Embodied Practices With Marlo

  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