Written By: Sarah Esmae Wolfe
Mindfulness. It’s quite the buzzword these days. But what does it mean and why is it important to your witchcraft practice?
Rooted in Buddhist Philosophy, mindfulness, or “sati” is considered the most basic step of enlightenment. It requires awareness and acceptance of the things that are happening around you. Observing your surroundings without getting attached to judgments or labels, but also not actively pushing them away.
You can read all the articles and books in the world and have all the knowledge, but still not be successful in spells and witchcraft. So how do you advance your magickal practice? Magick comes from within and requires strong visualization and self-belief. This is where mindfulness meditation comes in. Knowing yourself is an essential part of successful magick.
Mindfulness meditation involves being fully aware of and embodied in the present moment, instead of trying to multitask in your mind. This improves your ability to see things more clearly. Therefore, you are able to visualize better when you are only focusing on one thing. You know the importance of grounding and centering before a spell. Mindfulness meditation is a way to practice this in everyday life.
Yoga as a Moving Meditation
One of the best ways to grow this skill is through meditation and yoga practice. If you have trouble sitting for long periods of time in stillness when you try to meditate, yoga might be a good alternative for you. A yoga flow gives you something to occupy your mind while still being meditative.
Yoga is a moving meditation and helps you get in touch with your body, emotions, and inner landscape. It requires you to connect to your breath and your body as you breathe through the poses and move your body mindfully.
If you’ve only been using yoga for its physical benefits, you are missing out! Yoga has a rich history of spirituality and is known for expanding your mind and improving your focus, both skills essential to successful spell crafting.
Presence With a Morning Beverage
How many mornings do you grab your cup of coffee on your way out the door, rushing to the next thing without taking time to pause? Or maybe you drink your tea while simultaneously checking social media? Yet, this everyday occurrence gives us the perfect opportunity to center ourselves.
Allow yourself to sit with your warm beverage, feeling the mug in your hands, taking in the aroma, and paying attention to what is going on around you. Even if your surroundings aren’t calm and peaceful, you are still being present and grounding yourself in the moment. And because it is hot, we must patiently wait for it to cool before getting rewarded with the caffeine, in much the same way we must be patient while a spell is working. Take a few deep breaths and trust the outcome.
Preparing a Meal
Eating is something we all must do multiple times a day and often it is something we take for granted and breeze through. For our ancestors, food was a blessing but in our modern lives, we can go to the grocery store and get just about anything during any season. Mindfulness around food could be practicing gratitude while preparing a meal or trying to eat more seasonally.
Eating foods that are in season connects you to the Wheel of the Year and helps you better visualize where that food came from. Thank Mother Earth and the farmers who tended the crops as you eat. Studies suggest that eating slowly and mindfully helps you feel more satiated and know when you are full. Do this by engaging the senses, paying attention to how it looks, smells, and tastes. This may sound simple, but often we eat so quickly we don’t take time to appreciate the food.
Washing Dishes
Washing dishes is a great way to connect with the five elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit. As you stand at the sink, close your eyes and feel your feet grounded on the earth. Turn on the sink and watch the water flow from the faucet. See the steam rise into the air and feel the warmth heated by fire. This mindful connection takes you into your spirit where everything is one. You can even draw a pentagram in the water with liquid dish soap since, in witchcraft and magick, the pentagram represents the five elements.
As you scrub the dishes clean, visualize cleansing all negative energy and when you are finished, watch the negativity swirl down the drain.
Gratitude Journaling
Journaling doesn’t need to be complicated, like the fancy, time-consuming bullet journals that are so popular now. You don’t even need to fill up a whole page. Journaling can simply be taking the time to meditate on what you are grateful for in the moment and writing it down. It could be one sentence or even one word.
Thinking about the reasons you have to feel gratitude grounds you in the present moment and raises your vibration. Having a positive attitude is crucial to spellcrafting because you must believe your spell is going to work in your favor. Writing something you are grateful for every day helps you practice getting into a positive state of mind.