Retrain Your Brain for Better Physical and Mental Health
How many of us have gotten to our destination after driving in our cars, only to ask ourselves, how did we get here? Or, have had encounters with coworkers, friends or family members only to ask ourselves what did we talk about? Our lives have turned into an endless assembly line, breakfast, work, gym, supper, work, bed… wake up and repeat. We are often so out of touch with what is happening in our daily lives, that often days, weeks or even months go by unnoticed. It often takes a major event to realize that we’ve lived much our lives in automatic pilot.
Mindfulness is a deliberate intention to bring awareness to each and every moment of our lives. It allows us to become aware of what is actually happening to us right here right now. The practice of mindfulness can help us change how we relate to our experiences.
Bringing attention and awareness to therapy sessions can help us become more in tune with our bodies. We can invite mindfulness principles into our sessions, using non judgement of our bodies and our capabilities. Having a beginners mind into the potential of what we can achieve, and by developing patience and trust in our physical abilities. By tuning into what is actually happening to us right in the moment we can change how we relate to pain, stress or fatigue.
One of the things that drew me to mindfulness the similarity it had to exercise. Starting a new routine like mindfulness is challenging and can often take us out of our comfort zone. However, just like exercise the benefits from mindfulness are immense. Mindfulness has been shown to help with a range of conditions such as stress, chronic pain, anxiety and depression. As exercise helps to train your physical body, mindfulness is often described as the mental training for your brain.
For example, simply being focused on the movement of your breath at your belly for one minute can be hard work. Try it, turn the timer on your phone and see if you can focus on only your breath. Even one minute can be a struggle to turn our brains off other things that compete for our attention. Mindfulness is simply the practice of bringing it back to the breath and back to the present moment.
Just like we know the countless benefits of exercise to our physical and mental health, research is pouring in over the benefits of mindfulness in our lives.
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet” – Thich Nhat Hanh
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