Welcome back for the last time everyone! I am so glad to have gone on this journey with you, and I hope that you found yourself enjoying every moment to the point that you want to continue on your own self journey.

I know that it is difficult thinking about continuing on alone, but the whole idea of mindfulness is individualistic. Before I go, I want to leave you with the resources that you need or could possibly use as you begin to take over the idea of mindfulness yourself.

An important thing to know about this process, is that you are not meant to know what to do. It is a practice that is developed and learned in regards to catering what works for you! While this is true, being that we live in today’s day and age, the internet will be your best friend (and YouTube) for finding practices that you want to try. When looking things up I recommend searching “mindfulness” and this will give you a plethora of reminders, meditation ideas, and more.

One diagram that I came across recently, really spoke to me about this journey that I have had with you, being that it displayed many helpful tips that we have covered in these last couple months.

https://thetouchpointsolution.com/blogs/touchpoints-blog/dimensions-of-health-mindfulness

The graphic above is a good thing to remember or hold onto from these blogs because it highlights the main points that we have overcame together. I hope it also shows you the many steps that go into this process, which elaborates on the idea that this is a developmental evolvement. Although I may have tried to introduce you to each of these steps to some capacity over the past few weeks, that does not mean you can check off their box and think that they are complete.

Repetition is key to this entire journey. I encourage you to find a step that works for you. Think about what we have done throughout our time together that has truly spoke to you and helped your mind. Take that step and run off of it for a little until you are are ready to try a new one by yourself. This will help ease the transition from a guided practice to a self-practice. Ultimately though, do not be afraid to try new styles of mindfulness practice, I encourage to do only what is best for you!

Once again, thank you for listening and engaging with my blog within our time together. I hope that this was not something that was just read each week, but a form of stress management and easier living that truly helped you see the world differently. It is my hope that you too will soon become an advocate for these types of practices that allow our mind and souls to find a connection.

If you have any further questions do not be afraid to contact me, in regards to your mindfulness journey.

To sign off just one last time . . .

With peace,

Elizabeth

Hello everyone!

As our journey comes to a closing after next week, it is important that I leave you with the necessities needed to strive beyond weekly prompts. At this point, it is my hope that you have gained a stronger understanding of what mindfulness is like and why it is necessary in life. Although it may seem like a big jump to go from a guided practice to a self-led one, this process is personal so the whole process is individualized from the beginning.

Just like the seasons, for example autumn, things must change to evolve and move forward in life. Here in State College, fall is quickly moving by as winter approaches. Likewise, while I may be leaving from the role of guiding you about how to release your mind, the presence of my ideas should not be forgotten.

Mindfulness can be as structured or as unique as you need it to be, which is important to keep in mind. I do not want this to be a journey that you took we me and now you are going to give up on it. From the very beginning I have been emphasizing that it takes time and patience, which means continuation.

One of my favorite motivational quotes growing up, as cheesy as it may be, is from the Hannah Montana Movie. Through Miley’s struggles she comments, “Life’s a climb, but the view is great.” This concept has never escaped my mind and I want you to think about the meaning of it.

Life is all about constantly improving, moving up mountains, and pushing ourselves through the challenges and obstacles we face. While this concept is true and inescapable, ultimately our journeys are a beautiful climb. A climb in which our accomplishments create breathtaking mountain ranges.

This same life metaphor applies to our mindfulness journey. It is a climb, so maybe me leaving is an obstacle, but I am leaving you in the capacity where you can paint your own journey.

I challenge you to go forth and create your own view to look back on and remark about the beauty that is the evolution of you.

Now I am not leaving you quite yet. Next week will be my last blog, where I will leave you with my tips, resources, and advice for continuing your mindfulness journey. It is important to join me one more time to finalize our journey together, as you begin a new one.

I look forward to our last stride together before your new season is upon you. Remember to go forward with the mindset that it is okay to change because it is representative of evolution, progress, and climbing. As you seek out your next climb, I want you to try and reflect on how far we have come together before my wrap-up next week. What has been your favorite part, and what has been your least favorite part? How far has your mindfulness improved or maybe not improved? What have you took away from this journey?

And as always . . .

With peace,
Elizabeth Hilton

Welcome back everyone! How did last week go? Could you think of something to let go? Did you actually try letting it go? How did this feel? Are you happy about this idea or upset?

As you think about all of these questions, I understand that letting go is not easy. It takes a toll on our minds and our bodies in the duration of the process, but eventually it is like a breath of fresh air. No longer are we constricted to the weight of someone else, rather we are free.

In this same conversation, it brings up to this weeks step in our mindfulness journey. I want to talk to you today about meditation. Meditation is an individualistic practice in which we focus our thoughts to achieve stability in our minds, emotions, and bodies. While meditation is originally a religious practice by various religions, anyone can use the practice for self wellness.

Coming off of last week, meditation is a practice that can be used wherever and whenever you want. With that being said, it can be a routinely moment for yourself or it could just be used in heavy moments like our topic last week.

There are many different ways to practice meditating, and there is no need to worry about figuring out where to start. Today, you can watch YouTube videos, download apps, go to a meditating class, and so much more to involve yourself in this mindfulness practice. Meditation is all about your focus on breathing and letting your mind wonder to reset your levels.

Just like we can quite literally monitor our levels, meditation is way of self-monitoring our mindset, attitude, and calm. Meditation can be anywhere from a one minute practice to an hour long meditation. Whatever time you can set aside to practice this, anything that helps bring down your levels of jumble in our brains and reset is helpful.

To end this discussion I want to practice a mindfulness meditation with you. In order to do this you are going to plant both your feet to the ground and sit up straight. After doing so, you will close your eyes and take a deep breathe in to start. During this meditation you want to just let your mind wonder. This means you do not need to focus on thinking about anything specific. Do not even think about this meditation, just let it happen. If your mind does land on a thought, I want you to just watch your mind do its work. Do not involve your current self in this thought, just be an audience to it. Now that the basis of the meditation is discussed, I will finish explaining what you do so that you can try. In order to complete this meditation, you will sit up straight with your eyes closed and take a deep breath in and hold it for 5 seconds and then exhale. You will repeat this type of breath all the way up to ten breaths, and then back down from ten breaths to one. After finishing all of your breaths, in a typical meditation a bell sound would ring telling the mind to come back to life. If you do not have a bell that is okay, just take your time coming back to reality.

As I leave you with this explanation, this week I want you to try this meditation or others ones a couple of times before we talk again. Think about how this practice has helped you throughout the upcoming week, and we will discuss more late.

With peace,
Elizabeth

Welcome back everyone. I hope you feel rejuvenated after learning about treating yourself last week, and I also wish you strive to continue the idea of treating yourself in a healthy way to maintain the mindset we need to keep going.

In a similar conversation of completing tasks to be able to keep going, this week’s topic is difficult but very much so necessary.

If you are anything like me, the idea of letting go sounds impossible. Simply letting things like a shirt I like but it doesn’t fit anymore is hard, all the way to having to let go of a loved one due to the course of life. There are many actions that we, as human beings, can classify as letting go, but does this idea or feeling always have to be negative.

Much like a lantern, there can be beauty in letting something go both metaphorically and literally. When we find the ability in ourselves to move on, we allow our minds to think outside of the box that we have trapped ourselves in, which allows a whole new perspective to be revealed. We also discover a literal eye opening moment because no longer do we trap ourselves in fear or emotion, but we become more raw with the idea of being in our own existence.

For example, similar to myself, I am sure that this is the first time many of us have lived away from our families for a long period of time. While the idea of letting go does not necessarily mean that we will never see our families again, personally I have had to let go of the idea of them being my only support system to start seeing for myself the requirements that it takes to simply live. Heck, my mom has done my laundry for how many years, but now I have had to let go of the mindset that I am missing something, and start living in my own existence that I am my own support system. While this is a more mellow idea of letting go, it shows the many ways that this idea is incorporated into our lives.

Have you ever had to let go of something or someone? What did you experience in this event? Did you see it as a moment of empowerment or was it more difficult to see the good in your experience?

Now, I understand this concept is challenging and emotional, but much like my example, I encourage you to think of smaller and more neutral ways that you have let go of something. Maybe there is currently something that you need to let go of. Maybe it is that bad grade that you got last week. Whatever it is that you feel is weighing you down, I want you to release it into the air. Like our lantern above you can watch it move away from you and disappear for good. It is all about how you view this picture. Is your mindset happy about this action or is the beauty still lost. I want you to save this thought for next week, but as you wait think about letting go and what it can do for your own self.

With peace,

Elizabeth

Welcome back onto our mindfulness journey. After last week, I hope that you are seeing some progression in your journey as you take the time to develop the necessities needed to reset your mind into becoming who you want to be. Much like learning how to go about this process, I started to mention last week the importance of rewarding yourself as you go through the journey. Referring to last time, we need to reward ourselves with words of encouragement and fuel for our soul. Furthering this idea, it is also important to treat yourself.

Similarly to how one person gets another person flowers as a gift, in life it is also important to get yourself flowers sometimes–both literally and metaphorically. If you are anything like me, you tend to have a help everyone before yourself mentality, but I have learned that this should not always be the case. We spend most of our time wanting to be that person that is there for others, but who is there for ourselves? It has to be YOU.

This practice, much like the other ones, is not an easy one. Personally, as seen in the picture above, flowers make me have the biggest smile on my face. They represent so much beauty and life, which instills a positive mindset for a long-lasting time after receiving them. Although I know this to be true, for the longest time I would only be able to experience these moments of happiness very rarely due to the event of someone actually giving me flowers. It was not until a coffee shop that I regularly go to started selling farm-fresh flowers on the weekends, that I realized I should not have to wait for someone else to make me happy, but rather treat myself to the happiness that I ultimately deserve.

Now this realization has only been a recent one which is why I feel as if it is so important to share on our journey. Mindfulness is not an entirely mental process, but rather a combination of training your mind to be on the right tracks AND establishing moments of enjoyment into your life through physical being. I understand that not everyone gets as happy as I do when they get flowers, so I ask you to think about the things that make you happy. Is it artwork, books, music records, food, etc.? Take a moment and establish a way that you can treat yourself periodically to maintain the feeling of enjoyment solely through yourself and the life you are living.

As I wrap up this week’s journey, I challenge you to take the time between now and the next time we talk to work on treating yourself. Maybe it is as simple as buying yourself something or maybe it is more complicated and requires you to assess what you physically need right now in this moment of time. Whatever it shall be, I assure you it is worthwhile to go out of your way and celebrate the person you are.

With peace,

Elizabeth

Welcome back everyone! It has been awhile since we last reflected upon our mindfulness journey. I am sure I do not speak for only myself when I say my mind has been a mess. While as a college student I am alike in that midterm stress and not being able to catch a break are overwhelming me, the need to fuel our mindfulness journey continues. This week I would like to take the time to talk about “feeding” our minds and souls.

For some of you, you may recognize the saying “feed your soul,” but what does this actually mean? Just like a living organism that needs a source of food to maintain the goal of survival, we need a source of “food” to fuel us on our mindfulness journeys.

Working towards a lifelong mentality does not happen with the snap of the fingers, nor does it last without continuing to engage in what it takes to do so. To feed one’s soul is to continuously provide it with the motivation and courage of why or what one is working towards. For example, if I am working towards a mindfulness state of a more stress free environment, the food that I choose to feed my soul with is affirmations and words of perseverance. With this idea in mind, I want you to take a second and think about your mindfulness journey. Where is it taking you? What do you want to become or gain out of it? How will you maintain the strength needed to keep up with the journey? What are you feeding your soul?

Now that you have had some time to think, I realize at this point it is important to mention just like feeding your own body or a human, it is important to feed our souls with the right food. We want to feed our selves with the foods that we crave. In most cases, at least if you are anything like me, I crave foods that are sweet. With my sweet-tooth, I can always satisfy myself with some chocolate and carry on with my day. While that is true, if I have a craving and do not satisfy it with the chocolate that I am used to, I suddenly change my character all due to the fact that I did not provide what it takes to keep me going.

Similarly to how I crave chocolate, my soul craves that sweetness from my own self to keep me moving towards improvement. Becoming mindful of our realities is not an easy task, so without the proper necessities it can become impossible. As mentioned before, my fuel just like my cravings, is adding sweetness to my life. This means giving myself the acknowledgement that I am okay or that I am still able to smile and keep my chin up.

Now, I understand for others the “food” may look different. For someone who is channeling a deeper meaning of mindfulness a protein meal may be needed, where they fuel their mindfulness with a heavier affirmations. There is no science to what food best supports our souls, but like our bodies it is needed. In many cases of life, we go about unrecognizing the energies that it takes to live beyond a physical sense. Our mental bodies are just as important in the world of living.

As I look forward to meeting up again next week, go on the rest of the time in search of the food that fuels your own soul and mind.

With peace,

Elizabeth

As you read the title of this week’s blog, I want to know what your initial reactions were? Did it excite you, or did it scare you to a point where reading this blog may come with no return. While I understand the emotions in regards to making a commitment, it is necessary in order to continue our journey.

Mindfulness is not only about resetting our emotional/mental state to relax and calm our overall lives, but it is also about having and/or finding your purpose for doing so. Last week I mentioned what does your resetting sunset mean to you? Was your sunset a refresh from an overwhelming day, or was it clarity to a much larger issue? Irregardless, the commitment that we make towards OURSELVES, is a part of how we use motives like the sunset to progress to a better self.

Although we use the word commitment a lot in our society, we often tend to use it in a sense that we are making a commitment, or promise, to others while putting the weight of withholding this obligation on ourselves. While this is necessary in subjects like relationships, pet ownership, job opportunities, etc., it is also just as important to make commitments with ourselves to uphold. Without a mental goal to this whole journey, why do we care so much about clearing our minds if there is no reason.

To help wrap our minds around this point, I want you to think about a pet that you have or one that you want. As a lover of cats and dogs, any responsibility or actions that need to be taken to make their lives as happy as can be (or even rescue them from a situation to transform their lives), I would do in a heartbeat. This type of ongoing, never ending commitment is what we in junction need to make with ourselves.

I will start and share my version of commitment. The picture above is of my cat, Ashe. Although he may annoy me causing me moments of frustration, ultimately if it were not for our relationship he would still be a stray in the streets. Rather than let him suffer, I willingly let him share my bed with me (even if he takes up most of it) because I made the commitment of bettering his life. Now, when I think about a commitment that I could make to better my life, it gets tricky. I already have a family that will provide me this ideal sense of living, but what do I have that I can provide myself? With deeper thought, I tend to let stress control myself, and even with personal experience giving me insight as to when these situations will occur and what will be the outcome, I still let stress overcome me. As I started my own mindfulness journey, I realized this to be a large part of what contributed to my unhealthy mindset causing me to not enjoy life in moments of utter breakdowns. For my own commitment, I have been working on identifying areas that cause stress in my life, and rather than ignore them entirely, when they do occur I take the time to focus on myself. This includes taking a night to do something I enjoy to then maybe give me the motivation to get through a stressful assignment in school.

While I know not all of you are cat lovers (sorry to start a debate), think about what commitments you make to others in your own lives and transform those obligations to not only happen between you and something else, but also between you and your mind. It could be as simple as making a commitment to smile everyday in order to boost confidence or mental state in the morning, to something as complex as needing to start a daily journal and reflect each day to move past a hardship and work towards a better you.

No matter what your commitment is, I want you to take the next week to give it all you can, and then come back next week to see how much progress we have already made on this journey.

With peace,
Elizabeth

Welcome back everyone! I am so glad that you stuck around to join me on the continuation of our mindfulness journey. Last week we talked about how we need to find serenity and calmness in our lives. It is hard to go about our day in a tranquil state, but ultimately taking the time to clear our heads is necessary in maintaining balance.

This week, I am going to bring up balance again but in a new form. In order to maintain balance daily, we need to clear our mindset from the previous day to wake up feeling renewed and refreshed. While I am on the topic of starting the day, although you may be thinking of the morning, I actually am talking about the night prior.

We all know and love our classic sunsets like the one below, but do we take their meaning and allow ourselves to live by it?

Before I explain our need for mindfulness to restore balance in order to allow ourselves to feel refreshed each morning, I want you to just breathe. Breathe with purpose. Breathe will power. Reground yourself, and imagine you are about to take your sunset picture but before you do think about what it means to you. Does the sunset mean taking away all heaviness from your day? Does the sunset tell you someone from another life is asking how you are? What is the sunset to you?

Now that you have had time to envision your sunset, let’s talk about what it means and how to continue to capture letting go our days with the sunset.

We have all heard the saying, “Live your life like everyday is your last,” implying that we need to make sure each day is held to top priority in our lives. Although we may try to live up to this commonplace standard, we all know that some days cannot always be the “best,” but that is not what we need. As long as we try to reset each day through mindfulness, we can at least devote us trying to understanding that life is a wave and there always will be an up and down.

No matter what your day brings you, just know that it is never everlasting. Everything in life changes, just like even the waves in the ocean or the sun’s position in the sky, it is always moving towards a new position in the world.

I encourage you to take whatever you saw your sunset as above and remember that so the next time that you see the sunset you know the crucial need to step back and refresh. While I know that chasing the sunset every day is unrealistic, you can use what you imagine the cotton candy sky to look like, in order to take a few minutes to breathe.

Thank you again for joining me today on this journey. I hope later today and maybe even tomorrow you can use this mindfulness trip to reset your busy life.

As always, with peace,

Elizabeth

As a novice blogger, I figured it was only appropriate to share a few details about myself and what this blog means to me. I am Elizabeth Hilton, and while I am new to writing blogs, I would like to embark on this journey with an open-mind alongside everyone reading along with me. My blog is focused upon the art within the world around us, but also the beauty of various interpretations of the captured moments. I use the art of photography to relax my mind and draw the simplicity of life through the images I capture, as a way to escape reality of stress and constant noise. While this is my interpretation of photography, my perspective does not define all. Therefore, I encourage you all to sit down and dive into the beauty of nature, while gathering your own takeaways and also taking note to mine.

To begin, as we start our journey of discovery and mindfulness, I would like to bring peace into the conversation through the following picture.

Now, I want you to take a moment and look at the picture to embrace the scenario. Imagine sitting at the table on a sunny morning. Take a few deep breaths to truly gain the experience that you want to get out of this situation.

While I know that doing the following practice above can be difficult because not everyone can stop what they are doing to pause for a moment and just imagine a state of pure peace, this is an important feeling to note. For many, myself include, this practice can feel forced. But why does this happen?

Our society runs on a constant go basis. When have you ever had the ability to stop and go as you please? Probably not very often. This is why finding a way to create a practice where mindfulness can be engaged to enhance the state of our lives is necessary. For me, photography of the nature around us is how I do so. While as a biology major I know the complexity of the naturalistic world around us (i.e. plants, the sun, etc.), as a nature lover, it resembles symbols of calmness, tranquility, peace, freshness, and pure joy.

The enjoyment of nature stretches further and further as more people use it to appreciate life processes, as well as their own lives. I use nature to create my own mindfulness. As someone who struggles with anxiety and other uncontrollable mental struggles with life, this practice has developed changes in myself to not only heal some of the daily feelings that I used to let control my life, but also change my attitude and outlook and how simple life actually is within our chaotic world.

In short, I hope the beginning of this mindfulness journey did not scare you away. I assure that it takes practice to make progress, so come back again next time to continue this awareness discovery. I look forward to what is in store, and thank you for listening to my way of imagining our world to better ourselves.

With peace,
Elizabeth