The beauty of Mindfulness Meditation is you don't necessarily need to "sit down" and practice mindfulness. It can be done anywhere! Use eating as a chance to do some MM - instead of shovelling a meal down in front of the TV or computer, actually focus on the sensation of eating, and the taste of your food. Turn off all other distractions and concentrate solely on the taste, texture, sound, smell and feel.
Or try same with taking a walk. Rather than spending the walk making your to-do list or ruminating on your thoughts, pay attention to what is in the now... concentrating only on the sights, sounds, smells and sensations in this moment. Notice any thoughts that come up, but then return your mind to your immediate surroundings.
I like practicing when I am on a bike ride down one of Melbourne's lovely quiet side streets. Not recommended in traffic though!
By learning to let thoughts "pass by" without becoming attached to them, MM teaches us is that our thoughts are just that - thoughts - not facts or irrefutable truths. In fact, more often or not they can be incorrect, especially when it comes to things which cause us anxiety.
How often have we spent time worrying and stressing over things that never even end up happening (*puts up hand and answers "often"!*) MM teaches us to be in the present moment, not projecting forward to this mythical non-existent future, or back into the past.
By learning it is possible to treat thoughts as neutral, MM also shows us we have ability to control how we react and respond to them. It gives us the opportunity to develop a "pause" after thoughts arise, not just during meditation... but in our daily life. Instead of following a thought down a habitual path of worry or anxiety we can now begin to choose how we are going to respond, not letting ourselves automatically be pulled into negative thinking or catastrophizing.
I hope this helps brogis and I strongly recommend you give one or some of these exercises a try. Even if you don't suffer anxiety, mindfulness is great for bringing you into the "now", connecting you more to what is going on around you and making life just that little bit more vivid and sweeter. And who doesn't want that! :)
Links for you to enjoy below.. and with that I bid you... bromaste!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Six minute guided MM here.
Seven minute stress relief MM here.
Great video using MM to overcome anxiety and panic attacks during exams (love the ginger fellow) here. Recommends meditating on a sultana! Try it :)
Jon Kabat Zinn, is a professor and scientist who founded the Centre for Mindfulness at UMass. He has some excellent resources available on CD and audiobook
No comments:
Post a Comment