Staying Grounded: Mindfulness Techniques for Any Time

How might embracing mindfulness and slowing down in 2025 help us navigate the chaos of modern life?

Mindfulness doesn't always come easy, especially for those of us who are constantly swinging between future goals and past memories. As someone who has lived in that whirlwind, I, Frances Marie Rivera Pacheco, invite you on a calming journey aboard the Self-Growth Train. This episode marks the start of 2025—a year for slowing down, for intentional steps, and for truly being present in each moment. After a whirlwind 2024, let's rediscover the art of living 'right now' and explore the gentle power of mindfulness. Together, we'll navigate practical techniques backed by my personal experiences and insights from a Mayo Clinic article, promising a path to greater self-awareness and peace without the need for meditation.

Join me as I share my story of battling the rush of modern life and how a mindful approach has transformed my outlook. With the podcast turning five, I'm taking this opportunity to shift gears and focus on growth without the pressure of haste. We'll explore mindfulness exercises that can seamlessly integrate into your daily routine, helping you cultivate patience and self-connection. If you’ve ever struggled with mindfulness or meditation, I offer guidance and encouragement to find peace in the present—because sometimes, the most profound journeys are taken one intentional step at a time.

Resources Used Today:
Mindfulness Exercises

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Until the next stop dear passengers – Safe Travels!
-FMRP

Episode Transcript

Frances Marie Rivera Pach (00:07):
Hello , my dear passengers, and
welcome aboard the Self-GrowthTrain, a podcast that combines
personal stories, opinions andresearch in order to better
guide you through yourself-growth journey.
My name is Frances Marie RiveraPacheco and I am your tour guide
.
First, I want to say thank youfor tuning back into the podcast

(00:30):
for the first episode of 2025.
I know I didn't do anything forit and that's my bad, but I was
kind of busy, honestly.
Anyways, the podcast turnedfour years old on December 22nd,
which means that this year isgoing to be turning five years
old and I have a bunch ofexciting things that are going
to come, but I'm not sayinganything about it because I

(00:50):
don't want to jinx anything.
If there's one thing that Ilearned this past year is that
you work on your goals.
You don't necessarily telleverybody about them because if
not, you might get sidetracked.
Okay, so just letting you knowthere's a lot of fun stuff
coming, there's a lot of amazingstuff coming, and you need to
stay tuned because it involvesyou.
My dear passenger, the last twoepisodes have been about

(01:13):
struggles and just pushingthrough and basically trying to
figure out how to continueliving and making yourself stay
focused and thriving right, buttoday's episode is going to be a
bit different, because I'mgoing to tell you something 2024
was a lot of lessons.
2024 was a lot of back and forth.

(01:36):
2024 was a lot of time spentworking and working, and working
and working.
But 2025, at least for me andthe journey that I'm going to be
taking you in it's going to bea bit slower.
We're going to focus onourselves, we're going to focus

(01:57):
on our growth, but we're notgoing to be putting all this
pressure behind this.
No, we're not doing that.
We're taking things a littlebit different this year, and you
know what?
I hope you enjoy it as much asyou have been enjoying it over
the past four years, but rightnow, I need to take a different
tone with the podcast.
I need this to be about you andI, and I need this to be at a

(02:20):
slower pace.
Why?
Because one of the things that2024 taught me is that you can
try to speed up the process, butit's not going to do anything.
You have to go through each oneof the steps.
You have to go through each oneof the things that need to
happen.
Well, my dear passengers, thetime has come for us to buckle
up our seatbelts as we head intothe first stop of the day.

(02:43):
That is the topic of the day,and today's topic is mindfulness
.
Mindfulness is defined by theAmerican Psychological
Association as the awareness ofone's internal state and
surroundings.
Now, I don't know about you, mydear passenger, but I have
struggled with being mindful orusing my mindfulness, especially

(03:05):
because I'm the type of personthat likes to live in the future
or sometimes reminisce too muchof the past to enjoy the
present.
Now, if that's you, welcome tothe club.
For today's episode.
I will be using my own personalexperience with different
techniques that have worked inorder to help me be more mindful
, but also I will be using anarticle by the Mayo Clinic

(03:26):
titled Mindfulness Exercises.
Why?
Because I think it's good tohave some medical backup,
especially when it comes to asubject that it's very important
for us to work on.
So sit back, relax and let metake you down this stop on how

(03:47):
to become more mindful.
First things first, even thoughmindfulness and meditation go
hand in hand together, itdoesn't mean that you need to
meditate in order to be mindful.
It just means that meditationis one of the many ways that you
are able to get to that mindfulmentality.
However, if you struggle withbeing mindful, or you struggle

(04:09):
with meditation as a whole, I'mgoing to let you know right now
meditation is a great way to getthrough mindfulness, because it
teaches you to be patient, itteaches you to be in the moment
and it teaches you to be withyourself, which is such a
beautiful encounter if youreally take the time to give
yourself that moment, to be withyourself and int une with

(04:32):
everything that is going oninside of you and around you,
right?
So we're going to try this.
I've never done this in thepodcast.
We're going to try this.
Okay, one minute.
I'm going to put the timer inhere for one minute.
We are just going to close oureyes and we're not going to
think about anything.
And if that's hard for you todo, don't worry.
It happens to literallyeveryone, especially if it's

(04:54):
their first time meditating.
But again, we're just going todo one minute and we're just
going to be quiet with ourthoughts.
I don't want you to think aboutanything, but if any thoughts
come your way, let them come.
Okay, you're going to let themcome and you're just going to be
aware of them.
You're not going to try tosolve them.
You're not going to try tofight them, you're not going to
try to like cry about them or behappy about them, just let them

(05:17):
come as they do.
Okay, so here we go.
Here's one minute starting inthree, two, one, one.
Here's one minute starting inthree, two, one, one, one.
Thank you all.

(06:29):
Right, stop.
How did that feel?
Because I can tell you rightnow, that felt amazing for me.
I feel so relaxed, I feel socalm, like I felt like I needed
that.
Actually, now that I thinkabout it, I really really needed

(06:49):
that.
Oh, wow, wow, hold up.
This is great.
That was a good moment.
Okay, that was a good moment.
Take a step back and clap yourhands for yourself, because I
needed that and you probably didtoo.
You probably needed that momentto just be with yourself and
not do anything, not thinkanything, just be present.

(07:13):
I don't know about y'all, but Ineeded that minute.
Okay, I needed that minute andI hope you enjoyed that minute.
I hope that, even if youthought it was boring, even if
you thought, what the hell arewe doing?
Like she's never done this inthe podcast, I hope that you
actually did it and I hope thatyou reap in the rewards of just

(07:37):
having that present moment withyourself for one minute, like
we had a moment.
Do you know that we had amoment?
We shared a present moment inmeditation and I'm just telling
you right now it was a good one.
It was a good one and youbetter have enjoyed it, because
I did anyways, that was reallyfun, but let's keep moving, all
right.
So how else can we get throughmindfulness if not by meditation

(08:01):
?
Well, we can get throughmindfulness by using our
breathing.
Yep, that's right.
Something as simple as takingthree deep breaths can really
make you feel present and awareof what's going on inside you
and around you.
So, again, like I did earlier,we're going to try this.
We're going to take three deepbreaths and you're going to do

(08:22):
it with me.
So here we go, ready andthrough your nose Out the mouth,
through your nose out the mouth, through your nose out the

(08:48):
mouth.
And I don't know about you, butI'm feeling so good.
I'm feeling so calm, sopeaceful and so present.
How are you feeling?
Because, like, honestly, like Iwish this was a moment where I

(09:09):
could talk to you guys and justbe like how are you feeling?
Because I'm feeling so good, sogood, okay.
Moving on to the next thing,okay, now we're going to get
into the Mayo Clinic article,and the first thing that they
tell you, as a mindful exercise,is to pay attention, live in
the moment by paying attention,right?

(09:31):
So, actually, my therapist usedto do this thing with me.
I don't know the actual name ofit, so I'm just going to call
it using your senses.
I guess I have no idea, butbasically, when I needed to be
grounded or I needed to be inthe present because I would get
anxiety attacks, right she wouldtell me to ground myself

(10:02):
through my senses.
And it's very simple.
So I touch five things.
Okay, now you're going to seefour things.
So if I look in the camera, Ican see the headboard, I can see

(10:27):
the door, I can see the frameand I can see the bed.
Okay, so now number three.
Number three we're going to dohearing.
Let's see, what can you hear inhere?
Okay, I can hear the fan, I canhear a snapping and I can hear

(10:52):
a whistle.
All right, so three things,right?
Then the second thing, I meannot the second thing, the fourth
thing you're gonna do is smell.
So let's see, I have perfume on, so I smell delicious.
I smell really good.
Good, um, trying to see ifthere's anything else that I can

(11:14):
smell in here.
Okay, um, this is a fake flower, but let's just imagine that
it's a real flower.
What?
Wow, it actually has a smell.
It's really nice.
Okay, I would have never knownthat.
And the last one, obviously, istaste.
Now, usually I have gum with me.

(11:34):
I don't have any right nowbecause I'm doing this, um, or
I'll do some chapstick, becausesometimes I like to lick my
chapstick.
I know that's not natural, butit happens, okay, um, or
something as simple as liketaking a mint.
So, yeah, that is one way topay attention to what's
happening around you.
The second thing that Mayoclinic tells us to do is to live

(11:57):
in the moment.
I've only been saying thatliterally every couple of
minutes, but, hey, live in themoment, find joy in the simple
pleasures, like, for example,with me.
I'm not a chef, I'm not a cook,I'm not a baker, but you know,
sometimes I dream that one dayI'm going to be pretty okay at

(12:20):
this stuff Not mediocre, notamazing, but okay and that is
what pushes me forward to put onmy little apron and cook like I
did tonight.
I made ravioli tonight.
I did burn the sauce, but it'sokay, it got saved because it
tastes good.
So did you say I have aninteresting palate?

(12:44):
I have an interesting palate,but more than that, I know how
to live in the moment and makethe most out of it, and maybe
you should learn how to do thesame too.
Listen, the last thing that MayoClinic is telling us to do.
It's not simple at all and it'ssomething that I still struggle
with.
But hey, here we go, that is,accepting yourself for who you

(13:07):
are.
I mean, I wish I had a wandthat I could just make myself
accept myself for who I am andmake you accept yourself for who
you are.
But it's not that easy.
I mean and you know it's notthat easy because however old
you are, you have struggled withthis Like there's no way You've

(13:27):
never struggled with acceptingyourself for who you currently
are or who you were Right.
So all this to say therapistssay different things.
Like some therapists are liketreat yourself like you are your
friend, and other therapistsare like treat yourself like you
are a younger version ofyourself, maybe a child version

(13:47):
of yourself.
But see, those never workedwith me, and if they worked with
you, that's amazing.
But for me, the thing that hasworked very, very well for me to
start accepting myself andagain, I don't accept myself all
the time, but this past yearthis specific technique has
helped me accept myself morethan ever is just treating

(14:09):
myself with unconditional grace.
Unconditional love can be hardsometimes because I don't know
about you, but I am a veryresentful person, so my love I
wouldn't call it unconditional.
However, when it comes to grace, I'm way more lenient because I
do believe that people canchange and people can become

(14:33):
better, because if I didn'tbelieve that then I wouldn't
have this podcast right.
So what I've started to do is Itreat myself with unconditional
grace.
I tell myself you could havedone better, but now you know
and now you're going to dobetter.
And just having that type ofconversation with myself has
helped me love and accept myselfway more than telling myself

(14:59):
you have to love yourself - youhave to love yourself like your
little child I mean, not alittle child, your version of a
child is crying for you to lovethem and it's like that doesn't
really work with me, or likeyour friend, and like with
friends, like there's times thatI'm like I don't like you.
That's just everyone, right?
So treat yourself withunconditional grace.

(15:22):
Unconditional grace, and youwill see the difference.
I'm telling you you're going totype it down here because
you're going to see thedifference.
Well, my dear passenger, thetime has come for the last step
of the day, that is, recap time.
Today's episode discussedmindfulness, which is the

(15:42):
awareness of our internal stateand surroundings.
We now know that we can becomemindful through meditation, also
through breathing, also throughusing our five senses and, last
but not least, living in themoment and accepting ourselves.
Remember, self-growth is anendless journey towards

(16:04):
self-improvement.
However, you don't ever have todo it alone.
As your tour guide, my goal isto guide you with the best
intentions and the best researchavailable.
Make sure to follow me onInstagram, Facebook and TikTok
at the Self-Growth Train Podcast, and to also follow my new
website,theselfgrowthtrainpodcast.
com.
As always, all the resourcesused today have been added to

(16:25):
the episode's description.
Well, until the next stop, dearpassengers, safe travels, bye!