Meditation and Mindfulness: how to increase the quality of life
We all live in an utterly busy world: the pace of life is speeding up, days are rapidly changing, our minds are always tense, whizz like washing machines going through lots of confusing emotions and thoughts. When you find yourself feeling stuck and anxious, it’s time to take a pause: take a deep breath in and exhale slowly. Close your eyes, feel the oxygen coming into your body and leaving it, release everything that no longer serves you. That’s the first step of introducing mindfulness into your life.
Mindfulness is an act of familiarizing yourself with a present moment, focusing on it and fully living it. The mind works mostly like a pendulum: it swings to the future, then to the past and is almost never in the present moment, unlike our body, hence the mindfulness meditation helps to align these two in harmony.
Since I have made mindfulness meditation my daily ritual (year 2017), I can see drastic changes in life: my mind stays focused much longer, I almost never find myself procrastinating, calm is now my superpower, my physical and emotional health have improved. Besides, there are tons of scientific reports and studies from how meditation practice boosts human health and immune system to how it increases the grey matter in the brain.
Now, what are we supposed to do? Here are a few steps that helped me to become more mindful:
10 MINUTES OF DOING NOTHING
By nothing I literally mean nothing. Find a silent spot, get a comfortable and steady position, turn off your phone, forget about your to-do list, deeply inhale and exhale. Close your eyes, dedicate this moment of silence and peace to yourself.
DETOX YOUR MIND
Meditation is simply a mental hygiene: clear out the junk, tune your talents, and get in touch with yourself. Think about it, you shower every day and clean your body, but have you ever showered your mind? As a consequence, you will feel more clear and see things with a wider perspective.
LET THE THOUGHTS FLOW
Meditation is never about controlling thoughts or stopping them from coming, that would be unnatural for the human mind. Instead imagine them as clouds, going around your mind. Without jumping into that cloud, simply let it go.
CULTIVATE GRATITUDE
Be grateful for this moment, accept it as an unrepeatable miracle. This is the moment that truly exists. because the past is gone and the future is uncertain. Seize it and live it.
TAKE IT EVERYWHERE YOU GO
Enjoy walking, eating, hugging or even drinking meditation 😉
Wherever you are, be there totally.
Helpful meditation apps: Headspace, Insight timer, Calm.
Originally published at http://estiemblog.azurewebsites.net on April 10, 2019.
