Take a mindful moment to boost your wellbeing
August 12, 2022 | by Matt Halfpenny
As part of our ongoing series about wellbeing and mental health, Membership Services Support Assistant Hayley Husbands explains to us why having a mindful moment is important for our wellbeing.
We are all guilty of not living in the moment. We are constantly thinking about the next job on our ‘to do’ list, what we should cook for tonight’s dinner, or how much work we need to get through before we can call it a day.
Mindfulness works by taking our focus to the present moment, being aware of where we are, what we are doing and away from these other thoughts.
Whenever we bring awareness to what we are directly experiencing, via our senses, or our state of mind via our thoughts and emotions, we are being mindful. There is growing research showing that when we train our brains to be mindful, we are remodelling the physical structure of our brains.
Many people find practising mindfulness helps them manage their day-to-day wellbeing.
Mindfulness can help you…
- Become more self-aware
- Feel calmer and less stressed
- Feel more able to choose how to respond to thoughts and feelings
- Cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts
- Be kinder towards yourself
- Live in the moment.
There are some perceptions of Mindfulness that are incorrect. If you decide to give it a go you, may find the experience quite different to what you expected. There’s a very good chance that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Five things people get wrong about mindfulness
- Mindfulness isn’t about ‘fixing’ you
- Mindfulness is not about stopping your thoughts
- Mindfulness does not belong to a religion
- Mindfulness is not an escape from reality
- Mindfulness is not a solution for difficulties.
Mindfulness practice can often help with stress reduction, which is really helpful, however this is not the ultimate goal. The goal of mindfulness is to wake up the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes.
Athletes all around the world use mindfulness to foster peak performance and improve concentration, from basketball players practising acceptance of negative thoughts before games, to big wave surfers transforming their fears.
Keys attitudes of mindfulness
Non-judging – be an impartial witness to our own experience. Stop judging our own experiences as good or bad. See them how they are, rather than how we want them to be.
Patience – demonstrates that we accept the fact that things sometimes unfold in their own time.
Allow for this beginner’s mind – remain open and curious which will allow us to be accepting to new possibilities rather than being stuck in a rut of our own expertise.
Trust – learn to trust ourselves and our feelings. Accept its OK to make mistakes.
Non-striving – We spend so much of our lives striving to achieve a goal that often we are not truly present for the journey, which is just as important.
Acceptance – see things as they are, and act appropriately in life, no matter what is happening.
Letting go – at times we all notice there are certain thoughts, emotions, and situations the mind wants to hold onto. Let your experience be what it is right now.
Try to STOP
The way we think and what we think about can affect how we feel and act. Mindfulness can help us to be more aware of this and in turn make us mindful of how we talk to and treat others and how our actions can affect other people.
This is easier said than done when we are constantly faced with stresses and frustrations of daily life. However, sometimes all it takes is for us to take a deep breath, think and focus on the moment we are in.
Next time you feel that frustration creeping in for whatever reason, try to S.T.O.P.
- S – Stop what you are doing, put things down for a minute and focus on the present moment
- T – Take a breath. Breath naturally and take notice of your breath coming in and out
- O – Observe your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Reflect what’s on your mind but take notice that thoughts are not facts, and they are not permanent. Take notice of any emotions and just name them. Don’t try to stop them just let them come and go.
- P – Proceed with something that will support you in the moment.
Remember: Be kind, be safe and take a moment for yourself.
Book you place on our next Box In Mind course
England Boxing’s Box in Mind workshops relaunched last month, with the first session being held online, delivered by Mental Health Lead Lynette Mayo.
Lynette said of the first online delivery since the pandemic: “It was great to deliver the full Box in Mind workshop again.
“The interaction from the delegates was fantastic and it shows that the course is needed to build awareness of Mental Health and the support which is on offer to our community.”
To book on a Box in August use our course finder.
