SCORRCAST Short | Mindful Marketing

In this SCORRCAST Short, Stevie Jelden guides listeners through a mindfulness meditation to complement the Mindful Marketing episode. Learn how presence, breath, and awareness can ground your marketing approach and enhance focus, clarity, and creativity in your work.

Transcript

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Hi, my name is StevieJelden. And in support to the SCORR cast about mindful marketing, we thought that we would offer a meditation, a mindfulness meditation, a moment to find our breath, a moment to drop into the present over the next five to seven minutes. To support kind of where to start with the mindfulness. So as a recap, to that, to the SCORR cast, we really spoke about what mindfulness is, and it comes down to it's being present. It's paying attention. It's connecting with our lives in a cultivation of attention. And attention really is the faculty that allows us to navigate our lives. It allows us to be in a wise relationship with things that are going on around us, right, versus being at the mercy of our reaction. And Alec and I speak a lot about responding versus reacting to things. So mindfulness allows us to drop into that present moment. But you might be asking yourself, Where do I start? What am I supposed to be paying attention to? And the best answer is that it doesn't matter. So the more that you pay attention to the present moment or to paying attention, you'll notice that your mind doesn't ever sit still, and we're not trying to ask it to but the present moment is the only moment in which we are alive. In it's where we learn and express our emotions and be in our bodies. So practicing dropping back into the present moment is of the utmost importance to kind of begin and start this, this journey. So I'm going to lead through a meditation, a mindfulness meditation. I'm going to be utilizing a Tibetan singing bowl, so you'll hear that. And I think as you begin your mindfulness journey, it's very helpful to have something that triggers the brain to come back to the present moment, and that's what the bell will be doing for us today. So to begin we really just need to be in a comfortable position. There's no right or wrong way to practice a meditation or a breathing exercise or dropping into the present moment. We can be laying down. We can be sitting at our desk with our headphones in. I just want you in a comfortable position connected to the ground or the earth in some capacity. And through this meditation, I invite you to be utilizing a really deep yogic breath, which is when we breathe in, we're actually expanding our stomachs out, filling it up like a balloon. And as we exhale, we're pulling the belly button back into the spine, and we trying to keep those inhales and exhales at about the same length. So three or four counts, six counts, if you can get it there, you'll notice as you drop in, it might slow down as you go. So we're going to begin in that comfortable position, making adjustments as you go over the next couple of minutes. That's fine, but we're going to begin by taking a deep breath in, and then as you exhale, I invite you to just let go whatever part of the day you've already had the journey of so if it's the morning, maybe it was the getting to work, or if it's midday, it was the morning, maybe it's the entire day. And you're practicing this at night, we're letting go of all of those conversations that we've had. We were letting go of the to do list about the emails. We're beginning to relax into the present moment. We're bringing our awareness to our relaxed and natural breath, coming into the present awareness, and if it feels good, maybe bringing a hand to your stomach to feel the movement of the breath so that you can really feel and invite the body into the full cycle of breathing from the beginning to the middle to the end. As I said, I'll be ringing a bell to periodically over the course of the next couple of moments. Don't let it bring you out of this exercise, but rather trigger the brain to dive us deeper into this present moment and where our bodies are. Let the bell act as a mindfulness reminder to wake you to the present moment, giving it your full and undivided attention, from the moment you hear the bell to when it disappears, allowing the bell to arrive and being receptive to the vibrations and the sound of the bell for as long as it sustains and. Following the breath in the same way, being with the inhale, filling the belly up and exhale, drawing the belly button back to the spine. Allow the bell to connect you to this moment and return you to the present, paying attention and really listening and bringing see if you can make an intention to be aware of the present moment as it changes. Be with the aliveness of each fresh, new moment. Stay with the breath from the beginning to the end, allowing this to connect you to the present moment. Thoughts and distractions will pull you in different directions, but make the choice to return here to the present over and over, to experience each moment. I invite you to bring your focus into noticing the temperature of the room that you're in, the pressure of the gravity against you, whether you're lying or sitting, maybe the sounds of the bodies in the room or the sounds of your own body, the breathing of the exhales, maybe the rumbling of the stomach. Anything else that catches your ears connects you to the sound with the breath, observing the movement of the breath, all things rising, noticing and then passing. Let the bell act as a reminder to come back to this moment when we notice, we are lost in thought, we can appreciate that moment of noticing, allowing it to be an invitation to the here and now. Do this with a friendliness and just with a noticing where the mind is, where it's been, and gently bringing it back, remembering that this is a practice we're receptive to these fresh, new opportunities to connect to the present moment. Bring the mind back home to the changing flow of life whenever you lose your attention, compassionately, non judgmentally, and gently bring it back to the room, to the sounds, to the inhale and the exhale. You'll do this hundreds of times in your practice and throughout your day, and that's okay, just beginning to bring it back every time without judgment. In a little curiosity, we can use sounds like the bell to pull ourselves out of autopilot and return to the present moment. Replacing the bell with everyday sounds like our phone or the birds or doors, there are endless reminders and opportunities throughout our day to bring the mind back home, and as we finish this practice and tying it back to where we really begin mindfulness and marketing, we'll end the practice with a little affirmation so you can repeat this back to yourself. I will own the story that I'm trying to sell. I will remember the people at the other end of my marketing, I will be in my environment without haphazardly reacting. I will seek to understand the questions asked by my audience. I hope this was helpful for you. Have a great rest of the day.