Learning mindfulness and how to live in the moment is not easy. Pay attention to what you see, feel, and hear. Let your mind fully engage your experience of the present moment. Intentionally soak up the present, and fears of the future and regrets from the past fade away. Suddenly life is your moment to moment experience and life becomes manageable from that stance! When completely flooded and overwhelmed go into a mindful way of operating I practice mindfulness to help me get a grip and figure out next best choices.
My Bipolar 1 and Complex PTSD for a long time lead me running for the hills rather than be in my own body. To be honest, medication has been a necessity for my healing process. Thankfully, as I heal – mindfulness required – I have been able to decrease the medication. The decreases were only possible through my ongoing and continuous dedication to heal. Healing is an intentional practice comprised of always trying to make the next best choice.
Mindfulness is an intentional practice. It is the entry point to truly living. Being a numb zombie takes away so much from a person. True Love, for example, is not possible if a person is disconnected and unavailable. At first it may feel so wrong to exist in the present, but trust me you can work through this pain and arrive upon greener pastures. Over time as your brain intentionally flexes the brain regions associated with mindfulness, the easier tapping into this internal resource becomes. What I’ve personally learned is that mindfulness (as opposed to disconnection and dissociation) is difficult when first started – BUT totally worth every moment of struggle. Learning to be present (and not go numb) helped me start attuning, loving, and being there for my children. In addition truly connecting with others have made me the loving caring and nurturing person I want to be. My connections improved because I was in the moment, not lost within my biased whirlwind psyche – rather, I am now attuned to those I love. Because I have learned skills that help me be there for myself, I am now able to be there for other people.
Fears grow if not faced and addressed. Fear should be addressed when it is in its early stages, don’t let it fester and grow.
Facing reality helps you deal with reality, and this is why so many clinicians begin by helping clients learn to switch into this process/state of being. Mindfulness allows for an objective experience of reality. This helps a person make better, more clearheaded decisions that are rational, and more informed (as opposed to reactive and impulsive).
For instance if someone is in an experience that causes them anger, they can learn not to allow the anger to overwhelm and control them. By controlling your body through the use of the breath (the *longer *out breath) – in combination with a concerted conscious effort – a person can ground themselves in the present moment (you could even use a visual anchor). This way, you are in the drivers seat of your life outcomes. Their anger doesn’t cause them to fly into a fit of uncontrolled rage. The grounding and mindfulness helps a person not live in regret – for example mindful presence could help a person rationally slow themselves down when angered – and not send an angry email to a colleague. When I was working for NYS psychiatric facility, I learned to write drafts of emails when frustrated that no one but me ever saw. Mindfulness allows a person to make choices that are intentional and that objectively take into consideration all the evidence. When a person is so angry they are “seeing red” that individual is lost in a reactive state and person is not in the drivers seat – when lost in rage a person is self-focused, biased, and operating with limited information.
Would you prefer to be in a constant state of reacting? Or in a state of centered groundedness – with the capacity of measured control – working towards an objective, well-informed goal?
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