mindfulness

Mar

2020

The Practice of Mindfulness and Its Benefits

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Emotional health is not always easy to measure as people generally go through a range of different emotions from moment to moment. No one can maintain being cheerful all day or being sad all day. There will always be a break in the cycle. However, we can describe our general mood for the day. But is there a way to keep tabs on our thoughts and emotions and process them without stressing ourselves out? There is a way to do this through the practice of mindfulness and its benefits.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is an innate human ability to be fully present and aware in the moment and not be overwhelmed or be too reactive by the things happening around us. Mindfulness is a state where you can focus on what is going on in your thoughts, your physical sensations, etc. without judging what you observe. In this way, mindfulness is a meditation method and sadly, we don’t do much of it in our daily lives.

Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementaly. And then I sometimes add, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.
— Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness is a quality that each of us possess. Thus, we should learn how to make use of it in our daily lives so we can experience the benefits. There are benefits in our mental, emotional, and physical states and even in our relationships and finances.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness meditation provides us a time to suspend judgement. Instead, it gives us time to analyze how we think and feel, why we think in a particular way and why we feel the way we do. Mindfulness allows us to observe our experiences without judging them and instead look at them with kindness and understanding. This approach to understanding ourselves and our daily experiences has many health benefits.

Reduce Stress

Not judging yourself and extending understanding and kindness towards the self greatly reduces mental and physical stress. Too often, we punish ourselves for the things that we think we did wrong or did not accomplish. We rarely sit back and try to see why we acted in a certain way.

Encourage Acceptance

When we observe ourselves without judgement, we learn to accept and appreciate our flaws and weaknesses as part of who we are and we can more easily decide on how to change them to better improve ourselves. This also means, that we will be able to easily accept and even forgive not just ourselves but also the people around us.

Enhances Deeper Understanding

Being mindful and learning about our own inner workings helps us to better understand other people and through regular practise, we also learn to let things be instead of judging them in the moment. This means that we are still able to interact with negative people or still behave normally even in a toxic environment without being overwhelmed or being overly reactive.

Increase Awareness

Practicing mindfulness also enhances our awareness and insight not just of ourselves but of other people’s mental and emotional states as well so we can help them better in the way that they need most.

Enhance Performance

When we have a better understanding of how we think and act, we are also able to easily adjust our own patterns of thinking and our actions to align with our goals in the different areas of our life.

Practice mindfulness in your daily activities and experience the benefits in all areas of your life.

Mindfulness meditation is a practice that you can easily start doing. Find a quiet place to be alone with your thoughts and focus on them without judging them. You can also do the same type of observation in daily situations like during eating. Instead of just gulping down food, by being mindful of how you eat, you are able to appreciate the whole eating experience and appreciate its benefits. Try practicing being mindful of your daily habits today.

Edited version. First published in Pinoy Smart Living 08.07.2019.
Feature Image: Original Photo by Erriko Boccia on Unsplash.

Mar

2020

Proper Mindset in Times of Crisis

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Everyone has to go through a crisis in life. It can be the loss of a loved one, a financial issue, a health problem, a conflict with a colleague, a lack of motivation or a pandemic. Whatever it is, it is all part of life. It can lead to despair and anxiety but with the proper mindset and correct strategies in place, you can emerge out of it as a better version of yourself.

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Problems in life are actually opportunities in disguise.

Every adversity is an opportunity for you to change your life for the better. It allows you to figure out what you are capable of. Growth only happens if you successfully navigate through them and learn the lessons in the process. It is going to be tough but it is possible to go through it successfully. All you need is to have the correct mindset.

Your mindset is the way you look at things. You need to believe that you can overcome whatever it is that you are going through right now. Believe in yourself. Remember that your mindset affects the direction of your life.

Whether you think you can or can’t, you are right.
– Henry Ford

Here are things that you can do to develop the proper mindset in times of crisis:

1. Acceptance

There are some problems that you can quickly solve but there are others that will be beyond your control. You may feel helpless. You may also feel anguish and pain. That is ok. You just have to learn and accept. Accept things that you cannot change. No matter how much you stress yourself about the situation, you need to move on.

2. Practice Gratitude

The practice of gratitude can help you through tough times. In fact, it is essential. Gratitude will help you look for the silver lining in every situation. Instead of focusing on the negative, gratitude will help you identify and magnify the blessings. It will make you feel optimistic and hopeful because your focus will shift from the negative to the positive. Start your gratitude journal now.

3. Have a Positive Attitude

It is easy to have a positive attitude when things are doing well. It is very difficult to do so when things are tough. Rather, it is much easier to drown in despair and self-pity. No matter how hard, keep in mind that the only road to a better life is to have a positive attitude.

You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you feel and do about what happens to you.
— Harold S. Kushner

Your mindset and attitude about life are both very important. Your mindset will affect the direction of your life whether it is happiness, good health, financial abundance or success that you are seeking.

Change Your Mindset from P overty Mindset to Abundance Mindset

4. Practice Mindfulness

Learn to quiet your mind. Meditate. Find calmness within yourself. The practice of mindfulness helps you deal with the negative emotions like fear, panic, sadness and pain. It is very effective in reducing stress and anxiety. It will also help you get in touch with your inner self. If you need assistance on how to practice meditation and mindfulness, sometimes it helps to seek the help of professionals who can teach you the practice of positive self-transformation.

5. Adopt and Act on The Situation

Instead of waiting for things to be better, do whatever you can to make it better now. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Your future begins today. Get rid of your stubbornness. Learn to adapt to the situation.

Just take for example the COVID-19 pandemic, Wherever you are in the world right now, you are affected. While a great number of people are not infected by the virus physically, the economic and even psychological impact has greatly affected millions of people around the world. You may be powerless to eliminate the problem but you can do something to lessen the impact in your life. You can keep yourself healthy by following the basic rule to combat diseases or do some simple things to improve your finances during a crisis.

If you can follow these things, one day you will be surprised that you have passed the crisis successfully. You have become a better person. You are now more mature to face future challenges.

Feature Image by Motivators world from Pixabay Images

Feb

2020

Improve Your Life Through the 5 Second Rule Challenge

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Do you ever listen to your intuition? The 5 Second Rule is a challenge for you to listen and do something about it within 5 seconds if you want to improve your life.

Intuition

Have you ever felt uneasy over something? It’s a feeling that keeps on popping into your head and does not go away. You feel it coming from your chest or stomach. Sometimes, it does not even make sense. It goes beyond logic yet for some reason you feel that it is the correct decision.

These are signs that your intuition is trying to tell you something. If you ever experience these things, you should learn to trust it.

Example, you met somebody. That person is so nice to you yet for some reason, there is something about that person that you are not comfortable with. Yet, you have decided to befriend that person only to be betrayed later on. Another example is you are in a meeting. A solution to the company problem kept on popping into your head and you get this nagging feeling to make the suggestion to your boss but you decided to keep quiet because you doubt yourself. And then somebody else recommended it and it was proven effective.

Life would have been better if only you have listened to what your intuition is telling you. It is how your unconscious mind communicates to your conscious mind. It is a manifestation of what you really feel inside. You can call it instinct, gut or intuition; but whatever it is, you need to learn to listen to it. Trust yourself and you will be surprised on how these little decisions can be life changing.

The 5-Second Rule

Mel Robbins, author of The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work and Confidence with Everyday Courage talks about how to utilise your instinct towards the achievement of your goals. She calls it the 5 Second Rule.

The Rule is simple. The rule states that you need to move within 5 seconds to do what your instinct is telling you otherwise, your brain will talk you out of it.

Check out this video from Fearless Soul to know more about it:

To summarize, according to Robbins, there are 5 elements to consider:

1. Know your Instinct

Robbins described an instinct as a sudden urge or impulse to do something. You will feel it coming from your belly out of nowhere. You will just know. It becomes louder if you practice meditation. It is clearer for people who are confident about themselves.

2. Check if it is Connected to your Goal

Before you stand up and do something about it, check first if doing it will bring you closer to your dreams/goals. That is why it is very important the you know what you want and that you have a bucket list. It is also crucial that you know what your priorities are.

3. Countdown to 5 Seconds

Once you have confirmed that following your instinct will bring you one step closer to your dream, you must learn to push yourself by doing a countdown – 5…4…3…2…1…

Remove all unnecessary doubts and fears. You have no time to worry about that. You only have 5 seconds to act on it.

4. Act on It

After your countdown, you need to act on it right away. Go ahead, stand up, don’t press that snooze button. Call that person. Grab that healthy snack. Talk to your partner. Make a suggestion to your boss. Research about it. Whatever it is, just do it.

5. Or “Your Brain will Kill It”

The moment you do not act within that 5 seconds window, your brain will kill it. When you hesitate, you are signalling to your brain that something is wrong. Then, you will feel scared. You will now put it off for fear of rejection or failure. And before you know it, your dreams and goals are now buried with it.

Use this life rule to help you achieve your goals and improve your life.

Feature Image: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Images

Jan

2020

Why Taking Care of the Environment is Important

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Your physical body is important. Your surroundings are equally important for your overall well-being. That is why taking care of the environment is important as well.

Part of our regular routine before we go about the day’s work is to brush our teeth and clean our body from head to toe. We also put on fresh clothes, comb our hair and wear comfy footwear before we walk out the door. We take the effort to look pleasing to other people as well as to look pleasing to ourselves when we look at the mirror. However, most of us are in such a hurry to go about our day that we often neglect our surroundings. Taking care of the places in which we move our physical selves is equally important. It is the same as how we regularly take care of our bodies.

Your Home

When you wake up, do you tidy up your bed? Do you put your laundry neatly away? How about your dishes, do they pile up in the sink? Do you clean, organize and declutter your home often?

A clean and organized home is an important factor in keeping yourself healthy. Sure, a little mess here and there is acceptable. But if everything is disorganized, you cannot go about your daily life in a good mood. Remember that the state of your bed, is the state of your head. The state of your home is the state of your mind.

You start the day getting frustrated because you can’t find your shoes because of all the mess in your room. Then you end it with more frustration when you can’t find the remote to your TV at night. How do you think this will affect your mental state throughout the week, months and years?

TIP

Start as soon as you wake up by tidying up your bed. Try to declutter and organizing the rooms in your house each day until the clutter is gone. Your goal is to have a more spacious, clean and comfortable home.

Your Work Place

Whether you work at home or in an office, a clean and organized work environment is essential for productivity. It is also needed to boost creativity. You may not be a able to control your whole office’s cleanliness and organization. However, your own desk should be a good example to your co-employees.

TIP

Make sure to include tidying up your desk in your routine. In fact, make it the start and end or your work day. Before you work on anything, organize the materials on your desk, even your drawer. You can also organize the files on your computer. Organizing your files will prevent a cluttered desktop when you start your work and it’s easier to find your files.

Your Community

Your community is not just your immediate neighborhood but also the places that you go through as you travel to work or your destination for a vacation. Even in these places away from where you live and work, taking care of the environment is also important as it will impact your own home as well if you don’t keep it clean and healthy.

Think of a flood or a typhoon bringing back all the trash that were thrown into the river or ocean or a fire started by one uncaring camper who threw away a lit cigarette that burned a whole forest. These disastrous events could be prevented by just caring enough to keep the places we travel through and visit cleaner instead of dirtier.

TIP

Take only memories and leave nothing but footprints. Adopt the policy of taking nothing and leaving nothing behind in the places you visit for your vacation, team building, or other travel adventures. Take as many photos as you can’t but leave the animals and plants alone. Don’t leave any of your trash or camping or swimming gear either. Take them with you when you leave and dispose of them properly when you get back home.

Your Planet

There is only one planet Earth and we should be taking care of it not only for our own sake but for the sake of our future children. The climate change is an important issue and everyone should do their part in being a solution to this problem.

When the earth is sick and polluted, human health is impossible… To heal ourselves we must heal our planet, and to heal our planet we must heal ourselves.
– Bobby McLeod (Aboriginal activist and poet)

Nature has its own way of cleaning up the planet and we should let it take its own course instead of exacerbating it by our careless habits. For example, wildfires are part of Australia’s natural environment but the recent forest fires have become worse and are happening at unexpected times so that even the animals in the forest were unprepared. Many animals have died and those living are now left homeless which also means that it will be harder for the animal population and the forest to recover. At the same time, it has raised temperatures in the residential areas up to 42 degrees Celsius.

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
– Mahatma Gandhi (Indian and civil rights activist)

We can consider the drastic changes in weather patterns as the planet’s response to how we are not taking care of it properly. Plastics are polluting are oceans and killing marine life and unrecyclable (non-biodegradable) trash is multiplying with nowhere to go with landfills all filled to the brim. The summer heatwaves and delayed rainy season are just a manifestation of the worsening state of our global environment and we should do something about it before it’s too late.

TIP

There are many ways to start helping the environment. The policy to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE is good habit to practise especially in these times. However, you can add one more to that – REFUSE.

Refuse to contribute to anymore pollution in our environment and refuse to be just an onlooker from the sidelines. Instead, be a mindful resident of this planet.

Be mindful of the ways you can help in reducing the problems and be an active part of finding and advocating for sustainable solutions to keep our homes, community and our planet healthy and safe.

Photo by Evan Krause on Unsplash.