Practising Mindfulness

We can not expect our mind to stay healthy if we neglect it

It’s important for me to stay well away from scare mongering or teaching fear. There’s already plenty of that around. A much gentler and more powerful means of raising awareness, of the importance of mental health, is for me to stay with a positive motivation.

The positive outcome of caring for our mental health is a good quality of life, for longer. We’d all like to stay sharp into old age, would we not? The way to improve the odds of this happening is to become involved in the kind of self-care, I teach: Meditation that Leads to Improved Mindfulness (awareness).

The opposite of neglect is attention. Paying attention to the present moment reduces stress. Paying attention to the present moment means we make fewer mistakes and, as such, waste less of our precious time

As someone who trained as an observer forty years ago, I’ve gotten pretty adept at spotting headless chickens and people with alternative agendas they’re not aware of. I’m aware of neglectful people and their (if allowed) negative influence. Individuals who have no interest in caring for their minds.

There are those who seem to waste so much of their time chasing the shadows of their mistakes: Constantly messing things up, forgetting things, losing things . . . you name it. Through their inattention and absentmindedness, stress has become a way of life. You might know someone like this.

There are also those of us who seem to have an ability to inflict stress and suffering onto others. Small and large-scale war mongers. Wars amongst work colleagues, family members, and friends. Or wars between countries and cultures. All the same. The results of internal conflict and unrest within the individual.

We can only ease conflict and unrest within our own minds. In this way, we heal ourselves and influence others in positive ways

As always, it begins with you. When I’m around stressed-out people and war mongers, I focus on my internal environment. I focus on my own mental health. My stillness.

Allow me to use an analogy:

People may want to throw stones into the calm pool of my mind with stress and negative energy. However, the way for me to protect myself from this is to strengthen the surface tension of my mind.

Water has what’s called surface tension. Put simply, it’s what small insects are able to walk across. To continue with the analogy, I think of my mind as having this surface tension. My mind has a protective layer of tension created by my attention.

Increasing this attention onto my point of focus (breathing) means the stones of disruption, others wish to throw at it, will bounce off. This is caring for my mental health.

Learn how to do this and others will follow

Contact me: philip@practisingmindfulness.co.uk