• Mindfulness

    Mindfulness Exercise N° 4

    Okay, real talk. Most of us are pretty jammed up right now. Or unbalanced. Or just plain frustrated. Or all of the above. A lot of the things that would otherwise be of help to us are not an option right now. That weekly yoga class you’ve been fighting for. That evening with loved ones that’s always a balm to the soul. The workout at the gym, climbing hall, swimming pool that turns your tension into energy. All of this is not available or only limitedly so. Few people feel in balance right now. There are hardly any moments when we are completely centered in ourselves. Rather, we are mostly…

  • Mindfulness

    Mindfulness Exercise N° 3

    Last week we spotted the first regional strawberries in the shop. Crazy isn’t it? Even crazier that they were actually incredibly tasty and aromatic. There were exactly six of them in that little cardboard basket. Not enough to fill one’ s stomach. The expression, coined in my family by my grandma, “eat with sense” was more appropriate here. Had mindfulness been en vogue at that time, she might even had said “eat with mindfulness”. What that means? Being aware of every bite. Being grateful to eat something so delicious. Not to devour, but to savour. Give it a try. Choose a berry (or other similar sized piece of fruit) and…

  • Mindfulness

    Mindfulness Exercise N° 2

    There’s a German proverb which can be roughly translated to “bide your time and drink tea”, meaning to wait and see. This proverb is used to indicate that a situation can not be changed and that agitation or throwing a tantrum will not help. At the moment, Covid-19 puts us in a similar situation: our lives have to follow the rules of hygiene and social distance. And we can, figuratively speaking, only do one thing: wait and see, or as we in Germany say, wait and drink tea. For today’s mindfulness exercise we take this saying literally and practice mindful tea drinking. Smell your tea bag or the loose tea.…

  • Mindfulness

    Mindfulness Exercise N° 1

    Right now it is getting noticeably warmer outside and I love to stick my nose into all the flowers I can find on walks. Some blossoms smell so strong, I can smell them from far away. Some so weak, it is more a smell of green freshness I notice. This mindfulness exercise is best done outside, in the first warming rays of the sun, but you will also find some pleasant and perhaps surprising smells in your own four walls: Try to find as many scents as you can within half an hour. You do not have to write them down, just count them. The fabric softener, a deep purple…