Mindfulness – How present are you?
By Trishna Patnaik
Let’s talk Mindfulness.
In a world full of doing, doing and only doing, it is vital to take a moment to just breathe, to just be.
Meditation when explained in its simplest terms refers to learning how to pay close attention. When used correctly, meditation allows you to slow down and observe the world without any form of judgment.
If you live with a persistent and an excessive worry about a number of different things, meditation can help reduce your worrying thoughts and bring about a feeling of balance, calm and even focus.
I have been practicing mediation in the form of mindfulness for quite some time now. Even if I give this experience just 20 minutes per day, it has tremendous impact and of course intangible benefits.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness means knowing very well what is going on inside and outside of us, moment by moment.
It is very easy to stop noticing the world around us. It is also quite easy to lose in touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping even for a moment to notice how these thoughts tend to drive our emotions and then behaviour.
An important part of mindfulness is about reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they may experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. It is about allowing ourselves to see the present moment distinctly. When we effectively start doing that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and of course our lives.
Anxiety can mentally exhaust you and have tremendous negative impacts on your body. But before you get anxious about being anxious, please do know that you can reduce your anxiety and stress with a simple mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is all about paying attention to our daily life and the things we typically rush through.
It is about turning down the volume in your mind by coming back to the body.
Anxiety is a cognitive state which is connected to an inability to regulate your emotional responses to discerning threats. Mindfulness meditation strengthens a person’s cognitive ability to regulate emotions. Mindfulness can reduce anxiety and it must be practiced to enhance meditation-related anxiety relief.
How to Meditate with Anxiety
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
The present moment is not necessarily a place of rest. Meditation can put us in touch with our stress and anxiety, and that is why it can be so helpful. Explore how mindfulness and meditation can help soften feelings of anxiousness, reduce stress, and even calm a panic attack when it sets in.
Anxiety is our body’s way of saying that it is experiencing too much stress all at once. This can tend to happen to the best of us. But, when the feeling of been always alert becomes a background noise that does not go away. That is when it is time to seek help. Mindfulness and meditation for anxiety is a growing field which can help you navigate through many ways via which anxiety can mess up your life. This guide is not meant to serve as a diagnostic tool or a treatment path—It is simply a collection of research and some said practices you can turn to as you begin to redress the balance.
I have personally been dealing with Anxiety at a very basic level for a long time now. It does not affect me to the core. However, it does stay in the back of my mind. In a way, affecting my productivity, effectiveness and concentration levels at times.
Mindfulness helps me calm down to a great extent, enhances my concentration and mostly importantly just lets be in the present moment. It gives me a positive channel to focus on what is relevant, negate what is not and do well for myself in this complete process of action.
I channelized my Anxiety by exploring these Four Steps; you can please try the same out too:
Open your attention to the present moment.
Bringing attention to our experience in a more open manner simply holding by becoming a container for thoughts, feelings or sensations in the body that are present and seeing if we can watch them from one moment to the next.
Focus on our breath
Bring focus that is much more concentrated and centred, so narrow down our breath to one region of our body—the breath of the belly, or the chest, or even the nostrils, or anywhere that the breath makes itself known, and keep that as the more concentrated focus.
Bring our attention to our body
Become fully aware of sensations in the body as a whole, sitting with the whole body, the whole breath pattern, once again we move back in to the wider and spacious container of attention for our experience.
Explore our attitude By attending to these three rhythmic movements, you can support your mindfulness practice and help it flourish with a smile on your face and a positive attitude of well-being.
I hope you practice the above 4 steps everyday starting with 5 minutes and then gradually increasing your time frame as per your own rhythm and tone.
Mindfulness has tremendously improved certain facets of my life and you can touch upon those facets too. As these facets are vital for all of us in order to
live a fulfilled life and just not exist. So let’s see the full blown impact of mindfulness through these three facets it touches upon and evolves one’s being and yes, soul.
Mindfulness improves well-being
Increasing your capacity towards mindfulness supports many attitudes that contribute to a much satisfied life. Being mindful makes it easier to savour the pleasures of life as and when they occur, helps you become fully engaged in all your activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with any unfavourable events.
By focusing on the here and now, most people who practice mindfulness find that they are less likely to get caught up in the worries about the future or regrets over the past, are less preoccupied with concerns about success and self-esteem, and are better able to form deeper connections with others.
Author Bio
Trishna Patnaik is a BSc (in life sciences) and MBA (in marketing) by qualification but an artist by choice. Previously a corporate professional, she realised that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion, painting. Trishna is now a full-time professional painter based in Mumbai, as well as an art therapist and healer.
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