When we first start to practice mindfulness it's probably wise to restrict or to hold ourselves back from jumping too far in and experimenting with a whole host of different practices and ideas and to actually hold ourselves in check and to recognize that we need to develop regular patterns,
Regular habits of practice and to do things step by step,
Stage by stage without rushing,
Without trying to achieve anything and that involves changing our attitude a little bit towards success and achievement and to making things work but also to realize that mindfulness meditation is also a little bit like exercise so there's no point in going to a gym and suddenly trying out all the different exercises and machines that there are in the gym because the next day we're just going to be in pain and probably not go to the gym again.
It's very important that we start slowly,
Steadily and develop the habits of practice so choosing a time of the day,
Choosing a specific room or space for you to practice in,
Choosing a chair or a cushion and quite simply beginning to practice the simple art of following our breathing.
So some might call this settling the mind,
Calming the mind,
Focusing on the breath but for a week or two that's all we need to do and it might seem quite pointless but taking the viewpoint of an exercise we are showing the mind that we are committed and sticking to the process and new neural networks will start to be created,
Habits will be easier to follow,
The mind will find it easier,
The body will learn to just be able to sit there and to slowly focus in on the breathing.
Any breathing that we take slowly,
Steadily with purpose,
A lot of the science shows us that it does facilitate a sense of letting go,
A sense of relaxation,
Calming of the parasympathetic nervous system.
So initially none of it is pointless,
It can all contribute to your own well-being but if we're going to take the long-term view that mindfulness meditation is something that I can incorporate into my daily life and to my life as a whole to enrich all my experiences then taking a slow,
Steady start is the way to go and so for those first few weeks just focusing on settling the mind,
On simple practices like the body scan or remembering moments of kindness in our lives are all exercises which are very simple but ground us in the moment,
Teaching us how to simply rest in that space,
Allowing ourselves to be distracted,
Disturbed,
Losing our focus in this space,
Getting things wrong,
Feeling like a failure but allowing these things to happen and learning that we can tune into the sensations in our body,
We can begin to notice thoughts in our mind and also track the emotions that are affecting us on a day-by-day basis.
So the body scan,
Essential for taking the time to look and find and discover new body sensations that occur second by second within the body.
Remembering acts of kindness,
When people were kind to us,
When we were kind to others,
Learning and sensing within the body how kindness feels to give and also to receive and we'll probably find that it's really quite difficult for us to receive kindness.
We live in a society where it's more acceptable for us to give things or to make people happy or to try and be kind to others and we have this natural inner critic somehow within us that makes us feel guilty,
That puts us down,
That almost restricts the accessibility of sensing what kindness feels for ourselves.
So these are really early things we can do when we first set out on our mindfulness path of discovering meditative routes into improving our well-being.
So we've really got to put ourselves to one side and find a new space for a new version of us that is willing to open up to thoughts,
Sensations and emotions and just let them be there.
So mindfulness meditation is a wonderful way to allow that to happen.
So we learn not to be so judgmental,
We learn not to be so critical and we start to see the habitual negative patterns that might have controlled or conditioned our life in the past and we have this wonderful opportunity to start moving our minds and bodies in a brand new positive direction.
So we've got to hold back on our expectation to just see things for how they are in this moment,
Find a comfortable space to do that in,
Remembering our intention and motivation remember and to start to internally sense what's going on in the body and also to remember acts of kindness towards people,
Towards ourselves and to notice how that feels.
So kindness is the key when we first start out on our mindfulness journey.
