Meditation & Mindfulness

Mindfulness and meditation …what is so special about them? Is there a difference and what can they do for you??

Firstly meditation and mindfulness are great on their own but also go together hand in hand.

Meditation nurtures and expands mindfulness…mindfulness supports and enriches meditation.

You don’t need to meditate to be mindful, as you can be aware of your thoughts, judgements and opinions throughout your day just by catching yourself or being watchful (mindful) of your words, actions and reactions towards yourself and others.

When you hear ‘self talk’, did you know that’s yourself talking? whether it’s in your mind or actually out loud. So there’s a few ways self talk happens, ‘the critic’ or the ‘negative talk’ - ‘thats no good, i havn’t done a good enough job, i must do better, this is a negative way of self talk which then creates more negative self talk. A positive view is much better and more productive - i can do this, i have tried, i am good enough, mistakes are fine as i learn from them. Positive self talk takes pressure of yourself, releases any limits, definately helps to take stress of yourself which in turn can be a health benefit in itself. Self talk is an ideal way to opening your awareness of how others see you or how you perceive yourself, your surroundings. Changing self talk can be easy if you put your mind to it. You might find how you talk to yourself in your mind also reflects in how you talk about yourself to others..do you find you put yourself down? talk about what doesn’t seem to be going right for you? Find yourself being swallowed up in negative and unproductive gossip and chat? If this is you, it’s time to address it and give yourself a kick in the butt!

So how can you begin to make these changes and why it’s best that you do make the change….it’s true what they say, before you speak ask yourself Is it kind? Is it true? Is it inspiring? Is it helpful? Is it necessary? if the answer is no to any of these thoughts, then don’t say it (i mean to yourself first then apply it to others) Some habits aren’t good for us but this habit is one of the good ones! So this can ‘train your brain’ to a more positive way of thinking and talking and you do feel a difference within yourself, but you’ll also see a difference with other’s reactions to kinder words and replies.

We all hear ‘eat healthier, have a healthier lifestyle etc etc but you can apply those few thoughts to the food you put in your body too, stodgy or too much ‘heavy’ or ‘rich’ foods can have an affect on your energy, you might get an initial boost with high sugar content but then your energy will dip and leave you possibly with a low mood or lack of energy and can put you in that vicious circle again.

People we socialise with, work with (and sometimes even live with!) can get us down and have a negative impact on us, but do they really? Could it be ourselves letting them pull us down or maybe even making them an excuse for our own thoughts? Mindfulness can help you overcome this happening. As you recognise behaviour patterns then YOU can decide if it has a positive effect or negative effect on your thinking and behaviour.

When my children began playschool and nursery, i told them ‘if you don’t like someone, then keep away from them as there’ll be some that don’t like you’, when they began school it became ‘if there’s someone you don’t like, keep away unless you have to work with them, because they might not like you and will keep away from you’, when they moved into high school and then employment, i explained there’s people you won’t like and there’s people who won’t like you but then you keep them at ‘arm’s length’ as you have to find a way to get on with them when you have to work together. This comes down to being mindful of your words, actions, reactions and behaviours. An awareness of more than you.

You can sit in the quiet or maybe have music on in the background, in a comfortable position making sure your back is supported and gently rest your eyes, focus on your breathing but give yourself positive affirmations…you are enough, you are liked, you are loved, you are worthy, you are thankful and grateful. You might want to include relevant words that can help at that time, you are not stressed, you can cope, mistakes are to be learnt from. At times like, family, work, health and life when it stresses you out or you feel stress building its an ideal time to sit for 20 mins to ‘destress’ to begin with. in time as you become used to it you can lower it to 15 minutes. Through mindfulness you can reflect on ‘life, you, situations and events’ and ‘own ‘ your self and behaviours, and you’ll find actions matching your words. This is the healing and growth with you as a person, the personal growth.

More about personal growth further on….

Mindfulness helps you be accountable for words, actions, opens you to being gentle with yourself and others. This all has a positive effect on you and everything connected to you.

Our minds are designed to survive and protect, have you noticed how one worry can turn into a few or one worry can build and create scenarios which cause more worries? When we have a fear, you might find it comes into your mind. It is your mind putting you on alert of a possible fear coming up, but it depends which way we choose to take notice. We can take notice of the fear and put ourself into negative thinking mode or we can acknowledge it and choose to the positive thinking mode. A fear has emotion attatched so it will be the emotion that the mind is bringing, but as we recognise the fear more than the emotion we tend to think of one actual fear, for example flying may actually be a fear of heights which can be linked to a traumatic childhood experience or an experience which included flying and our minds connect it to flying for our understanding.

Mindfulness brings happiness and calm which can be learnt, just like driving or playing the piano.

When you actively practise mindfulness, stress levels can drop by 28%, depression and anxieties can be lessened, prone to more evenness of sleep patterns and less fatigue, you’ll have more compassion for your self and a greater quality of life.

Mindfulness is an awareness of ‘something’

Now…what is meditation and how can you benefit from it i hear you ask, good question!

Meditation is the training for your mind to focus and redirect thoughts to a more positive way of thinking.

Studies have shown that meditation can thicken the part of the brain which controls the higher thinking order, concentration, focus, positive thinking, decision making, increased awareness. This part of the brain is the pre-frontal cortex.

Serotonin hormone is the brains own natural feel good factor which is increased through meditation, thus helping to reduce the cortisol hormone which is the stress factor and can cause anxieties to build, fears to heighten, sleeplessness, overthinking, over worrying but cortisol can also increase the

Meditation is an awareness of ‘nothing’, a chance for your mind to settle and be still.