In the last few years practicing Mindfulness has fast been gaining popularity. Not only amongst those of us who rock dreadlocks, live off tofu and are humming under a tree. In the West, people are starting to fully appreciate the positive impact Mindfulness can have on their life, their relationships and on their careers. The beneficial effects of Mindfulness has resulted in multinational corporations such as Google to offer employees courses to stimulate creativity. Even the banking sector is embracing Mindfulness in an attempt to address a high rate of employee burnouts.
In short Mindfulness helps you find peace in an increasingly frantic world. Those who practice Mindfulness on a daily basis have found that this hectic and often stressful world slowly begins to change for the better. Mindfulness can change your mindset and attitude towards life, and in turn can make you both a happier and healthier person.
Here are 4 reasons why:
Acceptance
As our lives become increasingly faster paced, urbanised and frenetic it can be hard to find a proportionate balance of time to reflect on our progress, appreciate our successes and understand our failures. If things go wrong it can become increasingly difficult to identify exactly why things go wrong or how to correct the problems.
Sometimes it seems that everything is falling apart at the same time. Almost as if the Universe is testing the boundaries of how much we can handle. Three years ago, I became unemployed, sick and went through a painful break up all at once. The pressure of all these things failing at the same time was crippling. I started to begrudge the way my life was unfolding, and spent hours wondering why it had happened to me, cursing myself and sobbing on the floor.
Life will inevitably have its ups and downs; practicing Mindfulness will not change that. But it can change the way you deal with what life throws at you, and that could make all the difference.
You will practice accepting what has happened, instead of fighting and resisting something you cannot change anyway. Life will still throw stuff at you that you wish you didn’t have to deal with. Practicing Mindfulness can really help us to cope with the challenges that we will inevitably face.
Appreciating my life is so much easier now that I identify hardship and appreciate it for what it is; accepting it as just as a part of my life. I have stopped wishing that when I wake up everything will be different and started wondering how I can accept and find happiness in the reality in front of me.
Living in the present
In the same way that going for a run down the beach trains your legs, abs and heart muscles and doing press ups trains your arms and chest, so does practicing Mindfulness trains your brain.
For large parts of the day most of us are able to fly by on “auto pilot”. Whether that is sitting at a computer or on a sun lounger we are easily lost in thoughts and often not conscious of our surroundings or ourselves. Our mind wanders between past, present and future constantly. For the most part we neither realise or have any control over this cerebral time travel.
It’s all too easy to live in the past or the future, whilst neglecting the “now” despite ‘now’ being the only moment we can actually experience. Mindfulness helps us to stop waiting for tonight, for Friday, for the start of summer, or for “the one”. If you think to yourself “I’ll be happy when…” or ‘as soon as…’ Then you are dismissing the present that lies between and will inevitably be waiting for a happiness that is just out of reach or round the corner. Mindfulness helps us train the brain to focus more on the present so we can start enjoying life now not later.
Stop constantly comparing yourself
Comparison is the thief of Joy. There can be nothing more destructive to self-confidence than comparison of yourself unnecessarily to others. Subconsciously, we are continually judging and comparing ourselves to others. These thoughts can become negative and lead to discontent across many aspects of our lives.
There will always be somebody out there who seems better looking, skinnier, to be making more money than we are and seems to be happier. However, for the most part we see the projected shiny surface of other people’s lives. Most of us present an idealised image of ourselves to the outer world while keeping our struggles and traumas as hidden as possible. On social media, others can project a seemingly perfect life at us and pressure us into feeling that we should be living up to that benchmark. Their reality can be very different from their projection. Behind the flawless “selfies” and perfectly angled photographs of pretty girls we are following on instagram, they are real people. People who have ups and downs, highs and lows, good days and bad days. People with problems just like our own who are seeking validation for the way they live their life in much the same way we all do.
Practicing Mindfulness can help you let go of judgment through comparison. By being mentally in the present and letting go of the need to constantly change, you can release the unnecessary need to compare yourself. Mindfulness can help you appreciate that who you are is already good enough and help us find peace of mind. Acceptance of self is often the first step towards boosting self-esteem and strengthening confidence.
Developing a sense of gratitude
The easiest and most effective way to have more good in your life is really simple. It is learning to be grateful for the things you already have. Being grateful for the things we take for granted takes a shift in the way we look at the world. When you are living in the present, it is easier to appreciate the beautiful things that make life a little bit brighter; the smell of coffee, birdsong in the morning or the smile of a stranger.
Good thoughts bring good energy. By paying attention to our surroundings and being grateful for all the little things in our lives, we can start to develop a more positive outlook on life. The reward is that this will help bring positive energy back into our every day life.
The secret to having it all is realising that you already do! Start every morning by being aware and thankful for all the blessings in your life. If you can take a few minutes each morning to be grateful you stand a great chance of that positivity affecting the rest of your day. Start being the stranger that smiles at someone else. Something as small as a smile can grow like a wave. It’s infectious and it’s something we can all do.
This article has been published first on www.modernehippies.nl
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