing services at the level of professional excellence. Thank you for following our blog.

The post Resolutions Shmesolutions! January is for Reflection! appeared first on The Conscious Professional.