Category: mindfulness

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clutter mindfulness

cluttered life? try mindfulness

Clutter is so easy to accumulate. The reason that it’s easy for things to get cluttered is because we’re not mindful of what we have. We can have physical clutter and we can have emotional or mental clutter.

This can happen with every area of your life – from your health to your closets to your relationships. You want to get rid of clutter because it hangs onto you, you don’t hang on to it. It clings to you and it’s difficult to get rid of easily.

Let’s face it clutter can make you feel stressed and leave you less free time to enjoy your life. But mindfulness can quickly allow you to cut through the clutter. Most people hold on to clutter because they assign the possession some kind of emotional significance. It means something to them. For example, your friend holds on to a diamond engagement ring from her ex-husband although she divorced him three years ago. It sounds silly, but it is hard to let go sometimes.

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A teddy bear might still be in the closet because it was the last toy that your ex-boyfriend gave you. So you associate the teddy bear with love. You then think about him and can’ r let go. Yes, these things happen all the time especially after breakups.

It’s hard to delete the tech clutter too like the thousands of messages you keep on your smartphone. These messages accumulate. The worse part of it is when you buy a cloud service for storage. You start paying for something that you don’t need.

Enough about exes. . .

One of the reasons that so many people struggle to get rid of things, both physical and emotional, is because the decluttering process can be painful and overwhelming – especially when you look at it as a whole.

Mindfulness can help you get rid of clutter because it allows you to maintain your focus on one area or one issue at a time that needs to be dealt with. You’ll be able to simplify your life, keep what needs to be kept and let go of what you need to be free from.

Focus only on what truly matters to you. By using mindfulness to help you clear out the clutter, youíll get rid of stress, too. The things we keep and the emotions we wonít let go of can be reminders of what was.

You might think that if you don’t address them, then you don’t have to deal with these things. But clutter hovers and you sense it undermining you. You sense the clutter will take control. When you let mindfulness help you declutter your life, you’ll be able to maintain a better ability to focus in all areas of your life.

You’ll feel better emotionally when you let go of things. You’ll also be able to find things when you need them instead of searching and getting stressed when you can’t find something.

Plus, you won’t spend as much money buying things that you forgot that you already had. A big benefit with using mindfulness to let go of the clutter is that it does more than give you more room in your home or in your office.

It allows you to let go of the mental and emotional clutter so that you’re able to have a more improved mindfulness, too. For the best results, go through every area of your life one portion at a time and clear out the clutter.

If you’ve always found it too difficult because you think the task is too big, give yourself fifteen minutes a day to focus on the clutter. When you break a task down, you’ll find that it’s easier to do.

Here are five tips:

1: Declutter your space. While people may argue about whether or not violent movies can raise a generation of messed-up, angry kids, let’s just err on the side of caution and declutter the space around us. With less things in our field of vision, we have less garbage to stew over and worry abou freeing up the space in our mind.

2. Declutter your schedule. Another thing that can drive us crazy is the constant rush from one activity to another. Take a look at your schedule and start eliminating things that aren’t necessary. All they’re doing is adding stress to your day and giving you more food to throw into the ever-spiraling mental stew of stress.

3: Unplug from the party. Would you be able to sleep and rest easily if you were attending a party of several thousand people like Times Square on New Year’s Eve? That’s pretty much what’s going on with your smartphone, on chat mode. You might be tapped in as you (probably) are to several social media networks- Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The pings, dings, and rings from various contacts, along with the thrill of finding a new message are all adding small but unhealthy doses of stress to your day.

4: Practice mindfulness. This is the whole point of this blog. Mindfulness is all about engaging with the present in a fully, alive way. There are lots of ways to practice the skill of mindfulness, from meditation to just staring at an object (like a candle) and contemplating its existence. Mindfulness will help you learn how to push relevant concerns out of your conscious thought process, leading to increased concentration and a decluttered mind.

5: Let go. Remember that scene from Titanic where Kate says to Jack, I’ll never let you go? Well, sometimes it’s best to let old memories die. From broken relationships to diabolical bosses (think like the Devil’s Wears Prada), we tend to have a whole lot of backstory spinning in the back of our mind. Just let it all go, and like a computer that suddenly operates faster, you’ll find your mind freeing up RAM and in a much more easy state.

Keep in mind that it may not be that much of a big deal if there’s a small amount of clutter around you, occasionally. However, clutter is a symptom of being unorganized and being unorganized is a habit like rationalizing or making excuses about being too busy.

Here is one of life’s paradoxes. Have you noticed that those people who are the most productive and seem to be able to schedule spare time at short notice?

To relieve yourself from the stress of being disordered, there is a simple solution. Be organized. However, like most things in life, simple does not mean easy. You need to put in the extra effort of getting organized and staying organized, which can eventually reduce stress levels and will make you feel more accomplished and in control.

getting organized

Living in a cluttered environment and being unorganized is circular – each feeds off the other. You can improve both aspects, but you have to break the cycle by forming better habits. Getting rid of all areas of clutter can help you make healthier decisions in life, and also make your relationships easier and more rewarding.

  1. Learn to say no. Setting boundaries for yourself and others is one key to becoming more organized. Knowing you have preset limits can help decrease your stress level. Don’t automatically say “yes” to requests for help from others. Evaluate each request before responding. Protect your time.
  2. Plan ahead. Planning your day ahead of time greatly helps in reducing your stress level. This will alleviate feelings of being rushed all the time. Take time at the end of the day to plan for tomorrow. If you do this, you will feel far more relaxed and in control.
  3. Proactivity is the key. Being proactive with your problems is part of being organized. Unaddressed problems accumulate, and your emotional clutter is probably affecting you more than anything else. Solve the issues that you can, then pay attention to different stressors in your life, and work to manage and eliminate them.

If you’re more organized, you will feel in control, instead of feeling you are being swept along by the events of the day. And any choices made while not under pressure will result in better decision making.

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mindfulness yoga

an easy guide to practice yoga with mindfulness

Do you not only want to exercise because it’s good for your health, but for your energy and happiness? To feel that joy and satisfaction from moving your body, you need mindfulness to help you truly appreciate how it makes your body feel.

It might be quite trendy to attend a yoga studio with your friends, but the discipline has been practiced for 5,000 years. Yoga was originally a spiritual practice focused on creating harmony between the mind and the body. Nowadays, we are well aware of its benefits.

You will get better sleep – With yoga you are more likely to regulate your breathing inducing relaxation. You also focus on exercises your body needs, which can help you sleep much better over time.

It helps to reduce your anxiety – You may also notice that you start to enjoy yoga more, and do forms of movement that reduce your anxiety.

You get better strength and flexibility – Exercise is going to help a lot with your strength and flexibility, but yoga has an interesting effect when you follow your body’s cues. You enjoy how it feels, as opposed to how it looks.

How to Practice Yoga with Mindfulness

To practice yoga with mindfulness, you need to be aware of your breath, body, and surroundings. By being mindful you tune into the pace of your breath, which in turn calms the body and the mind. You also become more aware of your physical space.

1. Choose your yoga practice.

It can be easy to just get used to a certain routine, and not think much about it. But with mindfulness, you are much more in tune with your body and your mindset, so you become aware of your limitations and strengths. First, ask your doctor if yoga is right for you. If you are a beginner or know that you’re inflexible, look for the gentler forms of yoga. Attempt to avoid more demanding forms like bikram (hot), ashtanga and power yoga. Second, to practice yoga with mindfulness you should speak to your instructor about any physical limitations to accommodate your needs. 

2. Try a gentle warm up 

You should also be mindful of your warm-up routine. Try to set aside ten minutes of gentle movements. By warming up to practice yoga with mindfulness, you will stretch your muscles and improve your circulation as you build up your poses. 

3. Know your limitations.

Listen to your body. One of the best ways to know your limitations is by running a full body scan. Your body tells you how it feels throughout the day, but if you aren’t paying attention, you will never notice. This is where the full body scan comes in. You become aware of any pains or aches. You learn about your strengths and vulnerabilities.

Start your body scan at the top of your head. Pay attention to each part of your head, face, neck, and shoulders, then work your way down. You want to try to feel each body part as you mentally move down your arms, wrists and hands, your chest, back and torso, your legs, and all the way down to your feet. 

Once you are aware focus on your own progress when you practice yoga. If a yoga pose doesn’t feel right or hurts then stop. You should master basic poses first and move on to more difficult ones when your body and mind are ready. 

4. Keep an exercise journal

You can start a journal that becomes a list of exercises to do, and others to avoid. Every time you try a new exercise, or discover something new about a workout, write it down in your journal. Write down as many details as you can, including the type of exercise, the environment (like in a gym or outside), who you did the exercise with, the duration, and how you felt afterward. If you didn’t like it, write that down. Don’t try to change your feelings about the exercise. Just notice how you feel in the moment.

Black woman in tights and grey shirt touching toes.

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habits hygge mindfulness

mindful fall hygge for a new season

Have you ever tried mindful hygge? Hygge, pronounced (Hue-gah) is a Danish word originally derived from an Old Norwegian word meaning well-being and protection from the outside elements. Denmark has notoriously bitter long winters. So, it’s no wonder that the concept of hygge has been used by Danish people to help mentally combat the change in season and fill their homes with comfort and love.

Hygge is a word that is so important to Danish people; it’s often used to describe what their culture is all about. Hygge is not necessarily something specific that you can buy, because it’s more of a feeling than a possession.. Hygge can widely be described as a feeling of coziness, comfort, familiarity, friendship, laughter and mindful enjoyment. It is about the little joys in life that makeup your mindful experience.

Although it it totally possible to achieve hygge any time of the year. You can try maybe lighting up a fire pit in the backyard with or a movie under the stars with family are perfectly good examples of summertime hygge. Hygge is generally associated with the change in season to cooler months because of its ability to uplift spirits especially when you are downtrodden.

Here are some ways to practice mindful hygge:

1. Warm lighting. In order to achieve a great sense of hygge, be sure to change your light bulbs from bright light to warm. According to MeikeWiking, a hygge expert, the optimal light temperature is 1800K, which is the temperature of sunsets. Warm lightning is essential for an atmospheric glow.

2. Cozy clothing. Put the sweatpants away and try wearing those cozy knit sweaters and woolen socks. Think about the texture of the clothing and how it feels on your body. If it’s loose, cozy, and warm then your are practicing mindful hygge.

3. Spiced drinks. Pumpkin spice frapuccinos might just be a Starbucks thing, but it definitely makes me think of cozy fall days. Apple cider and tea are favorites too. Drinks with cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger can warm up your senses. These drinks smell delicious too.

4. Scented candles. Placing scented candles around your home is a wonderful way to add a hint of mindful hygge. The warm glow will make rooms feel cozy and comfortable. Not only do candles look and feel homey, they also smell great. If you have a local candle maker near you, even better. Scents like warm vanilla, cinnamon apple, sugar plum are cozy and invigorating.

5. Heart-felt relationships. Call a friend for a hot cup of coffee and a piece of apple cake. Sweet apple cake with almonds and powdered sugar is a Scandinavian treat. With some heart-felt conversation and empathy your relationship will grow.

6. Pull out the cozy throws. Feel the warmth of a cozy throw; the plushier and softer then the better. Cozy throws are an essential, especially during a chilly morning.

7. Star gaze. Disconnect from your phone and from social media and take a look at the night sky. Fall is the time to look up into the sky and admire the stars. On October 20, look up into the sky to admire the full moon called the Hunter’s Moon. October is the month of two meteor showers, the Draconids and the Orionids.

8. Fall journal writing. Try mindfully journaling about the change in season. Pay attention to the changes in weather, smells, routines and how you feel in the present moment. Be thankful about the connections you have made.

Check out the free digital downloadable mindfulness fall journal below with 12 prompts about the season:

falljournalDownload
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mindfulness

how mindlessness can lead to mindfulness

Mindlessness is the opposite of mindfulness.  It operates on auto-pilot and happens when you don’t think about anything.  You simply go through the motions.  The same routine repeats itself and mindlessly.  It can happen when you drive to work and think about other things, which don’t involve the here and now.  “Did I forget to sign that document?  What’s for dinner?” Your thought process becomes random and unfocused on the moment.  You can become unaware of your surroundings and the car collision down the road.  Another mindless act is eating without thinking.  When you munch on a cookie  while watching your favorite k-drama, you can become mindless.  You become so wrapped up in the drama with your favorite star that you don’t pay attention to what you eat and then blame yourself for gaining weight.  Essentially, mindlessness leads to really bad habits.

These bad habits are learned and can lead to further mindlessness. And how did you learn these bad habits?   You learn to be mindless as a child.  You might have heard from your parents to “suck it up”. This message can become internalized in your brain as “don’t feel anything”.  As a child, you learn from this behavior that you can shut down your feeling leading to mindlessness.

How do you turn around mindlessness? You don’t ignore your past or become preoccupied with the future. You use mindfulness by becoming self-aware of the moment. Think about the analogy of an apple. You buy an apple at a farmer’s market and you think about how the apple tree grew in a grove. You think about how it was cared for by kind farmers that watered and fertilized the trees. The seeds of the apple represent the future. But the moment, is now. This is the moment when you take a bite into the apple.

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Mindfulness is being aware of the present moment.  When you are mindful, you are aware of yourself and your surroundings.  In fact, you are acting intentionally with a purposeful action.  With mindfulness we start by understanding ourselves, our environment and how we respond to others.  Mindfulness can also balance and renew your energy to follow your goals.  

While meditation may be the most effective way to achieve mindfulness, there are other options you can try. Maybe you find it difficult to practice the traditional seated contemplation. Maybe you question its value. In meditation we may have upward of three hundred thoughts so it is easy to get frustrated or caught up with perfection.  It’s impossible to fail at meditation. Even if you sit for a short time then you are able to carry out a mindfulness exercise. here is no right or wrong way to carry out mindfulness. There’s no special technique for mindfulness.  Certainly,  you can still find more happiness and peace of mind through a variety of physical and mental practices.

There are many ways that you can be mindful throughout your day without ever having to take a break from whatever it is that you’re doing. Knowing this has helped many extremely busy people to be able to get into the habit of practicing mindful activities.

One simple way to practice mindfulness is by brushing your teeth. You do this so often that you probably do it without even thinking about it. Instead of brushing your teeth on autopilot, take the time to focus on the steps involved in this routine. 

Feel the bristles of the brush as they cross your teeth and tongue. Pay attention to the thickness of the toothpaste of the flavor of it. While you’re brushing your teeth, pay attention to the process and don’t let your mind think about worries or negative thoughts. 

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Another way that you can practice mindfulness as you go about your day is through mindful listening. So many times, there are sounds around you and yet you don’t even hear them because you’re not listening with a focus. 

Wherever you are, you can take a few seconds to listen to the sounds. You might be able to hear a bird singing, the wind blowing or the distant roll of thunder. You can practice mindful listening with popular music or with instrumentals. 

Hear each sound and focus on it for a few seconds while tuning out anything but the sound. Mindfulness can be practiced by focusing on breathing. It doesn’t take long and can be done any time of day and in any place. 

As you breathe, focus on the breath that you’re drawing in. Then focus on the breath that you’re exhaling. Keep your mind centered on the movement of your body as you breathe in the air and release it. 

Feel the air move within you and tune in to the sensation as you’re going through the exercise. You can practice mindfulness through many other activities including walking, eating, while cooking or cleaning.

Use the following tips for inner mindfulness practices:

  1. Slow down. Moving deliberately promotes mindfulness. Consider the purpose behind your daily activities. Take time to enjoy life instead of rushing from one activity to another.
  2. Focus. Give your full attention to one task at a time. Turn off your phone when you’re having dinner with your family. Listen closely to ordinary conversations and falling rain.
  3. Let go of judgements. Accept your thoughts, feelings, and experiences without guilt or shame. Love yourself for who you are now. Take pleasure in learning and growing. Forgive yourself and others for disappointments and mistakes.
  4. Live in the present. Concentrate on today rather than regretting the past or worrying about the future. Take pleasure in ordinary things like the smell of coffee or the texture of soft cotton sheets.

Free Download:

Download this worksheet on focusing on the present moment with key affirmations and self-reflection questions.

Affirmations for the Present MomentDownload

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mindfulness relationships

choosing friends with mindfulness

Friends can enrich our lives. They can help us be better people. But having the wrong kind of friends can be detrimental to your emotional well-being. If you choose friends who treat others unkindly, that can create a negative space in your life. 

The old saying that birds of a feather flock together means that you will become like the company that you keep.

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What you want to have is the kind of friends who will be there for you.

They’ll be happy for you when you have something to celebrate. They’ll hurt with you when something hurts you. They’ll be there for you through the ups as well as the downs of life. 

You want friends who enrich or add to your life rather than ones who make it worse and cause a drain on your emotions. By using mindfulness, you can choose the kind of friends that are healthy to have in your life. 

These will be people who will be open and honest with communication and there will be freedom between the two of you to speak truthfully. You’ll find that when you choose friends mindfully, you’ll have people in your life that you can engage with and even when you disagree, it will be a positive experience. 

Mindfulness can help you attract the right people into your life that can become lifelong friends. It all begins with your focus. Mindfulness teaches you to keep your focus on the positive aspects of other people rather than on their faults. 

When you focus on the positive thoughts you can have toward others, you get back positive responses from other people. By keeping your mind on what’s good about other people, it affects how you feel about them, you perceive them in a different way and it shows in your attitude toward them. 

Mindfulness teaches you to reject the negative thoughts about others and to keep your mind focused on what you like about the person. Even in the best of friendships, there can be disagreements and hurt feelings. 

Mindfulness can help you choose friends wisely and then nurture the relationships once they’re in your life. You’re never going to find a perfect circle of friends. Each person in your friendship circle is going to have traits that will bother you. 

They may not react to things in the way that you would. Mindfulness teaches you to release the judgmental thoughts toward others and instead see them just as you are – flawed or imperfect, yet worthy of love and friendship. 

Mindfulness can give you the wisdom to help you choose friends that can create a give and take relationship – rather than a one sided friendship where someone does all of the giving while the other person does all of the taking. 

When you practice mindfulness, it makes you become the kind of person who attracts good friends, the kind that everyone wants to have. 

Here are three top three tips to help you feel satisfied with your life as you make good friends:

Journal prompt: someone whose company I enjoyDownload
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habits mindfulness

essential self-discipline guide with mindfulness

Self-discipline is an important skill every person who wants to achieve more in life should possess. Self-discipline is essential in every aspect of life. Even though most people recognize the benefits of self-discipline, very few do something to reinforce and grow this beneficial skill. 

Contrary to some beliefs, self-discipline is not being harsh to yourself or living a restrictive lifestyle. Self-discipline also means self-control. It is a sign of inner strength and control of you actions, and your reactions. Self-discipline provides the power to stick to hard decisions, and follow them without changing your mind. This means self-discipline is an important requirement for achieving vital goals. 

Why self-discipline is important

Having self-discipline helps you to continue with your plans and decisions until you achieve them. It also displays as an inner strength that helps you to overcome addictions, laziness, and procrastination. 

Self-discipline is an important ingredient for success. It is the ability not to give up regardless of setbacks and failures. In fact, it is an important pillar of stable, long-term success. It is a skill that will help you understand the importance of life. 

Life presents problems and challenges on the path to success. In order to act above those challenges, you must act with determination and perseverance. Lack of self-discipline may lead to problems such as failure, relationship problems, and health issues. Just as some people have weak muscles, they can become strong with training. It’s the same with self-discipline. You can develop and strengthen self-discipline like any other skill, through training. You can develop self-discipline at any time. 

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Development of self-discipline will help you:

  • Avoid carelessness.
  • Fulfill promises you make .
  • Overcome bad behaviors such as laziness and procrastination.
  • Engage in good behaviors like going to the gym, swimming or taking a walk even when your mind tells you to stay at home. 
  • Stay focused on your diet and resisting temptation of eating unhealthy food (no sodas).
  • Waking early in the morning.
  • Overcome the bad habit of watching too much television.
  • Start reading motivational books, and implementing what you’ve learned.
  • Meditating regularly.

If you keep working and developing the skill, you will become stronger. On the other hand, if you do not challenge yourself in life, you will not gain self-discipline.

Happiness and the achievement of goals in life results from having a wide range of positive qualities. And no quality is more important in the attainment of long-term sustainable success than self-discipline.

Whether you seek to enhance your relationships, work ethic, or health, nothing beats self-discipline as the principal trait needed to achieve your goal.

However, self-discipline doesn’t always come naturally. The good news is that it can be a learned behavior. Try out these techniques to attain greater self-discipline.

Tips to improve your self-discipline

  1. Remove distractions. Removing distractions from your environment is a critical first step on your journey to increased self-discipline. For instance, if you are looking to cut down on distractions (such as social media) and focus on your job, you need to turn off your mobile notifications and block all social media until you get off work. In the example of weight loss, you would want to remove the unhealthy foods from your cabinets and pantry to make achieving your goal that much easier.
  2. Never think there will be a perfect time. Kick the habit of waiting for all things to align perfectly before embarking on your journey to self-discipline. If you are looking to enhance self-control, it has to start with you. Embrace simple things such changing your daily routine, breaking bad habits such as negative thinking, and instead actively developing new habits even if it does not feel right in your mind. But simply start now, instead of thinking there will be a better time.
  3. Reward yourself for achievement. Being self-disciplined does not mean you have to become miserable. In fact, by being too rigid, you are opening yourself up to disappointment, failure, and the possibility of falling back into the old habits. Instead, have days when you relax your regimen. When you reward yourself, you relieve the tension that may result from self-disciplined living.
  4. Don’t beat yourself up for backsliding. At some point, you will fall into some old habits. However, the important thing is not to beat yourself up, but rather to pick yourself up and recommit to the journey. You have to accept that there will be spectacular failures and fabulous successes. Don’t get too hung up in frustration, guilt, and anger, but rather acknowledge mistakes as an essential part of the learning process. Ultimately, developing self-discipline will allow you to live more freely by making choices that are more positive and healthy.
  5. Set active goals. Active goal setting is a very important skill, if you want to become disciplined. In fact, it’s quite different than passive goal setting; with passive goal setting, you just set goals in your mind without properly define them. But active goals have a profound meaning; you make plans and maybe you have already found some strategies, in order to be able to achieve them as soon as possible. So, you need to set some long-term goals and you also have to actively track your progress towards your specific goals in life.
  6. Ignore negativity. There are may be people around you that can exert an immensely negative effect on you. But you don’t have to let them. More specifically, you don’t have to let words or even their expressions deter you. If you can not accomplish it, you can always seek advice from experts, in order to learn how to avoid negativity. For example, if people say what you want to accomplish is not possible or even sneer at your efforts, you should try to avoid them. Instead, you need to use your energy and strength and try to interact with positive people.
  7. Practice Gratitude. You may spend too much time wanting a lot of things in your life. The habit of gratitude can help you move away from constantly wanting what you really don’t have. It’s time for you to start appreciating what you do have in your life and be happy about it. When you do this, you will begin to see some remarkable shifts in your life. Actually, the effects of gratitude are far-reaching. From improving your emotional well-being, to your mental health and spirituality, gratitude can offer you a lot. The most important thing is that gratitude can help you move from a stake of lack towards a state of abundance. For instance, when you live in a state of lack, it’s impossible to focus on achieving your goals and being disciplined. So, you need to focus on positive things and try to succeed your goals, without having stress. 

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mindfulness

mindfulness for worriers and lonely people

If You’re Feeling Worried, Mindfulness Can Help

What causes you to worry is the thought that something bad or unfavorable toward you is going to happen. When you experience these thoughts, your emotions kick in with the response of fear or anxiety. These worries are over things that have never happened and have a strong probability that they never will. But what worriers have a tendency to do is to create scenarios in their mind of these probably future situations.

When you create a scene in your mind, your brain sees these thoughts as a mental image. It views this image the same way it would if you viewed a negative situation in a movie.

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It sees the vivid details and then your body experiences things like anxiety when you watch a scary or dramatic movie. Those are the same results that you get when you paint scenarios in your mind that havenít even happened.

Your mind registers this as something thatís occurring. So then you feel afraid and anxious. This thought pattern can make you anxious, irritable, and untreated can turn into an anxiety disorder.

Mindfulness can set you free by showing you how to stop these thought patterns in their tracks. When you have a worry thought, take a moment and redirect your focus back to the present rather than allowing your mind to be projected into what isn’t even happening.

Labeling worry

Don’t give the worries any power within your mind. When you worry, your mind goes in repetitive circles. This type of circular thinking makes no progress and you find yourself become more anxious. If you choose to use distraction techniques, such as watching a movie or taking a stroll, the worrying seems to return. You try your best for the thoughts to go away, but your body tenses up. Give the thought the title of what-if and then release it. In the words, label worry as “just worrying” and then bring your attention to your breathing or an object in front of you. When you catch yourself again in circular thinking, label it again. Mindfulness will help you learn to recognize those what-if thoughts and understand that they’re not reality. They’re not happening. By taking away the power, the fear dissolves and the worry is gone.

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If You’re Feeling Lonely, Mindful Volunteer Work Can Help

Loneliness is an emotion thatís universally understood. There can be many reasons that cause you to feel lonely. Sometimes, it can be because youíve experienced the loss of a love – or someone that you love has passed away and youíre lonely because of the grief.

You can feel lonely if you struggle with a health condition or youíve experienced some kind of life upheaval such as a move or a job loss. While going through an experience can be a cause of loneliness, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, you simply feel lonely regardless of what situation you’re in. There are those who will sometimes confuse loneliness with someone who is by himself. But being alone and being lonely are two different things.

Experiencing loneliness is tied directly to your emotions while being by yourself is not. When youíre struggling with loneliness, you can feel sad. You might feel like youíre all alone in the world and that everyone has someone but you.

You might feel that you don’t have anyone to talk to and no one to love you. These emotions can often trigger thoughts that add to the loneliness. But there is a way that you can reduce and even eliminate the loneliness that youíre feeling and thatís through mindful volunteer work.

When you volunteer to help other people, it triggers your compassion response and helps you to become connected to someone else. Studies have shown that when you volunteer, it raises your level of contentment.

When you don’t take action to deal with loneliness, then your mind will get on a track of constantly thinking about things that only add to the feeling. These things might be thoughts of the past, or negative thoughts.

By practicing mindful volunteer work, you’re focusing on the present and the activity helps to keep your mind occupied, which keeps the negative thoughts from becoming a cycle.

Mindful volunteering allows you to feel involved with others which acts as a bridge to give you a connection. You end up feeling rewarded because mindful volunteering can give you the social connection that you need to break free of loneliness.

When you volunteer, you’re helping to meet the needs of someone else but in return, youíre getting your own needs met, too. Mindful volunteering means that you decide that youíre going to focus on helping someone else.

You’re going to be there for them without any thoughts of what youíre going to get in return. But what happens is that you always end up getting back a lot more than you give with mindfulness.

Helping others gives you a boost in positive feelings and thoughts. This is because youíre no longer focusing on how you feel, what you think or what might be missing from your life.

Instead, you’re pouring yourself into a cause or a purpose and you end up creating a support system for yourself as well as increasing empathy for other people.

Practice this mindfulness Tonglen meditation when you are lonely. Visualize helping a friend.

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mindfulness star gazing

stargazing: Perseid meteor shower peak 2020

How To Watch A Meteor Shower

The Perseids light up the night sky when Earth runs into cosmic space junk left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. I woke up at 4 am to gaze at the sky and watch the meteor shower. I was expecting a beautiful display of sparkling lights shooting down from a dark starry sky. Maybe I watch too many Disney movies or my expectations were a tad too high. I saw two meteors at best lasting a second each. They were gone with a blink of the eye.

1. Plan ahead.

Find out when the prak will occur. I use Sky Guide, an application that keeps me informed about comets and meteor showers. This year the peak occurred on August 11 and August 12. Once you know when the peak will occur, dress for the weather. Bring a comfortable lounge chair. You might be waiting a long time to get a glimpse.

2. Find a dark place.

Make sure you have a clear view of the whole night sky. Light pollution ruins the moment. You can use applications to locate a dark sky.. For instance, I use Light Pollution Map-Sky to find places with minimal light pollution. I simply type in my address and it tells me where I should drive to in order to get a great view.

This year the peak coincided with light of the last quarter moon reflecting back. This meant that the meteors would appear short lived. I only saw 2 meteors lasting a secon. Perhaps seeking a dark place with minimal light pollution would have done the job! Supposedly, in a dark place you could have seen up to 50 meteors per hour. 

Remember to get adjusted to the dark. It can take 15 to 20 minutes to get used to it. Once your eyes are used to the dark, it is time to look at the radiant.

3. Map out the sky. 

To find the Perseids I use an application to map out the constellations. I use Time & Date for location information in my area to find the radiant. A compass comes in handy to find the direction where to start looking. Once, I have the radiant I simply look up and enjoy the meteor shower.

4. Watch the meteors.

This the time that you chose to be mindful and look up at the sky. Don’t get distracted by social media. It is time to be present and admire nature.

Categories
mindfulness Positivity

3 little tricks on how to overcome negativity

When you experience strong negative emotions, it may seem difficult to build any resilience to difficult life experiences. How can some people give up while others just pick themselves up, keep calm and carry on as if nothing happened? The secret on how to overcome negativity is to use coping skills that are flexible and that you can adapt to your situation. You can learn to use mindfulness, and develop 9 positive attitudes to overcome negativity in this guide

Use Mindfulness Coping Skills

Be Flexible

By seeing negative events in your life as flexible, short term situations, you can more easily move on. Let’s imagine someone who sees these negative events with a fixed mindset. To them, that disappointment they felt with themselves or that failure they felt, is static. It’s always there. Nothing they can do will change their story of the event fact and the disappointment in their lives. 

Someone who may feel entrenched in their negative feelings finds it harder to remove themselves from those feelings and change direction. It’s like getting stuck in a ditch. Those people who are willing to see emotions as passing understand how to let go and change direction quickly. They find solutions to jump over the ditch by building a positive mindset. Those people who build a positive mindset learn how to overcome negativity faster. 

So what can you do to help you adopt this outlook? 

Learn to Accept and Adapt

When one bad thing enters their life, it starts to spread like an illness. It makes you use up all your energy by over focusing on the negativity. The negativity spreads from one task to the next. You are unable to get anything done since you are exhausted from negativity. Sound familiar? Now everything is just a mess! It’s time to learn to accept and adaptand this starts by recognizing the situation.

Just because you don’t get something done the first time doesn’t mean you won’t get it done at another point in the future. No one writes a book, paints a portrait or drives a car the first time they try.

Mindfulness

When you’re working on something and it causes you to think negatively about a task, mindfulness can center your thoughts. It gives you a calm feeling. It can help you overcome negativity. 

Using mindfulness techniques, you can maintain a clear focus on your goal. You will be able to make better choices to increase your productivity by simply unleashing your intuition. That means that you’ll focus on thoughts, ideas, and you will take positive action. Mindfulness prevents you from having to overthink situations. 

Improves Focus

Mindfulness improves focus. It lessens anxiety which can derail your productivity. It allows you to keep moving forward. Mindfulness enables you to find an inner satisfaction which lets you be fully engaged in the task. 

Improves Social Interactions

This will make a difference not only in what you get done but in how you get it done. Your interactions with others and with yourself will help you learn how to overcome negativity and change for the positive. Observe how you carry yourself in social interactions. 

Improves Creativity

You’ll gain a greater sense of commitment for the follow through. Mindfulness is a technique that can be used to improve your cognitive skills. This unleashes your thought processes to free your creativity. 

So, you learn to act rather than to react. With mindfulness comes a greater sense of confidence in your abilities and in your skills. Rather than think negatively you’ll learn to foster a can-do attitude toward whatever you’re doing. 

Work On Your Attitude

Having the right attitude helps you overcome negativity. Start by becoming more aware of your moods as you go about your day. Make an effort to be grateful and find the good side of things. Over time your positivity will increase, and it will help you stay on track and stay motivated. 

We all face setbacks. We all make mistakes. How we deal with them is what set’s successful people apart from the rest. Work on your positivity and find a lesson in everything that happens. You’ll come out on the other side stronger and better than before. 

Check your attitude and find the joy in everything you do. Keeping a journal can help, it makes you focus your thoughts. You can look back and see what of the things you worked and helped you make progress. Another powerful tip is to write. Create a journal or file of encouragement. Fill it with positive images and motivational quotes. Browse through the journal or file any time you need an extra boost of positivity.

9 Ways to Build A Positive Attitude 

1. Purpose

Highly positive people are able to comprehend and internalize the bigger picture. They see how their work fits into the whole, and therefore don’t start feeling like the smaller components of the journey are meaningless.

2. Optimism

Positive and motivated people envision a future. They gain energy to aim for a happy outcome. They are able to overcome setbacks from negativity. 

3. Self-Esteem

It’s hard to do anything when you don’t feel like you can do it. But positive and motivated people know their strengths, and they believe in themselves. They also acknowledge their weaknesses and grow from them. 

4. Energy

Positive people have the requisite energy—mental, physical, or emotional—to move forward to overcome negativity. 

5. Persistence

People with high levels of positivity are motivated. They don’t just give up when the going gets tough. They buckle down for the ride. 

6. Perspective

Highly positive and people don’t get it twisted with the small stuff. They know how to sort through life’s concerns and ignore the little things that could pull them off course.

7. Self-Reflection

Positive and motivated people reflect on the process and move forward with intelligence and strategy.

8. Humility

A humble person will have an easier time carrying out their plan, taking feedback, and adjusting course as necessary. Their attitude is more positive. They will not be offended—their eyes are on the prize, and they’ll take the help they need to get there.

9. Give Yourself Reasons to Celebrate

Positive and motivated people enjoy success and they celebrate it. They appreciate the hard work just done, and look forward to a new journey.

How To Overcome Negativity

If you are dealing with deep-rooted anger, then to overcome negativity consider healthy ways to deal with your anger. Sometimes it’s good and right to get mad. Positive change can come from being angry at injustice or inequality. Righteous or justified anger from being mistreated can be a great motivator for change. 

But if you’ve had bad experiences of anger, for instance, poor role models in your childhood, you might experience anger as a destructive bomb. Learning anger management so you can be in control of angry feelings can have a positive effect on your relationships. Here are some expert strategies to help you manage your anger.

1. Understand Yourself

Understanding why you’re angry and where it’s coming from is key. Maybe you’re stressed and grumpy, fatigued, or unwell. Perhaps the reason for your anger is apparent. 

Once you understand your anger and its sources, you can start to deal with it by eliminating the negative. 

2. Write It Down

Turning your feelings into words is a powerful act. Just write whatever comes into your head, even if it doesn’t make sense. 

The act of writing down your thoughts stops them from running in circles in your head and gets them down on paper. Chances are they might not even seem so big or insurmountable. You might even begin to see patterns, so you can understand what triggers your angry feelings. 

3. Take Action

Once you know what’s making you angry, you can plan workarounds for it. Be aware of your triggers and minimize them. For instance, get enough sleep, and exercise and take time out for self-care.

You won’t be able to avoid being angry sometimes, but you can take control, so you’re not vulnerable to anger and frustration. 

4. Don’t Brood

Brooding on the cause of your anger is actively unhelpful. It keeps you stuck in those negative feelings, keeps you stuck in victim mode, and keeps you powerless. 

Brooding is also bad for your blood pressure. You build up a constant stress response within your body. Adrenaline which is excellent in an emergency, spikes with brooding. 

5. Don’t Rehash Anger

Talking over your problems can be helpful if you share with a trusted friend. But be careful to keep it focused, or you might end up rehashing your troubles over and over again. Like brooding, complaining can keep you from moving forward and finding solutions to your problems. 

Find out how to overcome negative bias now!

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Categories
mindfulness Time management

7 productive ways to be more mindful

Living in the now helps you be more appreciative of what you have and look forward to the future. There are ways you can train yourself to be more mindful no matter whether you’re at home with your family, out for a walk or during work. Start becoming more mindful today by implementing these 7 productive ways to be more mindful.

1. Create what you desire

What do you genuinely want to experience in life? What journey do you want to be following? Being mindful starts with having a vision of what you want your life to be. Haven’t you noticed that there are so many distractions in life that can easily take you off track of your dreams, goals, or ambitions? To accomplish what you want, you have to stay focused during the good and the bad days. On the days you feel like giving up, be mindful of your desires and continue on.

Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com

2. Be in alignment with your beliefs and values.

Knowing what matters most to you, deepest beliefs and values keeps you on your path. Live every day in alignment with them. When you do this, you are making the decision mentally to be mindful in your life and consciously aware of your life.

When you are mindful in life, you are aware of why you do something. You know and understand the reasons why you get up in the morning and go work. You have a purpose for living. 

Photo by Alex Azabache on Pexels.com

3. Disconnect from society and connect into your mind.

We live in a world that’s constantly “on”. It never switches off. Think about how Facebook, the internet, messaging, Instagram, emails, television, fast food, billboards, and advertising affect you. All these things are noise that is constantly inundating our minds and our lives.

Train yourself to be more mindful by disconnecting from society every once in a while. Instead connect to your own mind. Discover your emotions, thoughts, and feelings going on in your mind. Reflect upon what changes you need to make in your life if you are off course.

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4. Ask yourself. What is your legacy?

What do you want to be remembered by? You can easily get stuck in routine and forget why you do what you do. Take the time to think about the end and why you do the things you do. Doing so keeps you mindful of your goals and values. 

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5. Create mindful actions.

Express yourself through your actions by becoming more aware of the moment. You can be more mindful in a negative way or a positive one. To be positive in your mindful actions, be in the moment, become aware of your body, your actions, and your thoughts. Observe the way you walk. How is your posture? What do you see, smell, hear? Apply this way of being in the now in everything you do. 

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6. What inspires you?

What is your purpose in life? Do you have a reason that inspires you to get up and start your day in a positive way? Or are you living by routine? These routines are draining and take you away from living in the moment.

Get clear on your purpose in life so you can start living each day mindfully. You’ll know that everything you do is connected to fulfilling your chosen purpose.

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7. Know who you really are inside

Be real in everything you do. It’s impossible to live a more mindful life when you are and fake.

Always remain true to who you are. Stay connected to your inner being. Don’t conform to society’s expectations of who you are. When you know who you are, what you value and what you stand for, it’s easier to live in the now.

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