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Cultivating Gratitude: A One Month Mindfulness Challenge

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For this month’s mindfulness challenge, gratitude seemed like an especially appropriate intention. Focusing on gratitude can be beneficial in SO many ways and I am really looking forward to spending on it during the one month challenge. There are too many benefits of gratitude to put in a short list, so I will highlight a few.

Benefits of a Gratitude Practice

  • Practicing gratitude can help us feel happier. Focusing on the positive is simple but can create a more optimistic mindset and increase overall long-term happiness.  As an added bonus, this can also help boost our self-esteem and reduce stress.
  • Gratitude can also help our relationships.  When we are grateful for others, it helps us to connect to them in a positive way, cultivate friendships and increase social support.  

How to Begin a Gratitude Practice

I find it best to focus on an intention using easy, effective and enjoyable action items. For this month, I have three simple action items, including a movement of the month.

Movement of the Month: 

  • Take a gratitude walk. A gratitude walk is a great way to clear the mind and shift to a mindset of gratitude. This can be done anywhere for any amount of time. While walking, be aware of your surroundings – notice what you see, hear, smell and feel as you walk.  Next, be aware of what you have NOT been noticing – maybe some beautiful flowers, the color of the sky, the smell of fresh air,  the warmth of the sun or a cooling breeze.  Allow the walk to help foster feelings of both gratitude and joy for the world around us, even the tiny details that we may not notice otherwise.

Other Action Items:

  • Keep a gratitude journal. Once a day, take a moment to write down some things that you are thankful for in a journal.  This does not need to be very detailed; a simple sentence or a few bullet points are plenty to bring awareness to what we are grateful for. A gratitude journal is also a great resource to have on hand to lift your spirits when needed; sometimes it is really nice to flip through a read past entries when you need a quick pick-me-up. (You can also use your journal to jot down anything that you notice during your gratitude walk!)
  • Send a thank you note.  Think of someone who you appreciate or has recently done something kind for you and mail them a thank you note!  Taking a moment to write a note of gratitude is quick and simple but can be really meaningful. It is easy to have the intention of saying thank you and never getting to it, but it feels so good to be mindful and focus on gratitude while writing the note.  If you don’t have any notecards, you can certainly send a nice text or email, but it is nice to have a set of thank you notes on hand so they are at the ready when you need one!

Quotes on Gratitude

I love having some inspiration on hand when needed, so I usually prep for a new month with some relevant quotes. These are a great pick-me-up when I need to shift my mindset. I keep them handy in my phone or sometimes on some post it notes in places where they will be viewed frequently. Here are a few of my favorites regarding gratitude:

  • “Walking is man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates
  • “Appreciation is a wonderful thing.  It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” – Voltaire
  • “When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.” – Vietnamese proverb
  • “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” – G.K. Chesterton

Lastly, here is a quick video regarding this month’s intention:

Thank you so much for joining on this challenge – I hope you have a wonderful month full of gratitude!

Valentine’s Music Playlist

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A Valentine’s music playlist is such a fun way to celebrate this week. I love music and am almost always listening to music, whether I am exercising, teaching movement classes, at home, or in the car.

Music for Movement and Mindfulness

Music is not only fun, but an effective tool to help us move more. When I am sluggish, an energizing and uplifting song can convince me to get moving or head out for a walk. If I only have a few minutes for a movement break, I can easily set a time limit of one or two songs before getting back to my task. My children love a dance break, and so do I!

On the other hand, music can help us to wind down when we need to relax and restore. Some calm and peaceful music is a useful tool to help me slow down and clear my mind when I would otherwise burn myself out. When music is part of our environment, we have an easy way to set the tone for our day and switch gears if needed.

Music for Valentine’s Day

Here is a quick chat about my thoughts on music and Valentine’s Day:

Valentine’s Day Playlist

If you are following along in our Monthly Mindfulness Challenge for February, our focus for this month is loving kindness, which is perfect for Valentine’s Day. This playlist is full of songs about love so it can help us focus on our intention in an enjoyable way. You can also send it to a friend for a quick (and fun!) act of kindness.

For more on the February Mindfulness Challenge, here is the video announcement for this month:

February Mindfulness Challenge

My Valentine’s music playlist is so much fun to put together every year. I appreciate variety and acknowledge that everyone has different preferences, so I included music from several decades a genres. If you have some favorite songs, I would love to hear from you, too!

Happy Valentine’s Day – I am wishing you lots of fun and loving kindness this week!

February Mindfulness Challenge

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I am so excited to announce the February Mindfulness Challenge! I decided to create the Monthly Mindfulness Challenge so we can all focus on one intention together each month. At the beginning of the month, I will present the focus for the month and post easy, effective and enjoyable ways to stay mindful of that intention all month long.

Here is the link to my announcement regarding the challenge in case you missed it on my YouTube Channel:

Monthly Mindfulness Challenge Announcement

For the February Monthly Mindfulness Challenge, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on loving kindness as the intention of the month. Throughout the month, we will stay focused on this intention through inspirational quotes, meditation, music and acts of kindness.

To get started, check out my video regarding this month’s challenge:

Monthly Mindfulness Challenge February

Quotes on Loving Kindness

To set the tone for February, here are some inspirational quotes on our intention for the month. I love to post these around my home or set reminders on my phone to stay inspired.

  • “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain
  • “My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart.” – Maya Angelou
  • “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana
  • “He who sows courtesy reaps friendship and he who plants kindness gathers love.” – St. Basil

Meditation

One of the first meditations that I ever learned (about 20 years ago!) was the loving kindness meditation. There are many variations on this meditation, but they all involve sending kind intentions to both yourself and others. I will be posting this meditation and a stand alone video this month to make it easy to practice.

Music

Music is such an easy and enjoyable way to set the tone for our environment. Because of this, it can be an effective tool to keep us mindful of our intention. I will post some songs and playlists throughout the month to keep us focused on loving kindness. I would also love to hear some of your song suggestions, so please comment with your recommendations!

Acts of Kindness

One of the many benefits of mindfulness is that it helps us to take pause and control how we act. For this month’s challenge, let’s include a weekly act of kindness. It does not have to be an elaborate or grand gesture – it can be something as simple as smiling at someone, lending a listening ear to someone who needs to talk, or sending an encouraging text message.

I am really looking forward to focusing on this intention during the February Mindfulness Challenge. I wish you lots of loving kindness as we begin this month long journey!

A Monthly Mindfulness Challenge!

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I am excited to announce a new monthly feature from Mindful Movement Mindful Living – a monthly mindfulness challenge! Mindfulness is so important and this will be an easy way for all of us to be more mindful in our everyday lives.

My inspiration for creating the content for Mindful Movement Mindful Living is because there are so many benefits to mindfulness.

Benefits of Mindfulness Include:

  • Decreased Stress
  • Letting go of judgement
  • Regulating our actions
  • Experiencing the world more through all five senses
  • Being less reactive
  • Being more receptive
  • Regulating emotions
  • Being more present with intention

For all of these reasons, I wanted to create a simple way for us as a community to practice being mindful. We are all really busy and I know adding another item to the to-do list can seem daunting, but being more mindful can be easy. You don’t need to carve out a ton of time to read books and articles on the subject or attend workshops. All of those are great things, but by no means are they necessary. I wanted to create something that can be done without messing with your schedule or seeming like another big task in your planner. I wanted to create something that is easy, effective and ENJOYABLE.

So, with that in mind, I decided to create the Monthly Mindfulness Challenge where we will simply focus on one intention per month. I will present the challenge at the beginning of the month and post ways to stay mindful of that intention along with some inspiration throughout the month. It will also be a way for us to connect and share ideas.

Here is my video announcement regarding the Monthly Mindfulness Challenge:

So, stay tuned for our first Monthly Mindfulness Challenge – I am really looking forward to beginning this journey as a community!