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Brilliant! The solution that’s right under your nose. Literally.: The brilliance of Mindfulness

Just Breathe wall decal by innercircledesign*

Today’s brilliant! idea is to breathe. I know, you’re thinking I’ve gone all new age, woo-woo, bumper sticker (“Remember to breathe!”) but beyond the butterflies and dolphins there really is something in this one.

The particular approach to reconnecting with our breath I’m talking about is called mindfulness. It’s a pretty hot area at the moment with what seems to be every therapist and their cat is incorporating it into their practice.

I’ve recently started a book group centred around the mindfulness classic, Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and am gaining such a deep respect for the approach.

At its simplest, mindfulness is about moment to moment awareness. The breath is used as an anchor to focus the mind, and from their you can increase your field of awareness to include body sensations, sound, sight and thoughts.

One of the most significant changes I’ve experienced through mindfulness practice is being able to observe my thinking and not be so influenced by the emotional charge attached to certain thoughts. For example, a deadline is not the be-all and end-all of life. It is a signpost; life will go on after the passes, there will be more deadlines in the future. Anxiety, stress, worry disappears. Now I can go and be fully present in doing what I need to do (rather than a ball of frazzled energy).

The other great thing about Mindfulness is how it incorporates the body. We are such a body-obsessed culture and yet very few of us are truly connected with our bodies, able to feel where our emotions manifest or how to live fully in our bodies. As someone who lives most of my life in my head, Mindfulness is a breath of fresh air. [sorry, I am trying to keep the puns to a minimum]

There’s a scene in the classic Al Pacino film, Scarface, where the Pacino character, Tony Montana, is sharing his drug-lord words-of-wisdom to his young protege (who thinks that now he’s a big-time dealer he can spend his time chasing women):

First you get the money,

Then you get the power,

THEN you get the woman.

In a similar, and yet oh-so-different way, Mindfulness has three sequential elements:

First, you get to relax

Then you get the clarity

THEN you get the energy (channelled effectively and responsively in stressful situations)

In other words, by simply focusing on your breath you are able to handle whatever life throws at you.

And that’s Brilliant!

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