Hello. My name is Pam Strand. I'm your podcast host, and I'd like to welcome you to the Longevity Gym. This podcast is for those who want to learn how to live longer, stronger, and better. Today's topic is mindfulness. As you will hear, I think it's a great tool for reaching the goal of living longer, stronger, and better. I want to start us off with a quote.
Mindfulness is cultivated by paying close attention to your moment to moment experience while, as best as you can, not getting caught up in your ideas and opinions and likes or dislikes. This quote comes from the book Full Catastrophe Living. The book was written by John Kabat Zinn, who in 1979 created the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program. It's nickname is MBSR. You may have heard about it.
So Jon Kabat Zinn created this program when he saw what an obstacle stress was to the healing process for his patients. It's now a program that is taught worldwide. I took it in 2020 during the pandemic to help me manage the stress that came from that, Jon Kabat Zinn is also a pioneer of the mindfulness movement here in the United States. For some people, Mindfulness is a trait. Some people are just naturally predisposed to being mindful in their activities and in their life.
Mindfulness is also a skill, and that's important to know, because a skill can be learned. The skill of mindfulness involves three parts. Learning, turn your attention by choice. It's something that's unfolding in front of you at that particular moment or something that you're experiencing in that particular moment.
Whether that's something in everyday life, an emotion that you're experiencing, or if you're practicing in a mindfulness session, it's learning to turn your attention to the focal point of that session. The second component of the skill is learning to notice when your mind wanders away from that experience, and it will, and then three, learning to bring it back.
to the experience and without placing any judgment on the fact that your mind wandered or your mind got caught up with your ideas, dislikes, opinions, ideas about whatever was happening to you at that particular moment. Mindfulness is also a practice where you take time each day to develop and practice the skill of mindfulness. There are many benefits of practicing mindfulness on a consistent basis.
Research and science are reporting many, many benefits, and I'm going to share nine of them with you. Yes, nine. And there are a lot more, but here are the nine, what I think are the nine most important things to know. So when you practice mindfulness on a consistent basis, you have improved cardiovascular health through reduced blood pressure.
You have enhanced brain health, and you may experience enhanced brain functions, especially those related to self awareness, learning, memory, and emotional regulation and resilience. When you practice mindfulness, Your immune system gets a boost. It gets better at protecting you from disease and illness. A regular practice also increases cognitive performance in the areas of attention span, focus, and concentration. I think as we get older, we realize how important.
Making those, sustaining those become. Number five. When we practice consistently, we get more creative and we get better at solving problems and we sleep better. We also become less stressed and when we are stressed, we bounce back more quickly. Last two. Number eight. Mindfulness has also been shown to help promote mental health, particularly for those people who experience anxiety and depression.
And finally, a consistent practice also fosters greater empathy, patience, and kindness to ourselves and to those around us. That leads to better relationships and better social connections, which are vital components of living longer, stronger, and better. Can you guess what the biggest obstacle is to practicing mindfulness? I'll give you a couple minutes to think about that. It's the belief that one's mind is too busy to meditate.
I would be a rich person if I had a dollar for every time someone said, Pam, I can't practice mindfulness. I can't meditate. My mind, I can't get my mind quiet. Well, guess what? That's the point of practicing mindfulness, learning the skill and putting it to use. Science suggests that mindfulness does quiet the mind. It does give us the skill to keep our mind focused, to keep our mind quiet, and a quiet mind is a strong mind.
So if you're one that suffers from a busy mind and find that their mind gets easily distracted and pulled in many different You don't want it to be? That's a situation that can be remedied with a practice. Another obstacle or another concern about mindfulness that prevents people from, from starting a practice is that mindfulness or maybe meditation in general they believe is a spiritual practice. Well, that's a myth.
Meditation is a secular practice that offers a diverse set of techniques, and mindfulness is one of them, which accommodate people of all backgrounds to help with stress relief and mental well being. That is a statement or that is a quote from the School of Positive Transformation, which has 10, 000 students in various forms of mindfulness and positive psychology. That's where I got my teacher training. To become a mindfulness and meditation teacher.
The last myth or obstacle towards practicing mindfulness that I wanted to talk about is that people believe it's time consuming. Well, guess what? One can experience the benefits of mindfulness with as least, with as little as three minutes a day. It's consistency of practice that is much more important than the amount of time you devote to a session. When you see how mindfulness can change the direction of a person's life, boy, you would be convinced it's a good thing.
I've seen it at play in so many different ways and forms. One, friends have told me how quickly they were able to heal from their grief when they lost close family members. I taught a, uh, a career transition or a career search course, um, based on mindfulness principles at a career transition center.
And participants told me that after the course, they felt more engaged, more focused, more in control and more positive about the job search process, which if you've ever gone through that process, you know, it can be random and pretty discouraging at times. One participant even shared with me or shared with me that she even felt she got her life back. I think that's pretty wonderful. I see it at play in my fitness, with my fitness clients.
I'm thinking of one right now who had a situation of chronic pain, and as she practiced mindfulness, she was able to manage that situation so that she could actually do the strength training that would resolve her issue. I also think about clients who were really overcome with negative self talk and self judgment that was interfering with, one, getting to the gym, and two, doing the exercises.
Once we began to, to work with mindfulness principles during the workouts, boy, you could see their bodies and their minds just adapt, adapting so well. The limitations or the tensions in doing the exercises went away, their bodies were more relaxed, their mental state was more relaxed, and they were able to get more out of the workouts and occasionally even have a smile on their face doing it. I've also seen the benefits at play in my own life.
It helped me stay focused on what needed to be done when the pandemic shut down the world and shut down my business. It kept me from getting distracted and lost in all the financial issues and losses and complaints and not so fun decisions that needed to be made as I navigated the challenges. Most importantly, My mindfulness practice helped me heal from my own case of COVID, and for that, I will always be grateful.
So if you're considering starting a mindfulness practice, it's good to know it's very simple to get up and going. It's very accessible, because all you need is yourself and a place to sit, stand, or lay down where you can be comfortable and safe for the amount of time you've allocated for a session. Eventually, you may want to designate a specific place, maybe have your own chair or cushion or mat for your practice, but you don't need that to get going.
It's also very simple to, I guess, negate a concern about, Oh gosh, in the middle of a session, did I meditate long enough or did I go too long? It's really simple. Just set a timer. Then you know, when the bell goes off, you're done. You don't have to worry about the time. It's also very simple because there is no best time to practice, particularly at the beginning. In fact, in the beginning, the best time to practice is when you have time to practice.
So whenever it is, you can carve out time on your calendar to set aside three to five minutes or 10 or 15 minutes, however long you want to practice and sit. and practice. You also want to pick a time that you're not going to be interrupted. As you go, you may get a sense on the best time of the day for you. It may be morning, it may be lunchtime, maybe a brain break in the middle of the day, or practicing before you go to bed to unwind so that you sleep better.
You could, don't have to just limit it to one time a day either. That's kind of the cool thing. You can spend three to five minutes various times of the day. The other thing that makes a mindfulness practice very simple to get going with is the fact that you can incorporate it into activities that you already do. So, doing the dishes, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, walking down the sidewalk, sitting outside, maybe you're doing a little few stretches, or even maybe playing a game of golf.
Simply. Practice turning your attention to the sensation of the experience.. You can also turn movement or exercise into a mindfulness practice. So swimmers, runners, as well as those who practice yoga, tai chi, qigong, the list is a little bit endless here, but they will speak to how they've used a portion of their workout or their training session to practice mindfulness, maybe in a warmup, maybe when things get going tough. So that makes it easy to.
beginners, I think this is important to know and helpful to know, beginners usually use a guided session or guided sessions to get started. The book I mentioned, Full Catastrophe Living, it has some meditation, guided meditation sessions in there. They, I think you can even, even go to the website and download some. You could look for a local mindfulness and meditation teacher who offers classes, maybe at a yoga studio or neighborhood fitness center, even a park district.
you could check out a community college if you have one in your area. I know our local community college has a meditation course on their curriculum. Also, many, many, many, many free apps out there that offer guided mindfulness and meditation sessions, even courses.
There are two that I'm most familiar with, Insight Timer, which I use for the timer part of it, as well as occasionally I will use some of the guided sessions, and then the other app that I am most familiar with but have not used is Calm. So these apps have content that's available for free, and they also have content that's available with a paid subscription. And speaking of subscription based apps, I use two of them. I use Brain.
fm, which is science backed music that enhances various mental states, meditation being one of them, or mindfulness being one of them. And then I use an app called The Source. This app started out as a place for breathwork, which is how I got involved with it, and has recently expanded to many areas of well being. And finally, if you use a fitness app like MyFitnessPal, Or have a wearable device like a Fitbit that has an app that comes with it.
I'm noticing that many of those, and in fact I know Fitbit does,, many of those apps have guided mindfulness sessions. And recently, I believe Noom, the weight loss app has also added this to their menu of of services. So Lots of ways to have access to guided sessions to get you up and running with a mindfulness practice. So I want to close on sharing some things that are important to know about mindfulness.
One is that it takes patience with yourself, with the process, and an openness to learn and grow as you go. There is no such thing as a perfect mindfulness practice. It's also important to know that mindfulness or really any form of meditation takes energy. So you are alert and your mind is active during the practice. It's not a time that you're going to set aside to snooze.
And when you first start practicing, it is very easy to get discouraged once you see how your mind wanders, because it will, and how active it is, because that's what minds do. In fact, there's a piece of evidence that science produced, has produced, that suggests the human mind produces about 60, yes, 6, 0, 0, 0, 0, 60, 000 thoughts a day. So you need to stick with it, be diligent in your practice, be patient with your mind, and eventually you will develop the skill.
Even the most experienced students are challenged with this busyness in their mind. It's also good to know that mindfulness can raise or bring up difficult memories or emotions, especially if there's been trauma in your background. So if this is a concern with you, working with an experienced teacher is very important, or maybe working with a mental health professional.
And if you currently do work with a mental health therapist, you may want to check in with them before starting to get their feedback and guidance on how to begin and how to use a mindfulness practice. So that's a wrap. As you can tell, I think mindfulness and meditation too, in general are great skills and practices to have and to incorporate into your lives. I think it goes a long way. I think they go a long way in helping us live in, live a longer, stronger, healthier life.
If you find you're curious about getting up. and go in with a mindfulness practice and you have questions, please email me. I am happy to help you get started. My email is Pam at strandfitnessonline. com. And if you're interested in knowing about my future mindfulness offer and you are not on my email list, I invite you to sign up. Every two weeks I email a newsletter that has longevity tips.
And I announce new podcast episodes and this newsletter is where I announce new offerings and ways to work with me. You can use the form in the show notes below to fill in your name and email address and I will get you on the list. With that, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the gift of your time and for tuning in, and I will see you next time. I hope the rest of your day is just wonderful.