Mindfulness, A Busy Life And Our Friends

I don’t have time to practise Mindfulness, it’s about this or that, my life is too busy. Yet I hear, I’m stressed, I’m anxious, I’m not productive, I don’t get anything done.

I’m writing this blog to dispel some myths about what Mindfulness is and isn’t and, in particular, the myth that it’s all about some kind of strict regime or routine and meditation sitting on a cushion saying ‘ommm’. The belief that you can’t fit it into your busy life, that’s a myth too… no, in fact, I’m going to be a bit honest here, that’s a load of rubbish - you absolutely can.

I’m also going to talk a little bit about my good friends the hippo, the tiger and the waterfall! You will know who these friends are if you have seen my taken part in my trainings or workshops or heard me talk about mindfulness before, but you can absolutely make difference to these things - you might be thinking at this point I am some kind of weirdo… but trust me, read on!

When I first learned mindfulness, I was working in a busy, stressful job where I would come home and cry most nights, have sleepless nights worrying about work and was so anxious I would physically sweat and shake. I was introduced to mindfulness through studying positive psychology and wellbeing, and I can honestly say it changed my life. But did I sit on a cushion and 'ommm' at any point? NO. Did I sit for hours on end meditating? NO…. I’m not going to say it was easy and there were multiple times I beat myself up about having a busy mind or the thoughts I was having or feeling weak at the anxiety I was feeling.

I was able to do it and create a Mindfulness habit for life around my busy life and my busy mind. It came in particularly helpful when I was juggling the busy stressful job and planning a wedding. I managed to fit in short morning meditations (or evening where I couldn’t do mornings) and the mindfulness habit just became part of my everyday.

For example, I used to get so impatient at queues in shops, literally could feel my heart beating as I got more and more impatient and counting to 10 to try and stop myself getting outwardly frustrated, thinking about how much of a waste of time it was and willing the queue or shop assistant to hurry up.

So anyway, onto my friends the hippo, the tiger and the waterfall… what is she going on about I hear? So, I’m taking us back to the science here and why mindfulness works.

So our brains haven’t changed much since caveman times and when we experience stress and anxiety, it thinks that there is a tiger attacking us and we need to fight or run away.

This is where the stress response and the anxiety comes in. It’s there to protect us from danger. It’s our bodies getting us ready to fight and run away… but the kinds of things we get stressed and anxious about mostly in this day and age aren’t things we need to fight or run away from, and this is where mindfulness can help.

Just a few minutes of mindfulness a day can help shrink down the part of the brain that is making this happen to us and help us be more resilient to stress and anxiety.

Secondly our good old friend the hippo! The hippo is the part of the brain called the hippocampus, I always like to think hippopotamus, perhaps you are now really thinking I am a bit strange… anyway it helps me! So the hippocampus is responsible for learning and memory, and again Mindfulness can help actually grow this area so we remember and learn more stuff - how cool is that?

Then lastly the waterfall - so this is more than how we do mindfulness rather than what is happening to us. Jon-Kabat Zinn - one of the grandfathers of Mindfulness (he brought it from the East into the Western world) talks about us seeing our thoughts as if we were behind a waterfall, sitting back and observing them rather than getting caught up in them.

A lot of the time we focus on the thoughts as our reality, but by stepping back from them, we can see what’s actually going on for us.

So that’s where the waterfall comes in, or if you prefer trying to see your thoughts as a cinema screen and you’re sitting back watching them play out.

So you can do this approach at any point in time stepping back, you don’t have to be in ‘meditation’ pose or any particular part of the day, you can do this anytime and anywhere exactly like my example I said about counting trees at petrol stations!

Very random I know, but it worked for me and reduced my anxiety/stress and impatience!

https://www.thehappinessbranch.com

Article By Gemma Sandwell - TEDx speaker, Mindfulness Teacher and Mindset Coach