Written by: Terrie Nathan, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Where is your head?
Being mindful is having an awareness of your emotional journey and having the ability to direct it. Are you noticing things with an attitude of acceptance, openness, kindness, and curiosity for yourself and others? Or are you missing out on the day-to-day joy due to an overfilled mind?
Mindfulness pays attention and helps us to choose the emotional states we want. When we engage in mindfulness we can then choose the meaning of what is going on. We don’t always have to go to the negative side of things, we can dig deeper and see what other meaning there is in any given situation or event. Intellect and mindfulness are not opposed to each other, they work together to help you stay flexible and help you positively direct your behaviour.
And guess what the benefits are endless. Mindfulness helps you to build a stronger immune system, promotes better sleep, helps fuel resilience, helps to lower your stress levels, can lower blood pressure, helps improve focus, helps to banish negative thoughts, and reduces anxiety. When you improve your mood you increase your overall positive emotions and well-being.
Being mindful makes it easier to savour the pleasures in everyday life as they occur and creates a greater capacity to deal with unpleasant situations or events that life brings us. By focusing on the here and now, many people who practise mindfulness find that they are less likely to get caught up in worries about the future or regrets over the past. Your mind connects to your body and your body to your mind. When you feel better your energy increases and you increase the necessary endorphins to thrive, flourish and bring on feelings of overall wellness.
Mindfulness is like your mobile device, you can use it anywhere, anytime, but if you don’t charge it, there is no benefit. Charge yourself with daily mindful routines. We all have a certain amount of energy each day and you get to decide where and how you want to spend it. Here are a few tips to help you on your journey of mindfulness.
Connect with your senses.
The gateway into the present moment is your touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound. But often we miss this. Take a moment to smell the coffee, the fresh air, to look at a flower or a tree, to hear a bird chirp, or the waves crash, the touch of a soft blanket or fresh bread. Connecting with your senses allows you to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, if only for a moment. It does wonder for being in the moment and appreciating what’s right in front of us. Think about how you are connecting your senses to everyday moments.
Self-awareness
Watching yourself like a hawk, so to speak, by accurately perceiving your own emotions and the thoughts they bring. Being aware of your emotional state allows you to know who and what pushes your buttons, which helps you to better react to people and situations positively. If someone I know starts to get negative it can automatically set me off, I know this about myself, so I on purpose, take a deep breath and think before I respond, this has saved me from saying something I would regret later. Taking that extra moment before responding is part of leading a mindful life.
Make meditation a daily habit.
Meditation can be as easy as sitting in the quiet or listening to music, it can be done sitting or while walking or on a bike ride not with your eyes closed, of course, it doesn’t require a special setting. It doesn’t have to take long, even 5 or 10 minutes will have a positive impact on your day and your overall wellness. Anyway, you slice it, meditation has huge benefits from increased energy, happiness, peacefulness, and reduction of stress. I often have people tell me they don’t have time to meditate, however, the short amount of time you take to meditate, has a huge return on your overall well-being, and you are worth it! You may have to schedule your meditation. I schedule time with myself every morning, so I can get my head straight.
Awareness of how your body is feeling.
Are you tense, do you feel full of anxiety or stress? When these moments happen it’s a perfect time to stop and assess what is happening. Perhaps you need a break or need to take a breath, it’s important to assess the feelings and then take action to do what you need to do to get your body feeling better. Our bodies tell us a lot, but often we don’t listen until it’s too late. You know the feeling, your shoulders pull back and you get in that mode? Being aware of what your body is doing is important to how you will negatively or positively respond to someone or something.
Be kind to yourself (self-acceptance).
Think about treating yourself like you would a small child, a good friend, your pet. You deserve the same compassion, start treating yourself accordingly, and be tolerant of your shortcomings we all have them. We don’t like it when others treat us poorly, but all too often we treat ourselves even worse than others would. Nobody’s perfect, allow yourself to be imperfect, we are all flawed in some way, love your quirky, silly, messed up hair, beautiful self. LOVE WHO YOU ARE! I’m far from perfect and I can get down on myself at a moment's notice if I’m not careful, I know this about myself, so I give myself a break when it happens and then get started back again. We have a natural tendency to focus on what’s wrong vs what’s strong. Our brain is like velcro for negative experiences, and Teflon for positive experiences. The good news is with practice you can start to be mindful of all you do that is strong and switch up the way you see and treat yourself. Permission to be human.
Be mindful of where and what you are putting your energy into. We all have a certain amount of energy, you get to decide where you want to spend it.
Mindfully,
Terrie Nathan
Terrie Nathan, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Terrie Nathan is an International Best-selling Author, Coach, Speaker and CEO/Founder of Strong Girl Enterprises. She coaches clients to improve their lives, relationships, and ability to perform in business by setting & achieving goals and building positive routines. She also coaches youth to build their confidence by teaching them strategies on positive self-talk, self-worth and body image.
Her practice is grounded in Positive Psychology, a research-based branch of psychology that studies what really causes people to thrive and flourish in their lives and work, and how we can apply those findings in practical and positive ways.
Terrie has now made it her life's mission to coach these transformational strategies of empowerment by partnering with clients and organizations worldwide.
