Do you ever have a day or week and you just don’t know where it went, you had loads of things to do and before you know it, it’s the start of a new week?
This week was like that for me, the kids are back full time at school, and my work and studying is definitely keeping me busy. But I need to keep reminding myself that I need to look after me as well. I need to take a few minutes a day to just sit down put my phone and tablet down have a hot drink ( in my case it’s normally mint tea) and be still. This is the art of being mindful .
According to the website Mind.org mindfulness or the act of being mindful is a- “technique you can learn which involves noticing what’s happening in the present moment, without judgement. You might take notice and be aware of your mind, body or surroundings. The technique has roots in Buddhism and meditation, but you don’t have to be spiritual, or have any particular beliefs, to try it.”
I use this technique to slow myself down to mentally check in with how I’m feeling and organise my thoughts and see if I need anything ie do I have a headache (is it because I’ve forgotten to drink my water? Did I not sleep well, and now I’ve got a headache? Should I take some painkillers, or do I just need to drink some water?) it’s often things like this that I forget about when I’m busy. However it can improve my mood, mental clarity and general feeling wellbeing if I just take 5 minutes to my self. This is a great tip if you have a busy day or someone at work is getting on your nerves or the kids won’t stop pestering you or you just feel overwhelmed.
As little as 5 minutes a day can help you manage your stress levels and thus have a positive impact on your life
We can’t live without technology, we must live with it and make sure we are being cognisant of how much time we actually spend on our tech. Including work, I suspect the majority of people will spend over 8 hours a day on technology. Plugged into social media, constantly looking at work or personal emails, searching through the web for information about anything from what the local restaurant you want to try has on there menu, to what holiday you were thinking of going on next summer. We are bombarded by information in one form or another. All this and add the fact that women still in the majority of relationships still have the traditional role of raising the children and doing domestic tasks like shopping, cleaning etc. no wonder you often feel like you just need a break. This level of living leads to micro stress and sometimes this can build up to the point that we feel like we can’t cope.
I start to combat this feeling by putting my phone and tablet away (remember you only need to take 5 minutes if you’re pushed for time or if you have more you could do 15-20mins) then I fill the kettle, I watch the water pouring out of the tap into the kettle and see the little bubbles and ripples in the water (I take the time to watch the water boil and notice what is happening in that moment, just observe don’t get frustrated that the kettle is taking forever or actually you now think you want the loo, or you were supposed to call your friends and…… push the noise to the side and just watch without judgement), this technique should help improve your own self awareness and help you cope with challenging situations and feelings.
This type of meditation can help you control your emotions and thoughts by giving you an understanding that’s some thoughts just flit into your mind and then out again and that they don’t define you or the world around you and these thoughts can just be let go. It may help you reason through any feelings of anxiety by realising that the mind is actually catastrophising a situation to keep you from harm this in the situation where your in an accident could be helpful if however this happens because your stuck in traffic and will be a few minutes late will not help it make make your muscles tense and your heart race or your breathing may change. In these situations it’s good to be mindful that your brain is tricking you and you are not in a harmful situation and that these feelings of anxiety and stress are not necessarily helpful.
If your in stressful situation and your boss has just yelled at you for a genuine mistake, then yelling back won’t help! In fact it will probably make the situation worse, however if you can put your mindfulness into practice then you can think before you respond, it might be that your boss has just been shouted at by there boss and they reacted by then yelling at you, it maybe they are felling ill and just want to get home. By creating space for you to think by stopping and accessing things then you are able to deal with it in a better manner than just reacting, hopefully leading to less stress for you.
There are many apps, websites and YouTube channels that can help you understand the practice of mindfulness and how you can apply this technique in your everyday life.
Remember you matter and you need to take time for yourself.
