A lovely mindfulness resource
Good morning! Spring has arrived, and now it is almost summer! This week, I had the privilege of hosting my first in person personal growth workshop since March 2020! How wonderful it was to again see beloved faces sitting right in front of me, rather than on a Zoom screen!
A couple of weeks ago I came across a lovely resource. It’s a little mindfulness journal called From Mind full to Mindful. It is just the right size to fit easily into a purse or a book bag. It’s designed to be used daily. Each 2-page layout provides space to do several mindfulness practices, and they can all be accomplished within, say, 15 minutes. There is space to briefly write about what you are feeling grateful for and how you are feeling, do a sensory check, journal for about 3-5 minutes, and a spot to record which meditation/deep breathing practice you did and how you felt before and afterwards. I find myself looking forward each morning to using my little journal, after I have a cup of coffee!
The journal is produced by June and Lucy. Their website is www.junelucy.com. I did first see the journal on Amazon.
With all that’s going on in our world today, I am finding that learning to inhabit the moment is becoming more and more a necessary spiritual and psychological practice for me.In the past, before discovering mindfulness, I would have caught myself worrying about things, and would ameliorate that by turning to prayer, reminding myself to ‘be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication to make my requests known unto God.’ And indeed, ‘the peace that passeth understanding’ would be mine.
I have found that mindfulness, for me, is a practice which also eases anxiety and worry, but it works in a different way than prayer does. As I do practices like in June and Lucy’s journal, they bring me back to the realization that in this moment, usually, everything is actually okay, and maybe even wonderful, if I am smelling lilacs and eating chocolate chip cookies at the time! There are several quotes scattered through June and Lucy’s journal. One I really love is: “ Don’t try to calm the storm. The storm will pass. Focus on calming yourself.” For me, the combination of mindfulness practices and prayer works very well to ease feelings of worry and anxiety in the moment.
Of course, there are many very troubling things going on in our world, and we will feel called to get involved, offering our time, money, and prayers for many of them, hoping to be part of the solution. Yet, in the moment, we also need personal practices we can do to bring us back to a place of inner peace and calmness. I highly recommend the combination of prayer, and June and Lucy’s Mind full to Mindful journal!