One Mindful Schedule
If you are anything like me, I could usually be accountable when others held me to my word, but when left to my own devices, I was often left poorly lacking in this area. This was something I struggled with for years, and it took a lot of hard work and an understanding of humility to figure out why this was. In order to get things rolling for you right now though, I highly recommend creating a connection with someone in your life who will either, do your mindfulness exercises with you, or hold you accountable for what you said you were going to do. I call this person my “accountability buddy” and there have been a number of them throughout my journey of change. The important thing about this relationship is that it is one that can stand up to the accountability you require to actually follow through.
Choose someone that will understand when things get difficult, you might not get things done. Someone who will be compassionate and caring towards you and what you’re doing, and at the same time, dialectically speaking, wont allow you to justify your way out of not doing things. In essence, it's important to find someone who won't put up with your bullshit. In my opinion, we all need someone like this in our journey of change, as they can often keep us going in the right direction, and make sure we get back on track when we do sometimes stray away from Living the ife we Want to Live. Once you choose this person, let them know what it is that you need, and how you want them to be in the relationship you are creating with them, then set up what it is you want to be held accountable for. For me, this revolves around creating a solid routine and structure approach to my mindfulness practice.
"I highly recommend creating a connection with someone in your life who will either, do your mindfulness exercises with you, or hold you accountable for what you said you were going to do."
Steven Morris RP.
In my opinion, from all of my training and my own personal experience, in order to experience the well publicized benefits of mindfulness, we need to practice it every single day. I recommend doing different exercises throughout the day, as this will create variation, which also adds to the motivation of doing things. Start with a morning routine, choose a time that you can wake up at every day. Once you are up, sit peacefully, breathe, and practice walking yourself into the state of Wise Mind. Then, at some point during the day, pick an activity that's already in your schedule to practice one mindfully.
You can make it something different every day or you can keep it the same, whatever works for you. Just make sure you choose something and actually participate in it effectively. Finally, set up a good night routine that contains mindful breathing and the Safe Place exercise just before bed. You can switch the Safe Place and Wise Mind exercises around if that works better for you, just commit to a structure, write it down, and have your buddy hold you accountable.
In the PDF below, you will find a schedule to use that will help you identify what your mindfulness practice will look like for the week ahead. I suggest sitting down on a particular day and completing this schedule on a Sunday night, so you are set for the week. Use this to document what it is that you want to achieve, and then set alarms in your phone for the times you want to complete the exercise.
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