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Learn Mindfulness
Gain the Benefits and the Confidence that you get from Taking Charge of Your Mind
Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating awareness of what our minds are perceiving and creating and how best to utilise that awareness for the purpose of achieving harmony, peace, clarity, and for making effective and appropriate choices in our lives.
Mindfulness is a form of “on the go” meditation that is designed to enhance our ability to take effective control of our minds and therefore our lives. Its strength is in giving us the ability to stay in touch with our greater potential anytime and anywhere.
The Mindfulness Technique
• Slower, deeper breath than normal.
• Focus attention on the breath to centre yourself in the present moment. Keep returning to this conscious-awareness of your breath whenever you get distracted.
• Be the open, neutral (non-judging), detached observer of all that passes through your awareness while you are staying in touch with the open, relaxed rhythm of your breath.
• When we do this, we are opening our awareness like we are opening a door, so the mind and body and the environment can flow through this door of awareness. As our practice continues, the awareness door gets wider and the space for awareness increases.
• Observe how your mind reacts to thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and the outside environment, but don’t react with it. Let everything flow through you. Observe the experience of your mind as everything passes through your awareness.
• Practice Mindfulness anywhere and anytime and for any length of time.
• The more frequently you practice mindfulness, the more awareness you establish.
• Don’t expect your mind to behave itself. It is controlled by very powerful primal instincts that switch on automatically and have only limited awareness, and therefore easily get confused.
• Our primal instincts are like a child, and or conscious-awareness is like the parent of that child.
• The first stage of the process is just learning to be aware of the mind and what it is up to. Often the first thing we observe is how out of control our minds are. Don’t judge yourself for having such an out-of-control mind. We are all basically the same. You are just observing basic human nature. It is very important to practice being patient, accepting and compassionate toward yourself as a part of the Mindfulness practice. It is like learning to be a caring and attentive parent.
• What we are doing is cultivating a potential (awareness) that we all have, but we all have to recognise it and deliberately switch it on.
• At first, the noisy mind may seem too strong and chaotic to get above, so patience is the key. Awareness is ultimately far stronger than the mind, but you have to get a “feel” for it, just like we do when learning a new sport, or learning to drive a car. You are learning how to consciously direct your mind.
• Any increase in awareness will make a positive difference to your life.
• As your awareness grows, old redundant, self-defeating thought habits will start to fall apart by themselves – you will have insightful “aha” moments.
• Being persistent with your practice is naturally important to develop skill.
• The practice of Mindfulness can become the foundation for unlocking our greater potential in many diverse areas of our lives.
Self-awareness is the road to healing, wellbeing & a successful life.
- c/o Inner Harmony Counselling & Therapy
Love and Blessings,
Lauren