Mindfulness and Emotional Healing
Meditation has been used for centuries as a way to quiet the busyness of the mind. When I was a teenager, I found books on buddhism, meditation and mindfulness and began to use some of those as tools for ways to cope with adversity. During college, I discovered yoga as well as various meditation gurus such as Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. Also, I participated in meditation groups and yoga retreats. Since then, I have traveled, learned Spanish, taught high school and now I am pursuing a master’s degree in counseling to become a licensed professional counselor.
Currently, I am offering a meditation class / group to individuals seeking to learn to meditate, improve their practice and / or simply join a great group of others to share time in meditation. If this is something you may be interested in, please contact me at anna@amyarmstronglpc.com. Many of us believe that we do not have time for mindfulness practice, but many teachers would argue that having no time means you need it more than those with ample time. Taking a moment to connect with the breath and stepping back from our racing thoughts can help us regain the energy and clarity needed to tackle complicated issues with a sound mind and body.
Don’t give up! Life can throw all sorts of unexpected obstacles our way, and sometimes it may feel unmanageable. That is the perfect moment for mindfulness, when life feels like it is too much. A great way to reconnect with mind and body during these moments is through the five senses. Perhaps just choosing one such as touch could be a good way to start. For example, you may be running around the kitchen during the morning trying to prepare lunch for you and your family before getting out the door to make it to school and work on time. You can engage in mindfulness by absorbing your experience through the senses. Observe how it feels to open the refrigerator. Does the handle feel warm or cold, clean or dirty? Allow yourself to feel the movements instead of throwing things around in a tizzy. I know, easier said than done, but even one moment of mindfulness can get your practice started.
Overtime, the repeated effort will build up and when you feel your world is crashing down, you will have mindfulness as a tool to help regain a sense of wellbeing and move forward with faith. One of my favorite guided meditations on faith offers this quote by an unknown author, “faith does not know where it is going, but it loves the one leading it.” The opposite of faith is fear, if we are in a state of constant worry about what may (or may not) happen, not only our minds but also our bodies can become ill in various ways. When we develop a mindfulness practice, we are developing faith in ourselves as well as self love. Knowing that we have what we need to become fulfilled in this one true life that is ours to own is paramount in seeing the illusion of mind and deciding on our actions from a grounded perspective.