Monday's Meditation - Start As You Mean To Go On!

Why not start your week of with a calming meditation?

Building self-care habits into the start of the week helps to set or mindsets for the rest of the week.

You’re not alone if you feel a bit reluctant about meditation, I know I was at first…

But if you’re someone who often finds yourself procrastinating then you could really benefit from meditation practice.

Meditation is all about training your brain to maintain focus on one thing that you direct it at.

Why not have a go:

· Sit comfortably

· Focus on your breath

· When your attention wanders, bring it back

Meditation benefits everyone precisely because our minds will wander. Meditation enables us to be more aware when our minds wander so that we can choose to re-focus.

The more you practice, the quicker you will start to recognise when you are distracted and so bring your attention back.

There are loads of benefits to meditation including improved sleep, lower stress, increased focus, lower blood pressure and much more.

Practice Self-Kindness

Have you ever wondered why so many of us are able to show kindness towards others yet find it difficult to extend the same kindness towards ourselves?

Being kind to ourselves is the ability to show empathy, love and concern for ourselves. It's all about accepting ourselves for who we are, in particular our mistakes.

Self-compassion, however, often allows people to accept their failures, move past them, and try again.

Have a go a writing down at least one thing that you love about yourself every day for the next week. Pop in it a jar next to your bed.

Or perhaps you might try writing a letter to yourself from the point of view of a compassionate friend?

Research has shown that people who are kind to themselves tend to have greater happiness, life satisfaction, motivation, better relationships and physical health.

Time For Some Self-Reflection!

How often do you take time for some self-reflection?

To just press the pause button and think about what is going on for you right now? What are you feeling? What are your wants and needs right now? What are your goals?

Focusing in on ourselves and understanding ourselves better can actually make us happier and more at peace.

It also encourages us not to ignore what might be going on for us, to not push our thoughts, feelings, and decisions to the back of our minds.

Where it stays by the way – in our sub-conscious; still affecting us at some level.

Self-reflection can benefit us in lots of other ways too:

• Clarity – it can help us work our way through indecision

• Self-protection – greater self-knowledge helps us to put some boundaries in place e.g., what behaviour do we find un/acceptable and what needs do we have that we would like met?

• Relationships – it’s pretty difficult for others to understand you if you don’t understand yourself

• Learning – self-reflection gives us the opportunity to learn from our experiences

I Hope you manage to find some time for self-reflection...