Have you ever found yourself three quarters of the way through a car journey and not known how you’ve arrived at where you are?
Have you ever eaten a whole meal (or a whole packet of something) without even realising that you’ve consumed something?
Has someone stumped you by asking what you did over the weekend and you’ve found, even on a Monday morning, that you have no idea?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you’re all too familiar with living mindlessly. That’s right, many of us spend much of our time engaging in, and with, the world on auto-pilot, mindless of what we’re doing and what’s going on!
This is not a good thing; it robs us of pleasure, contributes to us repeatedly engaging in unhelpful or undesirable behaviours, and it detracts from our ability to thoroughly enjoy life and happiness.
But there’s an antidote – and that is, mindFULness.
You may well have heard of mindfulness but in case you’re not sure what it really is, it’s not about ‘switching off’ – and this is a common misconception. Mindfulness can be defined as: non-judgmental observation; or observing with curiosity but without judgement, one’s thoughts, feelings, actions or anything in life (including work and even others).
And it’s relevant to living a Super Life because research clearly suggests that those who’re more mindful tend to enjoy fewer unpleasant emotions and more positive emotions. They still get upset but the distress doesn’t last as long.
So how can you learn and practice mindfulness? Try the following…
- Set aside 5-10 minutes every day (more if you can)
- Make yourself comfortable somewhere you’re not likely to be disturbed or interrupted
- Select something upon which you’d like to focus (e.g. your breath, your thoughts, or your feelings)
- And just be mindful of this as best you can; that’s it. Just focus on your chosen phenomenon and stay focused on it as best you can for the time you’ve set
- Now you’ll find that from time to time your mind wanders; or unwanted thoughts pop in to your head; when this happens just re-focus your mind, take it back to where you began, and start again
This, quite simply, is mindfulness; and it can be applied to any aspect of your Super Life.
Now, very soon – in fact across the next few lessons – we’ll be applying mindfulness strategies to a range of different things, including eating. And this is going to make all the difference to those of you who find that you tend to wolf down packets of crackers, snack mindlessly or even eat emotionally.
You won’t want to miss these – so stay tuned. Let us know how you’re going practicing mindfulness by hopping over to the Members’ only Facebook page.