Beginning the day with a mindfulness practice.
Summary
I was reminded today of how much more reasonable you feel after you've done a short mindfulness practice. So here's a short riff on that. :)[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we?
[00:00:16] I know that for some of you, this might seem like a radical idea, but maybe because I grew up with it in some shape or form, it's not radical to me. But what I'm thinking about right now is how having some kind of mindfulness practice in the morning is really helpful. Now, I say mindfulness because I'm trying to stay agnostic
[00:00:47] here you could say a spiritual practice or a meditation practice, although mindfulness doesn't have to be meditation or spiritual in nature. [00:01:00] In my case, one of the most consistent mindful practices that I've been able to keep up in the morning is yoga, right? I've mentioned this before. It's part of my morning routine.
[00:01:13] On the days that I don't do yoga in the morning, I am less centered. And on the days that I decided to act on something or do something before doing yoga, I am excitable in not a good way, and I worry, and I forget the big picture, right? I forget the forest while I'm looking at the trees, as the saying goes,
[00:01:44] roughly. Once I've done yoga, yoga, weightlifting, any kind of intense excercise, they help you stay mindful because in order to do them well, you have to focus just on them. [00:02:00] Yoga just isn't easy to do if you're thinking about 7 million other things, lifting weights, for example, which is also a very deep mindful practice for me –
[00:02:10] aside from also being excellent physical exercise, you cannot lift heavy things and do it correctly without injuring yourself if you are not focusing on it fully. Things like that, they force you to slow down in your mind and focus on what's happening in the moment. And when you do that, everything is clearer, everything is more manageable because you'll realize that if you just focus on things one thing at a time, you can get it all done.
[00:02:49] Or if you can't get it all done, you are more reasonable and you're able to see what you're capable of and adjust accordingly. This literally happened to me this morning. I woke [00:03:00] up to a DM that I should not have checked. I don't know why I checked it, and that made me spin out a little bit and I did yoga and then I was okay.
[00:03:13] I was, 700% more reasonable as a person, and I am feeling much better now, and I'm sitting here recording this episode and I know that it's a busy time, it's going to be a little bit pedal to the metal, but I can do it because I've had like 30 minutes of mindfulness already in this morning. And I'm centered and I can think clearly in a way that
[00:03:42] nothing else can clear you up in, you know, you know when you're hangry and you have food and all the thing, all of a sudden things are better. It's like that, but way, way better. I also pray, but that's besides the point. The point is having a [00:04:00] mindfulness practice and fitting that into your day, ideally in the beginning of your day
[00:04:07] can be really helpful when a time when it comes to accomplishing things, being productive, and being able to be your best self. I don't even think it needs to be long. Sometimes it can just be 5 or 10 minutes. I think a minimum of 10 minutes is enough time for your mind to slow down. But yeah, minimum 10 minutes,
[00:04:29] ideally maybe like 30 minutes. Something that keeps you in the moment, something that helps you focus on the now, it can really, really help your day. I know it helps mine.
[00:04:45] Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.