Written by Angela Warburton, TCM
It’s hard not to get caught up in the busyness that seems to plague our culture at the best of times.We often feel a pressure to be active and productive, but it is also important to check in with the body and mind on a regular basis, to take a moment to wind down and feel what is going on with us.
Mindfulness is a simple tool that helps us to arrive in the current moment. So often as modern humans, we find ourselves being pulled mentally to things that have happened in the past or, as I affectionately like to call them, ‘disaster fantasies’ of what might happen in the future. We so often miss the very moment we are standing in (which to be perfectly honest, is exactly where LIFE happens).
By using simple tools such as our breath, which is always with us, or our senses (smell, touch or feel, listening, tasting, what we see) to help us arrive back in the moment, we can more fully enjoy the joy and wonders that are here right now.
Now I know not every moment is a pleasant one, but studies show if we’re able to ‘be’ with all our feelings and emotions and basically ride them out instead of trying to push them away or bury them, we end up being happier and more at peace than when we try to push them away or bury them.
Try some of these simple mindfulness techniques daily as a practice, but also if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, anxious or irritated from sitting in traffic, standing in line, or just thinking about all the things you ‘have’ to do.
Go to your breath –
Breath is the core of many mindful meditation practices mostly because the breath is always there. The breath is also our trigger to a stressed state of being or a more relaxed state. We tend to breathe in to our chest area only and with shorter breathes when we’re anxious or in our ‘fight or flight’ state. By breathing into our low abdomen, and by making our exhales slightly longer than our inhales, we send the message to our body that we’re relaxed and everything is oooook.
So the next time you’re feeling hurried, anxious, overwhelmed…or just aware, take a moment to focus on your breath. Feel what it feels like to breathe in through your nose, the expansion in your belly and then feel the slow letting go and releasing feeling as you breath out. It’s sometimes easier for people to count their breathes particularly if they have a busy mind, so a simple trick is to breath in for 4 counts and out for 6-8 counts. Perhaps imaging all the stress, fears or worries being blown out with each exhale. Try it for 5 breathes, trying to focus on all steps of the inhale and exhale and see how you feel at the end.
Go to gratitude –
Stuck in traffic and feeling your temper flare? Standing in line getting frustrated by the person taking WAY too long in front of you? Seize the moment to remember what you’re grateful for. Try to think of 5 things – and get specific. Instead of I’m grateful for my health, try I’m grateful that I have the energy and ability to get up everyday and walk around, that I have food in the fridge that I can make a healthy meal that nourishes my body, that I have arms that I can hug the people I love. And imagine what that feels like. I’m grateful for my friends and family that I can reach out to when I need support or that I’m able to be there for the ones I love and support them because it feels so good to know I’ve helped. Get into the nitty gritty’s of the gratitude. Notice how your mood shifts when you think and FEEL all the things that you have to be grateful for. It actually can change the chemistry in your body from the cortisol or adrenaline stress hormones pumping through, to the serotonin or oxytocin feel good hormones taking over!
Go to your senses –
If your rushing to get somewhere or to get something done, and your head’s a mile ahead of your body, take a second to get into your senses. If your cooking something for a party – what do you smell when your cutting or chopping or when something is baking. If you’re out and about, what does the ground feel like under your feet as you walk, the cool air on your cheeks? What are some of the sounds you hear when you’re out shopping – do you hear laughter, familiar cheerful songs, perhaps just the sound of silence if you have a moment before the news comes on or people get up. Savor the sound of stillness if you get a moment. When you’re eating, try to really take the time to taste your food (and chew it!). Take the time to sit and eat and focus on the task at hand instead of multi tasking your way through another meal. Stopping to eat not only slows things down, it directly affects our digestion and ability to absorb nutrients.
These may all sound like little things, and it’s easy to go to ‘who has the time’, but all these little things really help bring you back into the present. And really, that’s exactly where life is happening!
So the next time you’re in a line, at a stop light, waiting for someone…take the opportunity for a mindful moment, and notice over time that you might just feel a little bit lighter, a little less stress and a little bit happier for it.