Instructions for What's my attitude?
"Mindfulness helps us to step out of habitual ways of seeing and interacting with other people and it can help us to avoid becoming mired with resentments as time goes on." - Padraig O'Morain
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Instructions for Just Listen...
What you've just practiced is the art of letting things be as they are. We can exhaust ourselves being annoyed by little things that are often beyond our control — The person in the office who talks too loudly; the rattle on the dashboard that you never seem to have time to fix; the wheel on the shopping trolley that wants you to go left. Whatever it is, if you can learn to let it be, you will be saving your energy for the things that really matter to you. "Mindfulness is the practice of returning your attention again and again to what is going on, even if you don't like it, rather than spending time and energy on a struggle with reality." - Padraig O'Morain Instructions for Your Thoughts Are Not YOU!
So much unhappiness and stress comes from our thoughts, or to be more precise, from when we believe our thoughts. Just because you think something, it doesn't mean it's true. If you're feeling down, or stressed, your thoughts may try to tell you "you are not good enough", or that "there's something wrong with you", or that "there's no hope". Don't believe it! It's just the stress or depression talking, and it's not telling you anything helpful. Train your 'Mindfulness Muscle' to just observe your thoughts passing by, recognising them as just mental events, and not believing them. "Moods and feelings are powerful influences shaping our frame of mind—the lens through which we see the world. This, in turn, shapes our patterns of thinking. ...When the themes of feelings and thoughts mesh in this way, those thinking patterns re-create the feelings that shaped them in the first place. As well as keeping the feelings going, the close link between feelings and thoughts makes the thoughts seem very real." - J Teasdale, M Williams, & Z Segal. Instructions for the Mindful Belly Breath:
The 'Mindfulness Muscle' you just exercised is the relaxation response. Belly breathing increases the amount of oxygen in the body, helping to lower the stress response and invite more calm to the body and mind. As with training any muscle, the more you do it, the stronger it will get! As usual, aim to practice this several times a day for the next week, and if you have any questions, feel free to email me. "So it's helpful to know that mindfulness practitioners become less reactive in the emotional part of the brain — that is, the amygdala calms down. This doesn't turn you into a zombie though — the insula helps you to feel more connected to other people and is strengthened by mindfulness practice." - Padraig O'Morain |
The Weekly Minute is a blog I write each week with the aim of providing proven tools to help promote positive mental health.
The collection of short, practical mindfulness and therapy tools for self-reflection and self-improvement, can equip people to take their mental well-being into their own hands, and improve their quality of life. The Weekly Minute is posted here every Monday, or you can sign up to get it delivered to your inbox via the link below. Follow me on social media (see below) to make sure you don't miss one! Get the Weekly Minute delivered straight to your inbox, or follow it on social media!
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