It makes me laugh when people say, “only in (this town) can you have four seasons in one day” or, “only in (this town) can you have 80-degree weather in February”. If we can laugh about the quickly changing weather, why can’t we accept without judgement the quickly changing thoughts in our mind and the quickly changing feelings in our body? One would have to be aware first, and our days are too busy, with multi-tasking and got-to-have-it-now mentality, to be truly aware. If we can feel within hours the temperature drop or the humidity rise, how do we feel our emotions without judging them, unloading them on others, or shutting them down?
One good place to learn and experience a comprehensive arsenal of emotional wellbeing skills is through our Relationship Wellbeing course (RWB). The course shares an intentional collection of positive psychology tools with everyday examples and prompts for self-reflection and accountability.
Having the skills to feel our emotions as they arise is unique to the person, the circumstances, and prior experiences. I am fascinated by learning new skills to frame existing understandings differently. For example, the yoga sutra “Yogas citta vritti nirodhah,” also known as the monkey mind, recognizes that the mind doesn’t always allow you to see the actual truth. I find this to be a spiritual approach to the more science-based ‘Ticker-tape’ lesson in the RWB course.
The ‘Mindfulness’ lesson is a reminder that any practice takes regular engagement. The work for me is identifying ways to incorporate new tools into my daily life, rather than something I’ll try once and then drop. Many of us have a daily or hourly practice of checking in on the weather and assessing how we feel about it. So why not find useful tools that can help us exert the same ongoing attention to our own body and mind?
Catherine Hunt is the Director of Facilitation at the Foundation for Family and Community Healing as well as a certified mindfulness and yoga instructor through Mindful Leader and Yoga Alliance.