Mindfulness: It's a walk in the park
You might also be interested in
Replies (2)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
It's rather daunting to try and summarise my own thoughts and experiences on this topic. Whilst it's been around for perhaps three & a half thousand years, the people who need it the most us "Westerners" have only cottoned onto it in the past few years and, as often happens, it's shot through the media and population and ended up being seen by many as a fad, the latest self-help thing, not helped by hundreds of books & articles all professing to get you up & running and through to enlightenment in X easy stages.
Much the same as with Yoga, the whole practice is based around what is right for you, not anyone else and the moment you see it as a race, struggle, competition or a means to a destination, you've lost the plot. The positive to take from it is that any practice, no matter how small or infrequent, is better than no practice.
If anyone is interested in some light, and often amusing, reading on this, try Ruby Wax's Sane New World, or better still catch her when she does one of her shows.
Richard mentions walking practice and this works for me when walking my dog (she doesn't need to do it, dogs and most other animals always live in the moment) but everyone is different and you can do it anywhere. If you travel by bus or train for example put the phone away and leave the head/earphones at home and just sit and look around you, at the people and scenery, where are you now, what are you thinking now, pay attention, live what's happening, even if it's not good.
One of the principals to think about is that we, in the West, live our lives being anxious about anticipated or perceived bad stuff but then, if we ever experience happiness, adding more anxiety worrying about losing it. Mindfulness practice helps you to learn to just accept stuff, good or bad and to realise it's all fleeting. It's like standing on the shore and deciding to beat back every bad wave that comes at you, but to grab hold of every good one. Eventually you just sit down and let them all wash over you.
Over time it also helps you break your coping habits, your auto reactions to circumstances, especially social pressure and fear, it teaches the brain not to automatically react but to give itself a split second to consider what's happening and its reaction.
For me, the highest goal is just being content every so often, and my preferred practice is sitting quietly and, as Richard mentions, using my breath (the only constant activity in our lives) to bring my wandering mind back to now. There are some great resources out there and I still use the ones recommended to me 3 years ago on the Mental Health Foundation's website.
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/multimedia/podcasts
There are two specifically on Mindfulness but there are several others on wellbeing and stress relief that are worth a try.
For a taster though Mark Williams (who does one of the podcasts above) has a three minute introduction on Youtube where you will also see other related videos (including some of Ruby W's):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CVW_IE1nsKE#at=11
Just breath.