My Mindfulness Challenge

Welcome to the First Mindful Mama Carnival
This post was written for inclusion in the Mindful Mama Blog Carnival hosted by Zoie at TouchstoneZ. Participants are writing posts about what mindful practices mean to them, how they parent mindfully, obstacles to mindful practice and experiences along the way. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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For a long time, I have considered myself to be a mindful person or at the very least, significantly more mindful than the general population. Even so, I feel as though I've been less mindful about my mindfulness in recent years and I intend to change that.

The wonderful and amazing Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama has been working through a mindful mothering challenge for a while now and I think it is fantastic. However, I have not felt called to participate in this challenge (originally set forth by another blogger) even though I feel I should. Instead, it recently occurred to me to create my own challenge based on what I feel is most important for me to be mindful of (such as not ending a sentence with a preposition...).Thus, I have created the following list of challenges that I will work on over the coming weeks and post my progress as I feel able to. 

Challenge #1 - Gratitutde. I have already started working on this, but I plan to dive further into it until I literally live and exude thankfulness.

Challenge #2 - Words. I am someone who is already very careful about what she says, but I still have a long way to go to become someone who always speaks with love and respect towards everyone, including myself.

Challenge #3 - Eating. I've always been pretty good about this, but marriage has created some bad habits for me and I intend to change them.

Challenge #4 - Change. I love change, I embrace it and I welcome it. However, part of the art of mindfulness is changing ever so tiny things in our lives to keep our brains working and force us to live in the present moment by paying attention.

Challenge #5 - Prayer/Meditation - I have always believed in prayer and meditation, yet have never made it a regular practice. I think it's time I start a ritual of meditating daily.

Challenge #6 - Letting Go. Otherwise known as being mindful of my thoughts, I, um... will be more mindful of my thoughts.

Challenge #7 - Focus. Am I focusing on the right thing? Am I focusing at all? This challenge is designed to force me to live and focus on every moment.

Some of these challenges already seem incredibly daunting to me and I admit I am afraid of them. Nevertheless, I am always working to be the best me I can be and taking on challenges I am personally afraid of will set a positive example for my children and likely make me into a better mother for them. Here I go.

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Visit TouchstoneZ to find out how you can participate in the next Mindful Mama Blog Carnival!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• The Lost Art of Chill One Rich Mother explains how she overcame her habit of screaming through mindfulness
• Mindful Running Jenn @ Monkey Butt Junction shares how running has become her meditation.
• Mindful Mama...Who, Me? Kelly at Becoming Crunchy talks about why it's difficult for her to be a Mindful Mama.
• Ritual of Affirmations Patti @ Jazzy Mama finds out that a simple evening ritual can take on new importance when it is done with thoughtfulness and intent.
• My Mindfulness Challenge Amanda at Let's Take the Metro has set forth a mindfulness challenge for herself in an effort to become a better person.
• Keeping My Sanity by Losing My Mind CJ at Imperfect Happiness describes how she connects with reality by disconnecting from her mind.
• On Becoming an Aspiring Mindful Mama Melissa at The New Mommy Files has found that motherhood demands mindfulness, so she's working toward becoming a more mindful mama.
• Perfect and Complete, Lacking Nothing Rachael at The Variegated Life finds more time in the practice of being now.
• On Mindfulness and Multitasking Terri at Child of the Nature Isle reflects on how her mindful practices have changed since having children and how multitasking has been the key to maintaining a balanced life.
• I’ll Have What She’s Having Zoie at TouchstoneZ shares how she learned to trust in the “YES!”