Mindful Living

cultivating moment-to-moment awareness

Mindfulness noun

mind·ful·ness | \ ˈmīn(d)-fəl-nəs \

The act of practicing awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and the surrounding environment. It involves acceptance, paying attention to our thoughts and feelings without judgment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts focus on the present rather than reminiscing the past or visualizing the future.

Research has shown that practicing mindfulness can positively affect peoples’ lives in several ways due to its physical and mental health benefits.

Some ways you can integrate mindfulness to your day-to-day:

Mindfulness for Cultural Bias

Our brain tends to move very fast; it makes quick judgments and assessments using learned patterns or stereotypes without realizing it. Our tendency to make split-second assessments of people can lead to troublesome outcomes.

We, as humans, are prone to creating narratives about people (or entire groups) based on the limited information we have about them. Misinformed judgments can hinder the formulation of inclusive environments, primarily when these stereotypes result in inequitable treatment. Implementing mindfulness in this arena will allow you to actively seek to make the unconscious conscious and to learn to recognize and challenge bias.

Take the Implicit Association Test to reflect on your "blind spots" or unconscious biases. Did you discover something new about yourself? What will you do with the information you learned? Moving forward, how could you apply these learnings to your interactions with others?

Please Note: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is an assessment in the field of social psychology intended to detect the strength of a person's subconscious association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. IAT may include sensitive question formulation, which may be triggering.

Mindfulness for Emotional Intelligence

It is crucial to note that feelings are normal and natural. We have fear, worry, anxiety, etc. Due to the current state, many of us may be experiencing frustration and grief or motivation and curiosity. Feelings are part of being human and are entirely natural. We often face the misconception that we should always be happy and positive, if we repress that anger or that sadness or that fear, it will manifest in our body in other ways.
Set aside 10 minutes of your day and explore your feelings by incorporating the Finding Silver Linings practice to your daily routine.

Things go "wrong" for a reason. How do you feel when an unexpected situation arises? What are some lessons learned from these situations? Next time you face a similar instance, what can we do to change the course of the situation?