Mindfulness ABC Simple Steps for Busy People with Louise Palmer, Founder of Camyoga
breathe > notice > be
This was the perfect way to start the day. Louise Palmer had a life of various roles with Yoga in the background and then as she grew Yoga took over becoming her main focus. She founded Camyoga and works with Transformational Breathing, Yoga Barre and Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is born from Buddhist tradition, it is the art of being present, accepting, none judgment and none attachment. John Kabbatt Zinn is referenced as the person who transformed this Buddhist practice into understandable digestible chunks for all to ingest in our modern world. Louise explained how we get stuck in a groove in our life and the longer we continue in that groove the further we become entrenched, we need intervention we need mindfulness to help us get out, we need to;
stop > observe > proceed
Otherwise we simply dig ourselves deeper and deeper into that very same groove. Just think about your daily routine, how blinkered are you when you are in this invisible daily groove? For example do you remember washing your face, were you actually present when you ate your breakfast, where was your mind when you were getting dressed, do you think you noticed your journey to work and how much of your day do you consciously experience? Do you often have knee jerk reactions taking everything personally? Mindful intervention can help you learn to pause before responding hastily and therefore you respond from a much calmer place and with interest to what has been said. Consider this situation; if someone says something to you about you that you don't like, rather than offering a knee jerk reaction, don't take it personally but pause and react calmly wondering why they have said that to you. We as a species project ourselves onto others, so what people are saying about you is actually about themselves and it works both ways of course so for example next time you give someone some advice, just notice that the advice you are giving is actually for yourself! Mind blowing isn't it, really makes you consider a new perspective.
Louise went on to highlight how we should set an intention each day, be it for short or long term achievement, it could be something we need to achieve or a behavior we wish to convey for example; today I will be kind in all my actions, I will listen to my bodies needs, I will forgive etc. This intention brings focus and can help reduce our 'should' lists that breed guilt within us and resentment of others. We were reminded that we live in a society where doing right brings praise, we forget it is absolutely fine to make mistakes yet interestingly the most common thread between highly successful people is that they openly admit they don't know everything and are not afraid to make mistakes, we do after all learn from our mistakes.
"You lose if you argue with reality, only 100% of the time"
(Byron Katie)
(Byron Katie)
Being mindful means you are living in the moment, not judging but experiencing the present moment. When we become judgmental we raise our emotions and expectations we enter into 'fight or flight', this is a primal state from our caveman days designed to protect us when feeling threatened/frightened, it gets us ready to flee, our resources become limited, our digestion shuts down and our adrenalin kicks into action as we prepare to defend ourselves or escape. This primal response is proven to be calmed by bringing your attention to your breath. When you are in a stressful situation or indeed know you are going to be entering one remember to breathe...its your saving grace, it is always with you from the moment you are born, it always brings you back to your true self, to calmness.
The really brilliant thing is that it takes seconds to breath and you can spare a few seconds or even minutes every single day. If you have been breathing shallow for some time taking full breaths can make you a little light headed, do not worry this is normal as your oxygen intake increases and the feeling will soon pass.
Breathing Techniques
These can be practiced sitting upright, lying or standing. It can help to guide your breath if you rest one hand below your naval and think about breathing in from your tail bone all the way up to your collar bones. Gently letting the breath go as you exhale. Your mind focuses on following the breath and counting the duration of each stage of the breath.
1 Breath Count
Inhale from tailbone upwards for 4 seconds > retain 4 seconds > exhale 4 seconds > breath 4 second
4 Breaths Counts
Inhale from tailbone upwards for 4 seconds > retain 4 seconds > exhale 4 seconds > breath 4 seconds
Repeat 4 times
Intervention Toolkit
To get you out of your groove and prevent being triggered into reaction
- single present focus; 1 thing at a time
- pure perception; none judgmental
- beginners mind; treat even repetitive things as if they are brand new
- mindful breath; imagine breathing from your tailbone upwards
- anchor your body in the present; ground through your feet/body with the ground/floor
- following your breath; counting silently as you follow your breath cycle
- 1 breath
When the phone rings, when the traffic lights are on red, before texting, before driving, before a meeting - 4 Breaths
When the alarm goes off and you hit snooze, before eating, before sleeping
Camyoga runs a ‘gold standard’ 8 week Mindfulness course, as developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It has been described as life-transforming by those who undertake it.
http://www.camyoga.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Camyoga
https://twitter.com/CamYogaStudio
https://www.youtube.com/user/CamyogaStudio
John Kabat-Zinn
Professor and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine. Developer of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Creator of Guided Mindfulness Meditation Practices
http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
http://www.mindfulnesscds.com/
https://twitter.com/JonKabatZinn
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiXin0FNEmFAcl_QEfrPBkA
Byron Katie
Author and speaker who encourages self inquiry through a system she calls 'The Work'.
http://www.thework.com/index.php
http://www.byronkatie.com/
https://twitter.com/ByronKatie
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheWorkofBK
Chad-Meng Tan
Author of 'Search Inside Yourself' a book which offers you a whistle stop tour of Mindfulness.
http://www.chademeng.com/meng_bio.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Inside-Yourself-Concentration-Self-Control/dp/0007467168/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1399978369&sr=8-2&keywords=book+search+inside+yourself+chade-meng+tan
