The Reality of Mindfulness

My Journey to Calm

When I started practising mindfulness, it was about me being on my own journey. Calm doesn’t come overnight and I have had to really work at it. Since I started Journey to Calm, I have shared a lot of positive experiences about how mindfulness has helped me. However, I always wanted this blog to be real and so I just wanted to say that although I tell you all about my positive strategies to get through life, I am not positive all the time and I do have to work at it.

The Perfect Picture

When I looked in to mindfulness I found that there were an overwhelming amount of articles that painted a perfect picture. That perfect picture at times made me think that I couldn’t achieve what these people were achieving. In reality though, they had just focussed on the positive in their articles. There is nothing wrong with that, and I have done it in some of my posts too. However, I felt it was important to point out that mindfulness is something to be worked at. I am better at practising mindfulness than I was a few years ago because I have practised.

Acknowledge your Feelings

Mindfulness has helped me work with my body rather than against it. If I’m feeling sad or anxious, rather than hiding from it I now acknowledge it in my head. If I acknowledge that it’s how I’m feeling, I find that the feeling subsides quicker. I used to bottle things up and that just isn’t a healthy way of coping with lifes’ troubles.

Finding your Inner Strength

The last few years have been a rollercoaster for many of us. Sometimes it takes something really challenging to happen for us to realise that we do have an inner strength that we can call upon when we really need it.

Refocussing your Mind

I have learnt over time to refocus my mind to what is happening around me in that moment. You will probably see me write about listening to nature a lot on the blog, but it is genuinely the thing that grounds me a lot of the time. There is something so cheerful about listening to the birds cheeping.

If you feel yourself worrying about what has happened or what could happen, try refocussing on what is around you in that moment.

Conclusion

If you’re not being positive all the time, you’re not failing. I think particularly if your job involves encouraging a positive mindset, there can be a pressure felt to have that happy face on all of the time. In reality life doesn’t work that way. Accept those bad moments and move on as best you can – those moments won’t last forever.