Week 22 Challenge - Mindfulness

This year I decided to challenge myself to reflect on various Yoga and Buddhist aspects throughout the year. The challenges come from a variety of places including readings in Deborah Adele's Yamas and Niyamas and Thich Nhat Hanh's Heart of the Buddha's Teaching and Happiness.This week's challenge was to practice mindfulness meditation in a new way. I decided to spread my mindfulness practice throughout the day. Instead of sitting down once or twice, I created mindfulness breaks. I started my day with 5 Tibetan Rites and ended it with journaling. Then I added 6 breaks in between (every 2 hrs). When that time came I would spend 10 minutes doing Yin or Restorative Yoga and mindfulness meditation. Was it challenging? Yes. 2 hours goes by very fast and sometimes (especially at the office) it was hard to make the time to fit them in. And sometimes I needed to shuffle times around to make it work because of commitments. But in some ways it was easier because I only needed to fit in 10 minutes.What did I think? I loved it! It brought a peace and focus to my day. At the office it helped me get off the hamster wheel in my mind for a short bit and I found work much easier after my breaks. At home it helped to give me focus towards my intention, my priorities. I think I'll keep the mindfulness moments going. In addition to helping my mind, the consistent Yin and Restorative practice is leaving my body feeling much happier as well.