{"id":7299,"date":"2022-02-11T04:27:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/?p=7299"},"modified":"2022-02-11T05:40:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T22:40:13","slug":"mindfulness-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/mindfulness-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Story by Pete Ramirez<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Graphic by Kate Korepova<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s face it, life is crazy right now and there is no sugar-coating it. In our fast-paced world, it&#8217;s easy to jump from one activity to the next, like a busy bumblebee flying from flower to flower collecting pollen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t you just want to take a break to catch your breath sometimes?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re feeling overwhelmed, take a moment to try one of these three simple mindfulness exercises:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Find a comfortable, quiet space.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp;Sit, stand, or lay down.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Take 10 deep breaths into your belly.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Don&#8217;t force it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Find a comfortable place to sit.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Set a timer for five minutes<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Close your eyes if it\u2019s safe to do so or leave them open.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Listen to the sounds around you.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Hear the layers of sound that surround us throughout the day.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Let the sounds come and go.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Take a ten-minute walk.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp;Focus on the world around you.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Try to take in the minor details that usually get overlooked.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Feel the sunshine on your skin.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The wind through your hair.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The ground beneath your feet.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you did any of the exercises listed above, guess what?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You just practiced meditation!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness meditations can have many beneficial effects on the body and mind such as <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24395196\/\">decreased stress<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/sleep\/article\/37\/9\/1553\/2416992\">improved sleep<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6088366\/\">improved attention span<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few additional tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Don&#8217;t expect your thoughts to stop. Even master yogis deal with a never-ending stream of thoughts. A different way to think about it is telling each thought, &#8220;Hey! Welcome to the party.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Be kind to yourself. However you show up to the exercise is the right way.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Allow yourself a few minutes to take a break everyday. Things will be ok.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A few <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/best-meditation-apps-4767322\">apps are available<\/a> to help begin a meditation habit and you can also find countless guided meditations on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=guided+meditation\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, all together. Let&#8217;s take a deep breath in&#8230;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And release.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You got this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story by Pete Ramirez Graphic by Kate Korepova Let&#8217;s face it, life is crazy right now and there is no sugar-coating it. In our fast-paced world, it&#8217;s easy to jump from one activity to the next, like a busy bumblebee flying from flower to flower collecting pollen.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t you just want to take a break [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4103,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,656],"tags":[38,100,1291,1240,1290,1289,1195,965],"class_list":["post-7299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-support","category-life4u","tag-acc","tag-austin-community-college","tag-community-support","tag-kate-korepova","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-pete-ramirez","tag-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}