2025 Mindfulness Exercise Favorites

The following podcast is part of the Mind, Body, Spirit dot fm podcast network. Welcome to our award winning podcast, Mental Health, Hope and Recovery. I'm Helen Snead and I'm Valerie Melbourne. We both have fought and overcome severe chronic mental illnesses. Our podcast offers a unique approach to mental health conditions. We provide practical skills, guest experts, and inspirational true stories of recovery. Our knowledge is up close and personal. Helen and I are your peers. We're not doctors, therapists, or social workers. We're not professionals, but we are experts. We are experts in our own lived experience with multiple mental health diagnoses and symptoms. Please join us on our journey. We live in recovery, so can you. This podcast does not provide medical advice. The information presented is not intended to be as substitute for, or relied upon as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The podcast is for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any health related questions you may have. Welcome to episode sixty one, twenty twenty five Mindfulness Favorites. Thanks for joining me Valerie flying solo today, Helen sends her best to all of you, our worldwide listeners. Helen will be back for our next episode in just a few weeks, our second episode on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It builds on last month's episode and brings the expertise of a seasoned DBT therapist sure to join us Today. We continue our tradition here at the Mental Health, Hope and Recovery Podcast to close the year by sharing a collection of our favorite and our listener's favorite mindfulness exercises from throughout the year. This is a really fun episode for me as mindfulness is essential to me living a life of serenity, stability, and sanity, and thus I love sharing these mindfulness exercises with you, our listeners. Before we jump into today's favorite mindfulness exercises from this year, I want to thank you our listeners for yet another year of support for Helen and me and the Mental Health, Hope and Recovery Podcast. We are wrapping up our fifth year and Helen and I are grateful for the opportunity to share our journeys and to bring the perspectives of guests to so many people around the world. Thank you for listening. You know I live with the mental health condition, and I know I need and those who love and support me need to know that we are not alone in our struggles. We need strategies and skills to manage and master our struggles. We need to share our successes. Helen and I share our own journeys and our guests journeys and expertise here on our podcast because we know what we need to live in recovery, and we want to offer our hope and recovery to others. Now, let's jump in. What is mindfulness? I always give a definition. Mindfulness means living in the present moment. Mindfulness means being intentionally aware and awake to each moment and being fully engaged in what is happening in one's surroundings, with acceptance and without judgment. Since we're focusing totally on mindfulness today, I thought I would add a bit more about the concept. There are three components to mindfulness, intention, attention, and attitude. Intention is choosing to cultivate your awareness. Attention is focusing on the present moment, on your sensations and on your thoughts. Attitude is being kind, curious, and non judgmental. I practice mindfulness through meditation each morning and strive for mindfulness throughout my day. Let's try it, Let's get mindful. The first thing I want to talk about is successful meditation for all. And this is something a little different than our traditional mindfulness exercises, and it's from our January episode, Episode fifty. Recent conversations I had had with several friends about meditation had prompted me to talk about meditation in January. The conversations had been about wanting to start meditating, but not knowing how to begin, and about not having been successful in the past but wanting to try again. Everyone I spoke with wanted to know what worked for me, and that's the key. What works for me. Meditation is as individual as the person who is meditating. I believe everyone can find a successful meditation practice for themselves. What do I mean by successful meditation? A meditation practice that becomes part of our routine and allows us to reap the amazing benefits of meditation is successful, however, it is achieved, and the good news is that research shows we can reap these benefits with as little as ten minutes of meditation a day if done consistently. That is solid research from numerous sources supporting ten minutes of consistent daily meditation bringing benefits. So what are the benefits of meditation? Meditation reduces stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms. It improves concentration, clarity, and helps with more effective processing of our emotions. Meditation isn't magic, It isn't formulaic. It isn't sitting cross legged and saying though it could be sitting like that if it works for you, Because again, it's what works for you. I'm going to share one thing today that works for me. I'll share one more next episode. The one thing that nearly everyone who meditates agrees on is that effective meditation focuses on our breath. My meditation always centers around my breathing, starting with about ten diaframatic breaths. We practice direframatic breathing here on the Mental Health, Hope and Recovery podcast during our mindfulness exercise at the end of every episode, and an introduction to diframatic breathing is in episode one. Check it out. A very effective meditation practice I've developed over time for myself is when I set an intention for my meditation. If I'm dealing with a current stressful situation or a hard challenge, or am struggling emotionally in my life. I choose a few words to focus on as I breathe. I choose one or two positive words that represent attributes or attitudes that I want to incorporate into my mindset and behavior, and one or two words that represent a mindset or behavior that I would like to eliminate or more realistically, reduce. As I inhale. To the account of five, I focus on the words positive words or words as I exhale first, and I focus on the words that represent the behavior or mindset I want to eliminate or reduce as I exhale. Let me give you an example. Currently, I have lots of good things happening in my life right now, but there's a word in that sentence that is a red flag for me, and that's the word lots. This is because there's so much planning, organization, errands, and tasks that are involved in these lots of good things happening in my life. I'm writing lists and keeping a tight calendar doing those things I know to stay on track, because becoming stressed or overwhelmed or both can be extremely detrimental to my mental health. But the most important thing I knowe to do is to use the breathing meditation I just described, focusing on the mindset I want to accentuate in the mindset I want to avoid. So I choose two words that I want to accentuate in two words I want to avoid. And as I breathe in, I choose the words acceptance and gratitude. Breathe in acceptance and gratitude. And as I breathe out, I choose to say irritability and procrastination. I exhale irritability and procrastination. So I breathe in acceptance and gratitude. I breathe out irritability and procrastination. And when I am feeling procrastination coming on, I can recall that body sensation that happens in my morning meditation as I exhaled that word procrastination. As I'm feeling the sense of procrastination coming on, I recall that body sensation of the morning as I exhaled to the word procrastination. It really helps me breathe and get moving. That's an example of my successful meditation, and I wish all of us our own individual successful consistent meditation. Practice. Thank you for learning about meditation with me today. The next mindfulness exercise from twenty twenty five that I would like to share is from May episode fifty four. It's a great way to identify our resiliency and our strength. It's called raise your Sale. I'll begin with the quote from Gregory S. Williams. He said, on the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sale and begin. I love that quote. When I am in a storm, a personal, emotional, little physical, or spiritual storm, I like to think of that quote. I try to call to mind a similar situation that I previously navigated my way through and the strengths I gained from the experience. I remind myself that those strengths are within me. Can I find my resiliency and call upon my strengths? Can I raise my sale and begin? Can I begin to navigate the storm I'm currently in? Navigated many storms, and yes, I can sail through this one. I call to mind my strengths, I raise my saale and begin. I have to begin. Let's try it. Let's get mindful. If you are driving or walking, please adapt this mindfulness exercise in such a way that it works in your current surroundings. If you can find a comfortable seated position, try closing your eyes if it's safe to do so. Let's settle in and breathe as always. Let's begin with a few direframatic breaths. Whether your eyes are opened or closed, Let's study your breathing with two direframatic breaths. When you do this on your own, take as many breaths as you need to become calm and centered. I usually take ten direframatic breaths to begin my mindfulness and meditation practice. Let's breathe in health through your nose, expanding an imaginary balloon in your stomach as you inhale. Exhale through your mouth, pulling in your stomach as you do so, forcefully exhale again in health through your nose, expand that balloon in your stomach. Drop your shoulders, exhale through your mouth, pull your stomach all the way in keep this slow, steady breath going. Bring to mind a challenging or difficult situation, a storm you navigated your way through in the past. What strengths came from surviving or even conquering the storm was your ability to be patient strengthened. Was your self compassion strengthened. Did you discover more determination and commitment than you thought you had? Did you learn new skills as you navigated the storm? Was your spirituality strengthened? Did you find strength from family and or friends? Now bring yourself to this present moment. In this moment, what strengths do you have to carry you through any storms that lay ahead or maybe that you are currently battling. Name those strengths they are yours. Embrace those strengths, they are yours. Raise your sail. Emblazon your saale with your strengths in big bold letters. Visualize your sale. If your eyes are closed, please open them and gently bring yourself back to the room. Thank you for doing this mindfulness exercise with me. Love that exercise. I love that. Emblazon your sail. Our next mindfulness exercise hones in on a particular part of the definition of mindfulness, accepting our thoughts without judgment. It's from our September episode, episode fifty eight. My anxiety is often brought on by judging my own thoughts as bad or wrong, or judging other people's thoughts about me as bad or negative or wrong. I also can have shame or guilt about my thoughts, which is also a type of judgment. Knowing that thoughts aren't facts helps me not judge my thoughts. My thoughts are my mental ideas that are subjective interpretations, not objective truths. My thoughts can be influenced by mood, past experiences, or biases. They are my personal interpretations of experiences and can be colored by my emotions. By accepting my thoughts without judgment, through mindful awareness, I can observe them without immediately believing them. Let's try it. Let's get mindful. If you're driving or walking, please adapt this mindfulness exercise in such a way that it works in your current surroundings. If you can find a comfortable seated position, try closing your eyes if it's safe to do so, settle in and breathe as always. Let's begin with a few direframatic breaths. Whether your eyes are opened or closed, Let's steady our breathing. The two direformatic breaths. Take as many as you need to when you do your own mindfulness exercises. Let's breathe in healthier nose, expanding that imaginary balloon in your stomach as you inhale. Exhale through your mouth, pulling your stomach in as you do so, forcefully exhaling in healthy your nose, drop your shoulders, ex heal through your mouth, pull your stomach all the way in. Keep this slow, steady breath going. If you can bring to mind a situation, conversation, or event around which you have lingering and or challenging thoughts, it could be thoughts about yourself, thoughts about others, or maybe thought thoughts about what others are thinking about you. What are your thoughts about this situation, conversation, or event. Accept these thoughts without judgment, not good, not bad, not right, not wrong. They are thoughts, not facts. What are your thoughts about the person or people in this situation, conversation, or event. Accept these thoughts without judgment, not good or bad, not right or wrong. Their thoughts not facts. What are your thoughts about yourself in this situation, conversation, or event. Accept these thoughts without judgment, not good or bad, not right or wrong. Their thoughts not facts. What are your thoughts about what others are thinking about you? Accept these thoughts without judgment. Not good, not bad, not right, not wrong. They are thoughts, not facts. Allow yourself the choice to observe your thoughts. Allow yourself the choice to accept your thoughts without judgment. If your eyes are closed, please open them and gently bring yourself back to the room. Thank you for doing this mindfulness exercise with me. The final exercise I want to share to day combines the dialectical behavioral therapy skill I call reality check that I talked about in November's episode, episode sixty, and the mindfulness practice of right here, right now. You can find a previous mindfulness exercise that focuses on right here, right now on our website Mental Health, Hope and Recovery dot com. Today, let's combine these two skills. Let's try it. Let's get mindful. If you can find a comfortable seated position, try closing your eyes. If it's safe to do so, Let's settle in. As always, We'll begin with a few direphramatic breaths. Whether your eyes are opened or closed. Let's study our breathing with two direframatic breaths. Do as many breaths as you need when you do this on your own to become calm and centered. Let's breathe in health through your nose, expanding an imaginary balloon in your stomach as you inhale, forcefully exhale through your mouth, pull your stomach all the way in. Drop your shoulders in health through your nose, expand that balloon in your stomach. Exhale through your mouth, forcefully exhale, pulling your stomach all the way in. Keep this slow, steady breath going. Think of a time you may have felt like you disappointed someone. Maybe you felt like you were underperforming at work. Maybe you felt like your presentation or project wasn't good enough, or maybe you thought you said something that offended someone. Or maybe as a parent, you didn't do the best you wish you had. Visualize this situation, putting yourself in that situation. Say to yourself right here, right now, to bring yourself to the moment you were thinking those negative thoughts right here, right now, in that situation, that moment. Now, let's do a reality check in that moment that right here, right now, is anyone telling you that you are underperforming, that your project or presentation wasn't good, or is anyone telling you that they are offended or that you are less than as a parent. Rather, in the reality of that right here, right now is all well. Now. If your eyes are closed, open them and look around where you are now, your current surroundings, in your current surroundings, say right here, right now, right here, right now, right here, right now, all as well, right here, right now, all as well. If your eyes are closed, please open them and gently bring yourself back to the room. Thank you for doing this mindfulness exercise with me, and thank you for joining me for today's mindfulness favorites. At We have one more episode for twenty twenty five. Episode sixty two will be up in a few weeks and as I said, it's our second episode on Dialectical Behavior Therapy and this episode will feature a guest expert our season DPT therapist guest will share her expertise on this powerful treatment method. Please join us for this enlightening episode. Also, please help us continue to reach more and more listeners as we've been able to do over the last five years. Our audience is growing and growing. We want to continue to share our hope and recovery as that is our only goal. You can help us achieve this by sharing links to our website Mental Healthhopeenrecovery dot com on your social media sites or personally with friends, family, even coworkers. I think would be encouraged by our message. And I ask you also to leave us a review on whatever platform you listen to our podcast on what you our listeners have to say is extremely important to us. Thank you. We'd also love to hear directly from you. The contact link on our website, Mental Health, Hope and Recovery dot com comes directly to me. Please send me a note. In parting, I wish us all a life within those three concepts of mindfulness that I mentioned, intention, attention and attitude. May we all strive to live intentionally in the present moment, with kindness, curiosity and non judgment. And now I leave you with our favorite word onword m