Mindfulness ’26

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.”  Amit Ray

There are always two topics that enter my room with each client.  Mindfulness and self-care – so it is never a surprise to hear me talk or write about the benefits of mindfulness!

One of my favourite books on mindfulness, “Mindfulness for Life” is co-written by Associate Professor Craig Hassed and Dr Stephen McKenzie.  They describe mindfulness as a tool for many aspects of our lives, just as the title suggests.

I was fortunate to hear Craig speak at a conference many years ago (and after I had purchased the books, both the original and second edition).  He stated that the university in which he is situated – Monash University, believes in mindfulness so much that every health student does a semester on it.  Read that again, every health student including the medical student’s study for twelve weeks on this topic.

Mindfulness of breath exercises are the only way that any of us can calm our body and mind when under stress.  I have a couple of favourite exercises that I like to do to reduce the tension and stress in my body and I pass these on to clients when in the room.

When I worked in the community, the health service that I worked with held group classes for those who had experienced heart surgery.  Not only did the physiotherapists provide exercises and information, but I as a social worker helped with mindfulness exercises to assist with the overwhelm of post-surgery and adjusting back to life.  One of the exercises I gave was taking a moment to really look and explore our coins.  The way that they warmed up in our hand and noticing the design and ridges of each coin that they held.  It was taking the time to really notice, one lady commented that she had never noticed the ridges on the side of the coin prior to this.

Over the course of one 30-minute lesson, we did a few exercises and like anything in life – we all have ones that appeal to us and others that don’t.  teaching this is important and it allows the clients to choose to keep looking for exercises that they enjoy doing and work for them.

We also taught mindfulness as a skill in another community program when at mental health services.  We started and ended each lesson with different mindfulness exercises for the same reason.  The funniest one I recall was when we gave out popping candy and it was a real struggle for me to read the script as I heard the candy popping in their hands as it had warmed up prior to putting in their mouth!  Mindfulness activities don’t need to be boring or without a sense of fun or curiosity.