Embodied Practices With Marlo

I love watching clouds take shape. I love how sometimes I can see faces + animals when I'm cloud watching. I also love that it is a non-traditional way of practicing mindfulness. This is an excellent informal practice you can do when you are in your car *parked of course!* , sitting on a park bench or drinking your coffee/tea while near a window. I highly recommend doing this practice when you see different shapes of clouds. A dreary rainy day will not do unfortunately since the whole sky will be grey. OK so here are the steps + let me know how you like this informal practice! -Find a comfortable position that works for your body. If you are in your car, park your car first + get comfortable. Adjust your sitting position until you feel comfortable enough to sit still. -Take a couple of breaths in + out through the nose to settle yourself in. If you find that you can't relax, do this portion of the practice for a lot longer until you feel settled. -And now look at the clouds. Do

  I don't think I ever considered how much color impacts my mood until I started painting for the first time last year.  Now when I go for walks, or look at art online or pretty much anything that I do, I am often looking at all the colors I see + I mentally compare them to the palettes I use when painting. Lately, my mind has been leaning towards the color blue. It makes me feel calm, cool + reminds me of the vastness of the ocean. It makes me think of beaches, sand + sunshine but it also reminds me of the sky when there are no clouds in sight.  So what does this have to do with mindfulness + meditation? A lot! You don't have to just sit + meditate following your breath. Remember that mindfulness is having awareness of the present moment without any judgement.  Side note : If you want to understand more about mindfulness, check out my old post  What Is Mindfulness? What's the Difference Between Mindfulness + Meditation?  A really great informal practice to do is looking at

  Yes, it is a pretty long title but it got me thinking. Today, I actually managed to do a short body scan meditation using Sharon Salzberg's audio on YouTube. Here is the link if you are interested in trying out her meditation Wake Up Meditation ft. Sharon Salzberg Then I got into some morning painting + I was following an artist I've never followed before + I was just genuinely struggling with the whole process. I labeled the whole morning painting experience as a total bust because I didn't get the result I was looking for. Which made me wonder, was the experience really that bad or was my expectation of what I wanted to paint unrealistic? What does this have to do with mindfulness meditation? A lot! Here's the thing, some days you sit + meditate + even after the sesh is done, you are still feeling overwhelmed or stressed. And you know what, that's normal.  Sometimes, I think that we need a friendly, compassionate reminder that if we have a meditation practice th

  When I started meditating a few years back, I was pretty diligent + dare I say strict on myself when it came to practice. In the last year + a half, around the same time Covid hit worldwide, my practice became sporadic.  I wasn't getting up first thing to meditate + some days I just couldn't do it.  The perfectionist in me saw this as a failure but the truth is, it isn't. I am letting you know right now that it is OK to take breaks from your meditation + mindfulness practice. It is OK that you forget for a few days or you just don't want to.  I'm learning that when that happens, I need to be self-compassionate with myself + remind myself that I can begin again when I feel ready emotionally + mentally to take a seat + meditate. There is a lot going on right now + if sitting to meditate stresses you out more, then take a break from it. Give yourself permission to just be OK that you didn't meditate. And maybe do something else that you think might suit you bett

  It's been awhile since I've posted anything on this blog.  Since end of December 2020, there have been a lot of changes in my life. For one thing, I lost my job that I had for 3 years. Luckily, I was offered an auxiliary position working for the school district in my community. And of course, with all the changes in my life, my own personal mindfulness + meditation practice has taken a noise dive.  I no longer sit for 20 minute practices. My mind can't seem to handle it + for those who are new to meditation, I can honestly say that this is absolutely normal . My practice as of late takes me 6 minutes  + some days I don't even make a point to practice.  I've decided that expecting myself to sit longer is just not feasible at this time. And each day I sit for  however long is enough for me. For the past several weeks, I've been practicing Chris Germer's Self-Compassion Break meditation. It's been useful when I feel stressed, overwhelmed or just feeling u