Mindfulness in Motion: A New Practice to Shift Your Perspective

Shifting perspective is about intentionally shifting our mindset, changing our habitual thinking patterns and responses, considering alternative viewpoints. So that we can see and do things differently.  It’s absolutely transformational.

One of the very best tools we have to help us to shift our perspective is mindfulness.

Why? Because mindfulness helps us to expand our awareness and to see things as they are without judging them.  It helps us to be conscious of our thoughts and thought patterns, to realize that we are not our thoughts, that we have the choice to keep those habitual thought patterns or we can change them.  That’s the beauty of being human.  We get to choose.  But to choose we need to be aware of what is going on so that we can see the opportunities to choose from. Mindfulness trains us for this.  

Mindfulness is central to my practice.  My yoga teacher training was mindfulness based.  I feel most comfortable with mindfulness style of meditation.  And I try to integrate it into my daily life.  And so I’ve written a lot about mindfulness since starting this HUM project back in late 2019.  Here are just a few of my mindfulness resources for you to explore:

• What exactly is mindfulness?
  
• How to bring mindfulness to any yoga practice
  
• 7 Mindfulness tips to get more done and less stress at work
  
• Mindfulness practices to help conquer any obstacle you may encounter
  
• 10 Mini mindfulness practices for everyday life

Recently I’ve discovered a new practice that I find can help shift my perspective in a great book called Start Here: Master the Habits of Lifelong Wellbeing (Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp). The practice is called “Notice/Shift/Rewire” is a mindfulness practice that differs a bit from traditional mindfulness practices in that it offers a structured 1-2-3 approach to help us to actively transform our thought patterns, to break away from the negative ones, and help us cultivate our present-moment awareness. 

It’s a powerful practice to transform everyday moments into opportunities for mindfulness and perspective shifting. It's like mindfulness in motion.

Notice/Shift/Rewire is designed to be practised during our everyday activities. Not all the time (that would be exhausting). They suggest finding specific moments or cues in our daily lives to trigger the practice, such as walking up the stairs, waiting in line, brushing your teeth or making your morning tea/coffee. 

Here is how to practice it:

1. NOTICE when your mind wanders away from what you are doing, notice your thought pattern. Witness it like a neutral watcher. The act of awareness is the first step to training the skill of attention. And it opens the possibility to shift.
   
2. SHIFTand redirect your attention.  Shift it back to focus on what you were doing.  Or shift it to something that will bring you back to the present moment like your breath, the sounds of your environment, body sensations, or to something you’re grateful for. Shifting is what creates the change.
   
3. REWIRE the brain’s neural pathways by deepening your awareness and experience, by savouring this shift.  Take 15-20 seconds to enjoy and appreciate what you have shifted your focus to. 

And I find it useful to effectively manage our wandering minds and the habitual negative thought patterns that arise during our yoga and meditation practices. Instead of just noticing when our mind has wandered and guiding it back to the practice, this takes it a step further and helps to make lasting change in our brain so that present moment awareness becomes our lifelong habit.  

It would work like this for your meditation:

1. NOTICE that your mind has wandered, become aware of the thoughts, emotions or sensations that arise.
   
2. SHIFTyour attention back to what your were focusing on for your meditation (your breath, a mantra, a visualization).
   
3. REWIRE your neural pathways by spending 15-20 seconds really engaging with your meditation focus and appreciating the experience.

I invite you to give it a try.  It sounds easy, but it really takes practice.  I’m still working on it. ;)