5 in 5 Part 5, Pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness)

Paying more attention to the present moment can improve your mental wellbeing. This includes your thoughts and feelings, your body and the world around you.

Some people call this awareness "mindfulness". Mindfulness can help you enjoy life more and understand yourself better. It can positively change the way you feel about life and how you approach challenges.

Read more about mindfulness, including steps you can take to be more mindful in your everyday life.

We finish our 5 part serious with the Drunken Worms Podcasts first meditation!! 

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Transcript

Carl Fessenden: 1:18

Welcome to the drunken worm podcast. Each week, I will be bringing you dynamic content that will educate and inspire. This podcast was created to talk to mental health professionals about addiction recovery and their own personal stories that can help inspire us to become better people and live healthier lives. Welcome to the drunken Warren podcast. My name is Carl, the host and the creator of this show. And you're listening to the five and five, Part Five. Welcome, everybody. And Happy Monday. I hope that you guys had a wonderful weekend. And today we are going to be exploring how paying attention to the present moment. Mindfulness is going to help us gain our mental well being as we explore the five steps to positive and mental well being. So I hope you guys are paying attention. I hope you guys are planning on taking all the things that you've learned in this five part series to help yourself and to become more mentally healthy. Paying attention more to the present moment can improve our mental well being this includes our thoughts, feelings, our body and the world around you. People sometimes call this awareness, mindfulness, we've talked about mindfulness, we had Sam genauso, on an episode about five or six episodes back, well, maybe even further back than that. Maybe it was 10 episodes ago. And she talked about mindfulness, right. So what is mindfulness? What does that mean when I say mindfulness? So mindfulness is a state of mind, right? Hahaha. Okay, funny, Carl, right. But honestly, guys, mindfulness is a state of mind, mindfulness meditation, it's being aware of our surroundings. A lot of times what mindfulness is, is being aware of your breath. When we do mindfulness meditation, you know, we concentrate on the breath in and the breath out. And if your brain is like mine, man, my mind is going 100 miles a minute, I'm thinking about the coffeemaker that I left on, I'm thinking about what I'm going to have for lunch. I'm thinking about what I want to do tonight, when I get home from work. I'm thinking about what I want to do this weekend. And then I'll happen to three seconds, right? Because my mind is such a a jumble of things sometimes. And mindfulness helps me calm all of that. So paying more attention to the present moment, that's what this episode is all about today, being present today for your moment, and your own thoughts and feelings in the world around you. You can practice mindfulness. So it's easy to stop noticing the world around us. It's also easy to lose touch with the way that our bodies are feeling to end up living in our heads, man caught up in your own thoughts without stopping to notice how these thoughts are driving your emotions and your behaviors. Professor Mark Williams, man, so our thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviors. Does that make sense to you guys? Because it totally makes sense to me, right? Our feelings and our thoughts. And we are being mindfully aware of what these feelings and thoughts are. These are thoughts stopping techniques that we're learning here. So you have an uncomfortable feeling, right? And do you have the wherewithal to identify that uncomfortable feeling? Maybe you're practicing mindfulness meditation, that's great. But being more in touch with our bodies, and how our bodies react to situations, and then our reactions to those situations, right? Because a lot of times those can be negative outcomes. You know, I mentioned in a few episodes ago that we had a little health scare here in the family. And when I got home from dropping the person off at the hospital, the ER, man, I made a big sandwich. And I wasn't even hungry. But it was my automatic go to coping mechanism was food, because I have a food addiction people. Right? But I was mindful when I did it. And then I made the conscious decision to go ahead and do it. And that's my own choice, right? But a lot of times, we don't have the ability to be mindful of our emotions and our feelings and our behaviors. Because it happened so fast, that we're already into the behavior before we realize what's happening. An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies, and that sensations they experience what I was just talking about. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. This might be something as simple as feeling the banister as you walk up the stairs. This might be as simple as taking your socks and shoes off. And sitting on the edge of the bed and digging your toes into the carpet and feeling what that feels like. This might be as simple as taking your socks and shoes off and going down to the beach and walking barefoot into the sand. What does it feel like? Is it cold? Is it wet? Can you hear the ocean coming up onto the shore? How are you feeling in this moment? Another part of mindfulness is to raise awareness of our thoughts and feelings that as they happen moment to moment. Like I said, guys, a lot of times, you know, we have a we have a thought a feeling and an emotion and then a execution of behavior that happens so fast is the same. Well, it's a split second thing, it just goes like, just like that, right? So fast. And before we know it, we're acting on these emotions and these feelings. And unless you're training yourself to identify these things, to bring yourself and then we're working together. Today, I want to do a mindfulness exercise with you guys. And we're going to do a meditation. So what I want you guys to do is I want you to find a safe place. If you're in the car and you're listening to this, please wait until you get out of the car. I don't want you to do this in the car. But if you're at home, I want you to go into a room where there's no distractions. I want you to put your phone on silent and do not disturb while you're doing the meditation. I want you to get comfortable if you have some incense light some incense. If you have a candle that scented light the candle that's scented, and I want you guys to find a comfortable chair, maybe a big pillow that you can sit on the floor. And I want you to listen to the sound of my voice. Close your eyes. Take a slow, deep inhale and a complete exhale. As you began awareness of your breath, start to notice what thoughts are going through your mind. What are you thinking about? Do not get caught up in your thoughts. Just begin to notice them as they travel across your mind. Let them go as they pass and watch them go and come. Continue to breathe deeply. I will begin to describe settings. Allow your mind to jump immediately to these settings. Let your mind be free to travel and do not become attached to any one setting or image. You are a traveler jumping from place to place in your mind. We will now begin an ocean a deep blue ocean. A beach with white sand. A seagull flying over the sand. Pelicans chasing the current over the waves. The waves crashing on the beach. The white sound the desert cactus in the desert. Blue Sky Blue cloudless sky bird singing a walled garden. lush green grass, storm clouds a cool breeze. The crack of thunder the dark sky illuminated by lightning. A long dirt road stretching towards the horizon. a grove of olive trees a farmer a woman pulling water from a will children are playing in the distance a farmhouse a stable horses enclosed in a corral a warm sunsets nighttime the hoot of an owl The sounds of crickets a warm chair next to the fireplace. A gray cat curled on a small rug. White puffy clouds a white dove burning candle flickering flame burning candle burning candle. Now, take a slow, deep inhale. Long complete exhale and open your eyes when you are ready