Mindfulness Meditation Coaching Exercises
Mindfulness meditation (MM) is the art of being gently and purposefully aware in the present moment, non-judgmentally, to things as they are. It is a state that an individual can cultivate and deepen in everyday life whether that is traveling to work, sending an e-mail or having a conversation with a friend. MM is an attentive, mind-body connection in the present moment. Originating in the ancient wisdom traditions, modern science has now confirmed that MM offers many benefits to our health and well- being.
MM practice sees awakening as a lifelong journey as the practitioner comes to understand thoughts, emotions, ambitions and labels without judgment. MM practice is not something to do; rather it becomes a way we are.
I offer coaching sessions in MM practices and exercises, helping clients at all levels of practice tune into what is most important to them in the present moment without judgment. These practices have deeply impacted me, and sharing them with people is part of my life’s most fulfilling work. The positive effects are more joy, peace and connection in life and alignment with deeply held values, needs and goals.
Sample Mindfulness and Meditation Practices Used in Coaching
- Use your current life situation - to grow greater awareness.
- Use inner body meditation - to explore vast potential and inherit wholeness while anchoring attention in the now.
- Give attention to the natural world - without the tendency to name things.
- Sit quietly doing nothing - and honor the present moment.
- Leave the empty spaces alone - recognizing when there is a natural cessation in activity to pause and align with the present moment.
- Stop striving - and go more deeply into the present moment, a portal to creative solutions to life’s challenges.
- Get comfortable with not knowing - for deeper awareness that emerges out of inner stillness.
- Experiment with unhappiness and negativity as it arises - as an opening to observe thoughts and emotions mindfully, moving towards acceptance.
- Employ deep listening - while fully and mindfully engaged without internal dialogue.
- Speak mindfully - to discover and experience your sense of presence.
- Work with difficult emotions - by turning towards them with a jacket of love.
- Separate situations from reactions to them - transforming the habit of saying “this should not be happening”.
- Employ body scan and breath meditations - to connect with the body and notice what arises.
- Forgive and let go of grievances - offering no resistance to life and reclaiming power that was previously trapped in resistant mental activities.
- Bring in the transcendent - to relationships, work and the world.
The Benefits
With practice, there is a tendency to enter mindfully into the state of Presence and sustain it in daily life and not just when sitting alone or meditating. This brings about a deepening in one’s life as challenges are met mindfully. Clients often leave the session with greater compassion, gratitude, calmness, creativity and a newly-found ability to integrate MM practices into daily life.
In a coaching partnership of mutual trust, acceptance and letting go, my sessions include training in various MM practices tailored to the individual. I listen to a clients’ real-life challenges and situations and help them navigate with specific and practical practices that can be immediately implemented.
I notice in my personal MM practice that short pauses throughout the day and purposely paying attention to the breath brings about a renewal and a sense of where I am in the moment. As a CPA, this helps me stay focused, attentive to details and feel more satisfaction and fulfillment in my work. I realize that each person has their own individual style and way of practice and that adds to the beauty as we touch our own unique creativity even in a practice that is now backed by science!
In MM coaching you will also:
- Learn how to wake up from autopilot
- Directly experience life rather than seeing life through narrowly focused goals
- Inhabit the here and now rather than being lost in mental time travel
- Discover how living mindfully moves you from reactivity to responding
- Realize how a mindful stance is warm, kind and compassionate to yourself and others
- Take thoughts for what they are, as events in the mind, rather than as “me” or “reality”
- Learn to nurture yourself rather than exhaustingly striving for the next thing
- Pull the plug of rumination and allow negative emotions to pass in their own time
- Cultivate wisdom in your experiences as a direct, experiential, intuitive knowing
Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
George Marino is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher.
