21 Days of Mindfulness
Hello everyone. Welcome to our 21 days of mindfulness.
Over the next 21 days, we will give you some guidance on how to establish a regular meditation practice.
Here is a short video explaining what Mindfulness is and what you can expect over the next 21 days.
We look forward to you joining us. May your practice help you become intimately acquainted with your inner world.
Day 1: Taking a Breathing Space
Maybe you have always thought about starting a mindfulness meditation practice. Today you will find some information regarding how to get your practice up and running. The following infographic gives you some tips to get you started.
An easy meditation to get you started is the 3-minute breathing space. Below is an infographic explaining the different steps regarding this meditation.
In the space of about 3 minutes, we go from wide, to narrow, to wide again.
Download the following meditation. Repeat it as many times as you can during the day. The nice thing about this meditation is that you can do it anywhere anytime.
Day 1 Meditation
Day 2: breathe easy
We are always breathing; we are however unaware of it.
Day 2 Meditation
Day 3: Coming home to the body
Today we are going to do the body scan meditation. This is so you can become intimately acquainted with your body and the felt sensations. As you befriend your body it can be a great source of wisdom for you.
Day 3 Meditation
Day 4: and suddenly you’re doing yoga
Mindful movement is another great way to get out of your head into your body. As with the body scan, but here you will be doing some gentle stretches whilst becoming acquainted with your body.
Download the meditation below and do the mindful movement at least once a day. You can now alternate between the body scan, sitting meditation and your mindful movement. Should you choose you can do all three or mix and match them.
Enjoy yourself! You doing great!
Day 4 Meditation
Day 5: Boredom & Restlessness
Day 5 Meditation
Day 6: aversion and clinging
Day 6 Meditation
Day 7: sloth
Day 7 Meditation
Day 8: doubt
Day 8 Meditation
Day 9: inner critic
Day 9 Meditation
Day 10: triangle of awareness
Today we will be discussing the triangle of awareness and how we use it during meditation.
The pictures explain the triangle of awareness and how to break free from a thought chain.
Day 10 Meditation
Day 11: Non-judging
Over the course of the following few days we will be discussing the 9 attitudes of mindfulness.
Watch the following introduction to the 9 attitudes by Jon Kabat-Zinn:
The first attitude which will be discussed is Non-Judgement. We are so quick to judge. Ourselves, others and situations. Our judgement is based on our opinions that have been formed throughout our experiences.
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains how to skillfully work with non-judging.
Day 12: Acceptance
Today we will be discussing the mindfulness attitude of Acceptance.
Acceptance is a very active process, there is nothing passive about it, it’s not passive resignation but an act of recognition that things are the way they are… Acceptance doesn’t mean we can’t work to change the world or circumstances, but it means that unless we accept things as they are, we will try to force things to be as they are not and that can create an enormous amount of difficulty
Jon Kabat-Zin
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains how to skillfully work with acceptance:
Day 13: Patience
We will be discussing the next mindfulness attitude, namely patience.
Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time. A child may try to help a butterfly to emerge by breaking open its chrysalis. Usually, the butterfly doesn’t benefit from this. Any adult knows that the butterfly can only emerge in its own time, that the process cannot be hurried.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains why patience is so important:
Day 14: Beginners Mind
We will be discussing the next mindfulness attitude today; namely beginners mind.
The richness of present-moment experience is the richness of life itself. Too often we let our thinking and our beliefs about what we “know” prevent us from seeing things as they really are. We tend to take the ordinary for granted and fail to grasp the extra-ordinariness of the ordinary. To see the richness of the present moment, we need to cultivate what has been called “beginner’s mind,” a mind that is willing to see everything as if for the first time.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains what beginners mind is:
Day 15: Trust
We will be discussing the next mindfulness attitude today; namely trust.
Developing a basic trust in yourself and your feelings is an integral part of meditation training. It is far better to trust in your intuition and your own authority, even if you make some “mistakes” along the way than always to look outside of yourself for guidance. If at any time something doesn’t feel right to you, why not honour your feelings? Why should you discount them or write them off as invalid because some authority or some group of people think or say differently? This attitude of trusting yourself and your own basic wisdom and goodness is very important in all aspects of the meditation practice.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains why trust is so important:
Day 16: non-striving
We will be discussing the next mindfulness attitude today; namely non-striving.
As you will see with practice, in the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your own goals is to back off from striving for results and instead to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment. With patience and regular practice, movement toward your goals will take place by itself. This movement becomes an unfolding that you are inviting to happen within you.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains what non-striving is:
Day 17: letting go
We will be discussing the next mindfulness attitude today; namely letting go.
Cultivating the attitude of letting go, or non-attachment is fundamental to the practice of mindfulness.
When we start paying attention to our inner experience, we rapidly discover that there are certain thoughts and feelings and situations that the mind seems to want to hold on to. If they are pleasant, we try to prolong these thoughts or feelings or situations, stretch them out, and conjure them up again and again.
Similarly, there are many thoughts and feelings and experiences that we try to get rid of or to prevent and protect ourselves from having because they are unpleasant and painful and frightening in one way or another. In the meditation practice, we intentionally put aside the tendency to elevate some aspects of our experience and to reject others. Instead, we just let our experience be what it is and practice observing it from moment to moment.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains how letting go works:
Day 18: Gratitude and generosity
We will be discussing two mindfulness attitudes today; namely gratitude and generosity.
People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis have been found to exercise more regularly, have fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and feel more optimistic about their upcoming week as compared to those who keep journals recording the stressors or neutral events of their lives.
Daily discussion of gratitude results in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy, and sleep duration and quality. Grateful people also report lower levels of depression and stress, although they do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.
People who think about, talk about, or write about gratitude daily are more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or offered emotional support to another person.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Watch the following as Jon Kabat-Zinn explains how to work with gratitude and generosity:
Day 19: Compassion
Today we will be discussing compassion. Dr Kristen Neff will be discussing the three different components in the YouTube video namely:
1. Self – Kindness vs Self – Judgement
2. Common Humanity vs Isolation
3. Mindfulness vs Over-identification
Watch the following YouTube video for more information on each component:
Download the following loving-kindness meditation:
Day 19 Meditation
Day 20: anxiety and stress
Day 20 Meditation
