Do you find yourself battling your mind?
Mindfulness supports you by helping you cope better with stress by drawing you back into the present, slowing things down and quietening the internal worry; the mind-chatter.
When you learn to slow things down, even for a short while, you’ll find you have more focus, what you’re focusing on will flow better and everything you do will get a little kickstart!
One of the ways we respond to stress or that causes us to feel stressed is the mind-chatter; the constant worrying about what happened or what might happen and worrying about how things will pan out is never-ending. There are infinite scenarios to be imagined and keep your mind entertained, your mind will happily use your time to imagine how things could have gone and how they might work out if you let it.
Your mind doesn’t like to be left alone without something to think or worry about and this is completely normal because it’s so used to behaving in this way, it’s only doing what it’s good at.
Imagine if you could train your mind to settle on one thing; to have a one-pointed focus to create a sense of inner calm. You can.
Imagine replacing the negative mind chatter with positive self-talk, and imagine if every time you started to play out your past doubts and future worries you were able to switch to one of your go-to tools and bring yourself back to the present, feeling calmer, more connected and better able to focus on moving forward with less stress. You can.
There is only one scenario you have any control over and that is the one you are in right now. Do you continue reading this post or do you get distracted and start something else?
The decision you make right now requires the attention of your mind and it will go wherever you send it.
Do you find yourself unable to enjoy the most normal of things like washing your hair or having a cup of tea in the morning without the mind-chatter taking over? Your mind will continue thinking thoughts that aren’t helping you, which are making you anxious until it’s got something better to do. The mind chatter or negative self-talk might have become your default setting but you get to change that, with patience and practice.
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, to be aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
Stress isn’t the dominant emotion or experience when you are practising mindfulness or living mindfully. Through various mindful practices and techniques, you can develop mindfulness and learn to be self-aware, calmer, more connected to yourself, and you will be able to respond to stress more positively. Mindfulness is the ultimate act of self-love, it requires patience and practice but most importantly it requires your wonderful mind to have focused intention for the good of your body and wellbeing.
Take care, my friend,
Becki
P.S…
On Wednesday 23rd June, 7:30pm, I will be teaching how to practise a mindful Body Scan; one of the many techniques used to develop mindfulness and to relieve stress and anxiety from the body. I will be going deeper into this technique, why it works and how to master it in our next Mindful Masterclass in the membership community. Come join us here.