Has anyone else noticed a slight increase
in the pace of life and stress levels leading into Christmas? I find myself
looking for an extra few hours each day to cram a little bit more in, get a few
items ticked off the ‘To Do’ list, make sure I catch up with as many friends as
possible before Christmas (over coffee and breakfast of course), start ordering
presents online (is a pair of socks OK dad?), make sure I do pilates everyday
(so I can start to resemble ???), and don’t even get me started on Christmas
cards….
Just by writing the above I can feel an
increase in my body tension. And this is where some mindfulness training
conducted by Craig Hassed, GP and Lecturer at Monash University, has refreshed
the importance of taking time out each day – otherwise we may end up looking
like:
And I know we all want to look that sexy
during the day right?!!!
My interpretation of mindfulness is paying
attention in a particular way – your attention needs to be purposeful, in the
present moment, and made in a nonjudgmental fashion. Within our current 24/7
society where we constantly train ourselves to ‘multi-task’, decrease our
attention span by the year, and cram as much as possible into our daily
existence, our ability to come back to the present moment is significantly
decreasing.
But why the need to bring ourselves back to
the moment? There are a whole heap of reasons!! These range from effective
treatment of depression, improving our mental health, increasing sporting
performance (athletes refer may be more familiar with the term ‘flow’ or ‘in
the zone’ as opposed to mindfulness), and our overall wellbeing. Am you
starting to get excited about mindfulness?!!!
Craig used a fantastic train metaphor in
relation to mindfulness and our thoughts. Imagine you are standing on a train
platform (feel free to use Platform 9 ¾ and add in Harry – I did) observing
trains (with the trains being a metaphor for our thoughts; anyone else feel
like they are at Grand Central station with how many thoughts we have whizzing
around?). Now the trick is to observe our thoughts/trains without getting
invested in them or jumping on board the train. A personal example that I found
applicable was how for the past two years during my hip drama saga people are
constantly asking, “How does your hip feel?”. All well and good. But it has
resulted in constantly checking in to that area, and thereby, making the neural
pathways and connections super sensitive and aware. Now I habitually check-in,
and if I have a slight twinge of pain (no matter how minor), I found I was
started to buy into my stories and jump on my hip drama train – “Crap, my hip
is sore… I will have to ice when I get back… make sure I do my pilates… it will
probably impact training tomorrow… dam my next physio and massage isn’t till
next week so I won’t get any relief till then… shit I will need surgery again…
the world is ending….”
And that was the thought pattern. Not too
healthy right. Mindfulness is the ability for me to observe that my hip may be
sore and go “OK, how does it feel right now?”, and then not jump on my story
train. And it is taking some practice (they recommend about 30-40mins per day
of mindfulness training for the treatment of severe depression and to change
ingrained habits). Then we need to transfer this into our daily activities.
Maybe taking a moment to listen to sounds in the distance, sounds close by use,
listening to our breath. And if thoughts do arise, being curious and
inquisitive but nonjudgmental.
And like everything else in life? If you
want to be good at mindfulness, you need to practice! You aren’t going to
become the Mahatma Gandhi overnight and be a spiritual leader by tomorrow; they
don’t offer those type of courses found discounted by 75% on Scoopon. We can’t
swallow a pill to make our thoughts melt away. We need to practice. Indeed, corny
as it may be, the express train to mindfulness is closed, but the stairs are
always open!
Till next time,
Ride safe, ride with a smile, ride in the
moment,
Han
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