Lately I have been more and more aware of the need to include teachings, skills and exercises in mindful awareness when working with my health care clients. When people come to me wanting help with pain, losing weight, quitting smoking, managing stress or anything else, I’m becoming more acutely aware of how helpful it would be if each of those people could work on being more aware of the present moment more of the time. Staying more clear and aware of each moment decreases stress astronomically, and there are some health professionals that suggest that stress is the primary root cause for up to 80% of illness. When you are really enmeshed in the present, you are able to exist within yourself as you are, and realize that you are okay. It sounds impossible to some, especially when stresses and hardships of life are at the forefront of the mind the majority of the time. Learning mindful awareness skills means learning how to bring the mind back to focusing only on the present moment, and learning how to do that more and more regularly throughout the day. Being in the present moment means a clear focus, and an awareness of the body and mind simply as they exist. In fact, I am able to practice this as I type. Even though I am producing thoughts, and transferring them onto the screen, I am trying to practice focusing on only myself in this moment as I work on this task. What this adds up to is a feeling of immersed concentration and an appreciation of what you are doing- without any active worrying about the future, or ruminating about the past. This is the key: reducing worry about the future, or getting stuck in the past. Eckhart Tolle says “everything that has ever happened to you has happened in the now”, and I love this, I understand it, and I enjoy helping others come to that realization as well. What I mean when I say that it is the key to everything, is that every single thing in life becomes easier and more approachable, more pleasant, and more infused with gratitude when you learn to step right back into the now regularly. No matter what problem you are facing, you can assist your ability to perceive it and manage it by stopping throughout the day and scaling your thoughts back only to the moment you are in. If you can really settle into the sensation of your body wherever you are in space, and start with “I exist”, you can learn to take it from there. This requires practice and skill, and in today’s hectic pace I’m finding that very few people have these skills or have even contemplated that they are important, or lacking. Most people go through the tasks of their day disconnected from the body in the present, while the mind wanders and chatters, worrying about things, fabricating ideas of what may or may not happen, and so forth. The thing is that you don’t have to be a zen person, or knowledgeable in meditation or yoga or anything else in particular to begin to learn to practice mindful awareness. You just need to have a willingness to be open to changing and improving the way that you experience life. Mindful awareness, or present moment awareness skills are increased through many of the modalities that I use in my work such as hypnosis, meditation, Reiki, and dream work, but I have found that even in straight up physical therapy, and dealing with chronic pain, that mindful awareness practices are extremely beneficial for people. This topic is abstract and supported by different types of philosophical thinking, so I welcome your questions and comments here! Also, if you are interested in learning mindful awareness through my introduction to meditation series class which begins this Thursday evening, or are interested in any other approaches, contact me anytime. www.nikkisnature.com
Nikkis Nature 