Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand, you’ve probably come to realise that there is a wee bit of a mindfulness movement in the waters. Some mindful methods include – colouring, meditation, yoga, reading, journalling … We are slowly become more aware of the benefits of living with a greater sense of presence, kindness and peace – while waking up to the detrimental impacts that automaticity, stress and dissociation have on our lives. In a nutshell? Stress = low vibe living; Peace = high vibe thriving.
But spending pretty much our entire lives engulfed in a world that glorifies busyness, cheers on over commitment and poo poos on ‘me time’ has resulted in a sort of resitance//guilt//fear of the pause. We literally have access to the world at our fingertips, our food is fast, our messages are instant, our web browsers can support 20 tabs at once … we are never short of stimulation. So naturally ‘silence’ becomes so unfamiliar that it’s near painful to expose ourselves to it. Let alone do so by choice.
If you’re craving greater synchronicity, connection, peace, love, happiness and vitality – embrace the silence and space. Invite it into your life and I promise you won’t regret it. But if the idea of sitting in lotus pose with only your thoughts for half an hour is comparable to notion of visiting Baskins while on a juice cleanse … you’re not alone and this is no reason to give up and deem yourself ‘unpeaceable’. I have come up with a few ideas to infuse this sense of mindfulness seamlessly into your life.
+ Unplug, disconnect and get outside – Leave your phone at home, don’t pack your ipod and head down to your nearest beach or park. Make an effort to notice the sounds, the smells, the sights – perhaps a little more sensitively than you might normally do. Commit to a twenty minute walk and allow yourself to get caught up in the moment.
+ Do (absolutely) nothing for 5 minutes – Set your timer and find a comfortable (but not too comfortable) seat. Set the intention to sit with your breath, completely and totally, until the timer sounds. My favourite is square breathing – with 4 second inhalation, 4 second pause at the top of the breath, 4 second exhale and 4 second hold at the bottom of the breath.
+ Colour yourself happy – There’s a reason why Derwent and Faber Castel are in hyper-production mode (seriously, I was told by an art supplies store that the pencil companies literally cannot keep up with demand). The colouring movement is a really funky, new age (with old school wisdom) approach to incorporating a slowed pace into our frenetic lives. We are able to focus on something external and allow time and space to dedicate our energy to this simple form of creative expression.
Blessings and mindful love x
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