What’s In Your Mental Shop? On The Mindfulness Tip

 

 

 

What mainly sits on the shelves in your Mental Shop? Do you know? What’s in there? What’s your Mindfulness Quotient like? Mainly negative thoughts, positive ones, or come-see/come-sah–sometimes negative, sometimes positive? Which way do you generally lean?  Are you an ‘idealist,’ a ‘realist’ an ‘optimist,’  or do you roll with a ‘glass half-empty/glass half-full kinda vibe? Do you usually see the best possible outcomes or do you always expect the worst?

Do the thoughts you generally think give you a sense of Peace and Balance? Peace of mind is sooooo very important, it’s something we would love so much more of. Don’t you agree?

Do you realize that your Mental Diet is as important if not more important than physical exercise and what you eat? Do you realize that your thoughts play a telling part in your mental health and well-being? Your thoughts determine how you process stressors, anxiety and obstacles for they are the windows in which you view the world.

 

Our Thoughts Are the Starting Team for Our Mental Health and Well-Being

 

What and how we think are the starting players in how our day goes and how well (or not) we handle stress and anxiety. For instance, you look out of the window or get outside and see that it’s raining. You think, ‘oh s—! it’s raining, I hate the f—–g rain! Hate it hate it hate it!’ Then you get in your car or head to mass transit already pissed off. That means you’re just out the gate and annoyed inconvenienced, and cranky. WHAT a combination.

How do you think your day may go afterwards?

Someone else sees the rain and they say, ‘oooooooo it’s raining! YAY!! I LOVE when it rains, the air has such a great smell and I feel so revitalized…’ So already they’re out the gate feeling good and uplifted.

How do you think their day may go afterwards?

Now that’s not the say that if you don’t like when it rains that you should automatically love the rain when you really don’t. But it is to say that since it does rain, how can you shift how you allow it to affect you? 

 

The More You Know of Yourself, The Better

 

One of the famous maxims inscribed in the forecourt at the Temple of Apollo in Delhi is “Know Thyself.“  The direct path to realizing more Peace of Mind in our lives is to get a better handle on what’s in our mental shops.

In basketball, when a player on a team’s starting line-up ain’t cuttin’ it, they have to be replaced. Now if the bench is weak and there isn’t a strong number 6 man, the team’s odds of winning drops even more. Thoughts are no different–if we’re leading with runaway thoughts like fear, worry, and guilt, then our chances at having a superlative day is pretty much shot to bumpkus.

We magnify our stress with those thoughts, matter of fact, most of the time we have no idea what we think as thoughts morph and spin upon themselves, jumping from one to another at rapid break speed, thoughts Thoughts THOUGHTS leaping over and under more thoughts often not even finishing one thought before another more insistent thought jumps on top, screaming even louder.

 

Speaking of Thoughts, Which Came First, The Feeling or The Thought?

 

You can always trace  how you are feeling to the thoughts you were thinking. I know, most of us think it’s the other way around–we feel and then we think, but if you really begin to examine the feelings to thoughts/thoughts to feelings conduit, you may begin to see a pattern that you hold the key to. Seeing and unlocking the door of the pattern leads you to more Freedom,  Mindfulness and yup, more Peace of Mind.

“Becoming Aware of the Thoughts You Think is the cornerstone of a Mindfulness Practice. For how can You direct Your Thoughts in a direction You want them to go in if ya have no idea of what Your Thoughts are in the first place? Opposing Thoughts have us blocked, locked  and strapped into patterns and situations we often feel helpless to break…” excerpt from the eBook/audiobook series 7 Daily Thoughts & Mantras 4 Mindfulness–Keys 4 Stress Relief & Personal Growth Week 4 

 

Mindfulness Awakening Challenge

 

Heyyyy, here’s a Mindfulness Awakening Challenge for ya–become more Aware of your thoughts by paying attention to how you are feeling at a given time. Then double back to the predominant thoughts that proceeded how you are presently feeling.

For example: you’re feeling crappy…

1- Why?

2- What happened that gives you that crappy feeling?

3- Sometimes you can’t quite put your finger on it. If you’re not sure, what can you recall that left you with a sinking feeling?

4- How much time did you spend thinking about the thing happening that you didn’t like? A few minutes? An hour? A couple hours? A lot of the day? Most of the day? Or have these thoughts continued longer into days? Weeks? Months? Years?

5- When was the last time you were feeling good, like really? Not for a moment or a day. But for at least a few weeks…

6- See if you can connect the thru-lines of your thoughts to your sense of feeling in the moment. Whatever it is you are feeling.

7- Keep going, you will get the hang of it

 

In order to begin to Awaken and become more Mindful, we each have to become our own private investigators.

The subjects whom we have to follow, photograph and take notes on is ourselves

 

Mindfulness Reminders in a Song

 

You ever wake up with a song on your mind but have absolutely NO idea why? The morning I wrote this post, I woke up with a song I hadn’t heard in years floating through the phonograph in my mind (record players for you young’uns from wayyyyy back in the day). It’s called “The Windmills of Your Mind” which is the epitome of what occurs in our mental spaces.

First released in the U.S. in 1969 recorded by Noel Harrison. Michel Legrand composer, Eddy Marnay, the French lyricist. Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman. English lyrics.

 

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel

Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon

Like a carousel that’s turning running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face

And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own

Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone

Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream

Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face

And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head

Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?

Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand

Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?

Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song

Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?

When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel

As the images unwind, like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind!

 

Getting a Handle on Our Thoughts Can Be A Beast…

 

Unless you make it a practice.

It’s kinda like making a smoothie, ya gotta blend your ingredients well to get that right texture! So what do you need for your Mindfulness Smoothie? Desire and Intention, Patience and Dedication. And Faith plus Trust. Faith that you will get the hang of it, Trust that you are supported by who is the most High for you. 

And while I can’t exactly say it gets ‘easier’ (I’d be flat out lyin’ if I told you that!) it does become more a part of you as it starts to seep into your mental ‘bones.’ When you muck up (and you will ’cause there are SO many triggers along the way) you will have the tools to bring yourself back online and get with the Mindfulness program again.

Awareness from Mindfulness. It’s a Practice and not a done deal. It is a Lifestyle, a way of BEING, not a sprint to perfection but a way of Life. You will forget. You will Remember. But the spaces in between those two will get shorter and shorter. Your time in Mindfulness will become more than your time in forgetfulness. You will notice the difference and wanna be more in that space where Peace resides.

Minding The Store of Your Thoughts is a Lifestyle, a lasting Gift You give Yourself on Your Life Journey. 

BECOME the Peace You wish to see.

 

 

Thank you for being here, won’t you share this with a friend, family member and/or colleagues? 

 

Your Wellness Guide