Category: Mindfulness

Ideas for mindful living.

  • How mindfulness can help you.

    Mindfulness is taking notice of the present moment, without judgement with a deeper sense of being here right now. This can improve your focus and help you to overcome stress, anxiety, and depression. It can also help with chronic pain, which is what the technique was first developed for.

    How to practice mindfulness.

    Mindfulness can be practised by paying attention to your senses, physical sensations in your body, and breath as a form of meditation. Popular things like gardening or yoga often give us this kind of experience, but you can build on it in a few simple ways and use the technique in many aspects of daily life. By doing so, and becoming more aware of your thoughts and feelings, you can manage them in a more helpful, positive way. It’s not about stopping the negative thoughts completely, but about noticing how they come and go in your mind and guiding your attention. Here are some simple suggestions:

    Mindfulness Idea 1:

    Take a pause in your day and notice five things you can see, then four things you can hear, three physical sensations you can feel, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

    It’s all about what’s happening right now.

    Mindfulness Idea 2:

    It’s easier than you think to do daily activities in a mindful way. Notice the feeling of water and temperature on your body while you’re taking a shower. Eat a meal without distractions and savour the flavours. Notice the taste and sensation when you’re cleaning your teeth.

    Mindfulness Idea 3:

    It can be helpful to set a beep, chime or reminder on your phone every hour (or few hours), just to prompt yourself to have a 30 second pause. Put your feet on the floor, notice the contact points between your body and your seat, and take some deep breaths.

    It’s also good to use these timers as a prompt to go outside, or into your garden for a breath of fresh air

    Mindfulness Idea 4:

    Notice when you’re feeling tense and take a moment to pause. Sense your breath moving in to the tense areas of the body, then practice releasing or softening the tension with each out-breath or exhalation.

    Try this next time you’re in the car stopped at a red light.

    Mindfulness Idea 5:

    When you’re making a brew, get in the habit of having a sway and a stretch. If you work sat at a desk, bring some regular movement to your work area – even simple chair exercises can help.

    Pay special attention to the sensations in your body and your breathing while you’re doing it.

    Mindfulness Idea 6:

    Like anything, mindfulness becomes easier – and starts to make more sense – the more you practice. It isn’t for everyone, but for many the impact is huge. You can find lots of apps and online resources that can help you to learn the technique.

  • The benefits of meditation

    The lists of benefits are long and wide ranging but here is a short list that most people would find beneficial:

    1. Reduced stress by improving stress related conditions.
    2. Improved memory through better focus, mental clarity, and increased attention spans.
    3. Lower blood pressure: People who meditate regularly have lower stress related problems. This can reduce strain on the heart and blood vessels and help prevent heart disease.
    4. Less anxiety through an improved perspective, and by consequence, less likely to suffer from depression.
    5. Greater compassion: Meditation can help you better understand yourself, find your best self, and increase positive feelings and actions toward others.

    What is meditation?

    There are various types of meditation but broadly they all aim to help focus awareness on cultivating present-moment awareness (mindfulness), cultivate feelings of compassion, love, and goodwill towards oneself and others (loving kindness), or to transcend ordinary thinking and experience a state of pure awareness and consciousness (transcendental).

    Does it mean becoming more monk-like?

    Whilst some people do indeed spend their whole lives committed to enlightenment of the soul, the majority of people just want a way to relax and ‘let go’. A growing number of people are suffering from anxiety and depression in the modern world. As stress builds in response to ever-increasing demands and distractions, so too does the number of people looking for release from it all. One of the methods that people are turning to, to rediscover their inner peace and happiness, is meditation. Just a few minutes, two or three times a week, can yield impressive results.

    What is the simplest method to get started?

    There is no single ‘correct method’ but if you follow these simple steps, it will help get you started:

    1. Sit or stand in a calm, quiet place with eyes closed or gaze down.
    2. Set a time limit, especially if you’re just starting out. It can be five or 10 minutes.
    3. Feel your body. Make sure you are stable and in a position you comfortably stay in the whole time.
    4. Focused attention practice: Focus your attention on your breathing in two ways. First, you can observe your torso expanding and contracting. Or you can feel the sensation of breath inside your nostrils with each inhalation and exhalation. When your breath focus is stable, you can shift to noticing thoughts, emotions, sensations, and sounds as they rise and dissolve in your mind.
    5. Notice when your mind wanders, which will happen. Don’t be hard on yourself when your mind goes elsewhere – just note where your mind drifted and then gently return your attention to your breath.
    6. Slowly return from your meditation feeling relaxed and replenished.

  • Poem: Joyful living

    Joyful living means forgiving;

    embracing life without misgiving.

    Choosing to make the best of things,

    no matter what tomorrow brings.

    Roll with it and keep up your smile,

    things will feel better in a while.

    An optimistic point of view,

    is your best tool for getting through.

    Don’t dwell on things when life feels tragic,

    remember too, its full of magic.

    Find your balance, its a tightrope,

    things turn out best for those who have hope.

    Life gives us choices every day,

    make choices that bring joy your way.

    Today is yours, to lose or win,

    expect the best, lift up your chin,

    learn from mistakes, it’s what they’re for,

    you’re adding to your coping store.

    Our lives are finite, make yours count,

    live life with joy, don’t cling to doubt,

    live in the moment, let hurt go,

    watering regrets just makes them grow.

    Life’s more than just trying to survive,

    and, no-one gets out of this world alive!

    (Written with a moments notice, by my dear friend Bridget, 12th April 2020)

  • Uncover your existing purpose

    Your existing purpose is something that you have been unconsciously doing already. It can usually be summed up in a short sentence that encapsulates who you are in a powerful statement about why you’re here, and what you’re here to do.

    Once you know your purpose it can help you stay on track. The knowledge of what you are here for can help you decide on the fly, “should I do this or should I do that?”

    Of course, you can exercise your gift of free will at any point, yet if one choice fulfils your purpose – your life will tend to run more smoothly (than running with one that that does not). Additionally, when you bring yourself more closely inline (in an involved and doing way), you may feel that your life energy flows more freely.

    A method to discover your purpose:

    It is perfectly possible to pass this task to your subconscious power-house by simply asking, “I want to know my purpose and I want the answer to come to me in the form dreams and spontaneous insight”. The latter would work just fine yet I found that it needed a more systematic approach to tease out the information I needed. This is how I did it;

    Stage 1: Begin by looking back on your life. Take a blank piece of paper (lets say – A4 size) – put a diving line down the centre and write at the top of one side, “Things I enjoyed and wanted to do” .. and on the top of the other side write, “Things I would rather not have done”. Then leave that piece of paper out, and over time (lets say – a week), put a brief description, under each of your headings, of actions or activities you have done in the past. Try to fill each side of the dividing line right down to the bottom of the page with as many varied examples as come to mind.

    Stage 2: Take a look at each column and try to find any commonality between each listed item on each side of the page. You might notice a lot of sport, mediation between people, leadership, working in teams, or creativity and lone working. Take a new piece of paper and again put a dividing line down the middle. This time – make one heading ‘More like me’ and the other heading ‘Less like me’. Read through your previous listings and jot down the essence of each type of action/ activity under the relevant heading. You should now have two shorter lists that give you a pretty good idea of your inclinations, this way or that way, based on what you have already been doing in your life.

    Stage 3: Finally, examine the previous two lists and try (by trial and error if you like) to ‘boil down’ the list of ‘More like me’ to a single sentence (that usually begins with “I am..”), like – “I am a joyful liver of life”, “I learn then I teach”, “I intensely appreciate life”. If these descriptions seem too vague, then go for one that is a little more specific – “I am a light-hearted creator for peace”, “I am a talkative vessel for highlighting happiness”, “I am a festive organiser of people”, “I am a silent contributor to a peaceful world”, etc.

    If you have been feeling that your life hasn’t been quite as you hoped, or as ran as completely as you might, then knowing your purpose might just answer that question, “Why am I here?”

    Try it out – enjoy the process, gain some new insight, and have fun!