Mindfulness Practice – How To Begin

Mindfulness Practice – How To Begin

by | Jun 28, 2022 | Mindfulness Practice, Spiritual Practice

Mindfulness Practice advice and help for busy people who want to get started but feel like they don’t have time.

More than half of all small business owners have suffered from anxiety, 62 per cent have been affected by stress, and 30 per cent have experienced depression. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that we’re in the midst of a wellbeing crisis, with the self-employed feeling this acutely.

Alan Thomas, CEO, Simply Business UK

There is no doubt that just about everybody has suffered as a result of the global pandemic, and this is still ongoing. Covid-19 has made life difficult for many, and small business owners have been particularly hard hit.

Mindfulness, whether you are a seasoned meditator or an absolute beginner, can improve your life in many ways. As a business owner, it can help you to avoid overwhelm and burn out and help you to develop a strong mindset for success. It can help you to overcome the stresses of the past 2 years, and set you up for coping well with any further problems that come your way.

Is Mindfulness Practice For Me?

Yes, mindfulness can have immense benefit for everyone, when regularly practiced. Young, old, male, female, healthy or infirm, mindfulness can help improve your life.

What is Mindfulness?

Many people mistake mindfulness for meditation. Whilst Mindfulness Meditation can really help you to become mindful, the practice is so much more than just sitting meditation.

In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.

Eckhart Tolle

The aim of mindfulness practice is to become mindful in all aspects of daily life. This has huge benefits for mindset, as anxiety, worry, stress and overwhelm become things we can more easily cope with. When issues arise they are dealt with calmly, in the present moment.

Mindfulness Overview

Mindfulness is a modern buzz word, and we hear about mindful eating, mindful movement, mindful living, and so on. But what is mindfulness?

Developed recently (1970’s) in the west by Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness has its roots very much in ancient mystical practices. It is mostly associated with Buddhism, but a study of Christian Mysticism, Sufism, Taoism or other mystical paths will show that the practices are all based on mindfulness and living in the present moment.

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally”. This may sound quite simple, but in practice it is very difficult to achieve at all times, but this is why we practice.

Download Mindfulness Resources PDF

I have compiled some resources into a file that can help get you started with your mindfulness practice. It includes book recommendations, YouTube videos and mp3s of mindfulness meditations and some web pages on mindfulness.

Download Mindfulness Resources PDF

Mindfulness As a Way of Life

Mindfulness becomes a way of life, a way of paying attention to every little moment; coming back to that present moment when we realise we have let our attention wander off. To be fully present in as many moments as we possibly can. This will, however, take some practice. Just as we keep coming back to the breath when we are meditating, when we find our attention has wandered we can just bring it back to the present moment. Always remembering to be kind to yourself.

Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Take Three Deep Breaths

Paying attention to the breath can keep us grounded at any time, whatever the circumstances.

My favourite mindfulness go to is simply to take three deep, slow breaths. Anyone can do this at any time, and no one need even know you are doing it.

Feeling angry, upset, stressed, or out of your depth? Dealing with a difficult client, have a looming deadline or suppliers messing you around? Just bring your attention back to your breath. Three slow, deep breaths can have a really calming and grounding affect, just try it and see. You can do this as many times per day as you like.

Mindfulness For Busy People

If you would like to discover some simple ways to build mindfulness into your daily life, without using hours of your precious time, check out my Mindfulness For Busy People 21 day course.

Each day for 21 days you will receive a practical and actionable tip to help consolidate your practice. Each day will take no more than a few minutes of your time, but by the end of the three weeks you will have seen a dramatic mindset shift. It really can transform your life, as it did mine.

Learn more at: gillwashington.co.uk/mindfulness-for-busy-people/

How To Start A Spiritual Practice

How To Start A Spiritual Practice

by | Jun 14, 2022 | Mindfulness Practice, Spiritual Practice

How do you start a spiritual practice and maintain it daily?

One of the most common things people tell me is they don’t have time for a spiritual practice. Or they have let their practice lapse.

This always makes me think about my own practice, and how I don’t use up huge chunks of my day. Instead I have built a practice that takes minimal time yet is central to my life.

Morning and Evening Mindfulness

Each morning, before I even open my eyes, I do a couple of minutes of mindfulness meditation. I just follow my breath for two or three minutes. This takes no time out of my day, yet gets the day off to a great start.

When I go to bed I do the same thing. Just follow my breath as I am drifting off to sleep. Again, it takes no time.

If you want to add in more meditation, that’s great. Sometimes I like to do a longer meditation. However, if you have never meditated before, or not for a long time, this few minutes at the start and end of your day will give lots of benefits.

After a while of doing this, it’s quite likely you will naturally build up the length of time you spend. Just don’t let the idea of having to do 40 minutes or two hours per day put you off getting started.

If this is all you were to do each day, you would notice an increase in your wellbeing.

spiritual practice woman meditating with dog

Affirmations

After meditating and as I’m getting ready for the day, I like to repeat affirmations. Usually I just choose one for the day. As I leave my bedroom, I look at the framed poster on my dressing table. It reads, ‘Today is going to be awesome’. I repeat this to myself as I go downstairs. This ensures I start my day positively and with a smile.

If you sign up to my new course Mindfulness For Busy People you will get a PDF of 30 affirmations to get you started.

If you want to go more in depth on how to start a spiritual practice, this 21 day course will be right for you.

Spiritual Literature

Another way to add to your practice without using up any extra time is to swap out your regular reading for spiritual literature. I love poetry from the likes of Rumi, Hafiz, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rabindranath Tagore and many more.

In addition to reading these mystic poets, I have some favourite authors I turn to often. Probably my favourite teacher is Pema Chodron, and she has lots of books available. Equally as good is Thich Nhat Hanh who also has a lot of books available. There are also lots of great writings from Sufi, Taoist and Christian mystics.

If you want to check out a lot of great spiritual literature, pay a visit to my Allspirit website. This was the first website I launched way back in 1997. Although I haven’t added to this website for a long time, there is a wealth of spiritual material for you to get your practice off to a great start.

If you are in the habit of reading novels or gossipy magazines, swap at least some of that time for reading spiritual literature. You will probably find you quite quickly lose your appetite for gossip.

Discover Spiritual Videos

Many of us spend a lot of time watching tv. According to a report from regulator Ofcom, UK adults spent nearly a third of their waking hours watching TV and online video content in 2020. Even if you spent half of this time watching spiritual videos, that is a lot of watching.

So if you find yourself mindlessly scrolling tiktok videos, or watching soaps or sport on tv, check out the wealth of free videos on youtube. Just do a search for spirituality or meditation and you will find many, many excellent videos.

Again, this takes no time out of your day, you will be swapping less spiritual activities for more rewarding ones.

Self Awareness

The core of a spiritual practice for me is becoming more self aware. As you go about your day, pay attention to how you react to things that happen. Do you feel angry, jealous, fearful or sad? Just look at these with a kind, non judgmental awareness.

Doing this is not to shame yourself, but to learn about yourself. Once you notice your less than helpful reactions, you can begin to adjust them.

Paying attention to your body can often alert you to reactions before you respond in an angry or jealous way.

Maintaining Your Spiritual Practice

All five of these things can fit into your life with little time needed. They will, however, make a big difference to your life if practiced each day.

Once you get used to doing them daily they will become part of your regular daily habits. To start with, you may use reminders to cement the habits. A reminder on your phone to do your morning and night time meditations. A set time of day to read or watch videos. Using an app on your phone to pop up affirmations. I use Yapp, and find it really helpful (and it’s free). A stone carried in your pocket that you turn over in your hand can remind you to pay attention to your reactions.

If you miss a day, or miss a practice, or even if you miss for a while it doesn’t matter. Don’t judge yourself harshly, just be kind to yourself and restart your practice.

Remember, a journey of 1,000 miles begin with the first step. Just take that first step and get started.

And don’t forget, you can get my Mindfulness For Busy People mini course to help you further your practice.

Stay mindful!

Gill