Need to feel curious about your life? 2 tips to help.
Blue Stop sign with a lizard petched on top. Inviting us to take a moment to review some myths of mindfulness.
Being curious, mindfulness allows us to step back as we consider our life worth living.
When you practice mindfulness, you use the What and How foundational skills. This helps you to be present, thoughtful and observe what's going on. Whether inside you or around you. You’ll experience and participate in your life, in the current moment. We meet with Ibolya, a psychiatric nurse to learn more.
She says when you are curious …
“You are experiencing the dialectic of both opening the mind, as you observe, as well as focusing the mind on specific internal or external events.”
This enables you to make choices about how you respond. You widen the gap between stimulus and response. This gives you control over your responses, and that’s a real benefit of mindfulness.
Two tips to support you being curious
Tip 1 Practice the “What” skills: as you do an activity, say a walk, why not actively practice OBSERVE, DESCRIBE. Throw yourself into the now as you PARTICIPATE. Your actions will support you to become less reactive. Your suffering will be less, and your joy will increase. You’ll participate and move forward in every experience.
Tip 2 Focus on the present with the “How” skills: Being ONE MINDFUL, focusing on being EFFECTIVE instead of being right, and being NON-JUDGMENTAL allows us to be curious. We’ll notice what's happening in our lives.
Ibolya advises “If we focus our attention on living in the present, we create the possibility to have our
life that is worth living.
There are many other benefits to those who practice mindfulness regularly. “We know that practice has significant physical and mental health benefits,” says Ibolya. These include;
Decreasing our blood pressure
Reducing our stress levels
Improving our general health
The research indicates that regular practice can improve our brain health by affecting cortical thickness too.
Making a routine work
How can we instill a routine for ourselves to practice mindfulness as a daily habit? We need to help our brains to help us make the changes we seek. Why not write (type) out the Pros and Cons for yourself? See them in ‘black and white’. you’ll gain an understanding of the hurdles you feel are in the way.
SMART Goals.
We’ll have more than a wish by using SMART goal setting. It gives us the structure and strategy we need for success.
For example – Plan A: I’ll practice 2 minutes of mindfulness every morning… on my walk // after my first cup of coffee // as I arrive at work, to focus my energy and attention.
Plan B: If I miss a morning, I’ll take 5 minutes at lunchtime. I’ll find a safe place. Then I’ll deep breathe (paced breathing) for 2 minutes to relax, and then I’ll practice 2 minutes of mindfulness.
We wish you every success as you view your life with curiosity.
