Five Days of Mindful Living

By Dr. Manijeh Motaghy · UCLA Mindful Teacher · Perfectly Here

Day one of Five Days of Mindful Living. Read the first lesson below. Request the free PDF for all five lessons.

We can flow mindfully in everyday life

Hello Friend,

Welcome. Over these five days, I invite you to explore how you can bring more awareness, clarity, and kindness into ordinary moments of your life.

Mindfulness is both a quality of mind and a practice to develop this quality. It is being calm, alert, present, and kind; knowing how your body feels, noticing what goes on in your mind, and being aware of emotional changes. But the most important aspect of mindfulness is the goal of being well for all involved. Otherwise, it would give you partial benefits if you just learn to be present to do a task better.

Some call mindfulness a tool, which would indicate putting it down and returning to mindless living. The magic is in carrying this quality and goal of well-being with us throughout the day and into every experience. We, hence, develop it so that we may think and act through greater clarity, objectivity, and compassion.

There are many ways you can develop mindfulness. Object awareness is one effective way. Try it today. Choose an ordinary object near you. Look at its colors and shape. Notice its texture and what its role is in your life. Can you remember when you first received it, before it became so familiar and redundant that you stopped noticing it?

Then notice if a feeling comes up. You do not need to manufacture a particular feeling. Just recognize what is present. Invigorate a sense of gratitude for this object. Reflect on what it took for it to be created and how it came to you.

Ask yourself, what else in my life has become so ordinary that I no longer give it my attention? Then choose one more thing or person to give particular attention and appreciation to. Register how it feels to do so.

In the next lesson in the complete PDF, we will look at how the meanings we give to things influence our mood and actions.

With kindness,
Manijeh
Dr. Manijeh Motaghy · Perfectly Here
Author of It’s Not Easy to Be Human
Explore the book and purchase: https://drmanijehmotaghy.com/book/