Have you ever consciously noticed the things around you, or how you talk to others and yourself? Or do you run every day on autopilot, not really knowing what you’re seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, saying, hearing?
Maybe you worry about the future and spend time kicking yourself over past mistakes?
Do you know anything about Mindfulness and Mindfulness Meditation?
Here is another example of non-mindful behaviour or of not been in the here and now…
Have you ever driven or walked someplace, arrived at the destination, only to realise you can’t remember how you got there!?
This is a clear indication that you’ve been in your thoughts, reliving a story of something that has happened to you or creating a story of something that may happen to you in the future.
You’ve been thinking over past or possible future situations.
Make sense?
OK, so here is an example of being mindful –
You’re in the shower, you notice the water hitting the body and moving its way to the floor or you notice the feeling of your hands against your head whilst washing your hair.
Maybe you can feel your feet against the shower floor. You even notice what you’re thinking about, are you worrying about something or kicking yourself for something you should or shouldn’t have done? … Simply notice that sensation and let it go.
Mindfulness is a psychological modality, stemming from ancient buddhism and isfast growing in popularity within our Western society, because it is so effective.
Sati (ancient India) means ‘awareness’. Latin word for Mindful is remember
Mindfulness is memoriam – meaning – into memory.
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, of being aware of what we are doing and what is going on around us, without reacting to, judging or becoming overwhelmed by what is going on. Mindfulness Meditation is about becoming aware of our body and our bodily sensations such as movement, temperature, breathing, sound, itches, aches, pains etc, without reacting or judging.
Mindfulness is therefore about being fully present in the here and now. In the here and now you have the opportunity to just focus on the task at hand, not delving into all the possible outcomes that may or may not happen.
However, life today is busy and our brains are overloaded everyday with information – from the news, to social media, to daily demands, to our racing thoughts. This busy life and overload can cause our brain to struggle, negatively impacting our concentration, memory, motivation and increasing our anxiety and stress levels.
It is also important to understand that our minds easily drift into the past or into the future and when we are feeling stressed we are not fully in the present moment. We worry about possible future events or consequences such as ‘what if I don’t get the grades’ or ‘what if I can’t complete this assignment’ or reminding ourselves of past failures and disappointments and deciding we are not good enough.
Mindfulness helps us to detach from this busy world experience. Whenever you bring awareness to what you are experiencing using your senses, or to your state of mind using your thoughts and emotions, you are being mindful.
While mindfulness is something we all can do and have access to, to be of real benefit it has to become a practice, just like meditation. It is like a muscle – it needs to be exercised daily or else, our mind will run wild to think of random and reactive thoughts at any given moment and be stimulated by the external noise around us of busy life.
Learning how to be mindful and what tools and techniques you can bring into your life will really help to reduce your stress levels and increase your productivity.
In this section I am sharing with you some mindfulness tools and techniques to help you to stay in the here and now and reduce stress, so that we feel more guided, motivated, resilient and action driven AND take charge of you – supporting you in intentionally create your life.
Mindfulness Exercises
Start of day
When you get up in the morning, and before the usual rush of thoughts hits you, just
pause to notice your breathing. As you walk away from the bed, notice your feet
against the floor. As you brush your teeth, just notice what you are doing. Each time
your mind drifts away, bring it back to what you are doing. This will give you a better
start to your day.
Mindfulness Cues
Choose one or two habitual behaviours and decide when performing them you will
maintain awareness of what you are doing, rather than day-dreaming or getting
caught up in fears or anxieties.
For example: Using the telephone, going up or down the stairs, using a computer,
tidying, washing up, cooking, gardening.
Awareness of breathing
As you go through your day, notice your breathing. Are you breathing with your
chest or your tummy? As you breathe, can you feel the air entering and leaving your
nostrils?