helpful hints for a more mindful life

4th February 2015

Call me crazy but over the past few months I’ve started having these weird thoughts that health & fitness might just be a little bit more than looking good and feeling great. I know I know, I’m not sure what’s gotten in to me but walk with me for a minute here. I was at the peak of physical health, Spirulina for breakfast? Sure! 6am workouts? I’ll take three! It’s safe to say I was living well but I soon found out I was also living ignorant. I had ignored one of the biggest aspects to come under the heading of “living well”, my mind. Because lefts face it, mindfulness is for hippies and tree huggers, no? What a ridiculous thought train I had. With my ignorance (mostly) behind me I’ve put together some tips to help you on your health kick which maybe won’t necessarily make you sweat.   Notice your breathing One of the first things I would lose control of was my breathing, it just wouldn’t settle. It felt panicked, rushed and quite scary. I first learnt how to control my breathing during yoga classes and from there I moved to meditation as well as actively searching out breathing exercises online. Belly breathing (isn’t the word belly just so hilarious) has been a life saver for me, when I feel the familiar sensations of stress, anxiety and panic I take myself away, lay down and take deep breaths filling my belly with air, not my diaphragm, and I do this until I begin to feel at ease again. Sometimes even when I’m not panicked, I like spend a little time focusing on my breathing.   Awareness  Be aware of life. It sounds so simple, yet we simply just forget to stop, look around us, feel and experience right […]

Call me crazy but over the past few months I’ve started having these weird thoughts that health & fitness might just be a little bit more than looking good and feeling great. I know I know, I’m not sure what’s gotten in to me but walk with me for a minute here.

I was at the peak of physical health, Spirulina for breakfast? Sure! 6am workouts? I’ll take three! It’s safe to say I was living well but I soon found out I was also living ignorant. I had ignored one of the biggest aspects to come under the heading of “living well”, my mind. Because lefts face it, mindfulness is for hippies and tree huggers, no? What a ridiculous thought train I had.

With my ignorance (mostly) behind me I’ve put together some tips to help you on your health kick which maybe won’t necessarily make you sweat.

Notice your breathing

One of the first things I would lose control of was my breathing, it just wouldn’t settle. It felt panicked, rushed and quite scary. I first learnt how to control my breathing during yoga classes and from there I moved to meditation as well as actively searching out breathing exercises online. Belly breathing (isn’t the word belly just so hilarious) has been a life saver for me, when I feel the familiar sensations of stress, anxiety and panic I take myself away, lay down and take deep breaths filling my belly with air, not my diaphragm, and I do this until I begin to feel at ease again. Sometimes even when I’m not panicked, I like spend a little time focusing on my breathing.

Awareness 

Be aware of life. It sounds so simple, yet we simply just forget to stop, look around us, feel and experience right now. Everyone is striving for success that it’s so easy to neglect the one thing that’s gonna get you there, YOU! Time is precious I know, but what will it cost you to really enjoy your lunch today, notice the taste, texture and feelings throughout. Or to feel for just a few moments, how truly great and uplifted you feel after today’s workout. As silly and new age hippy as all this sounds but don’t just live life, feel every moment of it too!

Time Management

I really thought I was the master of this, at one point I was in full time employment and running essentially a full time blog.  I was bossing the back door off of time management. Why? Because my time was planned to the millisecond, I knew when I had to be there, how long I had there, how long it would be to complete the work, what time I had to leave,  train delays? No bother, I’ll leg it home!

In reality, the real masters of time management are the ones who do it all and still have time left over to just be.  Sometimes I just roll out the yoga mat, lay on it with Lumi and reflect on that day for 5 minutes.

Be Positive

The saying goes “You can’t live a positive life with a negative mind.” so take control of your thought process and ensure you are conscious of how you think on a daily basis. It’s so easy to let the poison that is, self doubt infiltrate our minds, wreaking havoc with our goals, aspirations and plans. These are just thoughts, they aren’t reality you don’t need to believe them!

I hope you have enjoyed these tips & hints, if you have any of your own please do leave them below!

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