DISCLOSURE: Mindfulness and meditation at times is hard.
Sometimes we can breath deeply, feel the peace and serenity easily and effortlessly. Other times it’s facing the discomfort we are feeling and accepting the moment for what it is – and this can be really hard. Mindfulness and meditation can be blissful, natural and comforting but it’s not always the case.
Sometimes meditation can be uncomfortable. For many of us, motherhood is a huge growth period in our lives - we are doing a lot of transforming and healing. At these times we are often working through some deep seated beliefs and challenges. Through meditation sometimes our stuck energy that is no longer serving us can become unstuck and come to the surface to be released. When we ride through the discomfort and realize there is peace on the other side there is nothing more empowering.
Meditation and mindfulness practice requires that we become more in tune and intimate with our life experiences – both the positive and the negative parts.
Growth periods in our lives (like motherhood) offer us the ability to build resilienc and gain perspective and compassion. When we are continuously distracting ourselves from the discomforts and potential growth periods in our lives we miss the opportunity to flourish.
Mindfulness in moments of discomfort and pain is more powerful than we realize. At times distraction is necessary but if we go through life continuously distracting ourselves from what ‘IS’ we miss the opportunity for growth and healing.
In a recent study done on mindfulness and pain they discovered when people in pain turn towards it people report that they experience less of it, and their resistance usually decreases.
3 helpful mindful strategies you can try right now to bring you into the moment: (By Victoria Schmidgall)
1) Meditation/mindfulness: The Sorting Boxes Exercise
o To begin, set a timer for 5 minutes to complete this exercise.
o Focus on breathing normally.
o Then, begin to notice thoughts, sensations, or emotions that come into your awareness while breathing.
o Now, imagine there are 3 boxes in your mind labelled “thoughts”, “sensations”, and “emotions”.
o As each enters your field of awareness, identify them as a thought, sensation, or emotion and place them in their respective box.
o Continue clearing your mind until time is up.
2) The 3-Minute Breathing Space Exercise
Mindfulness does not take up time. You can try one small exercise to move your mind in a better direction. Can you find three minutes for this exercise?
Here are the steps to complete this exercise:
o During the first minute, begin breathing and focus on answering the question “how am I doing right now?” Focus on any feelings, thoughts, and sensations that arise.
o During the second minute, focus solely on the act of breathing.
o During the third minute, expand your attention from the act of breathing to the in’s and out’s of your breaths and how they affect the rest of your body.
3) The Gratitude Exercise
One example of a mindfulness exercise is called the Gratitude exercise.
o First, think of one thing for which you are ungrateful. It could be a job, relationship, health condition, financial situation, etc. — anything that you react towards with anger, frustration, or rejection.
o Then, take two minutes to list all the possible “silver linings” or “hidden lessons” within this thing for which you are ungrateful. The idea is to shed light on ways to be resourceful that you never realised before.
Good mindfulness authors for further reading for you:
Pema Chodron
Thich Nhat Hahn
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Gem x
