The KEY to happiness is here, in the present moment.
Your weekly dose of zen is here to get you by. Take as needed.
The only mindfulness email YOU will ever need has just arrived & it’s in your inbox. This is pretty cool! It means so much to have you apart of this experience so thank you for joining. Enjoy!
***lets keep the convo going — join the zen weekly (private) Facebook group now so that we can engage & talk about things we care about or use it as a space when we need support. Click this link to join***
Trying to be more mindful? Then stop trying. Just be.
Anybody can be more mindful. In fact, being mindful is something we should all strive to be, or atleast consider it, as it serves us so many benefits to our overall health & wellbeing. What most ppl think though, is that they have to be a certain somebody or live a certain life to live this way, but that’s just not true. See, *being mindful doesn’t mean you have to become some sort of Buddha. You can still be you...only you’re just an upgraded version of you.*
“Consider your mindfulness practice to be like learning to swim; you don’t dive into the deep end before learning and mastering the basic strokes. Start at the beginning.”
Here’s the LOC breakdown for you to preview what you’re getting in this email (at a glance):
Mindful Insights (As usual —You get the first look at the (1)Mindful Monday IG post before anybody else; Ever hear of the app called (2)ADA? Down below,I share my thoughts on that & why its something that may benefit you; Also, a few cool new discoveries on (3)tech gadgets that I found may be resourceful for you & some can even support our wellbeing; (4)I found a really good YouTube video (2 min short) breaking down the idea of “paying attention”; (5)Update on what the weeks ahead is going to look like for us.
Mindful Weekly Challenge (Noticing how often we say or relate to “I”)
Mindful Approach ( Introducing the two most important building blocks of mindfulness—attention & awareness to the present moment)
Mindful Reflection (reflecting on a quote I discovered the other day)
Mindful Insight
1) See it FIRST 👀
Mindful Monday IG post
1) caption—
Yeah...you’re still you. You just start moving different...is all.
Like after experiencing something uncomfortable or painful, you come back to “balance” again (or self-regulate) faster than before.
You’re less anxious or sad about things because you get it, (and then again, even if you DO find yourself slipping here & there, it’s okay because (See paragraph above)).
You develop a better understanding to your feelings & thoughts, so when you experience them, even tho they still hit hard, they just start to hit differently.
You’re less effected by what other ppl say or do or even think about you because if you can look at and start to understand your own emotions, you open up your heart to try and understand others, too.
See, you still live your life…you’re still you. You’re just more aware of your life; more mindfully aware. Ya know?
{Whenever you feel yourself escaping this moment, try and see if you can notice what’s happening. Then see if you can recognize where you are. Can you touch something? What do you hear? When you do this, you may notice that doing this brings you back; returning you to the present moment}. Try this during times of stress or unease. Notice how you feel afterwards, try and see if you can record your experience for your own record so that you can take note of your transformation. Hope you find this to be helpful. Let me know what you think ❤️
2) Ok so have you heard of the app called “ADA?” Ive had this app now for almost 2 years & I find it to be so resourceful. Basically if you’re feeling unwell, instead of ignoring it or running to google, (where you may discover that your symptoms match up to a deadly disease…) you can better manage your health using the ADA app. Ada is a global health company founded by doctors & scientists to create new possibilities for our personal health & they do that by connecting medical knowledge with AI to help us actively manage our health. You tell it how you’re feeling, and it’ll assess you. Ofcourse it isn’t a medical diagnosis but it can save you a lot of time and worry, and give you a pretty good range to what it is you may be experiencing. But you can learn more about them by clicking here.
3) So something I like to do from time to time is look up new inventions that are coming up that can possibly support our new aged way of living. And I came across this pretty cool article that shares 20+ tech gadgets for the low low (so it’s fairly affordable) that may serve some purpose for you. If you feel uncomfortable purchasing from them directly, amazon offers you the option to purchase a similar product of choice through them instead. I personally found items 5, 20, 21, & 23 from the list to be something to really look into, but really, that’s just to name a few. Check it out. Let me know what you think. If you haven’t joined the zenweekly Private fb group, (click here to join), be sure to do so and we can get a conversation going on there.
4) Here I share with you a quick 2 minute video on meditation and paying attention to the present moment. It’s a fun, simple way to try and understand what that even really means. Hope you enjoy.
5) For the weeks ahead…if you can recall from last weeks newsletter, I announced that for the next few weeks, I’ll be integrating the mindfulness course I created, to YOU, through the newsletter, for free, so that you can get a feel for what it’s like to truly invest yourself in a mindful lifestyle. The program I’m offering is ofcourse different when you buy into it because you’re getting a more personal experience in that way, but I’ve found a way that can still make it work JUST as effective, and all you have to do is simply check your emails every Monday, habitually, so that you can reep the benefits.
This weeks email is alll about getting started…So first, recognizing that yes, even YOU, can live a mindful life. And it begins with awareness. The context of the course will be placed in the “mindful approach” section from here on out. Weekly challenges will still be given and will correlate with the topic of the week. Some topics may require more in depth attention than others… and so when that happens, it’ll carry on to the next week…because the goal is to fully understand mindfulness, so that we can live our lives using mindfulness in a way that feels natural and that can serve real transformational results. I hope you find this to be exciting because I am beyond excited to offer it to you. If you have any questions or feedback, you know what to do —we can chat it out on the private zen weekly Facebook group or you can always message me on Facebook or Instagram, too).
Mindful Challenge
Mindful Approach
When it comes to mindfulness, the goal can be seen as reaching a state where you are able to fully become aware of your body sensations, thoughts, and emotions & then being able to relate to them with an open, nonjudgmental attitude. This can be cultivated by repeated practice.
There are several different tools you can use to cultivate mindfulness, meditation being one way. And, its important to note, that while meditation is a tool to use to support our mindfulness journey, mindfulness does not equal meditation. Practicing mindfulness exercises goes beyond traditional meditation practices. In other words, “sitting on a cushion” is one way of cultivating “an open hearted, moment to moment, nonjudgmental awareness, not the only way.
This week, our focus is on the two most important building blocks of mindfulness—attention & the present moment (AWARENESS). The heart of mindfulness is being able to cultivate attn to the present moment. The most common reason why ppl fail to pay atn to the present moment is because they are lost somewhere in their heads, thinking, often about the past or the future.
One great way to introduce to you what this actually means can be discovered in this exercise. I’d love for you to participate in this…it only takes 1 minute. So at your own time, when you can find a space you feel grounded & safe, I will like for you to sit or be in silence for 60 seconds (1 minute). That means without talking, or doing anything, just being here in the present moment. You can use a timer on your phone or any timer you may have to alert you when the minute is up. When you are finished, reflect on these questions:
-What did you notice during the exercise?
-Were you distracted by your thoughts during the exercise?
-What were your thoughts about?
I will be sharing this exercise to the zen Rn Facebook group, as well as, the zen weekly private fb group as a topic for us to discuss our experiences. Feel free to share your experience on there afterwards.
**Next week we will continue talking about awareness and I’ll introduce a guided Body scan meditation we can do together.**
Mindful Reflection
“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us” – John Dryden
I discovered this quote the other day, probably while doing my daily news search, and it really resonated with me. I find this to be so true.
Think of all the things we do now that have become a habit, (driving a car, brushing our teeth, putting on our clothes, eating/drinking) and now think of how much effort we need to put into it, to do it. Not much right? We first make the habit, then learn it enough until we can do it with our eyes closed, and then it just becomes second nature to us.
The thing about this is, it’s creates a sense of automaticity (doing something without thinking about it). And ofcourse this makes sense. Our brains create systems that help us to navigate our world in ways that would make it easier for us. So, for example, there’s no sense in us having to re-remember how to drive a car every single time we do it, we just simply remember based on repetition of doing it so many times.
But think of the “bad” habits we have—Self limiting beliefs, self sabotaging tendencies, overeating, trying to control everything, scrolling on social media with no real cause or reason, etc etc. These type of habits were habits we created for ourselves and now look at them….now they’re making us.
This quote helped shine light on how important being aware is. Learning to become more aware of the things we do, (both good and bad) only helps us, so that we can modify our life, if needed, in a way that best serves us. Would you agree?
Did this reflection resonate with you? What about the newsletter as a whole? What are your thoughts? Feelings? I would love to hear your feedback. Also, I would love if you were to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add yourself to the zen weekly (private) Fb group. Looking to build this as a space to hangout, talk and share thoughts and ideas about similar topics of interest.
(click the link below to join if you haven’t already)
Thank you for reading my friend. Hope you have a blessed zen-tastic week.
Stay well,
Namaste.
I’m Victor.
Or the mindfulness guy.
I aim to find calm & balance in my life through inspirations between alternative Eastern traditional Buddhism styles of meditation & mindfulness, as well as modern secular styles too.
I believe that we ALL have the capacity to create greatness for ourselves & I’m willing to show you how.
you can find me hanging out on:
Instagram —@2whomitmayconcrn_
Facebook — @iamzenrn
TikTok — @iamzenrn
Join the fam!
enjoyed the email?
Tell your friends or loved ones! Share with someone you feel may greatly benefit off just having some positive content in their email box every Monday. (& it would also mean the world to me).
Want More?
Visit the Zen Rn website for more mindful treats >>
https://www.iamzenrn.com
~I’m here to hold space for you because you deserve it.~
Victor Padilla