Mandy’s Mindful Minutes

It is my hope that my art and writings will offer inspiration.
Each week I will post about ways I am staying mindful in my life
as well as providing tips and tricks for you to try out.

Mindfulness is the practice of taking time to be present in the moment and conducting daily activities in your life with intention. Our intent can contain positivity and foster good vibes as we go through our days or it can be a vehicle of negativity. There is a challenge called the rice challenge that is trending right now on social media. The idea is that you say positive things to one batch of rice and foster love and care for it through the intentions you manifest as you hold the jar. You surround it with well-meaning, positive intentions and thoughts. The other, you give it all your stress and worry and general ugliness that you can. Over the month, the rice that is shrouded with positivity yields healthy living conditions while the other becomes very sludgy and unappealing…according to those who have tried the challenge out. Now, I don’t need a bowl of rice to tell me that when I put positivity into my world, it is a better place for me and others to thrive in. (Adding rice to my grocery list to try this experiment! I’ll post here with results.)

Through Mandy’s Mindful Minutes, I will demonstrate how I am inviting these positive vibrations into my life. Will they all resonate with you? Probably not! However, use it is a choose your own adventure and pick the practices that make you happy. Some of things I feature will be just taking time to appreciate amazing things, people, and places around me. Sharing the gratitude that fills my heart and simple blessings I find all around me is one of my favorite mindful practices. Other times, I will provide you with information I have researched that I think will make your life better. As I read and do my own learning and growing, I will share the things that strike a chord within my soul.

As an athlete and coach, I have done work on the mental game. What I have found is this training that I did to improve my “play” was actually preparing me for the game of life far more than I ever realized. As coaches and teachers, we hope that the lessons stick with our students beyond the classroom and field. I guess it took a very traumatic event in my life to truly appreciate how mindset plays a part in our success. Learning to walk and talk and stand and thrive again meant that I had to endure many hours of physical and occupational therapy when the cancer and side effects stripped me of my abilities and strength. As I laid on my yoga mat doing the most gentle movements known to man and tears streamed down my face, it was my mindset that I would continue to show up and put aside my fears and failures in order to keep going that allowed me make it through. It was mentally and emotionally taxing to go through rebuilding myself. If I had not done the work in helping to prepare players to success on the field, I would have not been able to do this hard work in life. Through Mandy’s Mindful Minutes I will share some of my most important lessons that came from these experiences.

Join me each week as I share ways I am practicing mindfulness in my own life!