Mindfulness Arsenal for a Tactical Advantage

Behind The Line

Show Notes:

In last week’s episode (Episode 7 if you want to hunt it down), we made the case for why mindfulness matters and how it helps to strengthen the parts of your brain that help to counterbalance your stress centre and the overwhelming amounts of persistent stress you face as a result of your work. This week, we focus on practical mindfulness tools and ways to incorporate these into your daily life as a consistent practice. Consider these skills a workout for your brain – little bits often add up to mean more than you might think.

Breathing Skills
· Square Breathing: Inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four. Remember, the goal is not to breathe this way all the time, the goal is to help your brain focus on a single, present task: your breathing. Try doing this type of breath for a couple of rounds, then breathe normally for a minute or two, then try to do a couple more rounds.

· Mantra Breath: Choose a word or phrase to focus on as you inhale and exhale, include imagery in your mind if you find this helpful. In this episode I suggest “inhale relaxation” and “exhale tension” as one of my favorite.

Meditation Skills
· Mantra Meditation: Choose a word or phrase to focus on – ideally something in alignment with what you would like to be thinking or feeling, such as “still”, or “peace”. Find a comfortable place to sit or lay down, preferably somewhere with minimal distractions if possible. Close your eyes if you like, or find a neutral place to look. Set a timer for whatever amount of time you prefer (I usually choose about 5-7 minutes), and reflect on your mantra. When other thoughts pop into your head just notice them, and gently guide your mind back to your mantra.

· Imagery Meditation: Choose an image to focus on – I describe a scene with a small stream in this episode. Find a comfortable place to sit or lay down, preferably somewhere with minimal distractions if possible. Close your eyes if you like, or find a neutral place to look. Set a timer for whatever amount of time you prefer (I usually choose about 5-7 minutes), and reflect on your image. Try to become very aware of sights, smells, textures, temperatures, etc. of the place you have chosen – immerse yourself in it. When other thoughts pop into your head, just notice them. You can even incorporate this into your image, like my example of the thoughts being leaves that fall on the stream and watching the water carry them gently down stream and away from me. Work to gently guide your mind back to your image.

**Caution: Those with complex trauma histories, particularly early developmental traumatic experiences, may have difficulty meditating or engaging in mindfulness practices as your nervous system has been trained that things that are meant to be safe are more often dangerous, and can lead your body to become reactive to “safe” things or feelings. You may need to tread more carefully using these skills, and may need to build in additional protections. I encourage you to search for trauma-informed mindfulness or meditation practices to get specific tools that may better support you as you work to engage and strengthen the part of your brain that helps to support and counterbalance your stress and trauma centre.

Mindful Movement Skills
· Structured Movement: Yoga, Tai Chi and other movement-based practices that incorporate mindfulness and breath. See below for a recommendation of my favorite yoga app that changed me from a yoga hater to a yoga lover!

· Movement + Mantra: Choose a word or phrase and try to focus on this as you engage in some kind of movement activity like a walk, bike ride, or dance party in your living room. When other thoughts pop in, just notice them and guide your mind gently back to your mantra.

· Movement + Breath: As you engage in any movement activity – a walk, bike ride, hike, dance party… - notice your breath and try to focus on connecting your breath to your movement. For example, while walking, try breathing in for 3 steps, hold for one step, breathe out for 3 steps and hold for one step.

· Movement + Attunement: As you engage in any movement activity, work to focus on noticing the things around you. Use your 5 senses and really take notice of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures/touch sensations. When thoughts pop in, just notice them and guide your mind back to noticing things around you.

Everyday Attunement Skills
· Attending & Describing: Use your 5 senses to notice things around you in everyday moments. You can do this anytime, anywhere. Notice the colours of things, different textures, etc. Or describe an everyday activity in detail to yourself as you do it – really notice what you’re doing and attend to your actions and environment.

Episode Challenge:
Choose one or two of the skills described in this episode and find ways to implement them in your daily life at least once a day. Try to find at least one skill you can use while you are at work. Focus on making it consistent – use timers or reminders to help prompt you until these skills feel habitual. Adapt any of the skills described to help it fit for you.

Additional Resources:
If you want to go deeper into utilizing mindfulness skills, I’ve included a couple of resources you may find helpful including links to two meditation/mindfulness apps that I have heard great things about, and my favorite yoga program (it made me a yoga-lover after years of HATING yoga!!). You can also easily google things like “guided imagery”, “quick meditation”, or “meditation scripts” to help guide your development in some of these areas.

Check out the Calm App here.

Check out the Balance App here.

Check out the Down Dog yoga program here.

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