In this episode I share simple ways to incorporate mindfulness throughout the day. Often we feel hesitant to practice mindfulness because we think it has to be complicated or because meditation seems foreign. In reality, mindfulness is being fully present and you can practice mindfulness in small ways throughout the day. Listen for some sure-fire ways to bring a little calm and presence into your life!
Lindsay Miller is a kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast. She is known for her suitcase tricks and playful laugh. When she's not playing catch with her daughter or rollerblading on local trails with her husband, you can find her using her 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification to dream up new ways to get kids excited about deep breathing. Having been featured on numerous podcasts, platforms and publications, Lindsay’s words of wisdom are high impact and leave a lasting impression wherever she goes. To download Lindsay’s Mindfulness At Any Age Guide click here. To rate the podcast click here.
Lindsay Miller is a distinguished kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast. She is known for her suitcase tricks and playful laugh. When she's not playing catch with her daughter or rollerblading on local trails with her husband, you can find her using her 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification to dream up new ways to get kids excited about deep breathing. Having been featured on numerous podcasts, platforms and publications, Lindsay’s words of wisdom are high impact and leave a lasting impression wherever she goes. To sign up for Lindsay's "Calm & Collected" Newsletter click here.
In this episode I share simple ways to incorporate mindfulness throughout the day. Often we feel hesitant to practice mindfulness because we think it has to be complicated or because meditation seems foreign. In reality, mindfulness is being fully present and you can practice mindfulness in small ways throughout the day. Listen for some sure-fire ways to bring a little calm and presence into your life!
Lindsay Miller is a kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast. She is known for her suitcase tricks and playful laugh. When she's not playing catch with her daughter or rollerblading on local trails with her husband, you can find her using her 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification to dream up new ways to get kids excited about deep breathing. Having been featured on numerous podcasts, platforms and publications, Lindsay’s words of wisdom are high impact and leave a lasting impression wherever she goes. To download Lindsay’s Mindfulness At Any Age Guide click here. To rate the podcast click here.
Lindsay Miller is a distinguished kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast. She is known for her suitcase tricks and playful laugh. When she's not playing catch with her daughter or rollerblading on local trails with her husband, you can find her using her 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification to dream up new ways to get kids excited about deep breathing. Having been featured on numerous podcasts, platforms and publications, Lindsay’s words of wisdom are high impact and leave a lasting impression wherever she goes. To sign up for Lindsay's "Calm & Collected" Newsletter click here.
Lindsay Miller 0:07
You're listening to The Stress Nanny podcast, and I'm your host, Lindsay Miller. I'm here to help you keep an eye on your family stress levels. In our fast paced lives, the ability to manage stress has never been more important for kids or adults. When it comes to stress, we have two choices, we can decrease stress or increase our resilience to it. Here on the number eight ranked stress podcast, I interview experts and share insights to help you do both. When you tune in each week, you'll bring your stress levels down and your resilience up so that stress doesn't get in the way of you living your best life. I'm so glad you're here.
Hey there! This is Lindsay, I'm so glad you're joining me here on the podcast. Some weeks I interview guests and some weeks I share tools. This week, I'm sharing some tools on how to incorporate mindfulness into your day, easily. A lot of times we have the misconception that mindfulness is complicated or that it's meditation. And while meditation can help us live more mindfully, it's actually a totally different practice than mindfulness itself. So one of the ways we can introduce mindfulness into our day with ease, is to tether it to activities that we're already doing. So if we consider mindfulness to be taking a quick check in what's going on inside of us what's going on outside of us and making a choice on purpose, we really are inviting ourselves just a full presence in that moment, right, because in order to know what's going on inside of us, outside of us, and to make a choice, we have to be really attuned to right now, we can't be thinking about next week, or the mistake that we just made, or the worry that we have about tomorrow, we have to be just really zeroed in on this moment. And so if we can take simple times during the day, where and use those as triggers where we practice mindfulness in conjunction with something else. It can help us to make mindfulness part of our day in a really seamless way. And it can also make mindfulness feel accessible. It can give us like a quick win, where we realize like, Oh, I was just mindful. And then it's no longer a foreign or, like, tricky practice. It's not complicated. It's just like, oh, that's what mindfulness is. So I'm going to share a few ideas for how you can incorporate mindfulness into your life if you are a mom. So a lot of times throughout the day, moms can feel overwhelmed. And if we can practice mindfulness and just be present, sometimes we can bring those stress levels down at regular intervals to help the overwhelm stay, you know, keep the overwhelm at bay. So the first moment in the morning, that I'm going to suggest mindful awareness of is when you get up. So when you get up just taking those first two steps out of bed and making contact with the floor. So like really noticing and taking a few mindful steps. As you get out of bed, or if you're rolling out of bed, like onto your knees, you can, you know, notice how the floor feels underneath. But just noticing your contact with the earth like the first time you connect with the earth. After you've had a hopefully decent night's sleep. That's the first mindfulness invitation. So you're gonna get out of bed most days. And if you make those first two steps, mindful ones, where you just notice your feet, notice how your feet fell on the floor, if they're cold, if the floor is cold, if the surface that you're touching is soft, and then let the practice go and just get on with your day. So that's the first one. The next one is when you're washing your hands. Again, you don't need to choose all of these, just choose one that feels like a natural introduction or natural to include in your day. So that washing your hands just noticing the warmth or the temperature of the water on your hands. Noticing how the bubbles lather. As you're, you know, scrubbing your fingers, rubbing your hands together, noticing how the water rinses the bubbles down the drain, maybe noticing the bubbles sitting in the drain for a second. And again, I'm not saying take 20 minutes to wash your hands. But I'm saying in the minute that you're washing your hands, just stop and notice something about the process, whether it's an image of the water, the light glinting off the bubbles, just notice something. So that's another one that wouldn't be useful in the morning. Another one that I like to practice is like when we're connecting with kids in the morning. So just taking a minute to just be present. Like I am with my kid in my house this morning and it feels so good. Now that might be when you go wake them up. It might be when they come padding out in their you know, bare feet in their pajamas all crumpled up. And like just looking like they just got out of bed because they did just soaking in that moment, like their hairs all mess, you know, maybe they've got goopy eyes like whatever it is just looking at at them and taking it in. So letting that be an invitation to mindfulness, something that happens every day that you can just really tune into. And notice. Another one is when you're sitting in the car, during an inevitable taxi trip, some of us take our kids to school, some of us walk them to the bus stop, some of us have carpool. But the first time you get in your car in the day, just notice, like the seat supporting you. So sometimes as a mom, it can be hard to feel the level of support that we need throughout the day. But the seat that you're sitting in, just kind of sink into it, let it support you. So if that's part of your morning routine sitting in the car, just take a deep breath and let the seat support you as you start your day. Another one that I like to use is taking a creative minute in the morning. So I still write notes for my teenager in her lunch. And I love it. And I have my like a little jar with some pens in it, I bought myself some cute stickers that I like. And I like to be like artistic with, with drawing and lettering. And so I'll just take a few seconds really, it's like a 32nd or less endeavor, usually most mornings, maybe a minute, and write the little note for her and her lunch, I'll put a sticker on it. Some days, I'm just like scribbling it hurriedly. And other days, I'm focusing on making cute lettering or using cursive or making dots, you know, like at the tips of my letters. But the point is that you just take a creative minute for yourself. So whatever would be like something that would just feel fun to you. Creativity is often relaxing. And I think as moms sometimes we can get so focused on getting things done. Because there are a million things to do that we don't invite, or allow ourselves to take advantage of the moments to be creative. So whether it's writing a little note in the morning, or sitting down with your three year old as they're playing with playdough, and giving yourself the chance to craft a flower or make a cave or a rock, you know, whatever, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. But just give yourself the chance to create. Again, if they're coloring, if they're, you know, doing some painting, stick your finger in the watercolor and you know, draw a few things on your own paper with just your finger. Don't feel like it has to be a big production in order to be effective in reducing stress and creating mindfulness like create, create something every day. And let that be your invitation to just be really present as you're creating. Another thing we can do is that like as we're outside, maybe on walks with our kids, or if we're in the years where we're sitting outside while the kids are playing in the yard, or maybe we're going on a bike ride, to just notice something in nature, whether we're noticing the wind on our face, whether we're noticing how the leaves sound, as they, you know, rustle along the sidewalk with the wind blowing them. Whether we're smelling a flower or you know, touching like a tall grass, whatever it is that we're doing. If we can give ourselves the opportunity to just be really present and take in nature. Maybe we're following our toddler as they chase the Roly Poly. Maybe we are watching a butterfly. One of my favorite things to do in San Antonio was watch the butterflies during butterfly migration. But I think just stopping to notice nature, there are so many research based and just you know, everyday common sense benefits to connecting to nature. And kids are often a great teacher in that regard, because they're really present around things that are novel or things that are outside. And so taking their lead there and allowing ourselves to make one connection with nature every day can be a really great invitation to mindfulness. Another opportunity to be mindful might come at, you know the time when we're reconvening and everybody's coming back home. It can be kind of chaotic or crazy. Lots of voices, things to do homework papers, you know, activities to get out the door. And just stopping to notice like, this is parenting right now. This is what it feels like. And not beating yourself up not wishing it was anything but what it is in that moment. And just allowing the chaos to swirl around, recognizing that it's time limited, right? Like that chaos won't be there forever. And that this is what parenting looks like right now. And I think in any moments where we find ourselves kind of fighting what is going on in parenting, just taking a deep breath and reminding ourselves like, this is what parenting looks like right now.
That can be another great invitation to mindfulness because one of the things that we're doing again, we're noticing what's going on inside of us and outside of us and then making a choice on purpose. If we are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, we can acknowledge those things. And then also acknowledge that, like, this world around us, is something special. And this is a time of life and a season of life. That is, you know, it's not gonna, it's not going to last forever. And it's something we can really soak up while it's here with the frustrations, right, it doesn't have to be all rosy for us to soak it up. So does after school chaotic moments, another invitation to mindfulness. And then another one is when we're in the car doing are taxing to various kids activities, or concerts or play dates, if we're at a stoplight, and it's red, using that as a cue to take a deep breath. So if you're at a stoplight, just notice again, like the seat in the car supporting you lean into that support for a second and take a deep breath, let the car support you and let the breath support you. And we're at stoplights often during the day as moms and so giving ourselves the opportunity to use those moments to connect mindfully with ourselves. And the breath can be really calming and soothing. And then having some sort of wind down practice at night, hopefully, there's something that you're doing even if it's just like taking a few minutes to read or making an herbal tea or putting your feet up for a second something you're doing for yourself in the evening. And really just soaking up the relaxation that comes in those moments. Oftentimes, we have to take our relaxation in small snippets that are interrupted. And so instead of fighting the, the reality of that, just really savoring the moments that are quiet, or the moments when we do just have a second to ourselves, and we can sit with our herbal tea and read. Or we can put our feet up and watch a show with a partner or you know with a cozy blanket. And allowing ourselves to soak in all the like sensory awareness that we're getting in that moment, whether it's like the fuzzy blanket sitting on us, whether it's the warmth of the teacup in our hands, whether it's the feel of the book pages, whether it's the couch, you know, just the cushions being so soft, but giving ourselves the chance to just really, really sit with whatever that relaxation is and savor it. And then as we're going to bed, we can brush our teeth mindfully. So we might just really notice, slowly putting the toothpaste on the toothbrush. And then we might really be intentional as we're making those first few like circles of tooth brushing on our front teeth. And I'm not saying again that you need to take 15 minutes to brush your teeth. But if winding down is something that you have a hard time with slowing down some of those nighttime routines can be really helpful for bringing mindfulness in at that time of day. So the last one is just letting yourself connect to a sense of feeling supported when you lay down in bed. And whether you're snuggling up a toddler and consoling a toddler who had a bad dream and you fell asleep there. Or whether you're climbing into your own bed and snuggling up under the covers, giving yourself a chance to just like let the day go with a deep breath. And really just feel the sense of relaxation, feel the sense of support and then rest that can come from getting a good night's sleep in a bed. There's a lot of people in the world who don't have beds. And so being able to sink into yours with again, not guilt. But just appreciation for it and giving yourself the chance to just enjoy it in a way that like is nurturing to you can be a great way to end the day, and invite you into that restful sleep that you need in order to start the next one. So those are just a few opportunities throughout the day, when we might practice mindfulness. Notice that, like I said, you can sit next to your bed and breathe for the two minutes that I love to recommend. But there are so many other ways to be mindful throughout the day. And those invitations to presence are just as nourishing and just as supportive for our stress levels. So if we can tune in consistently to just one, pick one of those moments, and tune into it consistently and allow it to be your invitation in your bridge to presence. You'll find yourself practicing presence more and more often as a result. So hopefully mindfulness feels a little bit more accessible to you now and you have a few more ways to practice it easily throughout the day. Thanks again for being here.
You've just finished an episode of The Stress Nanny podcast. So hopefully you feel a little more empowered when it comes to dealing with stress. Feel free to take a deep breath and let it out slowly as you go back to your day. I'm so glad you're here. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for your support. It really means the world to me. If you're new I'd love to have you follow the path cast and join me each week. And no matter how long you've been listening, please share this episode with someone who is stressed out. If you enjoyed the show, would you please do me a favor and go to ratethispodcast.com/thestressnanny and leave a review. The link is in the show notes. I'm so grateful for all my listeners. Thank you again for being here. Until next time!
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