Today I'm talking about some tips for both practicing mindfulness, as well as sharing mindfulness with others during a pandemic.

The first tip is to remember that everything that you're doing is fine. I believe that everyone at any one time is doing the best they can with their level of wisdom and their level of motivation. So however you're doing right now in terms of your own personal mindfulness practice, in terms of what you're sharing with others is great! If you’re managing to practice mindfulness, great! If you're not managing - well, that's fine too. Because you're doing the best you can and if you feel that you're not doing the best you can - it’s probably due to low levels of energy and motivation. So there's no need to be too hard or harsh on yourself for that.

My second tip is, as you would have guessed - short practices are good. You could even start with recommending both for yourself and others just one mindful breath. One of the things that I do in the morning is practice mindfulness but sometimes I don't feel like doing a full 30 minutes, and I say to myself "Every day a minimum of one mindful breath is enough". And if I want to do more than that, I can. But I don't have to if I don't want to. And that usually leads into longer practices but even if it doesn't, it doesn't matter. So I'd recommend both for you and if you are a therapist or a coach or even a parent and you want to share it with others, just doing this really, really short practice is a wonderful way in.

My third tip is try and bring some movement into all your mindful practices. Personally, I'm not so much into things like yoga, but a lot of people are. So if you like yoga practice, go for it. If you're not into yoga, maybe it's Qigong - that's for you. That might be more interesting and fun. I really enjoy walking. And my mindful practice is to go out for a longer walk. And sometimes I don't want to be mindful fully, so I may want to listen to some audio books, or listen to a podcast or something else. And that's okay. On other days I'm more up for just being fully quiet and fully present and connecting with nature and my surroundings on my walk. And if some of you are not able to - maybe many of you are able to go for a walk outside right now and that makes it more challenging, you could do slow mindful walking around your room or you could do other mindful practices. Dancing, moving around, gardening are all great. Even tidying up and cleaning - you can do that and bring a sense of presence or mindfulness.

That's some mindful practices that you can do yourself, as well as share with others. I hope you enjoyed this - if you'd like more updates like this then feel free to subscribe to my newsletter and please do comment if you've got a moment. I reply to every single comment.

Check out our next course on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which will include this and many other metaphors - it's an interactive video course. You can chat and get to know the other participants, you create a sense of community. We try and make it in a creative way too, so you learn different techniques and it's also evolving all the time. I think you'll enjoy it so come along and join us!