5 minute read
Living in the present
Photo by Lesly Juarez from Unsplash
Mindfulness is a powerful term often thrown around loosely when someone mentions they are stressed or experiencing a tough time, but what does it actually mean? Lauren GiBson provides the answer
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According to the dictionary definition, mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
I describe mindfulness as the mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings and thoughts and bodily sensations. This is often used as a therapeutic technique.
And because of this definition, a lot of people think mindfulness means being perfect, being Zen and being balanced. No – mindfulness means you need to be present. In whatever situation is presented to you. And this can be difficult, given our busy lifestyles.
Key aspects
There are key aspects to mindfulness that I hope to unpack in this article. They are: Awareness, Curiosity, Gentleness, Pausing, Discipline, Neuroplasticity, Perception and Acceptance. Mindfulness is a practice. It increases immunity, sleep and happiness and lowers stress and cortisol levels, as well as symptoms associated with disease, to make you a healthier and happier version of yourself. We are in one of the most connected and changing worlds we have ever been in yet we are more chaotic. Every day we are served so much content – emails, WhatsApp messages and social networking notifications and even more so now with the coronavirus pandemic. So the need to pause and be mindful is really needed. It starts with acknowledging when you may be slipping into default or sleep mode. How ‘awake’ are you? How aware are you?
Learn, unlearn and re-learn
Mindfulness allows us to learn, unlearn and relearn and this allows for growth and transformation. We have all learnt behaviours from our upbringing and the past. And, we often rely on this to assist us to make judgement calls, but this can be to our detriment. Therefore, we need to unlearn old habits and the way of doing things that are no
longer serving us, and relearn the new normal or new way of forging ahead. Given that the rate of change is faster than the rate of acquiring knowledge, the ability to be self-agile and go through this learning curve of learn, unlearn and relearn is critical. And this is a form of letting go. We need to be where we are right now. But our mind wanders. And that’s ok. There is a famous Harvard research study that proves that our mind wanders 47% of the time. This means that half of our time is comprised of a wandering mind. It’s what you do with that wandering mind that makes all the difference. How do you pay attention to the wander? And connect to curiosity? While curiosity is an article all on its own, it is one of the most critical elements to mindfulness. It allows us to discover new elements of our dayto-day life and encourages a response to situations, versus a reaction.
Training the mind
The mind is a muscle so training it is like exercising the body. If you want to run a marathon, you need to create a training plan and stick to it. Mindfulness is the same. Create a plan, start off slowly, build capacity and stick to it. But be gentle with yourself. happiness. Focus on the right stuff for you. Leave the annoyance and frustration and anger outside of your energetic space. What you focus your spare time on is what is ultimately brought into your daily life.
Do only what you can do and listen to your body. This is where you need to have an element of discipline when you practice mindfulness to ensure it grows. Studies in neuroplasticity show that increased or repeated practice grows the brain, which expands cortical thinking. It rewires the brain for increased productivity, wellbeing, and
Stress and ageing
A question I am asked on a regular basis is: How can mindfulness be applied to our industry? Not only is this a great practice to share with clients before or after a treatment by doing a few simple breathing exercises, but there is also a connection between mindfulness, stress the longevity of our cells. Or in other words, how our cells and skin age. They determine how long our cells live for, how they behave, and how they start to misbehave. When our body is under chronic stress, these telomeres can become damaged and often shorten, which means the longevity of the cell is affected and the ageing process can speed up. This is often why people say stress causes ageing. There are loads of different mindfulness techniques to choose from and as you grow as a practitioner, you will be exposed to
reduction and ageing. I recently came across an article that spoke to the fact that mindfulness can indirectly slow down the ageing process. As you are aware, stress, and more so chronic stress, causes an array of symptoms in the body. Stress is something we can never get rid of but we can control how we, or our bodies, respond to stress. Inflammation is one of the most common outcomes of a stressed body. This constant inflammation causes a variety of diseases in the body, but it also decreases the barrier function of the skin leading to dehydration, eczema and even psoriasis. It also causes inflammageing (a combination of inflammation and ageing), causing our ageing process to speed up. Our telomeres (which are the little caps on the ends of chromosomes) determine more unique ways and hopefully grow your practice into your day-today routines and even within your businesses. It will create space and capacity for you to be able to control how you respond to stress triggers, instead of reacting. And this is acceptance. Mindfulness has been around for centuries. How you integrate it into your life will determine the results and outcomes it yields for you.
Lauren Gibson has over 15 years in the health and beauty industry with qualifications in yoga, mindfulness, content marketing and management practice. Email laurenleigh.gibson@gmail.com
