A new update on the motivaider. I have now been using my motivaider for quite some time and I thought it was time for some update.

In my last post on the motivaider I reported some good results, but not very decisive ones. This time is different as I really started to see changes in my mindfulness practice.

I continued tweaking the use of my MotivAider and I finally start to see the results! One of the problems I had was that I seldom felt the vibrations, although the settings were on maximum. I am now convinced that this is because of the deep state of sleep I was (am) in. When one is so engrossed in the activity, there is no piece of awareness left to notice the buzz. And this is precisely what is needed.
So here are my key points to using the MotivAider for mindfulness

Experiment with the frequency

This is a critical parameter. Let it go off to often and you will develop resistance to the buzz, or you will start to cut it out of the the things you notice. If the frequency is to low, it is not a great aid to the mindfulness practice. You will then only become mindful once or twice a day and although this has definite use, I think that in the case of mindfulness, more is better.

Experiment with the strength and length of the buzz

In my case, both are on their maximum value as I tend to ignore the signal quite often. The disadvantage of this is that I sometimes have a sour spot on my leg in the evening while remaining unaware of the buzzing :-).

Often anchor yourself to the buzz

When you notice the buzzing, tell yourself: ‘I feel the buzzing and I …” whatever you want to achieve. I started doing this as I noticed that I often unconsciously noticed the buzzing and did not act upon it. By often repeating reminding yourself what to do when you feel the buzz, you start to do it more often also. I often find myself recentering, just one minute after my MotivAider went of.

Do whatever you planned to do when the buzzing went of

I found myself developing resistance to acting on the buzz. I did not feel like doing it, or I was too buzzy, or I found some other excuse. You have to strongly resolve to do whatever you planned to do when the MotivAider goes off. And then take the time to do it. So it is better to choose something that can be done quickly.

Meditate

Yes, it is in formal meditation practice that th skill of mindfulness is best practiced. It is the easiest and surest way to make improvements and to perfect it. It is not an easy task to develop mindfulness in the midst of everyday life. It is lost altogether. In meditation, we relearn what it is to be mindful in an easy setting in order for us to take this knowledge into daily life.

Conclusion.

The motivaider really starts to rock when used properly. It takes quite some experimenting but lately I am much more sensitive to the buzz which is a sure indication that my mindfulness is becoming stronger. I am very grateful to have found this little tool.

Be well. Be rich. Be great.

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Mindfulness is a tricky thing. We are so easily lost in our thoughts and emotions. The period I am mindful during the day is approximately 1 hour. Not a lot I agree, but I was able to identify a few things that promote the practice. So here they are: a compilation of my best mindfulness exercises:

1) Go out for a walk.

When I go for a walk, I seem to naturally shift into mindfulness. This practice enforces the mindfulness during the day as with any skill, the more you practice it, the better it gets. Also, I red more than once the comparison to a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

Well, The same goes for mindfulness.

2) Meditation

Mindfulness is meditation in action. It is the continual watching of our emotions and thoughts during every aspect of our lives. Thus meditation is mindfulness practiced in a calm and safe environment. Therefore, the analogy of the muscle is also applicable :-).

But the reverse also holds: the more you practice mindfulness, the easier the meditation becomes. I have noticed that these two seem to go hand in hand an are enforcing each other.

3) Anchor yourself on you breathing.

This one is a specific tool that is very handy as the breath is alway present and changing. A dynamic object of concentration seems to be easier for our runaway minds to hold on too. I guess this is exactly due to our inability to hold the mind at rest (for the time being).

4) Do not multi-task

Multi tasking is deadly for mindfulness. If you are serious about getting mindful you better start doing one thing at the time. I know how hard it is as I am a serious multi-tasker and it is hard to get rid of the habit. Jotting down you ideas on a piece of paper for later review seems to help a lot. In this way, the interruption from the task at hand is very short and we can go back to the task at hand. But I agree I’m still learning to master this skill (see my post on ZTD)

5) Use the MotivAider

It is a long time since I reported on my use of the MotivAider, but I find that it helps me in my never ending endeavors to be mindful during the day. There is a lot of tweaking to do to make it a useful tool, and sometimes it is just an annoyance, but it really helps. But if you are to learn one of the most difficult skills in the world, some difficulties will naturally arise.

I hope these tips will aid you. If you have some great ways to enhance or cultivate your practice of mindfulness, please shre them in the comments. I am more than happy to have additional resources to fall back on in times of great stress.

Be well. Be rich. Be great.

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I have now been wearing my MotivAider for some days now and I’m both disappointed and very happy. (read on, it has a happy ending )

This is my usual state, to be honest. I almost always look at both angles and I am not easily satisfied.

But let’s go to the MotivAider again. If you read my previous post, you will see that I decided to attach 3 deep breaths to my MotivAider signal. I did not quite follow the procedure they outlined in the manual, but that seemed to not be a great problem, as in every case I felt the buzz, I reminded what to do and took 3 deep breaths.

But here immediately comes my main problem: I seem to not always feel the vibration. I experimented with several time intervals and vibration strengths, but also the location where to place the little pager. I shortened and lengthened the duration of the signal, but it seems that the problem I had before with mindfulness was also present with the MotivAider: if my mind is so absorbed, it tends to ignore the signal. Or sometimes, it get to the back of my awareness field, but I repress it that quickly because I am doing something else that I forget about taking 3 breaths.

So is it useless, I asked myself?

Well, it turns out that it is very useful. And delivers almost as promised. The thing is that my expectations were probably set too high.

What I noticed is that where before, I could stay engrossed in my mental sleep for a fairly long period, this is now broken by the action of the MotivAider as soon as there is some space left to process the buzzing. I mean by this that as soon as I engage in an activity in which I do not need to pay full attention, I can start to feel the vibration, and correctly act on it. I set the timer to 2 minutes, so very soon after leaving my PC, I am reminded to take 3 deep breaths. This is a very good thing, because it is easy to go unaware for 15 to 30 minutes without noticing. This is no longer the case.

So what happens is that I start to be aware during more periods in the day, and this is (slowly) starting to spread out. Slowly, yes, but maybe only because my expectations were set too high? I have no idea.

The truth is that my mindfulness practice has become better and I hope deeper. I start feeling the deeper peace that one feels when truly relaxed and in harmony with the surroundings.

So in conclusion, I think that, at least for now, I can really recommend the MotivAider for anybody wanting to be more aware or mindful, but I guess that it works as well for the change in habits for which the tool was designed. I will not test this feature, as I intend to change any bad habit through being mindful. I think in this way I will have a better control and be able to go faster.

Be Well. Be Rich. Be Great.

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