Mindful Activities to Keep You Sane Through Social-Distancing.
I know that everyone is feeling a lot of fear right now, it's an uneasy time in the world. The unknown triggers fear, insecurity, anger, frustration, anxiety, all the negative feels. Whereas love triggers fearlessness, security, kindness, compassion, respect, and faith in that you are always being protected. So as hard as it may be for some, I encourage you to look at this time as a blessing in disguise. It is a time for us to rest, for us to be quiet and turn inward, to be creative and get lost in the moment, to enjoy our families and loved ones, to look at our lives and ask ourselves- what could we be doing differently to contribute to the world in a positive and meaningful way? This is the hard work guys. This is the work that is needed to let your light shine and to raise up mankind as a whole.
In amidst of all this uncertainty and let’s face it, total chaos, we all need mindful activities to get us through these days. I’m sure most houses paint a pretty close picture to ours. Kids home from school already complaining of boredom, husbands, and wives working from home who have completely different ideas of workspace and dogs barking like crazy every single time someone walks past the house. I swear there is a cottontail bunny who tantalizes my dogs on purpose.
So here are some activities that we have been scheduling daily at our house. Quite honestly, I started doing most of these activities to keep myself sane, but as it turns out, my husband and kids enjoy them too. It encourages us to come together as a family, which is so important right now! I think the things I treasure most about these activities is that it’s teaching us as a family to be mindful of each others space, it sets the day with positive intentions for ourselves and others, and it really allows us to get lost in creativity.
Intention Setting
Mindfully setting intentions is how we start the day. This, as a surprise to me, is something my family jumped on immediately. I was shocked. Let’s be real, kids don’t sit still worth shit and my husband thinks most of the time I’m a total kook with all my woo woo practices. So, I was thrilled when my seven-year-old got out her yoga mat and crystals and was ready to go at 6:30 am. My youngest started the snowball effect because my twelve year old and husband soon followed her.
The first one we did all together and try to continue daily is the Marianne Williamson Coronavirus Meditation. Warning: She does say penis and vagina right in the middle of it, so most likely it will throw the whole family into hysterics. At least it did ours because well, it’s funny and we’re four. It is a great way to start or end the day. Also, in my book, sending positive, healing light and imagery to everyone can’t hurt.
I am absolutely in love with Miki Ash’s The How app. Please stop what you are doing right now and download it immediately. She is a beautiful soul who just radiates love and light. Her meditations are filled with intention and purpose and they help start the day on a positive note. We have been practicing her 20-minute Intention Setting Guided Meditation. It helps us all set an intention for the day, and especially helps our kids find purpose for their day, which has been challenging without a structured school setting.
If you are new to meditation, Headspace is a great place to start. They take the intimidation out of meditating. Their app is animated and playful and offers easy meditations for beginners. They cover all categories from health to work and performance, diet, sleep, exercise and more. Basically the name says it all. They help you get in the right ‘headspace’ to execute the task at hand. They also have playful meditations for kids five and under that are just a minute long. Imagine if we all taught our kids how to meditate early on in life. They would be able to handle all the obstacles that are thrown their way with a little more ease.Yoga
Some of the most frequent comments I hear from customers since starting Bennd is ‘My home practice has changed so much. I am inspired to practice yoga every morning when I wake up because I see my beautiful yoga mat laying there. It’s not some ugly plastic thing rolled up in a corner.’ Hearing this from people makes my heart smile so much! Bennd is encouraging people to do more yoga! This has been one of my intentions for the brand from the beginning.
Lately, I have found much solitude in practicing yoga at home. Which previously, was very challenging for me. I am a Core Power junkie. I love to sweat and move and be surrounded by my yoga community. Now, as we’re forced into this space as a collective whole, practicing yoga at home has been beautiful and eye-opening for me. I am practicing daily -which is a major plus; I’m trying new inversions that normally I would be intimidated by in class; and my husband is occasionally practicing with me- which, whoa! This is a major transition! Plus, the kiddos are getting their daily exercise. We count it as ‘gym’ or ‘recess’ time to make it fun for them.
It’s been amazing to watch the yoga community band together and continue offering their gifts to the world. My favorite studios and teachers have been offering daily free and donation-based classes. Most of them are on Instagram live, so you have 24 hours to watch them. And friends, please donate if you practice and have the means to. They are dedicating their time and energy for the greatest good of mankind and need our support as much as we need theirs. Here are my favorites:Writing
Creative Writing Class 101. The kids have been loving this activity! It expands their imagination using imagery and free flow thought. If you don’t follow Trust & Travel on the gram, you must! They have been posting these beautiful, daily writing prompts that take you out of the norm and make you more aware of your inner consciousness. This activity is great to do mid-day to keep creative juices flowing, or to take a break from the mundane workflow. This is how it works for us: We look at the photo, I then read the caption out loud, we free-write for 20 minutes, and then we share what we wrote. I love hearing how everyone’s perception of the photo is different in our house. May it be the age differences, personalities, or the perception of what’s happening in the world today- we all have a different take on it and it's beautiful.
Art
I feel very blessed to come from a family of creatives. We all may be a little eccentric, but it adds character to our family and makes us who we are. This stillness that we are being called to practice right now is the perfect time to explore our creative side. So many breakthroughs can happen through art. It releases anxiety, stress, emotional blockages, past memories, and more. Very similar to meditation, engaging in art brings you into a state of flow. Have you ever been so engrossed in an art project that you slide into a meditative state? Being in a state of flow can lead to improved performance and lower stress levels. And we all could use less stress right now. We all live such fast-paced lives, and rarely to get to just stop and create for fun. When’s the last time you have done that? Created for fun? Not for work, or social media content, just created because you felt like it. Our current ‘new-normal’ is opening up the doors to find our passion, our fuel, our fire. So, I encourage you to order some art supplies, whatever your medium might be and create from a place of gratefulness. Grateful that you are alive, that you are healthy, and that you have time to explore your soul.
Dance Parties
Dance parties on the hour. This, I believe, is essential. Reality check- most of us are probably spending way more time sitting down then we’d like. Let’s move that stagnant energy!
Turn the music up loud and dance your ass off! Let go of worries, what’s happening in the world, who’s Instagram live you might be missing. Just dance! Get lost in it. It doesn't have to be for long, maybe it's just one song or maybe it ends up being a whole hour. Either way, I promise it will make you smile and you will feel lighter when you're done!
Here’s a fun playlist to get you moving:
I hope this post brings families closer together, inspires creativity in each and every one of you, and helps keep you sane through these uncertain times. If all else fails, at the end of the day there is wine and weed is legal now in most states. Dance and carry on my friends.
