209 | How to Use Micro-Moments of Mindfulness to Build Strength, Resilience & Digital Health

What if healing was less about doing more—and more about remembering what truly matters?

In a world full of distractions, survivors of trauma and injury are bombarded by messages telling us we’re not enough, not strong enough, not healed enough. In this episode, Michael explores the power of Sati, the Sanskrit concept of “remembering to remember,” and how it can transform your recovery, mindfulness practice, and even your relationship with your phone.

Takeaways:

• Learn how frequent, bite-sized mindfulness moments can reshape your healing journey
• Discover why “remembering” may be the most radical self-care you can practice
• Try one bold digital health tip that will reset your nervous system and your habits

Take a full breath in and slow releasing breath out and rediscover your strength through one tiny practice that will help you scroll less and live more.

00:00 Introduction and Purpose

00:58 Gratitude and Acknowledgment

01:37 The Power of Mindfulness

03:09 Understanding Sati

05:48 Practical Mindfulness Tips

06:46 Digital Health Tip

08:37 Conclusion and Resources

Transcript:

 In this episode, I’ll share something worth remembering to help you heal, grow, and step into the person you’re becoming. Hey there, it’s Michael. Welcome to Whole again, A show about helping survivors a physical injury and trauma. Reclaim their strength and resilience through the wisdom of Kazuki on Fridays.

I love sharing a microdose of wisdom with you to help you become whole again and step into the person you’re becoming. And today as we wrap up another crazy week, I wanna share something worth remembering with you and a little tip to help your digital health. But before we get there, I first wanna say thank you for being here.

As a fellow survivor, I know that showing up isn’t always easy. Some days are really challenging. So the fact that you’re here, that you decide to show up means a lot. So thank you for being here, and thank you for being a survivor.

All right, so what do I wish for you to remember? That is a very good question. I’m glad you asked. So when I go out and speak about mindfulness and the pause, breathe, reflect method. Especially when I go out into the corporate arena, I get a lot of different opinions. Everybody has a point of view. It’s natural.

We’re all human, but even to this day, so many look at mindfulness as something that’s soft, not edgy enough, perhaps a little too woowoo, or they don’t have time for it and their perspective. Is their perspective, but it’s not the only perspective. ’cause mindfulness through a different lens is none of that.

Mindfulness is hard. In fact, if it was easy, more people would be doing it, more people would be practicing it. And I believe today more than ever, having a mindfulness practice is essential. Helping us heal and grow, become more resilient and step into the person we are becoming. Keep in mind that when Buddha started teaching, he didn’t have to worry about a smartphone or social media or 24 7 cable news coverage.

There’s more coming at us today and more will come at us tomorrow. So. I want you to remember is to remember a great definition of mindfulness in Sanskrit is called Sati, STI. It’s the act of remembering to remember to come back to the present moment, to come back to our breath, to come back to the body.

It’s about the quality of our awareness. We live in a very distracted world. I think we all feel it. I’ve heard people say that we live in an addiction economy or maybe the attention economy. Either way, we’re distracted. So sati, the act of remembering helps us to come back, come back to the breath, come back.

To giving ourselves some grace as we heal to come back to speaking kindly and compassionately to ourselves. Much like we would speak to our friend and we come back to these qualities with frequency time after time because there’s so much coming at us. We get in our head, we think we’re too much of this, not enough of that.

We scroll, social media and the comparison steals all our joy. There’s so much coming at us, so much to worry about and to be anxious about, and that’s all normal. That’s all human. But also what’s very human is to remember that we’re strong. So when I say you’re strong over and over again, when I thank you for being a survivor, when I tell you that you’ve got this and I’ve got you that together, we’re gonna put a beautiful ripple into the world.

When I tell you this time, after time, after time, and you get bored with it or you get like, I already get it, Michael. You don’t have to say it again. I say it because it helps us to remember. Because there’s so many other competing messages out there that will tell us that we’re not strong enough, that we don’t have it, that we’re not good enough.

So we remember to come back to the moment that we have to come back to our breath, to settle our nervous system down, to come back to the body and listen to it, whisper to us before it turns up the volume. So sati is what I wish for you to remember. So when I go out again to talk to companies about pause, breathe, reflect, I share with them this notion of remembering.

It’s why the practice is built with frequency in mind. So if you don’t have 10 minutes in the morning to meditate, a whole bunch of people don’t. Because we have a lot on our to-do list, but I bet. During the course of the day, you have five times where you have two minutes and those two minutes matter and those two minutes times five is 10 minutes.

So we sprinkle PBR into the day with frequency. It helps you to remember like sat that you’ve got this and. I’ve got you.

All right, before you go, I have one tip to improve your digital health. And I know I just went on about remembering, but this digital health tip is all about forgetting. I want you to try to forget your phone at home. In essence, leave your phone at home. And I know that notion may sound like a no way. I’m not doing it.

I need my phone and I totally get that sensation. So as we do what we do here on whole, again, we take a small step. So I’m not asking you to go off on a two week vacation without your phone, but perhaps you can walk around the block or just leave it behind for a little bit, keeping in mind that you still wanna be safe.

I know our phones keep us safe, but try to have some distance away from the phone. Take that first step, and as you do, notice what you sense. Notice if you have a urge to go grab it, or you have separation anxiety, or maybe you feel like, whoa, this is so much better. So simply notice. But if you do have that urge.

To grab it, to cling to it. That can be part of your practice to let that be, to give it some space so you can slowly change your relationship with the smartphone that you have. So over the next couple of days, try this out and then let me know what you experienced. You’ve got this and I’ve got you. We’re gonna work together to step into who we are becoming.

And if you wish to further enhance your digital health, I’ll invite you to take my smartphone wellness check, and you can access it through the link in the show notes. Or you can visit my website, which is Michael O’Brien shift.com, and it’s absolutely free. And it’ll help you scroll less and live more.

And of course, I hope you’ll join us here on whole again every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and discover how to heal, grow, and become more resilient and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience. Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You’ve got this and we’ve got you.