Activate your ‘Pause Button’ with Meditation/Mindfulness to develop inner peace and joy

by Natalie Roth

Have you noticed how often your are lost in your thoughts… how your thoughts are dictating how to feel… how you miss this moment by ruminating about the past or worrying about the future? Most of our suffering comes from unhelpful thoughts and emotions!

Nowadays people are also over-stimulated. They are bombarded 24/7 with information through their phones or other devices. They are bust all the time: busy in their head, busy in their life…

This rapid pace of life which can begin at an early age combined with what is going on in people’s head make them feel stressed, pulled through life, not in control, tired to think too much, having difficulty to focus and not being in contact with their body. In the long term, it can lead to black outs, depression and multiple health issues.

You don’t need to wait until you have some problems to do something. What about pushing the ‘pause’ button right NOW? What about experiencing peace and developing your sense of joy from now on?

Have your heard about Meditation/Mindfulness?

This practice has moved from its Asian, monastic roots to the West. It is not connected to any religion or particular dogma. Apart from a course in learning and experiencing the techniques, you don’t have to join anything. It’s a very direct answer to an awful lot of stress and confusion.

It teaches you to simply notice what’s going on around you and within your mind and body in the present moment.

Most people believe that the key to happiness is to indulge in positive emotions, and to avoid the negative. This is impossible and it can drain all your energy and keep you from really experiencing and appreciating life.

It’s important to understand that all human emotions are only temporary. If you can learn to make space for all of them as they pass through your awareness, they will soon pass with little effort.

Mindfulness practice helps to train your mind.

Developing your awareness

Mindfulness is about being aware of what’s happening in the ‘here and now’. It is a way to connect to your inner self. It leads you to experience inner peace, joy and wisdom.

Developing your concentration

Concentration is the ability to keep your mind focused on a single thing. It can be your breathing, bodily sensations, or a mental image. Practicing Meditation/Mindfulness helps you to improve your focus and choose what you what you would like to pay attention to.

Developing your relation with yourself

The practice helps you to be kind and loving towards yourself. You accept and nurture yourself as you are. Your sense of worth increases. You don’t give yourself a hard time anymore.

You become also more accepting of others and of whatever situations arise. Therefore you are able to let go of judgements, anger and other emotions that are draining and distracting. It is not about erasing them but becoming aware and then decide what to do with them. In difficult moments, you respond from a neutral point and therefore in a more resourceful way.

Meditation/Mindfulness everywhere!

Nearly every day you can read new research and new applications of meditation/mindfulness in schools, at work, in hospitals, in the military, in breast cancer support groups, for caregivers — and much more.

A number of well-known companies have already implemented mindfulness programmes for its employees as Apple, Google, Goldman Sachs, etc.

The popularisation of mindfulness mostly has to do with the particular benefits of this practice: when you more closely tune into the details of your life, you enjoy things so much more. You are more present with your experience: you smell the cup of tea you’re drinking as opposed to drinking tea while on a conference call, simultaneously checking email, and watching the TV on mute.

Science agrees which makes this practice more popular. Some studies shows measurable changes in participants’ brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. Meditation produces actual changes in the brain’s grey matter.

A better World

Meditation/Mindfulness helps anyone who is implementing a daily practice. It needs patience and consistency. What about a world where people have developed a relationship with themselves, accepting themselves, nurturing themselves, being aware of their unhelpful thoughts, choosing to focus on helpful thoughts, being kind with others, responding to any situations from a neutral place?

If you’re interested in Meditation/Mindfulness, join the next 4 weeks course beginning on the 7th of September which will help you to put your practice into place.   Give us a call  on 0203 659 2711 or email  info@highgateholisticclinic.com