Mindfulness

I have a mental illness (a couple) and in the last few years I've taken up mindfulness and meditation to help, mostly with the anxiety, but also with everything else. I take medication too, but mindfulness makes a big difference for me, and it was a pretty fast change. I never really considered mindfulness as a valid treatment option. I thought it wouldn't work for me because the kind of meditation I had tried as a teen had been difficult and not helpful. But I read the book "The Tao of Bipolar" and it really changed the way I looked at mindfulness and meditation.

My mindfulness routine is pretty simple. I try to meditate before bed for 5-10 minutes, or do another mindfulness exercise, like grounding, patterned breathing, or a body scan. I find it helps relax me before bed. On work days, I usually do a "mindfulness moment" in the afternoon, just a little bit of time to reset and refocus before I continue by day. I also sometimes start meetings with a mindfulness moment, so that we as a team are all present in the meeting.

I highly recommend mindfulness, in a way that works for you. I'm reading two new books about mindfulness, with very similar titles: "Start Here, Start Now," and "Start Here Now." Both are pretty small and short, so I anticipate that I should have both done before they're due at the library. Your local library most likely has books on mindfulness, either in the medical/psychology section or in the self-help section. I've also found a number of nice meditation videos on YouTube and I'm told there are some excellent apps out there too. This is a video I've used and really like: