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one month mindfulness challenge

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!

One Month Mindfulness Challenge: Connecting with Nature

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A new month means a new mindfulness challenge and this month we are focusing on connecting with nature. Spending time in nature always recharges me, so I am really looking forward to focusing more on this intention for four weeks!

Benefits of Connecting with Nature

To kick off all of the challenges, I like to highlight a few benefits of our intention for the month. The list of the benefits of connecting to nature could be pages and pages long (there are tons of articles and books on the topic, which shows how important it is to us!), but I will just highlight a few:

  • Appreciating nature can help us to relax (even our eye muscles have more opportunity to relax when we are outdoors!)
  • Spending time in nature gives us a mental break from the rest of our day to help clear our minds (literally stopping to smell the roses!)
  • Moving outdoors provides lots of opportunities to move in varied ways such as squatting, climbing and walking over textured terrain.

Action Items

Every challenge needs some action items and this is no exception. However, I always choose tasks that are both easy and effective, so this challenge will be simple to accomplish! For this month’s challenge, we have three action items:

  • Grow something – It can be something as simple as a potted plant or herb.  For example, I love having fresh herbs growing in my kitchen year round and on my deck in the warmer months. Every spring, I am thrilled to see my daffodils emerge towards the end of the winter and I still really can’t believe that the bulbs I planted in the ground actually grew to be something so beautiful. I really don’t know what I am doing, but thanks to the miracle of nature, it works! 
  • Take a regular walk outside – Walking outdoors is SO. GOOD. FOR. US. It is such a natural form of movement and requires no special equipment or planning.  Set a goal that works for you, even if it is just a few minutes a few times a week. I also have a Walking Well video series to keep us moving.
  • Look & Listen – Take a few minutes to just listen and observe nature.  For one minute, only focus on what you can hear – birds, wind, rain, or whatever is around you.  For the next minute, focus on what you can see, including the farthest thing you can see.  This helps not only to relax our mind but even the muscles in our eyes – unlike when we are indoors, our eyes have the opportunity to look far away when we are outside.  Try to do this practice daily, even if it is just for two minutes – you can also do this during your walk if you want to be really efficient with your time!  I also have a nature meditation video that I made for some inspiration.
Walking Well Video Series
Nature Meditation

Quotes and Reading Inspiration

Lastly, we have some quotes and a book list to keep us inspired all month long! I find it helpful to write the quotes on post-it notes or add to my phone to remind me of my intention for the month. Here are a few of my favorites on this topic:

  • Rembrandt – “Choose only one master – nature.”
  • Thoreau – “There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.”
  • Aristotle – “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder – “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
  • Emerson – “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”
  • Monty Don – “I always see gardening as an escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing the soil.”

I am an avid reader, so I am constantly on the search for books that relate to our monthly intention. Here are three favorites to help us with our action items this month.

  • The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley
  • Movement Matters by Katy Bowman (one of my absolute favorite books!)
  • The Container Gardener’s Bible by Joanne K. Harrison and Miranda Smith

To conclude, here is a short video “chat” regarding this monthly challenge to get us started. I look forward to a month of connecting nature!

Monthly Mindfulness Video Chat