Topic Tuesday//How can I be mindful when I have a mindFULL//Tues. 20 March. 7pm - 9pm AEDT

[Shaz51]

that is it @Former-Member and it is a good start xx

[soul]

I know it has been discussed elsewhere but panic attacks really confuse me. I often have them as a result of bad dreams but I have also had them out of the blue. Fortunately only once when I was out. Mindfullness was really important to ease the anxiety and the resultant physical symptoms then. 

[Former-Member]

That is a good idea maybe @Former-Member @Shaz51 perhaps just for a short short time, like cloudwatching can be a mindfulness activity. 

[Former-Member]

Agree! Panic attacks, high anxiety, heightened feelings in general can be hard to find ways back to mindfulness. Its a big challenge. 

This brings me along nicely to the next point and a meme I quite enjoy! 

What obstacles have you faced when trying to engage in mindfulness?

A big thing for me is thinking that being mindful is something I need to do all the time, dedicating my mind to changing and being present 100% of my time. This is my own self bias. But it can be a shared or common thought for a lot of people. Then I can end up feeling really disappointed with myself when I haven’t achieved this! I really like this quote:

“Mindful awareness of different options gives us greater control. This feeling of greater control, in turn, encourages us to be more mindful. Rather than being a chore, mindfulness engages us in a continuing momentum.”

— DR. ELLEN LANGER

Being mindful can be about creating momentum. It is not something we have to commit our whole days and thoughts to. We can choose options in the day where you can engage mindfulness, slowly and softly and steadily creating a habit that encourages us.  

So, what do you come up against when thinking of approaching mindfulness? What stops you wanting to utilise it? Are the obstacles physical? Emotional?

[soul]

Mindfullness requires slowing down and sometimes that's not easy to do when your thinking is going a million miles an hour.

[Queenie]

Does anyone mindfully listen to music? I am not talking about just listening, it is about noticing like a curious scientist who have never heard music before. Each note, the sound of the instruments, the pitch and tone... I do this quite often, even with songs I've heard a million times before. Just now I know it sounds silly, but I was doing mindfulness of Ed Sheeran. It's amazing what you really hear when you listen mindfully.

[Shaz51]

Hello @Marie7 

What stops you wanting to utilise it? -- for me @Former-Member, i think Time is the biggest thing

and also I do a lot of multi tasking which @Phoenix_Rising is teaching me how to do one thing at a time

[soul]

Good point @Queenie. I like to concentrate on instrumental music especially acoustic guitar, extracting meaning without words.

[Former-Member]

Oh, goodness, very cool image and even better quote @Former-Member 

“Mindful awareness of different options gives us greater control. This feeling of greater control, in turn, encourages us to be more mindful. Rather than being a chore, mindfulness engages us in a continuing momentum.” — DR. ELLEN LANGER

Yes, I think in the beginning, mindfulness might have been a chore, one of those 'have to' things to keep me being productive instead of destructive. 

So, what do you come up against when thinking of approaching mindfulness? What stops you wanting to utilise it? Are the obstacles physical? Emotional?

I have recently discovered that being angry shifts me away from mindfullness to just 'angry, angry' mode.

That's when I can want to be destructive. I rarely, very rarely am destructive. (Because I saw too much of it to want to be like that).

Wanting to lash out and doing the lashing out are two different things. 

I'll usually go do something a bit physical, a short walk, wash up, house cleaning, something like that and come back to being mindful while I am doing that task. 

I haven't found a good and always workable way to come back from the sad stuff to mindful though.

[Marie7]

Emotional, especially after bad dreams and panic attack occurs just hard to think rational then and use mindfulness. Also times of overwhelming dadness and hopelessness, I know it helps but can't seem to utiluse it then as easily