A chill pill for the mind
Well, I hope you are feeling re-charged after your Easter break and that you found your Down Time (intentionally having no intention)helpful with improving your brain power. I’m sure the chocolate treats helped too!!
This week I have chosen Time-In as our mind-diet course from the Healthy Mind Platter.
This selection continues our journey on looking at what helps our minds to be alert, creative and resilient. Improved thinking leads to clearer life direction which in turn means more health, joy and life-contentment. Our mind health is as important as our physical health. They are intertwined and lots of physical ailments can be the result of worry and stress.
Remember I shared a few weeks ago that I had a period of depression when my daughter was little. I had become overwhelmed at the enormity of being a mother and a business owner. I had set unrealistic expectations for myself that caused me to worry, stress and be anxious most of the time.
Looking back on that time in my life, I am surprised at how much physical pain I was experiencing even though it was my mind that was struggling. In fact, roughly 60% of doctor visits stem from stress-related complaints and illnesses (Kroenke & Mangelsdorff, 1989). Mind health matters.
The Time-In platter is about reflection, harmony and mindfulness. One way of experiencing Time-In is with mindfulness meditation.
The words mindfulness meditation, for many people, conjure up images of sitting still and having no thoughts. For many people, the thought of sitting still is impossible. The concept of no thoughts can also be frightening and unattainable.
Mindfulness is however about paying attention to the present-moment with relaxed intention and non-judgement. It is impossible for our minds to stop thinking. Our mind is designed to think to keep us safe and happy.
However, we can become aware of the thoughts we are having and not engage or follow them. Typically, our mind is planning the future and reminiscing about past events. The present moment is squeezed out of the equation.
You wake up in the morning and you are immediately thinking about what needs to happen for the day. As you think about what you are going to prepare for dinner, you remember the hurtful conversation that you had with a friend at a dinner party a few weeks back. This takes you to the trip you had planned to take with that friend in a few months’ time. You wonder how that is going to go if you have not discussed with them how hurt you are by they way they treated you at the dinner party……… and so on and so on. You have totally forgotten what you are doing in the present moment. You may have actually missed an important conversation with a loved one because of your distraction.
Mindfulness is bringing your attention to what you are doing in the moment. Your breathing, your body seated on the chair or walking one step at a time to work. It’s about recognising the disappointment about your friend and choosing not to react to it in that moment. It’s acknowledging the emotion and letting it go. Yes, you will more than likely need to have a difficult conversation with your friend at some point in the future but not now.
Mindfulness meditation is a deliberate practice around mindfulness. It is about taking as little as 10 or 15 minutes to sit quietly or walk slowly if you prefer and just be aware of what is happening to you physically, mentally and emotionally and not engaging or following the thoughts that arise or having any judgement about your emotions.
Just being aware of your breathing is a mindful action and the simplest awareness tool to break the cycle of following the thoughts.
Neuroscientists are finding that there are enormous benefits to this deliberate practice such as improved attention, lessened impact of stress and anxiety, emotion regulation and even help with pain management. There is even some research that it improves the longevity of the cells of our body!
I learnt mindfulness meditation as one of the tools to recover from my period of depression. What I experienced with this process was that I became aware of my racing thoughts and emotions. This meant that I could identify the ones that were not helping me. I found that, over time, the negative thoughts and emotions lost their power to create stress and anxiety for me.
So, I encourage you to consider finding a small gap in your day where you can deliberately step out of everything and just tune in to your Time-In. Your mind will love the break – a chill pill for the mind.
Remember all of this and much, much more is provided in my Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Program. The next program is on 10th and 11th May, 2018.
