Becoming present, mindful, and aware is like watching your favorite movie play by play, moment-by-moment processing actively your feelings while observing your mental, physical and emotional state. Researchers have scientifically proven that ones ability to manage mental and physical stressor effects the level of disruption experienced, improves attention, boosts the immune system, and promotes a general sense of health and well-being. Mindful awareness can be practiced through meditation, yoga, tai chi, and behavioral change, which are art forms to developing a deeper sense of self-awareness and the mind and body connection.
Learning to live in the “NOW” helps one to get back in touch with their inner self or soul, opening themselves up to transforming experiences. To develop the power of mindfulness we only need to be present to what is happening around us now, not yesterday and not tomorrow. The answers we seek are always right in front of us only if we can connect to are inner state of mindful awareness. Diana Winston, director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA Health System said that typically, individuals put too much of their thought into what happened in the past and what is going to happen tomorrow, which is a source of stress, anxiety, and depression. Focusing on the past or the unknown future is a drain on your energy, robbing you of needed assimilation resources in the present.
The practice of mindful awareness allows one to rebound from life’s major or minor snafus with minimal disruption and to absorb high levels of life change while displaying minimal dysfunctional behavior.
- Regain mental and physical balance faster
- Achieve more of your life objectives
- Maintain a higher level of quality, productivity, and performance in your life
- Preserve your physical and emotional health
Mindfulness like exercise or eating habits can be cultivated through practice. It is all about making different mindful choices. A first step toward the development of mindful awareness is to pay close attention to the present moment. Start with the simple exercise of breath, inhalation and exhalation, focus on the feeling of your blood rushing through your veins and the sensation of your fingers, fingertips, legs, feet, and facial muscles. Are bodies are always in the present state of now.
Connecting the Dots
The daily practice of mindful awareness starts with taking notice of what steals your attention and how your body and mind responds. It doesn’t matter if the stress is positive or negative; stress is stress, draining your body of assimilation capacity in the present. It is like running your email on your IPhone, whether the emails are good or bad you still use allot of battery and eventually need to recharge.
Since stress will inevitably occur in daily life, there is always a corresponding energy invoice to be paid. Your challenge is to be mindful and aware of what and how your resources are being used. And the process of mindfulness life choices can be overt or covert; you will pay for preventing it or for healing from it, but you will always pay the price for mindful awareness.
Everyone has choices to make in life. What distinguishes winners from losers is that the successful ones will develop the skill base of being mindfully awareness, which is the process of being able to understand the alternatives available to them, elect an option they can afford financially, mind and body wise, and avoid complaining later about their choose.
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Mike Conner helps individuals reinvent the conversation between their brain, body and food. A Wellness, Food and Kitchen Coach who spends endless hours helping her clients create meaningful life plans as she infuses their lives with fresh ways of thinking about lifestyle change. As Conner says: “there is no such thing as bad or good genes, good or bad karma. There are solely life’s trails and corrections.” She encourages people to figure out ways to explore the edges of the world around them, from changing their physical environment to the cultivation of new interests and habits. Visit coachconner.com for extended versions of health and wellness articles.
