When Jon Macaskill left his 24-year military career in June 2020, he became dedicated to sharing the practice of meditation and mindfulness as a way to help others. He works with long-term mindfulness practitioner and teacher Will Schneider on the Men Talking Mindfulness podcast as a way to help others incorporate mindfulness and its benefits into their daily lives.
Mindful CEO Bryan Welch stopped by the Men Talking Mindfulness podcast to share some insight into his mindfulness practice, a few words of wisdom, and a mindfulness practice to help us feel grounded.
Tapping Into a Feeling of Abundance
It can be easy for us to feel as though we don’t have enough. Enough time, money, friends…the list goes on.
With the limited number of resources available on earth, it can feel like we should all switch to a scarcity mindset.“We actually need to have the abundance mindset,’ Jon Macaskill says “It’s kind of a paradox, and it was ironic in a way and kind of hard to see initially. But if we do have the abundance mindset and realize we need to share what we have and not hoard it, we can begin to realize that what we do has an impact on more than just the immediate surroundings that we live in.”
Mindfulness can be one of the tools we use to help us switch our mindset from one of scarcity to one of abundance. “The remedy for that feeling of scarcity is to elevate the importance of abundance, but I think abundance is a matter of moment-to-moment definition,” says Bryan Welch “Mindfulness helps us open space in our consciousness and allows us to rest with a sense of abundance that isn’t dependent upon the extra money in the checking account so we can relate to the world in a less aggressive, more open way.”
At the end of their conversation, Welch led a guided meditation to foster a sense of connection to one another. Mindfulness practice, he says, allows us to sit with ourselves in a gentle, non-judgmental, friendly frame of mind. “We don’t need concepts. We don’t need ideas. Our friendliness, gentleness, and warmth can be deepened just by spending time with ourselves, which is kind of what it’s all about.”
A Grounding Practice to Cultivate Resilience and Equanimity
- Settle into your seat. Be sure to sit upright, but not too uptight. Make sure you’re comfortable.
- Feel your connection with the earth. It may be your feet on the floor, or maybe you’re sitting on the floor. Take a moment to feel and appreciate your connection to the planet.
- As thoughts arise, acknowledge them and then let them go. Don’t feel any pressure to think about anything in particular. Simply acknowledge your thoughts and let them go.
- When you can, bring your focus to your breath. You don’t need to do anything special with it. Just observe the sensation of the breath passing.
- When you’re ready, feel free to stand with a resolve to be more gentle, loving, and kind with yourself.
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