Mindfulness – Coming home to yourself
Being mindful is not a quick fix, it is a way of life
It takes time, patience, and perseverance to cultivate this beautiful gift to self. If you are experiencing any of the following not limited to; Anxiety, Stress, Emotional Turmoil, Repetitive thoughts, overthinking, mindfulness practice is not a quick fix, but rather, a road to a different, more improved way of being.
Pay attention to your inner world, or pay the price
Mindfulness is not:
- Mindfulness is not about numbing
- It is not about emptying the mind
- It is not about suddenly loving everything in the world
- Initially, Mindfulness is not relaxing, it can be very uncomfortable
- Is not about the external world
Have you ever stopped at a set of traffic lights and wondered how you got there, as if on autopilot? Your awareness of the journey came at the moment of stopping? The actual moment of awareness in this instance can feel vast, creating separateness from self and the things around you in that split second.
This is an example of self-awareness in the moment:
Hi. My name is Diane Mitchell, creator of the wonderful world of well-being.
Through my own life experience, I realise mindfulness is nothing less than a game-changer. Not only does being mindful naturally support day-to-day life, but it also plays a huge part in the way situations are approached as well as the outcome for self as well as our outer world.
Several years ago I was given 12 weeks to live. In that moment of being given the news, an inner Shift took place. Part of my intuitive shift was deciding I did not have time to die.
My mind experience was something else, an accurate way to describe this is to say, a mini catastrophic explosion took place inside the mind. The thinking was unstoppable. Incomplete stories and thoughts surfaced, some louder than others. Discovering that ‘unfinished thinking’ was getting in the way of living a fulfilled life, I found myself witnessing the events of the mind whilst moving through the following months.
During this time I was introduced to formal meditation which extended to mindfulness. Initially, I found this to be a struggle given the number of repetitive thoughts and noise that was constantly getting in the way. As time unfolded, dedicated to returning to the practice, I experienced the volume of noise going on inside the mind lessened, and mindfulness gifted me space between my thinking.
This cultivated a renewed set of attitudes. Nothing less than enlightening as a gap started to emerge, bringing a gentle periodic relief that previously distracted me from myself and my life as a whole.
Mindfulness is:
- Paying attention on purpose.
- Paying attention in a particular way
- Moment to moment in a non-judgmental way
- A set of attitudes are cultivated over time around doing, thinking, and being ‘on purpose’ as opposed to living life on autopilot
- It gives you time
- Nonjudgmental
- Self-love
- Compassionate
Mindfulness is coming home to self
We are constantly distracted by our thoughts and emotions, by stressors and concerns.
When the thinking is either in the past or future – with regret or worry attached to it, this can be a very unsettling place to live. Distractions do get in the way of living a life fulfilled
Some of the benefits:
- Reduce stress
- Increase focus
- Regulates emotions
- Increase empathy and respect
- Improves resilience and mental health.
It`s like training a muscle, training attention to where you want it to be. Placing your attention with an inner knowing of where the attention will best serve you, moment-to-moment can alleviate suffering
You will find that mindfulness gifts a pause from what otherwise may be reactivity to thoughts and situations. It broadens awareness and allows the self to ‘be’ in any given situation without getting lost in it. This is what we mean by building the ‘mindful muscle’.
Cultivating awareness of self and then the world around you is a kind and caring thing to do. Being mindful does not take anything away from a person, mindfulness is the giver.
People who have the desire to cultivate a feeling of being in control of their own life, for those wishing they could sit comfortably in their own skin, craving calm, inner peace, joy self-love, usually benefit well by introducing the mindful practice to their daily life.
I look forward to hearing from you
Diane