Mindfulness

During a recent mandatory training session at the hospital, 30 minutes of ‘protected teaching’ was allocated in the itinerary. To my delight it was a mindfulness session, the first in 21 years.

What is mindfulness? To put it simply, it is about training our attention span to give us greater peace of mind. Our minds are so overwhelmed with information; what we should do/haven’t done, social media, advertisements, thoughts of the past, thoughts of the future, politics, Brexit, environment, things we can control/things we cant….more info…more info….more info!! until we are so stressed out that we cannot cope. Largely this information overload is subliminal and seeps info our subconscious minds without us even knowing.

Now don’t get me wrong, we are designed to be ‘stressed in the moment’. The stress response can be helpful . Fight, flight or freeze response is essential sometimes, for example: when faced with a presentation, an interview or teaching a yoga class as a newly qualified teacher 😉 However, our adrenal glands (that are responsible for the production of adrenaline to trigger the stress response) are constantly saturated by stress, in a negative way.

Practicing mindfulness on a daily basis brings us back to the present, allowing our minds to settle, enabling us to control what we think about, regaining perspective. It takes us away from our stress, even for a short period of time, building resilience. Regular practice allows us to create peace of mind that will increase the more we do, our mind will rest.

Simple breathing techniques are a great way to get started!

A MINDFULNESS EXERCISE

• Close your eyes and take a deep breath in, release the breath as a sigh
• Focus your attention on the breath
• Notice where it enters the body at the tip of your nose and as it leaves the body slightly warmer
• Focus all your attention at the tip of your nose, on the sensation of your breath
• With each out breath, notice any stress, tension and negativity leave with the breath
• With the in breath, imagine taking in white, light filled with positive energy. Allow the light to fill the mind
• If your mind wanders, do not worry, bring your focus back to the tip of the nose.
• Continue with this nourishing your body with delicious white light and a feeling of positivity.