Mindfulness is probably one of the biggest words of the 20th century, with everyone from Oprah to Bill Gates getting on board.
Mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever you are doing at the present moment, free from distraction or judgment, and aware of your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. It combines meditation and breathing to focus on the mind and body in the present.
There are so many really fantastic resources out there so we won’t spend too much time here on them and instead, leave you in the hands of some experts like:
Once you are feeling more comfortable with mindfulness a great tool to use throughout your day is a full-body meditation scan. This is great for identifying and responding to parts of the body that regularly carry tension and stress (hello pelvic floor we see you!). It’s super easy and can be done anywhere (almost), anytime.
Mindful Full Body Scan
Ok here it is:
Step one: Get comfortable, lying down is preferable, particularly if you’re doing a body scan meditation before you fall asleep. If you’re at work or school sitting down in a comfortable chair works too.
Step two: Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, slowing your breathing right down, and expanding all the way into your belly. Rapid, shallow, erratic breathing is a common response to stress so it’s important to focus on a slow, deep, and regular breath.
Step three: Bring awareness to your feet, feel any tension you may be holding in your toes, arches, or ankles. Gently scrunch your toes and then work with your flow of breath to release slowly.
Step four: Move your attention up into your calves and acknowledge any tension or tightness you may find here. Slowly release it focusing on deep and slow breathing.
Step five: move your attention up into your pelvis, noticing any tension in your pelvic floor. Contract your pelvic floor and release slowly focusing on expanding your belly with your breath.
Step six: Continue to move your attention upwards, towards your stomach, arms, hands, and shoulders repeating the release exercises and focusing on relaxing each area and muscle. Finish with your head, scrunching and relaxing your eyes until you feel loose and relaxed.
“Yeah, thanks but I don’t have time for this!”
Ok ok, we hear you, it’s not like you can lay down under your desk at work during your lunch break for a full-body scan.
Instead, focus on checking in on your pelvic floor at least 5 times a day. Instead of scanning your whole body for tension just focus on what your pelvic floor is doing.
You may be surprised to find that your pelvic floor is probably contracted most of the time. Work on taking some deep belly breaths and relaxing it down.
Do it while you’re on the train on your way to work, do it at every red light in the car on the way home, do it while you are waiting for your nails to dry, or do it while you wait for the microwave to ding!
