Category: The Spirit

MINIMAL EFFECTIVE DOSES that will keep you healthy and happy

1. Movement

2. Nutrition

3. Mindfulness

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MINDFULNESS

1. ’Super’ Mindful Breath
2. Identify Your Emotion
3. Check-In With Your Future Self
4. Smile, Move, Talk or Try Something New

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The term Mindfulness is thrown around a lot these days, but what does mindfulness even mean?

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In defining something it is often helpful to define what it is not:

• Mindfulness is not judgement
• Mindfulness is not attachment
• Mindfulness is not an escape from reality

Now let’s look at what it is:

• Mindfulness is paying attention
• Mindfulness is learning
• Mindfulness is observing the ‘present’ / current reality

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Before we go into how mindfulness can help us cope with stress, it is important to understand that a ‘mindfulness practice’ is simply a habit of paying attention, learning from and being aware of the present moment –  and then responding appropriately.

That being said, we believe it ‘appropriate’ to equip you with some information on Habit Formation….

Ever heard of that it takes 21 days to form a habit?

Unfortunately, this statement is not exactly true… In general people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can do in 5 years.

In fact, this research states that it ranges between 18 and 254  days to form a habit!

(depending on one’s motivation / how much you enjoy the habit you are trying to form)

An expert in motivation and habit formation, James Clear, sites this research in one of his articles. He states that it actually takes about 66 days to form a new habit.

 

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Now let’s get back to the topic at hand = ‘How To Deal With Stress In The Moment’

I.E. How to use Mindfulness as a tool to cope with stress!

Here are 4 tricks, or ‘minimal effective doses’ of mindfulness that you can use when faced with a stressful situation.

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• ’Super’ Mindful Breath

 

1. 1. • Just 1 breath, in and out – but do it like you really mean it. Momentarily distracting yourself from the stress at hand by focusing on this single breath not only feels good, but reduces anxiety in the brain because the human brain can only focus on one thing at a time! *, *, *.

 

• Identify Your Emotion

 

1. 1. • Name which emotion you are currently experiencing. Simply saying to yourself ‘I am Angry,’ when you are upset will help you catch yourself from doing something you might otherwise regret. * Furthermore, doing so has proven to increase the density of grey matter in your brain! *, *.

 

• Check-In With Your Future Self

 

1. 1. • If you know your angry, and stressed, and maybe a little hungry – a good practice before making any decisions is to take a second and think how you will look back on this decision in 5 minutes, 5 days and in 5 years. Will you still have the same conviction you do now?

 

• Smile, Move, Talk or Try Something New

 

1. • If you are feeling anxious and don’t have to interact with your stress face to face ‘right now’ – doing something as simple as going for a walk, or whiching to a task that you know you enjoy, will help reduce stressful feelings. Smiling and raising your gaze (not your head) up to the ceiling will release endorphins and boost your mood. Talking to a friend helps put things into perspective by getting you out of a self-induced negative feedback loop. Novel experiences have a similar effect as #1 – i.e. distracting you from your current mental state.

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One final note:

Don’t Expect It To Work Every Time!

• • Don’t expect mindfulness to be a cure for your stress. Conditions are never really right for being in the present moment. You can be the most mindful person in the world and still act out. You can practice conscious breathing all day and still feel negative emotions. Mindfulness and meditation should be done for their own sake and not for their results. In the long run it has proven to improve longevity and quality of life, but until then – practice makes perfect.

 

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Do you think it will be hard to implement this stuff?

If you feel daunted by this information – then let’s set up a consultation,  and we will help you figure out how to implement this stuff into your schedule.

Remember this for whatever habit you want to start (i.e. any New Year resolutions).

All Habits have a 3 part cycle:

1. Reminder / trigger
2. Routine / the habit of choice
3. Reward / every new habit requires a reward for it to stick

Up to 40% of our daily activities are done habitually. They are context dependent and often occur at the level of our subconscious – that is, we don’t even realize it is a habit!

If you want to understand more about habits and how they affect our daily life check out this book by Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit

• Here is an interview with the author.

If you want some help in beginning your mindfulness practice feel free to contact Martin or Tyler any time, or follow the steps laid out from the link below:

5 steps 2 Making Meditation a Habit

1. Schedule it
2. Dedicated a space to it
3. Keep it simple (just breathe)

• Calms and clarifies / creates base-line / super easy

1. Keep it short (with 60 seconds)

• Or even just a single (super) mindful breath!

1. Bring your seated practice into your daily life

• Walking / Driving / Eating etc…

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Martin Colangelo : “The Better Movement Specialist”

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