From yoga to meditation apps to silent retreats deep in the woods, everyone can get in on the fun. But how do you find the kind of mindfulness practice that works for you?? All the options can be overwhelming, and it’s a time-consuming task trying to do the research to figure out which approach is perfect for your individual needs.
That’s why we’ve done the research for you in developing our very own Mindfulness Quiz, a brief 5 question survey that takes into account your personality and preferences to match you to a mindfulness practice that best suits your unique situation.
Personality actually plays a huge role in how we perceive pain. For example, studies have shown that some introverts tend to rank headache pain as more severe than their more extroverted counterparts. This is not to say that if you enjoy staying in on a Saturday night instead of going out to party, you’re destined for a huge migraine. It only means that you will likely find that different strategies help you cope with pain.
Popular personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Enneagram give us insight into our innermost selves and present an opportunity for deep reflection. With our Mindfulness Quiz, we aim to do the same, with the added benefit of finding you ways to better manage your pain through meditative practice. We’ve based our questions on the OCEAN framework, one of the oldest and most studied assessments of personality.
The OCEAN acronym stands for Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, where people are thought to score high or low on each of these five factors. Of course, having a higher or lower score in one category doesn't make you a better or worse person. These are simply the things that set you apart, the things that make you, well, YOU. The scenarios we’ve presented below are designed to celebrate all the different kinds of personalities while suggesting mindfulness techniques that mesh with you as an individual.
Take the quiz below and let us know what you think!! ↴
It’s the holiday season again and it’s your turn to host! You can either use your great-grandma’s stuffing recipe or follow a YouTube tutorial that includes mangos as a secret ingredient. What do you do?
For you, deep breathing exercises that you can easily incorporate into your daily life are an easy way to introduce mindfulness into your routine. Aside from calming the mind, deep breathing also has lots of very practical benefits for the body including strengthening the diaphragm, improving cardiac health, and increasing lung capacity.
Caprine vinyasa, also known as goat yoga, is definitely a unique adventure. Imagine baby goats running around a room, climbing on your back, and trying to snuggle on your lap. It might sound, at first, like the opposite of relaxation, but interacting with animals can release feel-good chemicals from the brain that reduce stress and anxiety. Plus, hanging with the goats will give you lots of fun stories to tell!
Your BFF calls to tell you they’ve scored two free first-class tickets to the Bahamas! How do you respond?
For you, art therapy is a great way to both explore your spontaneity and creativity and relax your body and mind. Making art is a great way to tap into a more mindful state and reap the benefits of self-expression, focus, and pain-reduction. Plus, you’ll get to take home some dope paintings!
Tai chi, an ancient Chinese fighting style turned meditative practice, may appeal to the part of you that loves structure; in Tai Chi, you take your body through a series of defined movements, accompanied by deep breathing and stretching. You’ll also get to enjoy benefits like increased muscle tone, improved mood, and better stamina.
You’ve spent the day at a family member’s wedding, catching up with relatives and meeting new people. When you get home you feel…
If you prefer to practice mindfulness alone in the comfort of your own home, there are a plethora of meditation apps to choose from (here’s a list of some free options)! From your phone, you can access the soothing sounds of rain and listen to guided relaxation sessions and body scans.
If you enjoy hanging out with other people while you get your mindfulness on, embodied meditation a.k.a meditative dance might be for you. Typically, dance meditation is offered as a group class (but private options are available too!) where you get to move your body intentionally to music and positive affirmations while surrounded by people. It’s higher energy and more collective than many other schools of mediation, appealing to your inner social butterfly!
Imagine you’re in class working on a group project with some other students. One of your group members turns to you and asks whether you would be willing to help them out with their section of the project because they have another commitment later that night. What do you do?
Compassion-focused exercises incorporate your caring, sweet nature and allow you to use those traits to ground yourself. Imagine a time when you experienced an outpouring of love and care for a particular person. Remember how it felt to embrace that person or to help them in their time of need. Focus on the warmth spreading through your body and the memory of making a loved one smile. Let those feelings wash over you, sweeping away stress and worry and reminding you of the goodness you hold within.
Biofeedback is a technique designed to give you more control over your own body just by using your mind. The process involves having an experienced provider attach a series of sensors to different parts of your body in order to measure heart rate, temperature, muscle contractions, sweat, and other vital signs and bodily functions. These sensors will give you data about the status of your body; for example, which muscles are tense or how your blood pressure varies in response to certain stimuli. This, in turn, gives you feedback that you can use to intentionally relax your muscles and otherwise master how your body reacts to stress and pain.
You make a quick stop at the grocery store after work to pick up a few essentials. You get to the register… and realize you don’t have your wallet. How do you react?
Tantrum Yoga, a variation of yoga that involves letting out bottled-up feelings in the form of a tantrum, can help you release some of that anxious energy. Get ready to scream, roll around, and return to your toddler self!!
You are the epitome of chill, so it’s only right that you get the chance to work up a sweat doing hot yoga. Hot yoga is an intense and high-energy form of yoga practiced in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a great way to exercise your body and your mind — holding some of those poses will definitely test both your determination and flexibility. Just don’t forget to take some water with you!
We hope that you found some worthwhile suggestions for starting or continuing your mindfulness journey. May you find calm, joy, and peace doing whatever method you choose. And if you see us at your yoga class, please come say hi!!
