A Mindfulness Routine That Will Transform Your Day – And Your Workouts

A Mindfulness Routine That Will Transform Your Day – And Your Workouts

After a day of walking around the beautiful temples in Kyoto, I felt highly energized, creative, alive, grateful and inspired.  I mentioned this to one of the monks we were talking to to, and he looked at me and said – its called Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is simple, and that is where I think most of us get lost. We (adults; mothers, fathers, bosses, co-wekers, sisters, brothers, teachers, artists, athletes) live in a world that is complicated by our goals, our apps, our lives and our duties. For that reason simplicity is simply a novelty. And stress is a daily factor.

Mindfulness is the ability to take in, relax, feel and fully utilize our brains.

Did you know that our logical thought is often blocked by stress? So basically when we are stressed we can not think, act or live clearly. And we can’t me ‘mindful’.

I don’t know about you, but I want to think clearly, heck, I want to live clearly. I want to feel the world without a block of pressure hanging over my head.

So, how do you practice mindfulness I asked the monk… 

 

First, BREATHE he said.

At first I thought that he was kidding, but then there was silence and I realized that he was not kidding at all. Deep breaths flood the brain with oxygen, signaling to the body to calm down.

In fitness breathing should never come from a panic state, so you should practice breathing deep into your belly (not shallow breathing into the upper part of the lungs – that’s not quality of breath). When you feel lost, overwhelmed, even overwhelmed by your exercise or juts highly stressed take 10, very mindful, deep, belly breaths to reset – it works!

Second, find PASSION

Martial arts, writing and teaching/ training in fitness is truly my passion. I have been lucky enough to identify these three things, personal to me, that are the driving forces of my personal passion. Independent of everything else in my life, I truly I enjoy and look forward to doing at least one, if not all three of these things daily. I feel whole when I train, when I teach and when I write. I feel mindful and free.

Identify your personal passions and your life will have more, much more, mindfulness.

What’s more – MAKE TIME to identify this now. Make this s priority. Then, after you’ve found time for this, actually TAKE TIME to do it. If martial arts is your passion – never get to a point where you are not practicing. If you love fitness, or dance or art – make the time.

Third, MOVE with QUALITY

Movement with quality is what I preach to all of my students, be it in KB classes or in my DVDs, seminars and workshops around the world. It’s the idea that you need a real, quality first workout regiment. The idea that you need to focus on form, on regiment, on a program of training before you go fast. The idea that you should stick to one thing, and give it your best instead of doing a great variety of fitness routines or classes.

Find quality in your life, in your workout program, in your food, in your relationships and in your recreational activities. With quality comes mindfulness.

 

XoKb – Dasha Libin Anderson, MS, NASM-PES, NASE, MKC, KBIA