“Mindfulness” seems to have taken over these days. Everyone is trying to relax, stress less, find inner peace, more meaningful and purposeful lives. Learning how to bring oneself into the present moment is one of the ‘ways of being’ that is currently trending from the boardroom to the yoga room.
Learning how to access and utilize inner awareness is the key.
I have been guiding clients for years as a practicing Intuitive and have given thousands of private sessions. I have noticed over and over how much people yearn for deeper inner guidance and relief. I even created The Intuition Tool Kit to assist those who want to explore their personal “inner space!”
Everyone is seeking various ways to quiet their Minds long enough to enjoy Mindfulness. Most people would love to do it, but find that they can’t shut their brain off long enough to achieve any kind of results.
Here are some suggestions that have proven quite successful:
One of the biggest hurdles I find most people struggle with is how to stop their mind from going a mile a minute or what I call ‘the monkey chatter’ in order to actually hear other internal guidance. First of all remember, you may not be able to control the thoughts roaming around in your mind, but you can control what you do about it.
One suggestion is to think of your thoughts like an annoying telemarketer who has just called. You can’t control the fact that you picked up the phone and got this person on the other end of the line, but you can control hanging up. Are you the type of person who sits and listens to them for awhile even though you don’t want to? Or do you attempt to interrupt them while they keep going? Or do you just say no thanks, and hang up. I say with your own monkey chatter, pick the last one.
Another really effective plan is to give your mind something else to do. I like to think of our mind like a big goofy dog who just wants to help but is just knocking everything over with its tail. It really could just use a big bone to gnaw on and it will happily go into a corner and leave you at peace. So what I recommend is, give your mind something to do. Give it a task like - go plan dinner, or try to figure out how I can have some downtime next weekend - or figure out the best birthday present for my favorite person in the world. You will actually feel your mind disengage and sort of scurry to the back of your head!
This is your chance to make a break for it. At this point, imagine there is an elevator in front of you and step in. Press Down. And then feel yourself leaving your head and working your way down into your body. You can either get off at the floor where you heart is, or you can press down again and step off at your gut. At this point you will have a much easier time hearing whatever other messages want to come to you, without the distraction from above.
And don’t forget the best way to get out of the mind is to focus on your breath. Nothing fancy. Just watch your belly go up and down, or listen to the sound of your inhale and exhale or just feel the air working its way up and down. Let it lull you into a deeper state.
Finally, another way in is to use your own body. Check in to any tension that might be needing attention. You know when someone is really sad and sometimes the only thing you can do is just sit with them and keep them company? Do that right now.
Find a spot in your body that feels tense and could use some release. Instead of trying to DO anything about it, sit for a few moments in solidarity with it. Just witness, observe and be ok with this part of you. No struggle, no beating yourself up, no trying to change it, just sit quietly and attend.
Many times just being with that kind of allowance, gives the tense part of you the opportunity to feel loved and can just melt away of its own accord, or at least loosen up a bit. And when you feel that part of you relax, even just a little, take three long breaths and smile at that tense part of you with great compassion. And then notice, during that time, your mind was disengaged from every day things and you were suddenly “MindFULL” of what needed your actual attention.