Shhh. Are you listening?
Are you listening?
If you’re reading this, your awareness is currently or partly at least, on this blog post.
Can you commit to yourself TODAY, to spend 3-5 minutes where you direct your awareness inward?
Close your eyes, tune-in, stop the mind chatter.
Turn off that active mind, just for 3-5 minutes. Set your phone timer if you must.
Sit upright, breathe through your nose focusing on the in-and-out motion coming deeply from the diaphragm. Or get outside in nature. Listen to her. Perhaps go to a park or a patch of green grass. Remove your shoes and get grounded.
Stretch. Move into postures that extend the spine and hips. Hint: get into postures opposite to what you do daily. Open up the chest. Get into a Yoga class. I am a huge fan…
I just read two papers where the title pretty much tells you what the research is on. The first:
1) van der Kolk, et al. Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled trial J Clin Psychiatry, 2014;75(6):e559-65
2) Carlson LE. et al. Mindfulness-based cancer recovery and supportive-expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to control in distressed breast cancer survivors. Cancer. 2014. Nov 3 doi 10.1002/cncr.29063
Telomeres are the “cap” on the ends of our genes that when shorten, directly impact aging. They can though be lengthened/repaired…
Speaking from my own experience, and I do not think I am alone, we tend to put aside the feedback from our body until it starts screaming. Case in point – working at the computer, mind busy on a task, needing to hit the bathroom. We hold and hold and hold until it can no longer be ignored…
The gift (through prayer, being in nature, turning off the active mind, breathing, yoga or whatever floats your boat) to ourselves is that inner connection. 3-5 minutes can recharge the batteries, reset priorities, increase productivity and ground us. In increasing our self-awareness we gain insights on so many levels.
Listen to Innate. what’s it tell you?
Your next step is?