Mindfulness Monday: How's it going?

I'd like to try using my Monday blog post each week as a check-in for how things are going with any goals, intentions, resolutions, or other areas of focus. I want to encourage all who are interested to post a comment here on Mondays--as brief or detailed as you like--to share something of your own experience.

In my case, I made several new year's resolutions and chose "mindfulness" as my word or theme for 2014, so it is my intention to use these Monday posts as a way of staying accountable for some of the things I've set out to do. 

You needn't have already made a January resolution to participate. Any goal(s) or intention(s), large or small, whether set today or established some time ago, will be perfectly appropriate to report on.

I hope that you will participate in whatever way feels right to you, recognizing that it may change from week to week. You may want to spell out specifics (I ran 4 days last week or read a novel, painted for an hour each day or wrote gratitudes in my journal every morning...), or you may prefer to talk about your feelings or relationship to your goals. The possibilities are endless, so please feel free to use this space to play with the idea and see what happens.

My chosen focus for 2014 is Mindfulness. As a part of that focus, I've set a goal of daily meditation for a period of at least 5 minutes. I'm also making an effort to eat and move more deliberately (and healthfully) each day and to include more raw greens in my diet in the form of "green smoothies." I further intend to do more reading and some serious de-cluttering.

MY MONDAY CHECK IN: 20 days into my new practices, I have done 10 minutes of sitting meditation on most days (I think I missed one.), sometimes twice in the same day. Initially, I did most of my meditating in the evening, but, having considered some compelling reasons to instead start the day with meditation, I've been shifting in that direction more recently.

So far, I have lots of "monkey brain" when I try to meditate, my thoughts flitting from place to place no matter how many times I return my attention to my breath, but I will say that by about 2 weeks in, I did start to feel less anxious about my inability to let go of all those thoughts and began to instead note whatever my experience was, without needing to critique it. The 10 minutes seemed to pass more quickly after a while than it did in the first few days.

As for mindfulness in my everyday activity, I would say I've caught myself doing overtly mindless things (forgetting why I walked in a room, for example) as much or more than ever. Perhaps the fact that I'm noticing how often this occurs and learning to pause and refocus when is does still counts as a form of beginner mindfulness practice? As with my seated meditation, I didn't feel like I got any better at concentrating in the first 20 days, but I did find myself feeling less anxious by the third week.

I drank a green smoothie most days, except if I was having an enormous salad as a meal, in which case I ate rather than drank my greens that day. I found this new habit easier and more enjoyable than I expected, and I think it may even be making me feel better, although it's difficult to know which things significantly contribute to one's sense of well-being at any given time. In any case, the green smoothie thing is definitely something I'd like to continue.

As for mindful movement, I've done a little yoga or tai chi most days, but I'd like to increase that practice as well as add more walking or other calorie burning activity. I often find exercise a challenge in the winter, as I'm not a fan of spending time outside in the cold, but one way or another I can increase my activity level, even in January and February. 

I've also made a bit of progress in the clutter department, which is another area I am resolved to be more intentional about this year. I'll write more about that next week. I've chosen so many different areas to work on that I'll probably touch on only one or two most Mondays, in an effort to keep these posts from being excessively tedious. But I wanted this first one to be somewhat comprehensive.

A part of my intention with all of these new year's resolutions is to approach them in a non-perfectionistic way. I made that decision quite consciously, in an effort to avoid the all-or-nothing trap that so often sabotages resolutions. Otherwise, as soon as I missed a day for any reason, I knew I'd be tempted to quit. By incorporating this more realistic intent into my resolutions up front, any slip up becomes simply an opportunity to mindfully begin again, with no major judgment involved. I find those self-judgments far more distracting than motivating, and the last thing I need is another excuse.

So, while I have no spectacular results to report, I think I've made a fairly good start. I'd much rather begin modestly and build on that foundation throughout the year than start with a bang and fizzle out quickly. My plan is to continue with the daily meditation and eating I've established and try to dial up the movement/exercise and clutter clearing part of things this week.

Well, that's more than enough from me for this check in! I'm very interested to hear from some of you. How is your new year going? Have you started any new practices or set any particular goals? If not, would you like to? If so, would you be willing to share a bit about them? It would be great to support one another on this journey.