Your Mind is a Funny Place to Live

The amount of stress, anxiety and doubt your mind can cause is truly incredible.

It can become so overwhelming you feel like you're drowning in your own thoughts 

Luckily for me I have a quick physical response to too much anxiety in my life - eczema would flare up - nasty itchy bubbles in-between my fingers is always the starting point. 

If its really bad I get blisters on the palms of my hands and the bottom of my feet.

One afternoon I remember having to leave a shift at the gym because I couldn’t put weight on my feet anymore!

I say Lucky because unfortunately most people go through life with this amount of stress slowly building inside their bodies and its nicely masked by the constant distraction of the usual suspects

• Social media

• Processed food

• Alcohol

• TV

You know the drill.

Until something drastic happens like burnout, sickness, depression or an injury.

So much of that stress is caused from your own mind. 

• Your doubts of the future

• Your fears of the present

But remember - it is YOUR mind

What was I getting so stressed about? - The simple answer - Nothing

I will never forget the way my friend Mel Robbins describes it

(her newsletters tell me she loves me <3)

In life we only have 2 kinds of problems:

Permanent Problems & Temporary Problems

Permanent Problems

These will require the ability for you to accept things as they are - and let the complaining go! 

1. Time - you cant change how much time has gone by or how quickly its passing

2. How old you are - can’t change that!

3. The Past

4. Your Family

5. Other people - can only change if they choose to change

No matter how much time or energy you put into complaining about any of the above NOTHING is going to change. 

It’s time to stop giving these issues so much of your energy.

Temporary Problems

You have tremendous power to change these!

1. Body shape - you may hate your body, but you can change it

2. Relationships

3. Work issues - complaining about how your boss treats you, you can always change your job!

Temporary problems all come down to your attitude and perspective.

Reactive Vs Reflective Thinking

How do you disconnect yourself from your current emotional response so you can re program your behaviours?

How do you become more aware of yourself?

We all live the majority of our lives in a reactive state

The old habit patterns of the mind always give importance to things on the outside, but never trying to understand what is happening on the inside.

If you don't start to pay attention to what is happening on the inside how are you going to be able to shift your perspectives on the problems in life in order to set yourself on a new trajectory.

It took going to a 10 day silent meditation retreat to give my brain the mental space it needed to distance myself - from myself. 

I describe it as a Mental Bootcamp. 

10 days:

• no speaking

• no eye contact with others

• no reading

• No writing

• No music

• No exercise

• No snacks - boooo

7 hours of meditation a day • 100+ hours of mind training!!

Now I'm not saying you have to go to a meditation retreat in order to do this work - If you do have the time though I would highly recommend it. 

The goal of the week was to teach us the Law of Impermanence and experience it within the context of our body.

It is the teaching that everything in material or relative existence is impermanent. That is, everything has a beginning, a middle, and, most definitively, an ending.

There is no magic - no miracle here

But just the simple task of paying attention to your breath and the sensations inside your body you start to cultivate this awareness.

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes everyday - unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour.”

- Dr. Sukhraj Dhillon

I've always laughed at this quote but I've found it to be annoyingly true.

The 'busier' you are the more you might find you really need to prioritise this type of practice.

I don't expect you to sit for an hour daily or even 20 minutes.

Start with 10 and see how you go.

Putting This Into Practice.

Two Things for this week

1.

Write down all the problems you have in your life that are on the top of your mind at the moment. 

List out as many as you can!

Split the list now into Permanent Problems and Temporary Problems

Spend the week contemplating what you need to let go of and what you can focus your attention on. - Send me a DM if you need some help with this or just want to talk it through.

2.

Block out 10 mins for meditation. 

But you're not just going to sit there and 'try' to clear your mind.

The Goal - Focus your attention on your breathing

More specifically focusing your attention to the sensation of your breath on the philtrum

- The groove area just under your nose -

Feel the breath coming in and out from the nose - Focus all your attention on this small area.

If you find your mind is wondering - No stress - once you catch it bring your focus back to your breath.

Let your breathing be natural - we don't need to count or force our breath during this practice. 

10 mins a day - 7 days unbroken is the challenge

Will this 1 week challenge solve all your problems? - Nope 

But becoming more aware of your thoughts is the first step to giving yourself a chance to 'figure all this out'

You have to start somewhere

Why not here.

Maja Howard