6 minute read

Mindfulness: Healing and hope

SAMI TUCKER OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR/ HR ASSISTANT Mindfulness: Healing and hope.

In a world where I can hardly find the correct words to describe the horrific tragedies that are going on, it is now more important than ever before for everyone to stop and take a beat. To really open your eyes, your ears and your heart; and to really just ground yourself in that moment.

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Our lives are always so busy – be it personal or professional lives, and sometimes the lines between those two lives can be blurry. I know it myself; I take my work home with me and sometimes I struggle to switch off over the evening or weekend. Those who know me well know that I also took my laptop on honeymoon and checked in with the office pretty much every day!

I take an immense amount of pride in my work and strive to make everyday a little bit better than the last. Everyone also has different drivers in their lives, and I would say that my main one is my daughter, Scarlett (five). I want to show her that hard work and patience pays off. I want her to know that she can do anything she wants, be whoever she wants to be – she just needs to work hard to do it. I want her to be proud of her Mummy. But sometimes, that elusive ‘drive’ drifts off into the sunset, and I float around a bit, lost and unaware of why I work so hard and put in all those extra hours. When this happens, I must really try and focus on getting back to where I was before and there are a few tactics and techniques that I would like to share with you which I hope will help.

Firstly, there is “grounding”. Grounding is really what it says on the tin – it brings your mind back to Earth. To re-establish a connection with your basic senses. The premise is as follows:

Stop and take a beat, really open your eyes, ears and your heart; and really ground yourself in the moment.

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Find four things you can feel and lose yourself in the textures – the silkiness of a hand cream or the waxiness on the outside of your apple Find two things you can smell and inhale deeply, taking note of the scent filling all the way from the bottom of your lungs to the top – the smell of sweet strawberry jam or the smell of your daughters favourite cuddly toy

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Find five things that you can see and really study the intricate details of these things - the stamen on a flower or the weave on a scarf

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Find three things you can hear that you would not normally notice – the sound of the church bells in the distance or the noise of a train passing over the rails

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Find one thing you can taste and really focus on the way it feels in your mouth – a sweet and juicy apple or a salty and dry crisp

Something else you can use is a body awareness technique which again is how it sounds – taking the time to tune into the reverberation of each cell in your body, to see how they harmonise together to make the wonderful you. The best way to do this exercise is to wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes without shoes or socks on. The soles of your feet touching the floor/carpet/grass makes the experience more intense and effective. Breathe in through your nose, holding it deep within your lungs and then back out through your mouth. Shaking the extremities and the whole way through your body can loosen up any muscles, reduce stress and anxiety and help to put you in a naturally reflective state. Stretching is also incredibly good at releasing built up tension and this is why so many ‘stress release’ guides include the use of Pilates and Yoga. This will take care of the physical side of how you are feeling, but we also need to focus on the mental side too.

When I need to get out of my head, I use mental games – either by myself or with others – where I engage my grey cells in ways I would not normally do. This could include some maths (starting at 100 and counting back by six at a time), a test of knowledge (how many animals can I name that begin with ‘F’) or even playing around with the alphabet (name a type of food for each letter of the alphabet). Sometimes this little bit of distraction can help to take the mental load off for a minute, enough to give your brain a bit of a reboot.

Something that I have been trying to push myself to do a bit more, even on the days when I don’t feel I need it – is mindfulness. This is a term that has been thrown around a lot over the last few years and its simple definition probably lacks the enormity of the difference it can make to someone.

The NHS website defines mindfulness as: “Paying

more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world

around you”. In its own way grounding is a form of mindfulness, but mindfulness also helps us delve into the thoughts and feelings that we have throughout the day – and with practice it helps us become more in-sync and communicable with our subconscious. There are some wonderful YouTube videos and apps out there to help you with learning how to practice mindfulness and what you might get out of it if you do. I am useless at meditations; I fidget a ridiculous amount and my mind just drifts off to the to-do list or what I am going to make for dinner. Mindfulness needs to be practiced for it to become second nature and do its best work – so my aim is to do just a few minutes every single day, without committing myself to a twenty-minute meditation session which will most likely be a waste of time and will stress me out even more. I need to re-train my brain to remind me that I am in-charge of it, not the other way around – and I think with the pace of society at the moment, this is a fact that sometimes eludes us all.

Employees of Aspen Waite are lucky to have access to the Employee Assistance Programme which provides 24/7 information and support for both you and your immediate family on a wealth of topics including weight, depression, stress, money management and lots more. Please do use this wonderful resource as it is free to all our staff.

As always, we are all special and we all have something amazing to share with the world. Don’t ever doubt that you are not good enough, because the person blocking your way is normally you. Find that reason to get out of bed in the morning and cling onto it with both hands.

For more information about mindfulness, check out the below links:

Mindfulness - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Easy Mindfulness Exercises - Bing video

Simple Mindfulness Strategy -- Take 5 - Bing video

Calm - The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep

Meditation and Sleep Made Simple - Headspace

Sami x

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