During the end of the 1950s and into the sixties life-style in the Western world has got faster, fuller, more competitive. This is when we began to lose touch with our sense of self and our connection to nature.
Many people live by the seat of their pants, how many times have you heard someone say, their just aren't enough hours in the day?
Mental Health issues and suicide rates have been on the increase in the last decade, and the Covid - 19 pandemic has increased this further.
'Today's new data from the Office for National Statistics, which reveals that depression rates have doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic began, forewarns of a growing mental health crisis in the UK. source and further reading,
More and more people are choosing or being referred to mindfulness programmes to re set our brains to focus on the task in hand the present moment, but what is mindfulness?
Its roots stem from Buddhist practices, which were introduced to the Western world by an American scientist in 1979. Mindfulness is when your mind is in the moment, you aren't thinking about anything else other than focusing on what you are doing at that moment in time.
You aren't thinking about an argument you had with your partner that morning, nor are you thinking about what you are going to cook for dinner tonight.
Many of us have had experiences of operating on auto-matic pilot, and this is not healthy, it is a warning sign that perhaps you are doing to much, or at least thinking too much, which can lead to anxiety and depression.
Simple acts of mindfulness that you can apply to your every day life could be, watching the water run from the tap, listen to the noise, feel the cold, imagine it's journey and be thankful
Cooking a meal, notice the smells, shapes, textures, colours even sounds as you chop the ingredients. Taking a walk in nature and soaking in the environment, like watching and listening to leaves dance as they leave the tree in Autumn, noticing cloud shapes, hearing the birds. You will enjoy your experience much more.
It's about being in touch with our senses, our minds and our bodies, and just 'being' in the moment. Its not easy if you are already struggling with anxiety, and your mind has a thousand things in it, and you can't even make small decisions, but with help from a practitioner, be it in person or using a digital aid like Youtube you could over come this problem until you can go it alone, and just embody this into your daily life.
One method is doing a body scan, please click on the link below to try my 10 minute body scan.
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