Practicing presence can inform our mindful self-care

Yesterday I had a workday that had me spending lots of time in front of the computer. I took a pause to practice presence - inhabiting a moment with my full awareness - and became aware that lots of tension had built up around my neck. 

This is one of the benefits of taking pauses throughout the day to practice presence, we give ourselves an opportunity to become more aware of what is going on in our bodies.

I had been working for hours and it wasn't until that moment when I practiced presence that I really noticed the neck tension. 

This noticing provided important information for me about how my body was doing, and at that moment of awareness, I had a choice point - a moment where I got to decide what to do with the neck tension I noticed. Do I tend to the next tension now or ignore it for now and maybe tend to it later?

I decided to check in with my body a little more by remaining quiet for a moment, closing my eyes and asking this question:

What do you need right now?

Inviting a dialog with our body by asking a question like this is the same idea as tapping into your intuition. We are simply creating space for our body to let us know what would be most helpful. 

As I gently asked my body “what do you need right now?” An exercise I really like that helps to release neck tension using a yoga block came to mind. 

Now, I immediately felt some resistance to this because I knew this exercise would take a few minutes and a part of me wanted to just rush back to work. But, I honored my body wisdom, took a pause, and worked with the yoga block to tend to the neck tension. 

I share this story with you because it is a good example of how the combination of practicing presence to become aware of what’s going on in our bodies and then asking our body what it needs, can guide you into self-care that is truly customized to what your body is needing right now. 

Use presence to inform your self-care:

Pause right now and invite your awareness to ground in your body. You can notice your breathing. Then, invite the question “what do I need right now?” to repeat gently in your mind. Invite yourself to notice what inner wisdom emerges from your body: notice sensations, thoughts, memories, etc. 

As you do this, Invite yourself to be in feeling-mind versus thinking-mind. Remember you don’t need to think your way through this to figure it out. Instead, let your body tell you what it needs. 

With this practice, you are practicing presence to tune into the wisdom of your body to guide you into mindful self-care practices truly customized to what your body is needing right now.

Here’s to learning and growing together,

Michelle