How do we achieve a more mindful life in the midst of our busy non stop culture?
We certainty are not experts on the matter. In fact as a team we often struggle with working too many hours, taking on a lot of projects and keeping the coffee flowing to reach our goals. We are a group of women who are mothers, students, friends, spouses and avid New Girl fans. We all wear many hats figuratively and literally. We often ask ourselves if we need to take more time to be present daily. Our team recently took a trip to Tulum for a magical photoshoot and a much needed spiritual retreat, where we made it a priority to be as mindful as we could be.
Here is what we discovered. When we took the time we needed to be mindful with our time, space and emotions we felt more whole, happier, calmer, and truly grateful to be apart of this beautiful world. On the first night of our trip we did an Temazcal healing ceremony as a team.
The Temazcal is a pre-Hispanic steam bath ceremony and represents the womb of mother earth. It is performed in Mexican traditional ceremony, with the help of the 4 spirits of the cardinal points, East: Quetzalcoatl; West:Hutzilipxtli; South: Chipitotec; North; Mictlanteculti. Its purpose is to re-inspect the interior of self and release the past, cleanse and detox spirit and body.
Our team sat together feeling a bit nervous, set our intentions for the ceremony and one by one our bodies were cleansed, and we entered the sweat lodge. None of us knew what we were up against, it was truly the most transformative, life giving and hardest experiences we'd ever been through. Every one of us had something in our lives we needed to process and let go of. For me personally, I was feeling so stuck in the daily grind of mothering working full time, and trying to take care of myself. When I left the sweat lodge my mind was clear and I felt a huge release, I also broke through some major walls I had up for myself with some long standing body image issues.
As soon as we got back from that trip we all kept saying how much we wanted to go back to that space, to that experience, but what I think we were really saying is "we miss that feeling of being mindful". We missed the space we allowed for ourselves to be fully in the moment, to shut off the outside world to allow ourselves to focus in.
We have all committed to taking a few moments everyday to be more mindful, through a yoga, meditation, a walk in nature or simply holding our hands to our hearts, breathing in and out and thanking our bodies for keeping us safe.
