A Minute A Day can Make a Lifetime of Difference
By: Taylor Hatfield, October 20th, 2024
Welcome all you Mindful Practitioners, Mindful Mages, and the wellness curious.
Thank you for reading our first ever mindful minutes blog post. From the bottom of my big ol’ heart it authentically and sincerely means the world to me that you would take the time to view this and any future blog posts. I’m so excited to launch this new service as a free tool to support you in building your holistic mindfulness practice. Today I hope to introduce you to our format, to get you excited to build your own mindfulness skills and showcase my experience and background.
This is my first attempt at a blog and I’m excited to undergo this challenge with this awesome community. Please be sure to leave comments, email me with feedback, and topics you hope to see in the future. This is a grassroots operation so I hope that each one of you will be patient and kind individuals that I know this community can be as we grow in this process together.
I want to start by sharing a story. As I approach my 5th year of cultivating my own mindfulness practice I want to give you a snapshot of my life 5 years ago vs my life in this very moment. I hope that this will showcase to you a truly personal reason why I believe a holistic mindfulness practice is so important. This will also showcase how my experience was built; through self-experience, self-education, the experiences of those that work with me, and information I have gathered along the way. I am not a licensed coach; I have no formal certificates or degrees though that is not to say those will not come. For now, I have lived experience, shared experiences, and the data and information available to us all in the present moment. I hope by showcasing to you the importance of mindfulness in my life and the building of this practice around a truly supportive community how much change and growth I’ve been able to experience in the past 4 years.
So take a step back in time with me to the year 2019. You would have found me working a new job in a career field I was convinced at a young age was my calling. I had just begun a relationship with a man who would later become my husband. I had a few dreams but had rarely followed through and I found myself struggling to get through the day. I had everything that I convinced myself would make me happy and I still struggled to maintain a consistent will for life. I was depressed, anxious, some might say toxic and plagued by pains of the past and fears for the future. Each day blurred into the next as I ran blindly through life waiting for the day it was over. I had poor time management, bad money skills, couldn’t talk to people authentically and crippling social anxiety that I masked every day while working with the public. I had no true center or sense of self. I showed up as a carefully selected version with everyone I came in contact with none of them a true version of myself. I was lost, scared and alone even though I was surrounded by the people who would become my true family. I woke up pounded coffee after coffee never worrying about what I ate, whether I got enough water exercise or sunlight. I would rush through the day never checking in with my well-being and always filling someone else’s cup. My own mental health struggles running the show completely unknow to my conscious mind. I struggled to find calm and peace and bounced from one extreme emotion to the other. Each time punishing myself up for the last one. I had no true aspirations of my own and was constantly seeking the validation of others. When the day was done I would be burnt out laying in bed praying for that better future, that thing that would come in and complete me granting me the peace I hope existed somewhere. That version of myself unaware of the transformation that would begin just 6 months later sending me on a journey I wouldn’t want to change if I could.
Now lest fast forward to the present moment. To the woman who sits on the other end of this post writing to you today. This woman no longer chases a dream to rescue animals, to be a vet tech or even a vet. Instead, you see a woman trying to make a mindful difference in my lives and the lives of my community and others. A woman who understands the world does not change until each of us do the inner work to change ourselves. I wake up in the morning and remember to drink at least one glass of water with my coffee to help cut down on the afternoon anxiety because I am important and so is my cup. Instead of feeling alone amongst a room full of people I have developed the mindful habit that aid me in carrying on meaningful conversations with the people in my life. I have set amazing boundaries while learning to honor the boundaries of others. Through nonjudgmental observation and mindful discovery, I have learned the work schedule, line of business, and coping skills to maintain financial wellness while reducing burnout due to overworking. Throughout the day I utilize breathing exercises and mindful moments to recenter allowing myself to make the most out of my authentic day. I have developed holistic coping mechanisms to meet myself when extreme emotions arise without always being totally consumed by them. I’m able to see areas I need improvement, areas to extend grace, and areas that should be celebrated as a unique gift that I offer. I meet obstacles a little calmer than before and have found more commitment, dedication and follow through even in my laziest moments.
5 years ago, I would have said it is hard to find a good day today I confidently say I have more good days than I have bad. Even my worst days today compare nothing to the life I lived before.
I utilized many free and paid resources along the way but most of my practice was developed through trusting my intuition, putting in the daily work and the best part it didn’t cost me a dime to get started. Mindfulness practice seems so big and scary when you first begin, like it requires a degree and a 100% lifestyle change. I challenge that and say a mindfulness practice is one of the simplest wellness practices to begin and implement because it only requires you to slow down, center in the moment, and make decisions from there instead of the past, the future or from the viewpoint of how you believe others would want you to make them. A mindfulness practice does not involve fancy gadgets or expensive schools, though paid resources can be helpful in expanding your practice faster. But we will get into financially investing in yourself in later blog posts and within our Facebook group. Please see our social media page within the website to join.
The Mindful Minutes blog is designed to provide you the free support to start your mindful wellness practice today. Each month we will cover a topic related to the body, the mind, authentic spirit, and social connection through four fun, informative, and community building blog posts. I will check in where I am in my mindfulness practice, provide current information, fun mindfulness practices and any free and paid resources that I am currently utilizing or have utilized in the past.
I am so excited to begin this journey with each and every one of you. I hope that you enjoy this post, share it with anyone who you think may benefit from the information, and remember to leave feedback to help us provide support for your everyday life.
As always darlings
Go in love
This is a snap shot of where i was 5 years ago and the most authentic picture I have ever taken of myself. I encourage you to look behind the mask and into the eyes and you will see one girl just waiting for life to be over, and another excited for finally live.
Until the next time.
