Mindful May

Summer at its peak and heat strokes, all you want to do is sit at home and drink loads of iced cola’s. Last thing on your mind is to exercise, god who wants the extra sweat when you are already dripping buckets because of the terrible heat waves.  

This month is also the month that most people have completely worn out their New Year resolutions and have gotten back to being their old selves, giving up all the good changes that they made and settled into previous habits ….No exercise, junk eating, no self-control , smoking and all the jazz. Really what most of us need is a jolt and fight this wave of getting to comfortable and renew our New Year Resolutions, to practice Mindfulness.

Mayo Clinic explains mindfulness as “The act of being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling at every moment — without interpretation or judgment. “

How can you practice mindfulness? There are loads of simple techniques but I prefer to do it while working out. So here is a low down on how you can practice, while you exercise.

Step 1:

Practice this before your warm-up .  Sit in a comfortable position with your back upright.

Close your eyes to remove all distractions around you. Think of that one thing you want to achieve in today’s workout and visualize yourself fit and fabulous.

Step 3

Take a deep breath, and while you do that start focusing on how the air moves from your nostrils to your lungs, the different sensations that your body feels and the movement of the stomach and diaphragm.

Step 4

Breathe out through your mouth, also concentrating on the entire process.

Step 5

Repeat this process for a couple of breaths before you begin your warm up

Step 6

Once you sufficiently zoned out all internal distractions start your workout. When you work out try to concentrate on your breathing and visualizing the muscles that you are working on. This will keep you away from rushing through the workout and clued into form posture and the exercise.

So, why would you need to practice mindfulness and does it really help? The benefits of mindfulness during workouts are numerous, the primary ones being

·         You get more out of each workout because you are focusing on each exercise and not rushing through it.

·         The quality will certainly improve because of focus on from and posture so better results.

·         It’s a meditation technique so you certainly improve brain function.

Every time you try exercising mindfully you will feel in total control of yourself and the satisfaction will be immense.

So do you want to work out mindfully?  If you’ll have questions about the technique, or suggestions or comments please leave .would love to hear what you’ll have to say