What If You Could Direct Where Your Mind Goes?

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another"

William James

We all know what it is like to succumb to distraction in our day. The ability to concentrate can be impacted by people, tasks, habits and addictions, and any number of unhelpful thoughts. Sometimes it may feel like we have no control over where our attention goes at any particular moment.

Let's try a quick activity.

Look around where you are right now. Choose 4 items/objects from this space (e.g., window, chair, light fitting, cup). Next, one after the other, look at each item you have selected in progression for about 3 seconds. Go.

How did you go? Easy?

Now do the exact same progression....but this time with your eyes closed. Direct your attention to those items in the same order for about 3 seconds each. Go.

What did you notice? Just as easy? More difficult?

What you may have found is that you were the director of where your attention was at each particular moment. We are able to select on purpose the direction of our attention, and this is the fundamental basis for Mindfulness - instead we select the present moment, the breath, or external sounds. 

Think of it like a muscle - it may be weak now, but with consistent practice it will get stronger.

Try this activity over the next few days as a warm up to your mindfulness practice. The purpose is to help you realise that your attention is far more up to you than you thought.

What if you could apply directing attention away from ruminative, anxiety, or worry driven thoughts, toward the present moment or the breath? 

Remember to take 5 minutes, put down your day, and bring your attention to the present, to your breath - as thoughts arise, direct your attention back to the breath.

Keeping It Simple

While the practice of Mindfulness is simple - It is not necessarily easy. As with most anything else, it is possible to get better at it. But better doesn't mean skilful - it means you feel better about it. 

As we continue to practise, there is a greater familiarity with it. You become more comfortable. As you start, you know where you're at and what you are about to do. Familiarity. Familiarity helps to overcome procrastination and the shoulds-coulds-woulds – the expectations we may have. Familiarity helps to overcome the initial need to perfect it or not make mistakes.

Keeping mindfulness simple is most important when you’re starting out, so try this – STOP.

Stop

Take a breath

Observe

Proceed

STOP is a simple structure for initiating your practice. STOP can take 30 seconds or 30 minutes. You could use it to start your practice, or it can be your practice.

Whatever you are doing -

Stop

Take a deep, slow, mindful breath (or ten)

Observe or notice what it feels like. Get especially into the feeling in the body - it gets you out of your head

Proceed with your day. Notice any change now compared to how you were feeling when you started

Familiarity comes from doing mindfulness a number of times. So to become familiar, you need to do it. The boundaries are set by no-one but yourself. Make a commitment. For example, five minutes per day for the next week. Then do another week. Notice the difference following Mindfulness.

The more and more familiar you become with it, the more you can slot it into your day – waiting for your coffee, sitting before a meeting, held up at a red light, the last thing you do before you lay your head down at night or the first thing you do after you wake.

No one would know.

If you're going to take 5, make it a present5

Put Down Your Day For 5 Minutes

Mindfulness is a skill practiced not only to help people manage responses to daily stressors (deadlines, exams), but also to increase positive emotion. By practicing Mindfulness, we can positively and deliberately recognise and influence how we experience adverse emotions throughout our day, and how we engage in our daily work.

We all know the concept of ‘taking 5’ minutes rest to recover and recharge – however, time off is only part of the benefit. By focusing attention consciously on the present moment, we take a break from the worries of the future and regrets of the past, no longer feeding the stress response of our body and rumination of the mind. This is the simplest thing to do. No need to quieten the mind, or try to relax - a quieter mind and relaxation are the results of bringing your attention into the here and now.

This can be done anywhere at any time - take 30 seconds or 30 minutes - and be completely anonymous. So, stop, switch of the phone, put down your possessions and the day so far, breath, and find the present moment. It is right under your nose.

If you’re going to take 5, make it a present5