Hi,
I'm Christoph.
Thank you for tuning in.
Recently I was asked three great questions about mindfulness and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share my answers with you here on Inside Timer.
And the first question was,
Will mindfulness make me a pushover,
As in,
Will it make me look weak?
Am I going to become too calm and too zen?
Well,
I would say it's likely to be exactly the opposite.
One of the many great benefits of practicing mindfulness is that you learn to respond rather than react.
You see,
When someone upsets you and you react without giving your reply much thought,
You give away your power.
And in most cases that will make you feel even worse.
However,
When you mindfully appreciate what's happening and you're able to identify your thoughts and emotional resonance to the triggers in real time,
You'll be able to choose your response instead.
And a response that's delivered calmly and is based on genuine self-respect and aligned with your values will hardly make you look like a pushover.
And then another question is,
How on earth can I become more mindful of what I'm thinking?
So I would say it's a choice you can make.
First,
You make the decision you want to become more consciously aware of what you're thinking.
Then you practice mindfulness.
Until being aware of your thoughts becomes more of a habit.
It's best to build in some time for meditation every day,
Not with the intention to empty your mind,
Which is never the goal by the way,
Or to escape to some kind of dream world for a while,
But simply to become more aware of the incessant stream of thoughts going on in your head.
Five minutes of meditation here and there throughout your day is a great way to start your practice.
You simply observe the broad categories of thoughts and how you usually react to them emotionally.
It's essential to be totally non-judgmental towards yourself as you do that,
As you observe your thoughts and feelings during meditation.
Simply recognize the thoughts and your corresponding reaction and see it for what it is.
A mental event taking place in your mind,
Not an actual event.
Soon you will become more aware of your thoughts and your feelings throughout your day,
Outside of your meditation practice.
And the final question,
Mindfulness sounds like overthinking,
Overanalyzing,
Right?
Well,
It doesn't have to be.
If you've been told that you should pay careful attention to each and every detail about an object or a situation,
I can see why you might believe mindfulness looks like overly focusing on something.
The good news,
It's not.
Generally speaking,
Mindfulness can be practiced in two ways.
Formally,
Sit-down meditation for example,
And informally,
Mindful engagement throughout the day.
The latter is about changing your relationship to whatever you're engaged with so that you can notice things you've never appreciated before and also give your mind a break from being lost in the past or the future.
Now,
Engaging with something doesn't mean overanalyzing.
For example,
When you're doing the dishes,
You could simply challenge yourself to describe what your senses are telling you,
Such as the temperature of the dishwater,
How about the smell of the washing-up liquid,
The shape of the plates and the cutlery,
Etc,
Etc.
That's mindful thinking about your activity,
Not overthinking whatever else is going on in your life.
I hope that was helpful and I look forward to connecting with you on another episode.
Bye for now.
