A Perfect Tourniquet

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog!  I haven’t written anything on here for a while so it feels good to be back, and I’m quite pleased with myself for finding the time as I’m very preoccupied with uni work at the moment!  I’m always telling people it’s not healthy to study too much, so I’m practising what I preach and doing something different for an hour or two.  And what better way to spend that hour or two than to write?!

As I write this I’m actually feeling quite inspired.  I recently completed an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course and am amazed by what a positive experience this was.  What’s even more amazing is the potential for massive long-term benefits on my wellbeing.  It’s something I think everyone should be able to benefit from and I encourage all my readers to start practicing mindfulness, whether just listening to a few guided meditations on YouTube, attending a seminar or doing a full-blown course.

The reason I’m so keen that people should practice mindfulness is I think it’s almost essential for coping with modern life in a healthy way.  Most of us have such busy lives in Western society.  We have stressful jobs, studying to do, families to look after, illnesses and injuries to contend with, a whole host of other challenges, or any combination of the above!  And with the way technology has advanced in recent times, we are now faced with a constant need to be connected to the internet, glued to a laptop, tablet or smartphone, texting, checking Facebook, playing a game or looking at the sports scores.  All in all, in my opinion this is not conducive to good mental wellbeing (I’ve written about this in a previous post too: see Feeling The Moment).

All these things mean we can feel constantly busy, in a rush and under pressure to be going somewhere or doing something.  We seem to have lost the ability to simply enjoy the moment and be fully immersed in whatever we’re doing at any one time.  What a shame that many of us can’t enjoy a meal with friends without checking our phones.  Or that we experience a heart-sinking feeling every time we check our phones and don’t have messages.  That being always aware of what we need to do next detracts from our enjoyment of time with friends and family.

Mindfulness can bring some peace and stillness to a hectic life

Since our jobs and studies and other responsibilities aren’t going anywhere, and I don’t see our reliance on technology going backwards any time soon, what we need is a way to adapt to this type of lifestyle and stay mentally healthy at the same time.  This means a need to make the effort to connect with ourselves and with the present moment every so often, rather than always being connected with social media or worrying about what’s happening tomorrow.  And this is exactly what mindfulness teaches us to do!

Even though we do all have busy lives, mindfulness can fit right into them.  Whether it be a 10 or 20 minute meditation, taking a moment to breathe deeply and acknowledge how we are feeling a few times a day, or simply being completely aware of what we are doing whilst we are doing it, we can always make time for mindfulness.  In turn, we can feel more relaxed, learn about ourselves and enjoy life more.  Ultimately, we can even find that some of the rushing around, being glued to technology and stressing about life we do is completely unnecessary!  Mindfulness, in my eyes, is the ‘perfect tourniquet’ to stem the flow of negative emotions that can be caused by hectic lives.  

One of my favourite ways to relax and connect with the moment is to listen to music.  I find music indredibly nourishing, whether this be through the emotional power of lyrics or the soothing effect of a beautiful piece of melodic music.  If you're a music lover too, try spending a little time each day listening to music and really connecting with it.  I find this helpful when my mind is very busy and I'm not getting on well with meditation.  On the note of music, I always try to name my blog posts after songs or lyrics, and this one is from an incredible band Anberlin.  The song doesn't have a great deal to do with what I'm writing about, but the title seemed apt, and I've put a video at the bottom of the page for you to check out.

Being mindful doesn't always have to involve meditation!

Other ways to bring mindfulness into your everyday activites is to notice the sensations in your feet when walking, spend time really noticing the flavours, textures and colours in your food, or simply to make yourself completely aware of what you're doing or how your feeling at any time.  If this all seems a little too much, simply try and spend a little time every day (or at least most days!) doing something you enjoy.

Staying motivated to practice mindfulness every day is challenging, and for all my raving about it I’m not always that good at it!  Fortunately I had a new burst of inspiration when I met up with some people from my MBSR course yesterday, plus I’ve volunteered to become a Mindfulness Advocate which will get me more involved with mindfulness and encourage me to keep practising.  I’m really looking forward to continuing on a lifelong mindfulness journey and helping others to do the same!

Links:

   

Dorset Mindfulness Centre

Guided meditations to kickstart your mindfulness journey

 

All The Small Things

The last few months have been pretty unsettled for me: new job, back at uni, accepting that I’m going to living with my parents for the next couple of years while I study, trying to build myself a routine and keep busy whilst not overworking myself.  Whilst I haven’t necessarily felt stressed on too many occasions, I often find it difficult to switch off.  To combat this, I’ve been practicing a spot of mindfulness.  Whilst I find meditation quite challenging (which I plan to address by undertaking a mindfulness course in the new year), what I have found to be of benefit is mindfulness of day to day living, which I would really recommend to others for stress reduction and general mood-boosting. 

Gingerbread latte makes me smile, and mindfulness adds to the enjoyment!

Examples of activities you can do this with are eating (really taking the time to eat slowly, notice the colours, smell, textures and taste of every mouthful) and showering (noticing how the water feels as it makes contact with the skin, the smells and feel of products used, and so on).  Personally I find mindful eating less easy to implement into everyday life as you really need a good half hour per meal, but what I have enjoyed on the odd occasion is the mindful consumption of a gingerbread latte (one of my favourite winter treats!). 

Many of us live such hectic lives, and taking a few minutes to be mindful can really help to ground us and switch off from that for a short time, which is really beneficial for wellbeing.  You don’t have to pick certain activities or times of day to practice everyday mindfulness; it is also about generally allowing yourself to notice things.  Those hectic schedules we have means we rush around and often don’t appreciate how amazing the world around us is: a beautiful sky as you drive home from work, the fresh feeling of crisp, cold air on your face as you step outside on a cold but glorious day, the feeling of treading on a crunchy leaf as you walk from the car to the office.  Being more in tune with your senses in this way can work wonders for your mood and it’s so easy to do!

 

Really noticing things reminds us how amazing the world is

I’ve been making an effort to notice things more over recent weeks and will share a couple of examples here.  Something I’ve really noticed is that I’m taking a lot more joy from other people’s happiness: perhaps I’ll see a child walking down the street hand in hand with a parent, both with big smiles on their faces or giggling at a joke they’ve shared; the simple fact that I notice this rather than being wrapped up in my own thoughts makes me smile.  When I listen to music I really listen to it, noticing all the different layers of sound and how they make me feel.  And the very incident that inspired me to write this post: just today someone pulled out in front of me on a busy road – it’s debatable whether he should’ve done; I wasn’t travelling fast and he may have thought I was letting him out – my initial reaction, as is usually the case when I’m in my car, was to be annoyed.  Then I looked at the guy in the van and he gave me a big cheeky smile, the campest wave of the hand I’ve ever seen in my life and blew me a kiss.  So, instead of being irritated I chose to be entertained and cheered by the guy’s reaction, and in fact it brightened up my day! 

In the example above, by truly noticing what was going on around me, rather than allowing myself to indulge in a negative self-absorbed reaction, I felt much happier than I otherwise would have done.  Everyday mindfulness not only gives us a break from racing thoughts and reduces stress, but it also allows us to appreciate all the small positive things a little more and notice how amazing the world is (refer back to my old post My Heart Is Open… for more on this type of thing!).  So, I would like to put it to you, my wonderful reader, if you don’t already, to try practicing a little everyday mindfulness, and see how much it brightens up your days!