I want to talk about mindfulness today... Some people will think it's a load of old spiritual nonsense, and I certainly never thought I would be blogging about something like this but from first hand experience I can tell you now it does work if you set your mind to it (forgive the pun).
Do you ever find yourself sitting there with a thousand thoughts whizzing around your mind? For me, they make me feel anxious and because I am so consumed within these thoughts I become very unproductive. I'm very good at masking what I am feeling and I probably suppress a lot of my emotions which is definitely not healthy!
Mindfulness is a way of slowing your brain down and focusing on one thought at a time. Acknowledge what you're thinking and feeling. So for instance, "Ok, I feel really pissed off" or "I'm feeling anxious right now!" Then delve into these feelings deeper and ask yourself why you feel like this. I have a journal which I write in so I can see my thoughts in front of me. It helps to bring up the emotion you are feeling and to process it. You then should ask yourself questions from an outsider's perspective.
For example, I've got my journal in front of me now and can see a couple of months ago I wrote the following:
I feel worried and anxious, because I feel useless at work and that I'm not stepping up to the mark in my new job.
Do others feel the same way? What can I do to stop feeling like this?
No-one has told me I am doing anything wrong and I need to remember I have only been in this new job a few weeks. It's something I have never done before and I still need to learn the routine.
Evaluating and owning what I had written down made me feel so much better afterwards. It is also nice to look back on to see how far I have come since then. In fact a few days after writing that in my journal, my boss praised me on what a good job I was doing. Using this technique has really helped me when I've been feeling distressed or anxious as it allows me to express myself in small bursts rather than letting all the negative feelings build up inside me.
I may not be the best at explaining this, but if you just search for mindfulness through any search engine there is tons of information to read upon. I would also recommend the book 'The Road Less Travelled' by M. Scott Peck. It's touches on this and how to grow spiritually and understand yourself.
Thanks for reading.
Lucy x
