By Staff Writer
Life has never been so full and demanding. But it’s still the same 24 hours in a day. When do we have time to both read a book you want, work, and go out with friends? With such a rhythm of life, it is almost inevitable that we find ourselves under stress, even when we just don’t know what to expect fromsports results at 22Bet Uganda or are going on a trip for a couple of days. Chronic stress leads to burnout, in which your personality seems to “turn off”.
But what if worrying and experiencing acute stress is not necessary and one can allow oneself to live differently? That’s what mindfulness, a focused, non-judgmental perception of reality, makes possible.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of focusing purposefully on the present moment, a skill one develops through meditation or other training.
Hard to understand? But think about it…
When you drink tea in the morning, where are you, where are your thoughts and feelings? Maybe you’re thinking about a new project and worrying that you won’t finish it on time? Or maybe you are arguing with your co-workers or fighting with your boss? Or having an internal dialogue with a relative or acquaintance?
Mindfulness is the ability to simply drink tea. Here and now. Feeling its taste, temperature, warmth in the chest and stomach. The ability to feel joy, satisfaction and happiness from it, because it’s no accident that we drink tea.
How Mindfulness Helps Us Live Happily
Once we set a goal, we start and run without looking back, not noticing the landscape, what’s going on around us, or how we feel. Often, when we get to the goal, we are already completely devastated, and even achieving it cannot return the energy spent and the parts of our “self” lost along the way.
Mindfulness allows us to choose to go into freeze mode, to be in the moment, as in slow motion. In this moment we don’t aspire, don’t evaluate, don’t plan, but live, feel what we are, live our feelings.
What This Freeze Frame Gives Us
- Impulse control. We are very impulsive, we often act “on impulse,” and then we wonder how we got to where we are, and how we can get out of here.
- The ability to rest fully. Just let yourself sit in a chair and breathe, relaxed, for ten minutes. Saves from burnout, chronic fatigue and nervous breakdowns.
- The talent of not snapping at others. To stop a second before our anxiety, anger, resentment, anger at ourselves spills out with a harsh word to a colleague, a yell at a child, an unrestrained scolding at a car owner who carelessly “cuts off” you on the highway.
- Self-care. In moments of awareness and slowing down, we can avoid comparing ourselves to anyone else, not peer to any goals, but finally listen to our own needs and values. This is an invaluable moment of self-acceptance and goodwill toward ourselves.
- The feeling of a full, fulfilled, vibrant life. Suddenly catching yourself feeling happy, excited, piercingly sad, and overflowing with energy is the very meaning of life that constantly “eludes” us.