Shape Soiree: My Weekend of Mindfulness

annestuartteter
Oct 22, 2017
3 min read

Okay, honestly that title is misleading. I am not some changed person who only eats vegetables I grow in my window box and do yoga on my roof at 6am everyday. I literally do not have a window box or the ability to get on my roof and I’m certain yoga would be unsafe up there even if I could.

I did learn a few tips and had a lovely weekend though. I won this weekend through a contest on The Crystal Press. Thanks to Catherine and Rebecca for the prize.

Thursday

I started my weekend with the Athleisure Fashion Show. It started with mocktails and small bites. The mocktail I had tasted great (still wished it had vodka though). I tried a few of the little bites. They had a skewer with mozzarella, tomatoes, artichokes and olives. That’s definitely something I eat all the time and it was great. I had some vegan chocolate pudding. I still like regular pudding. I was surprised that I enjoyed the sweet potato crisp topped with crispy tofu. It was a fun start to the weekend.

Friday

I chose the Mindfulness Lunch at Laura Lee’s with Kimberly Wilson for two reasons, number one, I have been wanting to go to Laura Lee’s and number two I thought the topic was compelling. I’ve recently been told I don’t say no to anything. I have an activity to do after work basically every night, my weekends fill up quickly, etc. I LOVE doing everything, but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming and I don’t appreciate each thing I am doing in the moment, because I am worried about the next thing on my agenda.

This lunch was awesome. Not only the food, fresh baked bread and a beautiful kale sale, but also the speaker. Kimberly spoke about mindfulness in a very realistic way that made it relatable for me. Often I find myself turned off by that term because it implies yoga in the woods and only drinking a smoothie made from ginger you picked yourself.

Kimberly offered some helpful tips to keep you more mindful that just fit right in with your day. The first was a mindful check-in. She said you can do this anywhere, anytime. The goal is to just check in with yourself, and the key is you can’t complain. So, for example, when you check in you can’t say “it’s too cold” but you can say I feel a breeze.

Another thing that resonated with me was mindful eating. I am terrible about distracted eating. Someone in the audience brought up putting your fork down after each bite. I really want to try this and make sure I appreciate the food I eat.

Kimberly made a lot of other great points and I really enjoyed the people I met at the lunch.

Just so happy about the day

I also went to the personal branding seminar with The Crystal Press. I have followed their blog for a few years, and also went to high school with one of the girls. Even so, I had never heard their whole story on how they got started, why and how they keep going.

It was cool to hear their story first hand on how they constantly have to evolve and how they do that through “unbranding.” They basically take a step back from everything and just think (or meditate) about how they see their brand. That was a pretty cool idea. They are all over social media, but to hear them say they have to unplug to really get work done was interesting.

They also mentioned airplane mode. It’s something I’ve tried before - one hour of no electronics - and something that was brought up during lunch as well. I think I need to implement this.

Saturday

The final event was a panel Q & A and a keynote. It was held at Wilton House and the weather was glorious. The panel had Liz Ferro, Mike Watts, Sara Franti and Todd Waldo. They all shared some really intimate details of their lives and were fantastic.

So beautiful

I was so thankful to hear their stories and their life advice. Sara did the keynote and I was so inspired by what she said - “everyone’s story matters.” She emphasized that you should not diminish your story because it doesn’t feel as meaningful and important as someone else’s.