THIS is how you become Resilient
7 powerful ways to use mindfulness to increase resilience
If you are new here, or if you missed any of the past emails, you can take a look at all of the ones from previous weeks in the archives section. You can find it by clicking the link below.
Mindfulness & Resilience
How are you feeling? You doing okay?
We here in America have been going through it, am I right? I mean with having to deal with the COVID shit-uation, losing family members, friends, our jobs, being on lockdown, feeling the intense energy that came from the BLM movement, hearing about riots & looting, & now Election Day…. I can imagine many of us aren’t handling all of this too well.
Stress levels are probably sky high! Especially because there’s that uncertainty to what’s going to happen AFTER Election Day. Who’s going to be the President? Is it going to be the “right” one? If not, will there be widespread violence breaking out across the country?
Like damn, can we just catch a break?
With everything we’ve been going through as a collective, it won’t be a surprise for me to hear if you said you were feeling scared & helpless. This year has taken us for a wild rollercoaster ride & we just need serious healing. We need powerful tools or resources to keep us going strong because otherwise, we’re just going to lose ourselves.
So what direction can we take? What can we do to stay resilient in the face of uncertainty and or chaos?
One way that works for me and for so many others, is to turn to mindfulness.
With mindfulness, we’re able to cultivate a full awareness of everything that is happening moment to moment, with curiosity rather than judgement or resistance. We learn to recognize that most of life’s stressors are subjective & with mindfulness, we have the ability to respond with wisdom rather than react in a harmful way. We’re able to consciously identify when we need to take moments to pause & check in with ourselves to make sure we’re doing the things that sustain our health and well-being, while remaining empowered to make a positive impact in the world.
“With mindfulness, we’re able to cultivate a full awareness of everything that is happening moment to moment, with curiosity rather than judgement or resistance.”
In this email, you’ll find 7 more powerful & practical ways you can utilize mindfulness to stay resilient through anything that comes your way, as well as, (like usual) other mindful goodies you may find useful for this week.
To get a full breakdown to what you’re getting in this weeks email, check the LOC below.
let’s get into it….
Here’s the LOC breakdown for you to PREVIEW what you’re getting in this email (at a glance):
Mindful Insights
In this section, you will find:
(1) Get Involved: Community Clean Up (for those of you who live in the Naugatuck or Waterbury area) (2) Discover: Bridge Healing Arts Wellness Center (CT residents) (3) Learn: key words of mindfulness & meditation you probably hear all the time but not too sure what they actually mean (4) Health: here’s a more natural approach to try to treat headaches
Mindful Weekly Challenge
Mindful Love Note— an exercise that may help you shift the way you think
Mindful Approach
This week we’re learning how to use mindfulness to become or to stay resilient during stressful times — here are 4 ways you can start doing that right now.
Mindful Reflection
Reflecting on an event that happened last week which really left a huge impact on me & shook my world up & I share how I was able to use mindfulness to support me in getting through it.
Mindful Insights
1) Get involved:
If you live in the naugatuck or surrounding area and if you’ve been looking for ways to get more involved with your community, here’s one way to how you can get started….
If the weather permits, Naugatuck is hosting a town wide community clean up on Tuesday November 3rd aka Election Day, to put out some much needed good energy into the world. If it rains, it will be moved to the following day.
Naugatuck is also accepting donations of any individually packaged snacks & drinks for volunteers if that’s something you’d feel more comfortable doing instead.
For more details, here’s the link to the Facebook page — [CLEAN UP LINK]
2) Discover:
Here is an awesome opportunity for Connecticut residents who are looking to take their wellness & healing journeys to the next level…
Bridge Healing Arts Center is Connecticut’s FIRST synergistic holistic health center located in Farmington.
If you’re interested in joining in virtually or irl at their Farmington location for any of their holistic suite of wellness services and events to nurture your mind, body & spirit and/or to restore your physical and mental well-being with nutritional guidance, massage therapy, life and health coaching, clinical therapy, hypnosis, reiki, therapeutic spa services & more, you can click the link to learn more on how to get started ❤️✨
3) Learn:
Words matter & we can learn to make them work for us.
Often times, we’re told or hear things like, “be with your breath; or use your breath as an anchor; or affirm it into existence & watch it manifest; or cultivate some balance in your life so that you can radiate at a higher vibration….and so on and so forth.” But do we actually even know wtf those words mean? 😂
I know for myself, when I started on my healing journey, hearing those mindfulness buzz words meant nothing for me. I had no idea what they meant but it sounded cool, so I started looking into those words to learn more ofcourse.
So if that’s something you can resonate with, I decided to put a few words together (6 in total) that are associated with mindfulness & meditation to help you get a better understanding to what they actually mean:
Key words —
Zen: a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.
Rumination: is simply repetitively going over a thought or a problem without completion; getting lost in a loop of thoughts over & over which can lead to the feelings of inadequacy & raise anxiety.
Anchor: a place that you can return to when your mind wanders off especially during meditation. An anchor most commonly used as a tool to bring us back into the present moment is the breathe.
Manifest: in the most simplest definition, to manifest, is to make apparent & real; To create something into existence.
Lotus Position: the now famous crossed legged position (criss cross apple sauce seating position) that is seen in almost all meditative practices.
Buddha: the term Buddha may refer to any individual who has attained enlightenment.
4) Health:
If you’ve ever experienced a headache, you can understand how painful & discomforting it can be, especially when no matter what you do, it won’t go away.
Headaches are extremely common. And if you are someone who experiences headaches often & find that western medication isn’t doing the trick for you, here is a more natural way to treat your headaches — you may want to try or think about trying acupressure & pressure points.
For more details & practical examples in the form of info graphics, you can find the full article here — [Headaches Link]
Mindful Challenge
Mindful Love Note Exercise—
Try & see if you can work this challenge out for yourself this week. I tried it, & tbh it felt empowering to just hear me, love me, aloud.
There was a day last week that I started feeling down on myself & so I went to my recordings for haha’s to play my “love note,” & it really did help to shift & boost my mood. So try and see for yourself what it can do for you. Feel free to share your experience on our Facebook page — [Zen Space Community]
Mindful Approach
Mindfulness IS powerful. And it’s key for cultivating resilience within ourselves, especially during difficult times.
Resilience is a process of effectively coping with adversity—It’s about bouncing right back when you fall down.
The great thing about resilience is that it’s not a personality trait; it involves a way of paying attention & thinking. In other words, resilience involves a mindful approach & it’s something anyone can learn.
Mindfulness have proven to be effective in increasing our resilience. And the more mindfulness habits & mindfulness meditation we practice, the more resilient our brain becomes. 🤯
Living in a time with so much uncertainty & where the pressure is constantly sky high to ensure we’re meeting the demands of everyday life—becoming resilient is not only necessary, it is needed.
If we don’t learn how to become resilient, we’re going to continue to struggle with difficult emotions, which will just lead us to continue feeling overwhelmed & shutting down (emotionally).
So here I put together 4 powerful ways to cultivate resilience using mindfulness in hopes it can support your ability to becoming more resilient —
Name That Emotion: Sometimes, our feelings just sneak up on us. And in traveling along throughout our bodies, these emotions can start to affect us before we’re even consciously aware of what’s happening. That’s how subtle, yet intense emotions can be. And before you know it, if you’re not aware of what’s happening, it’ll shift your mood & behavior and you may not even know what’s happening or why.
A good way to gain a sense of power over this process is to ask ourselves— “What happening in my mind & body right now?” “What was I doing that may have contributed to this shift in the way I feel?” “Do I feel breathless or feel any pressure on my chest?” Answering these kind of questions for yourself can help you to understand what you’re feeling, especially if you started to feel shitty out of nowhere. This also allows you to name emotions like anger, grief, or anxiety—which puts you in the controller seat.
Practice Self-Compassion: Once you’re able to identify what it is you’re feeling, it’s important that we work with it & not try to run from it or make ourselves feel worst about having them. Remember, it’s okay to not feel okay. Instead of pushing down any negative feelings, give yourself a little compassion & ask what can you do to soothe yourself right now? Can you take a few deep cleansing breaths? Can you place your hand on your heart while affirming positive words into existence? Can you take a moment to meditate? Can you hug someone within your reach who you feel safe with or maybe even call someone, like a friend?
Find Good News: The news we see from the major news outlets, are NOT our friends. Nor do I believe they are out for our best interest. As how I see it, news media outlets are a business who thrive off our attention, more specifically off our pain points, our fear. While we may be trying to keep up with the news to stay informed, we’re doing ourself a disservice because what we’re going to get is not something that’s going to bring us joy. The news curates their content to be highly negative as that’s what sells. So if you’re constantly consuming the negative stories that comes from the news, try to stop because really, it’s extremely detrimental to your health.
To keep up with what’s happening in the world without being overwhelmed by it, we need to be conscientious about counterbalancing the negative news with more positive, hopeful news. A good place to start is by what you’re doing now, reading this newsletter. Ofcourse theres many other ways, you just have to decide that you want to experience some good that the world has to offer, because there is a lot of good happening, it’s just being overshadowed by the dark or negativity.
Cultivate An Attitude Of Gratitude: With so much negativity going on, it may seem hard to try and focus on what we’re grateful for, right? But studies show that in the face of adversity or when in a not so good mood, gratitude has the power to energize, to heal, & to bring hope.
Focusing on what we’re thankful for helps us to be more resilient when times are tough. If we turn toward appreciating the good in our lives, it lessens our anxiety and depression, so we can stay calmer in the face of uncertainty. And it can keeps us from burning out.
So, what can you be grateful for? Besides the everyday things—like family, health, the food on our table, or a beautiful sunset—what can you find in the present moment that truly brings you a sense of happiness or balance?
Mindful Reflection
We live in some weird times.
How I see it is nothing makes sense but at the same time, everything makes sense. Everything seems like it’s going to shit but at the same time, everything seems like it’s coming together. It’s such a strange thing.
But through this strange perspective I have, I am able to instill a sense of balance, calm, & peace for myself. Because even though I sometimes feel like I’m living in the twilight zone, my mindfulness practice has been supporting my wellbeing. Mindfulness has allowed me to grow resilient through much of what life throws my way & Im so grateful for that, especially after what I experienced last week.
So last week I experienced some painful news. If you didn’t know, my grandfather was diagnosed with COVID several weeks ago & has been ever since fighting for his life. However, as of the other day, he ended up losing the battle. He didn’t make it.
If it wasn’t for my mindfulness practice and my strength, or resilience, I am not sure how I would of handled what happened. Thankfully, while still very painful & breaks my heart, I was able to receive the news with full presence & acceptance. I was able to feel the pain and allow it to flow through me. I sat with my thoughts & feelings. I gave myself space & time & still proceed to do so, for as long as it takes. I know I cannot change what happened, but I am able to respond with choice. And I choose peace.
Life doesn’t care who you are. It doesn’t care if you’re a good person, bad person. It doesn’t care what you’ve done, what you haven’t done. Life just is. And things just happen. All the time. Sometimes we don’t even or ever know why things happen as they do. And knowing that things in life are constantly ebbing & flowing, instead of resisting or trying to run, we can too, flow with life. We can embrace it all— the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful, all of it. It takes time, yes. And so time is what we can give ourselves. Because we have a choice…we can see life for what it is, noticing all as it unfolds, without judgement or we can continue to live in pain & suffering. We can cultivate resilience with mindfulness. Baby steps is alll we need. We may not notice a change within ourselves in a day or a week, but over time, the benefits will show.
It’s all a choice.
& that’s all for this week my friend. Thank you so much for being here & for being you.
Until next week,
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
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~I’m here to hold space for you because you deserve it.~
Victor Padilla