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:
Guided meditations to kickstart your mindfulness journey
