A year from now you’ll be so glad you started TODAY…
What is one small thing you can start TODAY that your future self will thank you for? As Reneé Stephens, PhD puts it, “There is momentum from small steps that makes the next ones that much easier.” So start today! What is one SMALL thing you can do?
The key word is SMALL…so small and doable that you start building momentum toward whatever your positive outcome or whatever your intention or change is. Maybe you set resolutions, maybe you set goals, maybe you’ve achieved them, maybe not…
None of that matters! What does matter is that you choose something that your future self will thank you for?
For me, that small thing has been to commit to 5 MINUTES (that’s it!) of mindful meditation per day. I have dabbled and played with meditation since 2010, but I was going too big and forcing myself to sit still for longer amounts of time that I wasn’t ready to commit to…YET. Enter my TAKE 5.
Does this video remind you or help you to TAKE 5 for YOURSELF?
In a graduate course I completed this past summer, Meena Srinivasan wrote about a TAKE 5 (so simple) in her book Teach, Breathe, Learn.
I thought, okay, 5 minutes just to sit and breathe. I can commit to that! She suggested a free app called Insight Timer. Love it. It gave me my small start that stuck!
She also wrote about “greeting your day” with an intention as soon as you wake up. So I started small…my intention daily is always THE SAME: Breathe, Believe, Receive.
I began in June 2018 and I am still going strong. We’ve even grown a group of teachers at my school to practice mindfulness each morning together as we arrive to the building!
We now use the Calm App to TAKE 5 each day because Calm offers a Calm Schools Initiative. Their app is free for schools if you apply. My classroom door is open from 8:20-8:30 each day and teachers come in to TAKE 5 with me when they can.
Since I started SMALL, I have now grown my practice to 10, sometimes 20 minutes a day! What will help you TAKE 5? The teachers at my school and I reward ourselves at times with these… 🙂 Because WHY NOT? 
And when you are feeling snarky, cynical, salty or just need a good ADULT laugh…check out this meditation <———– spoiler alert…filled with hilarious swears in all the right spot.
Be the change... 