Cups Meditation & Mindfulness Retreat 22:th July - 10:th August
Hello lovely community. ❤️❤️ I hope you are enjoying summer.
It's time to welcome you to our very own Cups Meditation & Mindfulness Summer Retreat!
Inspired by a very motivated member who wanted a meditation buddy for accountability.
I wanted to make this a community thing where we can all participate and join in on the fun, listeners, forum supporters and members, everyone is welcome.
I think we could all benefit from this and help support and motivate each other to find more mindfulness in our daily lives. A little goes a long way.
The setup is simple:
I am going to be posting a mindfulness activity each week that we do together.
Each week we will be checking in and talking about how it went and what our experience was.
This gives us some space to reflect on the exercises. The retreat will be going on for 3 weeks and our last check in will be 10:th August.
To begin, for this first week we are going to choose a guided meditation video to do during the week. Doing it once is required but if you want to do it more times, that is something you are free to do. It's up to you what video you want to do but I can give some suggestions.
First check in will be next week on Thursday 27:th July. ❣️
Tara Brach:
YWA meditations:
Thanks to @amiablePeace77 for supporting me with the idea. 🌱 And thank you to everyone who responded to my earlier post and have been patiently waiting. ❤️
Lots of love and gratitude to you.
Tagging some people: @wontwakewontsleep @VioletVeritas @Walker7957 @sincerePlum8375
Hey! Seems like meditation week was a success and I'm pleased that you enjoyed doing the meditation. 🧘 I want to thank you for showing up and doing your best. Our next mindfulness exercise for this week is coming up. Check in for this will be on Sunday 6:th August. ☘️☘️☘️
This week we will be taking a Mindful Walk, 15 minutes or more.
Connecting to all your senses. Connecting to the body.
One way to go deeper into stillness and relaxing your mind is by leaving your phone at home or putting it on mute. (Not required though) Focus on being aware of your body and each step you take. Thoughts are inevitable. We are not trying to remove them forcefully, instead I would suggest to let the thoughts come and go, observe them without judgment and let them pass. You can incorporate your breath and become aware of each in and out breath you take and what does that feel like. Every time your mind wanders, gently bring back the focus to your breath or the soles of your feet.
Here is a guide for mindful walking and how that can look like:
https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/mindful-walking
Let me know if you have any questions. ❤️
Hey, time for check in! ❤️🌸🌈
How has this week been and how did it go with the mindful walking exercise? (Any positive changes or shifts in your daily life since you began this retreat ? Or anything else you have noticed.)
@Sunthruclouds
How has this week been and how did it go with the mindful walking exercise? (Any positive changes or shifts in your daily life since you began this retreat ? Or anything else you have noticed.)
I did 2 different mindful walking exercises.
One was going for a walk outside, noticing the sounds around me, the plants at the side of the road and feeling the wind touching my skin. It was great.
The other one was walking mindfully with the belated Thich Nhat Hanh and it goes like follows:
I take a step forward - I have arrived - I take another step forward - I have arrived - I continued doing this for a while in my bedroom. It was a wonderful experience to notice myself being fully present.
@amiablePeace77
Walking is already part of my daily routine, since we have an active and muscular large dog that needs regular work outs to be calm. So, I'm habitually on the trails three times daily.
Usually my husband and I sort things verbally while we walk.
On my Mindful Walk, I asked him to be quiet with me please, so we could notice the birds in concert. Also I noticed that there are some very large ferns, almost like a jungle, off to the side. I also noticed puddles of water from a recent storm, and the freshness of the breeze. The walk was almost like walk on a fall day, very peaceful and nourishing. There is a word for it in Japan: Shin rin yoku, which means Forest Bathing. Bathing in the green of the forest has a rejuvenating effect. Of course, we must check thoroughly, including the dog, for ticks upon arriving home, there are also spiders, but that's also a habit by now.
@VioletVeritas
It's amazing what our senses pick up on when we walk quietly through the forest and it can be very healing. Sometimes all the arguments one had before the walk just disappear and all what remains is peace of mind.
Good idea to check the dog properly about ticks and other things!
@amiablePeace77
To clarify, by "sorting" I meant deciding on our agenda for the day, what's for dinner, solving whatever problems of the world were cropping up for us, sharing our dreams. I didn't mean it in an argument type of way. Sorry I didn't use the word correctly.
@Sunthruclouds. I walked outside my door and stood for a few minutes. I observed the trees ,bushes and a lot of sunshine. I heard birds chirping. To me it was good to take a few minutes to observe these things.
Taglist as per 8/8/2023:
@wontwakewontsleep @VioletVeritas @Walker7957 @sincerePlum8375 @YourCaringConfidant @adventurousBranch3786 @ictus007 @amiablePeace77
@amiablePeace77 Thanks for tagging me. I did not get a chance to do it yet so I will have to come back to this. I had no idea about it until just now.
@amiablePeace77
Thank you for doing the taglist, appreciate your support so much. 🌸Still learning how to do this. ❤️
@amiablePeace77
Thank you for doing the taglist, appreciate your support so much. 🌸Still learning how to do this. ❤️
@Sunthruclouds
You're doing great and you're also very welcome anytime 😊
@amiablePeace77 @sunthruclouds
How has this week been and how did it go with the mindful walking exercise? (Any positive changes or shifts in your daily life since you began this retreat ? Or anything else you have noticed.)
I was really sick last week and still recovering this week with a bad cough. When I was sick, I felt adrift as it was harder to do some of my poses, and breathing was difficult. Today I walked outside again. I thought about the others in this retreat who might have walked with this intention. I felt the air and the ground beneath me, and reflect how connected everything is. I always feel more grounded when I'm able to keep up my practices.
I am enjoy doing the virtual retreat, we are distant and yet we are together. It has got me thinking about the possibility of other virtual retreats or group mindfulness.
Thank you for the check-in!
We have very rainy and windy weather in Sweden right now so I had to do my mindful walk in the rain. 💦 It was actually nice to hear and feel the rain dripping, it helped me to be more present while walking.
Thank you all for putting in the effort and doing this together. ❤️ I will be posting the next and last exercise of this retreat later today.
For this next exercise we are going to taste!
It's about mindfully eating something or tasting something. Your favourite snack or maybe something new? You can choose what that is.
Coffee or Tea ☕🍵
Snacks... chocolate? 🍫
Your lunch or dinner 🍲🍜
Fruit 🍓🍒🫐🍇
This is something that is easy to do several times throughout the week.
I will be posting a check in on Friday 18:th August. 🌈
@wontwakewontsleep @VioletVeritas @Walker7957 @sincerePlum8375 @YourCaringConfidant @adventurousBranch3786 @ictus007 @amiablePeace77
@Sunthruclouds - Love this (:
@Sunthruclouds
Such beautiful strawberries need to be eaten mindfully for sure! 😀 Yummy!
Hello, how did it go? I’m hoping very well! I’d like to know about the next one. 😊
@AguaNector6700 - Feel free to join us in our current activity of mindful eating (: I think we are doing another check-in on Friday. Welcome
Check in time!
Hello my mindful tribe. Happy Friday. 🧘 Now I'm eager to know what you all tasted during the week. 🍒
How was this exercise for you? Did you discover something new?
This is our last check in that ends our summer meditation retreat. What do you take with you from this experience?
I'm so happy that you all wanted to participate and try this concept with me. It's been really fun doing this together and hearing your feedback. Thank you for sticking with me. Lots of love and gratitude to you. ❤️
@wontwakewontsleep @VioletVeritas @Walker7957 @sincerePlum8375 @YourCaringConfidant @adventurousBranch3786 @ictus007 @amiablePeace77
@Sunthruclouds - I had a milkshake last night and I enjoyed every last bit. I imagined all the work that it took for the milkshake to exist and throughout the aeons all of our ancestors had a hand in it. Even the stars and who knows what had to come together for this milkshake. In a way, we're part of the milkshake too.
It was delicious.
Thank you so much for leading this. I enjoyed it and it helped me to stay mindful this month. Please do keep me in mind for the future adventures.
@Sunthruclouds
I ate an orange for mindful eating practise. When I peeled it the smell of the orange essential oil was very strong. The orange itself was sweet and very juicy so I ate very slowly. It was so much different than other times - almost like a first time experience in eating an orange.
This retreat was an awesome idea, thank you so much! I hope there will be more in future 😀
