Mindful In May 2021 | Day 2 - Mind Life Project

Today's meditations

Awareness Of The Body Meditation with Elise Bialylew

A meditation for children

The Butterfly Bodyscan with Susan Kaiser Greenland

Susan Kaiser Greenland is an internationally recognized leader in teaching mindfulness and meditation to children, teens, and families. She played a foundational role in making mindfulness practices developmentally appropriate for young people and helped to pioneer activity-based mindfulness with her first book The Mindful Child. Her second book, Mindful Games, offers simple explanations of complex concepts, methods, and themes while expanding upon her work developing activity-based mindfulness games. In addition, Susan has recorded a series of brief guided meditations for grownups entitled Mindful Parent, Mindful Child.

Enjoy access to the Mindful in May meditation library here

Mindfulness of the breath

When starting meditation, many of us judge our practice based on how good or bad it feels in the moment. Joseph Goldstein, Vipassana meditation teacher and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, has some wise words to offer on this:

"Our progress in meditation does not depend on the measure of pleasure or pain in our experience. Rather, the quality of our practice has to do with how open we are to whatever is there."

So today, when you meditate, remember that an important part of mindfulness meditation is simply that you are able to be aware of whatever is present for you – whether positive, negative or neutral.

Consciously bringing your attention to the body strengthens your ability to be more present and, over time, builds self awareness.

Today, you'll find a bonus guided meditation for children. If you have kids, why not try it out with them. Susan Kaiser Greenland is one of the world's best mindfulness teachers for kids!

Tomorrow you’ll hear from our guest Zindel Segal. It’s a great interview.

He tells us:

“Being aware of the body helps build the sense of stability and brings your attention back into focus ...when you’re able to experience some of that, there are moments of letting go and feeling a little bit more centered and grounded, which can be good because the mind isn’t racing as much and you’re just with your present moment experience.”

Today, check in with your body a few times throughout the day, and pay particular attention to any unnecessary tension you’re holding (particularly around the shoulders and neck).

Actively relax and release it. You can do that by taking a deep breath into that area and breathing out, letting go of any holding or tightness. You might find it helpful to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to do this at three separate times in your day, or perhaps every half-hour if you’re sitting at a desk.

If you are participating in our Facebook community, share your observations from yesterday’s interview and your biggest takeaways, and let us know if you've meditated today.

If you’re not on social media, perhaps you have a meditation buddy you can chat with about what you learned today, or write it down in your journal.