The here and now.
Our ability to sit up straight doesn’t stop many of us from slouching. Likewise our ability to breathe correctly doesn’t stop us from breathing lazily.
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As with our posture and breathing, we each have the ability to live mindfully, moment by moment. To turn down the volume in our minds, to re-focus and reset ourselves to here and now mode. We just need to become aware and practice it- quite a lot it seems.
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The present moment is vulnerable insofar as it's often kidnapped by our over-thinking minds that hold it hostage in either the past or the future. Those imaginary places where we go to ruminate and fantasize. Apparently to the tune of 46.5% of our day.
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Don’t get me wrong it’s a wonderful thing to hold onto great memories and equally to have plans and dreams for the future BUT… if you’re in anyway stressed, tired, angry, resentful, worried, or scared, your excursions into never-never land may augment your woes to dangerous levels which could lead to depression, burnout, restlessness, irritability, and general poor health.
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Let’s face it, modern life and technology has evolved faster than we have, so we need readily available tools at our disposal to re-structure our minds and give us a fighting chance to live full and happy lives.
What you need to know.
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Mindfulness, like meditation, has been around a very long time.
It’s not a passing fad and it's supported and validated by scientific study.
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This is where I keep it simple……
Since the 1960s’ a peace-loving, Vietnamese Buddhist monk called Thich Nhat Hanh did his bit over several decades to share as much as possible with the world at large about mindfulness.
He wrote dozens of books, taught, and travelled extensively. He also founded many mindfulness centres around the world. A champion.
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In the 1970s, an American professor emeritus of medicine Jon Kabat-Zinn studied how mindfulness could help people suffering with chronic pain, depression and stress related issues. He developed the Mindfulness based stress reduction program (MBSR) which has become a benchmark teaching for mindfulness.
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Since then the floodgates have opened and mindfulness is now well known throughout the world.
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Mindfulness is evolving all the time, with new techniques and science-based discoveries being made every year, improving on what’s already working, while adapting to society’s ever-changing needs.
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If you have had or are currently suffering from trauma, consult your medical doctor before engaging in mindfulness or guided meditations.
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But what is it and what does it involve?
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Well I’m glad you asked.
This is not rocket science by any stretch, but don’t be fooled, as simple as it sounds, it's often not that easy to apply in daily life.
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It’s about bringing awareness to the present moment through what we sense (see, hear, smell, taste, touch, think, or feel emotionally), observing all, without judgement - this is 101 mindfulness.
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It requires daily action, using formal and informal meditative practices and exercises, which as time passes are woven into our daily lives. We become explorers of our heart and conquerors of our mind.
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We transition from ‘human-doingness’ back to ‘human-beingness’.
We re-discover our sense of wonder and curiosity of the world and the people around us, and ourselves.
We begin to wake up. We don’t just smell the coffee, we enjoy the taste, the colour, and appreciate its journey across the world to be in our kitchen.
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Teachers of mindfulness will sometimes ask students to imagine their mind’s as being like the sky and their thoughts being like the clouds that occupy space in the sky. Our thoughts come and go BUT…they are not us and do not define us. They’re just guests and we get to decide how long they’re going to stay.
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There is so much loving kindness rooted in mindfulness and so much wisdom to be found in its practice.
It’s fun and its empowering.
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If someone said to you, “you only have a moment to live”, how would you react? Panic? Scream? Freeze? The truth of the matter is, we really only have one moment at a time to live. Try right now to breathe a breath from yesterday or tomorrow. We can’t. We just have this present moment to experience. So we need to stop trying to live in three different time zones. One is enough and it’s called the ‘present’.
Habit Forming.
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Some say it takes 30 days to develop a habit others insist on 90 days. I’ll meet you somewhere in between with 56 days or eight weeks to be precise.
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Typically you make a two-hour time investment once a week with your coach, you then spend the next 6 days practicing what you’ve been shown. You develop new skills, new habits , new ways of ‘being’, new ways to manage your thought life.
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The rest is up to you.
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Mindful living is like meditation itself, insofar as there are limitless depths of discovery and experiences to encounter.
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Steeped in ‘GOOD’, mindful living promotes being fully human and fully alive. Its accessible, it’s fun and can be the life-upgrade you’ve been looking for.
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