1 Mindful Mondays

Welcome to week 1 of our Mindful Mondays series.......

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Talk about buzz words and mindfulness is probably one that springs to mind. We have all heard it, but how many of us have given this simple word any real thought or consideration, and should we even bother?

Mindfulness for me falls under the category of Loving Kindness and is one way that we can all improve our health and happiness. Freeing up our bodies and minds to do the things that make our hearts sing.

Over the next 12 weeks join me to learn a bit more about mindfulness, and how you can add more mindful moments into the lives of you and your families, through simple weekly challenges.

What is Mindfulness??

Mindfulness is the act of observing your life as it is happening. It is being fully aware of your body, from the hair on your head down to your toes, your emotions, thoughts, the feeling of different sensations and how you respond. It is accepting your current situation without judgement or struggle, and not allowing your emotions to drive your actions.

Why should we all work towards being more mindful?

With advances in research we are fast learning the benefits of mindfulness as a method to alleviate stress, anxiety, and even depression. In fact the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have reported that mindfulness is as effective as drugs for preventing depression. Above all it makes you feel truly alive and more capable to tackle, whatever life throws at you.

Is it really beneficial?

With a growing body of peer reviewed articles being published each month, on the benefits of mindfulness it is too great a task, to list everything here........ to name a few:

• Greater well-being and life satisfaction

• Greater awareness, acceptance and understanding of emotions

• Higher and more stable self-esteem

• Better quality relationships with more meaningful communication

• A correlation with Emotional Intelligence which in turn is linked with social skills and resilience

• People who are mindful are less likely to react with aggression or defensively

• A link between mindfulness and higher achievement academically and in personal goals

• Mindful meditation can create better relationships in the workplace, improve job satisfaction and decrease work related stress

• Meditative practice can increase blood flow, reduce blood pressure and reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease

There has also been a lot of neuroscience research that indicates that mindfulness practice, has a significant impact on how the brain is shaped, wired and activated. Equipping people to experience higher levels of well-being, happiness and feelings of ease with oneself and others.

So who is in??

And how do we practice?

Well we are going to start off the series with a simple exercise to try and commit to 'living in the moment' once a day for the next seven days. The aim is to switch off our 'auto-pilot' (more on why this is a bad thing next week!) and really start to explore and practice mindfulness everyday.

So here's the challenge.......

Over the next 7 days pick something that you do every day. It does not have to be something enjoyable or anything significant. It can be simply brushing teeth, walking downstairs, drinking your morning coffee.

As long as it lasts longer than 1 minute! And keep to the same activity every day.

So without judgement....... and that can be the tricky part........ "i look..... today", "i feel.... today", "the kids are really loud right now". Can you see what i mean? try not to let your emotions and sensations effect your feelings!

The idea is not to make you feel different, but simply to allow a few more moments in the day when you are 'awake'.

Live in that moment or activity each day. Mentally go through your checklist of senses:

How do you feel - is there any tension in your body, what is your temperature like, are you standing with weight evenly distributed or off to one side, are you still or moving? Are you touching anything with your hands? cup, toothbrush? or feet? Is your breathing relaxed or heavy?

What can you smell? and do the smells change over the period of your attention?

What can you see? inside, outside, near to you, or around the room. Imagine you are seeing things for the first time, without judgement but purely noticing your environment.

If you decide to chose an activity that allows you time to plan or reflect then do so intentionally. Draw your awareness to the fact that you have decided to focus your attention this way.

Feel free to continue this challenge using a different activity next week. The more you practice these mindful moments the easier they become.

Namaste x

Get in contact if you want some help or support or just fancy a natter!

Love living your life in motion x