Practising Mindfulness Latest Posts

  • From Turmoil to Stillness (limitless potential)

    There’s a torrid restlessness driven by a longing that must be satisfied. The driving, to fulfill what the heart believes, is so overwhelming, that nothing can stop its progress. Only once you hold the potential in your hands will you ever calm the torment of a restless mind

    We’re all longing for something aren’t we? And how many of us actually know what it is we seek? Perhaps, like most, there’s a driving that comes from deep within that can’t be defined. We don’t understand this desire, we just blindly pursue it. We’re restless until all the pieces are in place. And yet what are the pieces? What is it we want?

    Even though we’re unable to define this longing within us; unable to see the end goal, we keep on striving for it

    It’s like the new born child who doesn’t understand hunger but just knows there’s something required. In order to survive the baby senses their needs. The methods used to gain these requirements is to appeal to its carer. The appeal is formed through crying and wriggling – to display restlessness – until soothed and provided for. Why should our minds now be any different? As long as we believe there is a requirement for our survival, that’s not being met, we will feel the very same torment and restlessness, experienced by the child.

    And what of us who’re unable to find this requirement? That, I would suggest, is most of us. There is no satisfying a restless mind that doesn’t understand what it seeks, and so stop your pretense. Instead, own up, to your incompleteness

    If patience is a gentle appreciation of potential, perhaps the turmoil will cease, when everything is in place. Perhaps, once the egg has been laid, the waiting is made bearable through the potential that grows within it.

    When you sit and meditate, seek the understanding of how it is you, that grows within the egg. What comes to you then, as a result of waiting patiently, is not the brief satisfaction – gained from achieving what it is you believed the requirement was – but the simple stillness of mind gained from acknowledging your limitless potential.

    Learn to meditate

  • Understanding Patience

    I’m siting in my room waiting. I’m impatient for something to happen. I feel frustrated and anxious. I feel like I’m suffering, there’s almost a physical pain, to my impatience

    In that moment, back then, I’m about ten years old. I’ve always struggled with empty moments; when there’s nothing happening. During this time the void is filled with anxiety, wanting and the nonexistent silence. I might spend time running through imaginary scenarios in my mind, seeking to figure out what I’d like to do, in order to fill up these nothing moments. Often, none of the scenarios I imagine take my fancy, and so I’m just left with feelings of frustration, over my sense that time, is being wasted. And our time is short.

    I’ve since learnt to lower my expectations and understand how inevitable it is that a lonely and unstimulated child will suffer

    The opposite, is an overly stimulated child, who doesn’t know this nothingness and then grows into an adult who always crams to much in; late for everything and everyone. Finding somewhere in between is the ideal. The ability to calmly make a plan for the day appreciating how long each activity will take.

    Oddly enough I’m drawn to nothingness; the desire to do nothing. It’s as if my mind is seeking to show me what exists within this nothingness; that my mind is seeking to reveal the root of my frustration: a childhood of neglect

    It’s often the case, that the many children who experience neglect, build powerful imaginations. We could even say that the building of a powerful imagination was our coping mechanism. Certainly useful as a child and also useful when seeking creativity as an adult. One thing we must now learn though, is the ability to quieten such an imagination. The mind can become hopelessly addicted to the stimulation our imagination provides. We must learn the patience needed to calm ourselves, and accept that we are no longer a child, that craves the stimulation and company of an absent parent.

    Patience comes from maturity and wisdom. Emotional maturity reveals how ridiculous it is, to expect something to happen, if we just wait long enough. Wisdom shows us what we must do to make our desires a reality

    Impatience is borne from a mind that is constantly casting itself into an imagined future. A mind that is untamed – believing that time is short – will be frustrated to be elsewhere doing something else, seeking fulfillment of impossible dreams. Patience comes when we cease the unnecessary search; when we’re able to move from one moment to the next, content in ourselves; expectations properly placed. Stop listening to the nonexistent.

  • Calm Yourself

    background image courtesy of pixabay

    If you find yourself attempting to influence or control, those things that you’re ultimately powerless to alter, take a deep breath. Seeking to change something that will always move independently of you causes stress and frustration. Recognise and accept, the only thing you have power over is, your own mind. How you perceive the world, and events beyond your control, is crucial to your well being and entirely under your control.

    Feelings of powerlessness are only compounded when we’re seeking to achieve the impossible

    What becomes possible is the altering of believes, viewpoints, opinions and perception. When we have the understandings of how to begin this process, we are truly, empowered.

    Calm yourself – Home-based Hypnotherapy Services

  • Loves Freedom

    Fear can come in many guises, and yet once we become aware of it, we have the power to push it away

    I was reminded recently of the manipulative nature of fear. It’s important to consider that it is OUR fear that manipulates us. For example, if we fear loss or hardship, it is this that others are able to tap into. Once our fear is tapped into they’re able to bend us to their will. Whether this fear is generated by a lonely parent, who threatens to change a will, or job insecurities that enable an employer to gain more than their monies worth, it is OUR fear that’s the problem.

    When we turn to love – of ourselves, our lives and our time – fear melts away

    Of course, if we’re to lose the type of fear, the above examples generate, we need to be in love with the very basics of what life has to offer. If we believe, deep in our hearts, that as a consequence of the wily whits evolution has provided us, that we will always be okay, fear has no hold on us. When we fully understand how personal responsibility applies to everyone, and are fearless of loss or hardship, no one has a hold on us either. Sometimes we may need to face up to the hardship – of not having everything we want – and we might miss the futures we imagined, however, be assured that these are only lessons in our beautiful journey through life. Free yourself and turn to love.

  • Your Own World – A Beautiful Place

    The beliefs, choices, and decisions others make, have nothing to do with you

    Yesterday morning I went swimming in the sea. It’s the first time I’ve been at that time of day. I suppose I’ve never really felt motivated enough to do it before. There was light mizzle in the air and the sky was grey, even so, I had a fantastic experience and all was well in my world. Other than how wonderful it was, I thought of nothing, during my swimming experience. During this time I was free from opinions and therefore my reoccurring anger at human madness.

    It does take effort, time and the motivation, to create your own world

    The most important aspect of this, is the ability to free ourselves from opinions and judgement. In the past I’ve felt compelled; driven to form and share my opinions. Almost as if I didn’t have the right to not have one. This, no doubt, comes from a judgemental and authoritarian parent who always insisted I answered every question posed and opinion sought. Perhaps you can relate to this in some way? Now though I realise I do actually have the right to no opinion.

    Free yourself and create your own world away from opinions and judgement. They only compound ideas and beliefs that probably weren’t even yours to begin with.

  • Start as you Mean to Go On

    Consider how things would feel if you started a relationship as companions and just waited to see how things worked out

    Relationships have always been a tricky business. We’re often left guessing as to someone’s intentions, integrity and desires. We might try certain types of manipulation and gameplay in order to gain this information. We might try to control behaviour and outcomes. All part of the human condition.

    At the beginning of a relationship if someone had stated: “what I want right now is companionship and an open mind”, I’d of either run a mile, or been intrigued

    We can easily envisage a long term relationship evolving into a beautiful companionship, and so what I’m suggesting, is that we think about forming this kind of relationship before anything else. Think about how all the gameplay, manipulation and fear, has long since dissolved from a relationship that is purely based on our human need for companionship. How beautiful would it be if we started in that place?

  • Aware Now

    As a result of learning and practicing meditation we’re able to cease the constant movement of the mind into the past, future, or fantasy.

    In time we can take control of unnecessary, fretful thoughts, that only add to our fears. If we become anxious and fearful over the things that, ultimately, we have no control over, we damage the quality of our lives. Improved mental fitness enables us to gain proportion and understanding that the only thing necessary to gain control of is ourselves and our thinking.

    Only recently I began to worry about the way in which certain people were behaving. And then I reminded my self that it’s not my responsibility to fight other peoples battles. I do feel a sense of responsibility in sharing information that may assist someone, and that is where it must end. We never actually empower an adult through taking over their battles, we may need to do this for a child, or for someone who is severely disabled, and empowerment is when we help individuals through providing tools and information.

    When it comes to mental fitness we must be prepared to work the muscle that is our brain

    If all the lifting and carrying is done by someone else we’ll never find the strength for ourselves. And strength comes when we practice. For example, when I find myself pulled into the abuse others experience, I bring my mind back into the present through using the words: ‘Aware Now.’ I’ve anchored the, present-moment-feeling, I experience during meditation, to these words. An exercise conducted during Mindfulness Training

    Be empowered, Learn to Meditate

  • Search for Now

    The mind has become accustomed, if not addicted, to searching for stimulation. When sitting meditating you will know this through the minds restless nature. Thoughts come and go and the mind is initially uncomfortable with our search for stillness in the present moment. In this respect we must give the mind clear and exact instructions, we say: ‘Search for an awareness of the present moment now’

  • The Search

    The search for fulfillment of our beliefs is a constant process. If you believe you are guilty, for example, during meditation, your mind will seek to find examples of this belief. During therapy this would be encouraged, during meditation, we must recognise the searching nature of mind, and give ourselves clear, exact instructions. We say: ‘Search for an awareness of my breathing’

  • Freedom is a State of Mind

    Whatever it is you want freedom from, be it poor mental health, poverty, the influence of others, or just the simple destructive nature of negativity, it all starts with your own mind