I have touched upon Mindfulness earlier in one of my blog posts as you might remember. And this time, I would like to elaborate a little bit further on the subject.
The two most essential components of Mindfulness are;
- Staying mentally in the moment, which includes focussing on thoughts, feelings, sensations, and surroundings;
- Accepting thoughts and feelings without judgment.
In addition to Meditation, the activities that are most helpful in acquiring a more mindful state of mind are; Yoga and Tai Chi. And needless to say; there are millions of videos on YouTube that can provide you with teachings and practices on both.
Within the last decade, even the scientists left behind their skepticism and started to show a growing interest in Mindfulness and its ability to help individuals on a psychological level in regulating stress and anxiety by giving them the ability to take back the control of their own minds.
Mindfulness gives you the opportunity of acknowledging your anxious feelings and thoughts from a more objective point of view and then consciously letting them go, hence its helpfulness with anxiety and stress.
More importantly, Mindfulness / Mindful Meditation helps train your brain to react to situations differently. It makes you feel calmer, less reactive, more conscious, more aware of your feelings and gives you the capability of controlling them in a more peaceful manner.
To give you an example from my experience; since I have been Meditating every day and working on being more Mindful, I am much more aware of my feelings and reactions. I rarely get mad, or angry, and even if I do, I take a moment, and try to identify my exact feelings and simply replace them with more positive and constructive ones, rather than overreacting or yelling, or acting out. I consciously change what I am about to say or do, and switch it with a better thought, word or gesture.
When you are capable of doing that, you feel so powerful, so much calmer and others feel so much more at ease around you, which helps with all kinds of interactions with your loved ones, your colleagues, your neighbors, your friends and with total strangers.
Try to be more aware of what you are thinking, saying and doing, try to have more control over your emotions and actions. Play with it, one little step at a time, and you will see that it will help with both your stress level and the stress level of people around you.
And always remember that I love you.
Great post