Join us for our online mindfulness group // Tues 31st March, 7-8pm AEDT // Guest facilitator: Smiling Mind

Crew this one has absolutely whipped by, we're not far from our wind-down! The last discussion point ties into the notion of our thoughts as we've mentioned a lot throughout..

What was the most noticeable change in you, in pressing pause on the external world for those ten minutes?

@Shaz51 @Windflowers @SmilingMind @DrZoidberg @Snowie @Former-Member

Spot on @Shaz51 it does take practice, practice, practice! As well as patience and self-kindness!

So great to read all of your comments and reflections everyone! I wish was able to respond to you all!

Here are my thoughts on the final discussion point.

Mindfulness practice helps bring our minds and body together and connect to what is happening in this moment right now. This helps deactivate the stress response in the body making us feel calmer which in turn helps us think more clearly, access a broader perspective and make better decisions. We’re also more open and receptive when we’re calm which makes it easier to connect well with other people.

Pressing pause and connecting to what is happening right now, gives us the chance to unhook from unhelpful thoughts that might be swirling around and around; and to notice what is going on physically and emotionally and take supportive action as needed.

Mindfulness provides us with a way of cultivating greater and more objective awareness of our own thoughts, emotions and behaviours, as well as what’s going on around us. It helps create a space between our automatic reactions and the actions we take. One of my favourite quotes about this comes from Victor Frankl who wrote ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. He said: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

"Pressing pause and connecting to what is happening right now, gives us the chance to unhook from unhelpful thoughts that might be swirling around and around; and to notice what is going on physically and emotionally and take supportive action as needed."

Oh wow @SmilingMind, what a great sentiment for everything we're up against right now as a society - I love this, thank you.

As a few of you have commented it takes practice to build our mindfulness muscle. Just as with exercise it can be challenging and frustrating at first but with practice, patience and self-kindness, it gets easier the more we do it.

I try to be non-judgemental @SmilingMind but find I am probably harder on myself then external people. But I think we are naturally harder on oursleves then others.

I will try to remember those 3 steps.

I use smiling mind app. quite a bit already and find it does help me.

@Former-Memberthe most noticeable change in me was that I was able to slow down my breathing and my heart rate for that time.

@Windflowers Have you tried the smiling mind app? I downloaded it yesterday! A lot on there 🙂 @Snowie glad to hear you're already using the app, and yes you are right, we are naturally pretty rough on ourselves as humans. We need to turn some of the kindness we're constantly giving to others inward, so easy to forget to do this day to day