mindfulness
what is it?
how can mindfulness benefit me?
Mindfulness is the art of being part of the present moment without getting caught up in the worries of the future or ruminations of the past.
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New moment, new me.
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Though we are products of our own journies, ​every experience is independent of one another and the practice of mindfulness can help us to cultivate this awareness by using techniques to ground ourselves back to where we are.
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Worrying about the future and ruminating over the past can often lead us into feeding our own vicious cycles of anxiety and depression. Mindfulness however can help us to acknowledge these experiences by engaging and disengaging from thoughts that may not be useful to us.
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It can therefore help you to slow down and:
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Reduce
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heightened levels of stress and anxiety
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chronic pain
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gastrointestinal difficulties
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Improve
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mood
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sleep
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immunity
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concentration
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quality of relationships
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cultivate a higher level of self awareness to be able to become conscious of thoughts and how this manifests it's way through emotions and behaviours
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try it yourself:
The beauty of mindfulness is that you can practise it anywhere at anytime, so how you incorporate it in your day can be completely personalised to your interests. However if you are looking for ways to get started, I have created a few mindfulness activities you could try.
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Little tip #1 - don't practice mindfulness when you are sleepy. If you fall asleep, you won't learn how to use mindfulness when you might need it the most
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Little tip #2 - if you are new to mindfulness, it might help to ease into the practise by being in a calm environment. With time, you might be able to practice this even whilst you're in traffic or waiting in a queue
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Little tip #3 - don't wait to practise mindfulness only when you are feeling relaxed as mindfulness is far more beneficial when you are feeling stressed and overworked. By practicing mindfulness when feeling stressed, you are more likely to reap the benefits and actually find ways to help you manage your stresses
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Little tip #4 - if you notice your mind wandering, allow yourself to acknowledge it and then come back to the breath/mindfulness activity
Click on the activity you'd like to try:
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Breathwork
3 minute
breathing space
Cultivate your awareness in this 3 minute breathing space, using three simple steps
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1. Become aware
2. Focus on the breath
3. Expand awareness
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1. Become aware
Whether sitting or standing, adopt an upright posture and become aware of what your body feels like:
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What does your experience feel like?
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Are there thoughts there? Can you put this into words?
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What feelings are there? Are there any feelings of discomfort mentally or physically?
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How is your body communicating to you? Are there sensations in your body you may not have noticed before i.e. muscle tension,clenching jaw, sweaty palms etc?
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2. Focus on the breath
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Slowly take a few deep nourishing breaths and let this help you to restore your breathing back to normal
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Acknowledge the journey of the breath from the second it enters the cusp of your nose, through your throat and into your lungs (and back out again). Don't feel any pressure to breathe in a way that feels unnatural - your body and your breath is at your own command
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Notice how your body relaxes with each exhale and let this anchor you into the present moment
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3. Expand your awareness
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Expand your attention around the breathing and try to acknowledge your body as a whole, by noticing your posture, facial expressions, tension, discomfort or even resistance.
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Whilst noticing these things, take a deep breath in and on the outbreath, allow your body to soften and open back up again
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As best you can, slowly bring this awareness back into the next moments of your day
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the body scan
mindful eating
The body scan is a really useful tool to help you tune into your body and how it communicates with you. This meditation will help you relax and scan your body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. It will help you to engage and disengage with areas of tension by recognising it and then moving onto another part of the body to focus on. Particularly if you have any chronic pain conditions, this may help you learn how to focus less on the areas of pain in order to manage it better.
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In the modern day world, we are often rushed off our feet and minds, in aim to tick off the next thing on our to-do lists. But sometimes the noise around us can make us lose sight of the noise within us and the signs our body's are trying to tell us to slow down before we get ill. Being able to recognise your body's language can also help you to address subtle signs of tiredness, tension or fatigue
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The body scan meditation:
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Click on the link below and try the body scan for free on Headspace. They are currently offering 1 year subscriptions for free to anyone unemployed so check it out and see what you think!
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https://www.headspace.com/meditation/body-scan
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Click here for the mindful eating exercise
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Modern culture has evolved to run at a high speed to get things done and tick things off our to do lists. But the more on the go we are, the more our breathing, eating and sleeping patterns are disrupted and as a result, basic functions in the body can start to fall out of balance of each other.
The culture often disregards mindful eating as it relies on a culture of 'grab and go', eating alone due to busy schedules, making it more of job, than a ritual. Living a fast paced life may be considered productive in some ways, but if it's at the expense of never slowing down when it truly matters, it is counterproductive. If we don't slow down, we actually create more stress and imbalances within the body.
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Digestion actually starts the second we have thoughts about it and the anticipation to see, smell and anticipate what it's going to taste like (the 'sophallic phase').
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When we start to think about food, chemicals and hormones are sent to signal the stomach acid and saliva to be secreted (in aid of digestion). The more the body uses its 5 senses (sight, touch, smell, sound and taste), the more prepared the body for digestion.
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Other factors that play a role in our digestion are:
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Chewing food - your mouth is the only place where you have conscious control of the breakdown of your food. Therefore if it is not chewed properly, it will take a lot longer for your stomach to digest this. The smaller the surface area of the food however, the more opportunities it has for chemicals to break this down further
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Breathing - oxygen plays an important role in digestion and when we allow for our bodies to slow down, this can really optimise the way we process and use food. Oxygen helps to break down food and carry vitamins and minerals around the body, therefore if we rush our food or feel stressed when doing so, our bodies will be unable to absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat as much.
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Stress - if you are stressed, your body's response to this often disrupts the normal breathing pattern to become faster in order to get on with tasks. However faster breathing can result in having a drier mouth, thus having a less soluble environment for food to be chewed in and being stressed might also make you eat faster to tend to the to-do list as quickly as possible (causing indigestion, heartburn and bloating).
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Stomach acid - if you haven't anticipated the food you are about to eat, the stomach may not have prepared itself enough to have activated a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes. The less digestive enzymes there are, the longer it would take for food to be further broken down
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A few little tips: ​
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slow down: before eating, slow down and take a few moments to appreciate the meal you are about to eat. Regulate your breathing through a few deep breaths to really listen to your hunger cues and what you appetite is like; this will really help your digestion. A 1 minute breathing exercise can also help to put your body in a more optimal state to receive and use food.
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be present: focus on the meal you have in front of you. Smell your food. Taste your food. Feel your food. Notice the colours, textures and different flavours there are from each ingredient in the meal. Lose the distractions and avoid multitasking at this time too.
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mid-meal breaths: eating with intention can come with many benefits and by listening to your hunger cues, you will be able to recognise when you feel hungry vs when you are not. With these deep breaths, ask yourself whether you are hungry, how the food is making you feel, where the food had come from and how the food is able to nourish your body. The more you understand your hunger cues and appetite during meals, the more likely you are to understand your own portion sizes and make more conscious decisions of what you consume or even how much you consume of it.
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Mindful eating practice
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What you'll need:
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Piece of fruit (preferably a berry or something small)
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Open mindset
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Guidance (script):
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Let the fruit rest in your palm. Take a few moments to become aware of its weight.
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(Pause)
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Now become aware of its temperature – any warmth or coolness it may have.
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(Pause)
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(Looking)
Give the fruit your full attention, really looking.
Become aware of the pattern of colour and shape that the fruit makes as it rests on your palm – almost like an abstract painting.
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(Pause)
(Touching)
As best you can, being aware of the sense of movement in your muscles as you do this, pick up the fruit between the thumb and forefinger of your other hand.
Explore the outside texture of the fruit as you roll it very gently between the thumb and forefinger.
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(Pause)
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Squeeze it ever so slightly and notice that this might give you a sense of its interior texture.
Notice perhaps that you can feel this difference just with your thumb and forefinger – the interior texture and the exterior texture.
(Seeing)
Lift the fruit to a place where you can really focus on it and begin to examine it in even greater detail.
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(Pause)
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Notice highlights and shadows. See how these change as it moves in the light.
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(Pause)
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Notice how facets of it appear and disappear – how it may seem to have ridges and valleys and how these may shift and change.
(Smelling)
Again aware of the sense of movement in your muscles, begin to move the fruit very slowly towards your mouth.
As it passes by your nose you may become aware of its fragrance. With each inhalation, really explore that fragrance.
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(Pause)
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Become aware of any changes that may be taking place now in your mouth or stomach – any salivation, perhaps.
(Placing)
Bring the fruit up to your lips. Explore the delicate sensation of touch here.
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(Pause)
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Now place it in your mouth but don’t chew.
Just let it rest on your tongue, noticing any very faint flavour that may be there – (pause) – or may not be there.
Feel the contact it makes with the roof of the mouth, perhaps.
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(Pause)
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Now move it to between your back teeth and just let it rest there – again without chewing.
Notice any urges or impulses in the body.
(Tasting)
Now take a single bite. Just one. Notice any flavour.
Then take another bite. Notice any change in flavour.
Then take another bit, and another.
(Chewing)
Now slowly, very slowly, chew.
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(Pause)
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Be aware of sound, of texture, of flavour and of change.
Keep chewing in this way, very slowly, until there is almost nothing left to chew.
(Swallowing)
When there is almost nothing left to chew prepare to swallow the fruit - see if you can be aware of the intention to swallow as it first arises.
Now…swallow the fruit.
(Finishing)
Follow what is left of the fruit as it moves down towards your stomach and you lose sight of it altogether.
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(Pause for a few seconds)
mountain meditation
Click here for the audio recording
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Click here for the scripted version
of the mountain meditation
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[script adapted from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mountain Meditation, available at http://www.mindfulnesstapes.com]
Visualisation is a huge part of mindfulness and the land of being able to imagine and gain perspective. Without imagining, we would not be able to believe that thought to be true.
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This meditation may not be for everyone and that it is okay. But if you like the concept of using visualisation in your meditations, there are many different ones out there for you to try out - you just have to do a little digging.
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If you would prefer to read the script of the mountain meditation, please see below:
This meditation is normally done in a sitting position, either on the floor or a chair, and begins by sensing into the support you have from the chair or the cushion, paying attention to the actual sensations of contact. Finding a position of stability and poise, upper body balanced over your hips and shoulders in a comfortable but alert posture, hands on your lap or your knees, arms hanging by their own weight, like heavy curtains, stable and relaxed. Actually sensing into your body, feeling your feet… legs… hips… lower and upper body… arms… shoulders… neck… head…
And when you are ready, allowing your eyes to close, bringing awareness to breath, the actual physical sensations, feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out… letting the breath be just as it is, without trying to change or regulate it in any way… allowing it to flow easily and naturally, with its own rhythm and pace, knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now, nothing for you to do…
Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity, a sense of resolve, a sense of being complete, whole, in this very moment, with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness… (long pause)
As you sit here, letting an image form in your mind’s eye, of the most magnificent or beautiful mountain you know or have seen or can imagine…, letting it gradually come into greater focus… and even if it doesn’t come as a visual image, allowing the sense of this mountain and feeling its overall shape, its lofty peak or peaks high in the sky, the large base rooted in the bedrock of the earth’s crust, it’s steep or gently sloping sides…
Noticing how massive it is, how solid, how unmoving, how beautiful, whether from a far or up close…(pause)
Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its top and trees reaching down to the base, or rugged granite sides… there may be streams and waterfalls cascading down the slopes… there may be one peak or a series of peaks, or with meadows and high lakes…
Observing it, noting its qualities and when you feel ready, seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body sitting here so that your body and the mountain in your mind’s eye become one so that as you sit here, you share in the massiveness and the stillness and majesty of the mountain, you become the mountain.
Grounded in the sitting posture, your head becomes the lofty peak, supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view. Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain. Your buttocks and legs the solid base, rooted to your cushion or your chair, experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each breath, as you continue sitting, becoming a little more a breathing mountain, alive and vital, yet unwavering in your inner stillness, completely what you are, beyond words and thought, a centered, grounded, unmoving presence…
As you sit here, becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky, the light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment in the mountain’s stillness, and the surface teems with life and activity… streams, melting snow, waterfalls, plants and wildlife.
As the mountain sits, seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night. The bright warming sun, followed by the cool night sky studded with stars, and the gradual dawning of a new day…
Through it all, the mountain just sits, experiencing change in each moment, constantly changing, yet always just being itself. It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day, calmness abiding all change…
In summer, there is no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks or in crags shielded from direct sunlight.
In the fall, the mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors.
In winter, a blanket of snow and ice.
In any season, it may find itself at times enshrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain. People may come to see the mountain and comment on how beautiful it is or how it’s not a good day to see the mountain, that it’s too cloudy or rainy or foggy or dark.
None of this matters to the mountain, which remains at all times its essential self. Clouds may come and clouds may go, tourists may like it or not. The mountain’s magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not, seen or unseen, in sun or clouds, broiling or frigid, day or night.
It just sits, being itself.
At times visited by violent storms, buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude.
Through it all, the mountain sits.
Spring comes, trees leaf out, flowers bloom in the high meadows and slopes, birds sing in the trees once again.
Streams overflow with the waters of melting snow.
Through it all, the mountain continues to sit, unmoved by the weather, by what happens on its surface, by the world of appearances… remaining its essential self, through the seasons, the changing weather, the activity ebbing and flowing on its surface…
In the same way, as we sit in meditation, we can learn to experience the mountain, we can embody the same central, unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives, over seconds, over hours, over years.
In our lives and in our meditation practice, we experience constantly the changing nature of mind and body and of the outer world, we have our own periods of light and darkness, activity and inactivity, our moments of color and our moments of drabness.
It’s true that we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies, buffeted by high winds, by cold and rain, we endure periods of darkness and pain, as well as the moments of joy and uplift, even our appearance changes constantly, experiencing a weather of it’s own…
By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice, we can link up with its strength and stability and adopt them for our own. We can use its energies to support our energy to encounter each moment with mindfulness and equanimity and clarity.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings, our preoccupations, our emotional storms and crises, even the things that happen to us are very much like the weather on the mountain. We tend to take it all personally, but its strongest characteristic is impersonal.
The weather of our own lives is not be ignored or denied, it is to be encountered, honored, felt, known for what it is, and held in awareness… And in holding it in this way, we come to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom.
Mountains have this to teach us and much more if we can let it in…
So if you find you resonate in some way with the strength and stability of the mountain in your sitting, it may be helpful to use it from time to time in your meditation practice, to remind you of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness, in true stillness…
So, in the time that remains, continuing to sustain the mountain meditation on your own, in silence, going into the next moments of your day
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loving kindness meditation
Click here for the audio recording
of the Loving Kindness Meditation
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Click here for the scripted version
of the Loving Kindness Meditation
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Visualisation is a huge part of mindfulness and the land of being able to imagine and gain perspective. Without imagining, we would not be able to be able to believe or materialise hopes and dreams to come true. It can help you channel through positive affirmations for y
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This meditation may not be for everyone and that it is okay. But if you like the concept of using visualisation in your meditations, there are many different ones out there for you to try out - you just have to do a little digging.
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If you would prefer to read the script of the mountain meditation, please see below:
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This meditation can be done in any position, and begins by taking a moment to be aware of any thoughts or feelings you may be experiencing right now, acknowledging how things are for you right now… and when you are ready, beginning to bring awareness to body: feeling your feet… legs… hips… lower and upper body… arms… shoulders… neck… head…, beginning to feel the movement of your breath, the actual sensations of breathing, reminding yourself that you are here, alive, whole…
When you’re ready, you might bring to mind the image of a person who you know or you’ve known in your life to be loving and kind to you, someone who easily evokes feelings of warmth and love, it could be a spouse or partner, parent or family member, a mentor or close friend… someone who has been good to you, helps you feel safe and whole, whose caring easily emanates from them to you.
And if a person, past or present, doesn’t come to mind, maybe someone who know to be inspirational may come, someone it is easy to imagine sending wishes of well-being to, wishing them well, and if it feels right, imagining saying to them:
May you be happy, healthy and whole, (picturing them receiving your wishes for them)
May you have love, warmth and affection,
May you be protected from harm and free from fear,
May you be alive, engaged and joyful
…may you experience inner peace and ease
You may have your own words and wishes for them, so feel free to use words that resonate with you…
Taking a few minutes now to feel how it is to wish these things for them, letting yourself have the sense of the wishes for well-being emanating from you to them, connecting you to them…
…noticing how it feels inside you, as you send these wishes of well-being to this person you love or care about.
When you are ready, seeing if you can imagine this person or figure wishing these very same things for you, knowing that they have your well-being in their heart, imagining them saying to you:
May you be happy, healthy and whole,
May you have love, warmth and affection in your life, (imagining them close to you, feeling their presence and unconditional love for you, as they say):
May you be protected from harm and free from fear,
May you be alive, engaged and joyful,
May you experience inner peace and ease…
Letting those feelings wash over you, feeling their unconditional love and caring for you, letting the feelings of love and safety grow in you, knowing there is nothing you have to do to deserve these feelings and wishes, that they are given freely, without condition.
Seeing if you can connect to the meaning of these phrases even if you might not feel all the safety and warmth right now, knowing that is their wish for you, and now seeing if you can have these wishes for yourself, hearing yourself say to yourself:
May I be happy and healthy and loved,
May I be safe and protected,
May I be alive and free,
May I experience inner peace and ease.
You may have loved ones for whom it’s also easy to have these wishes for, a child or family member or dear friend, or even a loved pet, and if it feels right, saying to them, in your own way and with your own words:
May you be happy and healthy and loved in your life,
May you be safe and protected, and not suffer,
May you be alive and joyful,
May you have inner peace and ease.
If it feels right, seeing if there are others in your life you can extend these good wishes to, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, saying to yourself, to them:
May you be happy and healthy and loved in your life,
May you be safe and protected, free from harm,
May you be alive and joyful,
And may you have inner peace and ease.
It might even be possible to expand even further out, to acquaintances, people you know of but don’t have a personal relationship with: the people you see around town, your neighbors, even people you don’t have strong feelings about, like the salesperson who checks your groceries, saying to these people:
May you be happy and healthy and loved,
May you be safe and protected, free from suffering
May you be alive, engaged and joyful,
And may you have inner peace and ease.
And even if the wishes aren’t infused with the same warmth and love as they were with a loved one, seeing if you can extend the wish, without the expectation that it should make you or them feel in any particular way, connecting with what these wishes represent, keeping these people in your awareness as you send these good wishes:
Wishing for them to be healthy and whole,
Wishing for them to have aliveness and love in their lives,
And if you feel strong and secure, and you’re comfortable with this, you might try extending these wishes to someone who’s difficult for you right now, not necessarily the most difficult person in your life, just someone for whom there’s been some sort of frustration or misunderstanding.
In doing this, it might help to remember that, just like you, they want to be loved… And just like you, they want peace in their life, you could say to yourself:
Just like me, they want to feel happiness and joy,
Just like me, they want peace and ease,
And they want to be loved and to know their loved ones are safe and healthy,
And just like me, they are doing the best they can with what inner and outer resources they have,
And if this feels possible to you, silently saying to them…
May you feel peace and ease (remembering that if this were really true for them, that they would certainly be easier to get along with)
May you have love and warmth in your life,
May you be happy, healthy and whole
Even if this is difficult, there’s value in noticing what it’s like to extend the wish, recognizing that you are not condoning their actions, but seeing in them a human being with some of the same needs as you: to be loved, to be safe, to be at peace.
And, if this is possible, remember the circle that began with yourself and the persons you loved the most, family and friends, extending the circle to include all the many people you don’t know who may live far away, in other countries or cultures, saying:
May you be happy and healthy,
May you have peace and ease.
May you have love and warmth in your life.
You could even imagine extending these wishes to include the animals and plants, all life on our planet and beyond, including ourselves, saying
May we all be happy and healthy,
May we all be safe and protected,
May we all live together in peace, ease and happiness
And now, as this loving kindness meditation comes to an end, taking time to appreciate and feel what’s been generated through this practice. And even if there have been difficult parts of this practice, knowing that this practice has the potential to increase your sense of aliveness, of connection and of belonging…
And when you are ready, letting yourself feel again your physical presence, sensations of your body, feet, seat, upper torso, neck and head, beginning to notice the movement of your own breath, bringing aliveness and nourishment to your body as a whole, just as your wishes of good will bring aliveness and nourishment to those around you…