What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is consciously bringing the here and now into awareness. It is about catching our thought processes before reacting automatically. It is also about being aware of where emotions are being experienced in the body.
E-motions are energy in motion. They can either be expressed and released or suppressed. Due to the busy-ness of life we usually suppress them until they became so apparent that we are forced to STOP through pain, injury, sickness or disease.
Mindfulness is powerful, as once we become aware of thoughts or emotions we are then able to acknowledge them and change patterns. We are supposed to experience emotions as our body is constantly dying to rejuvenate itself. There is a programmed cell death called apoptosis that occurs naturally to allow regeneration and the continuation of life. In dying there is a grief cycle where we experience denial, anger, anxiety, depression and acceptance. In order to create and improve as leaders we must shed as the environment changes.
Grieving and being aware of emotions enables the movement through the grief cycle. With mindfulness we can be aware of the stages, honour and release emotions to move through quicker to then begin creating. It is the resistance to releasing emotions that keeps us stuck in “chaos” and out of “flow”.
Attached to emotions are beliefs. Beliefs are empowering or disempowering related to the emotion that is expressed. Beliefs are formulated as we grow up during childhood and continue throughout life. Thoughts and feelings are experienced from associated memories, connected to an identity or belief, which wire into a neuron net in the brain. The hypothalamus will assemble the peptide chemical and release it to the pituitary gland to release an emotion into the cells of the body. In practicing mindfulness and becoming aware of belief systems neuron nets begin to change as automatic patterns are interrupted. As neuron nets change, new peptide chemicals are formed which results in the release of empowering emotions or feel good emotions such as peace and joy.
Due to the cell death we must continue to express emotions so they can keep moving through with ease, that’s flow! This explains the importance of feeling sad as it then allows the understanding of feeling happy. We cannot have one without the other. The highs and lows in life become shorter as awareness increases and moving through the grief cycle fastens.
Some tips for releasing emotions are:
- Take a moment in your day to sit and reflect on what emotions you are experiencing, without judgement as all are equally important for creating. Acknowledge the feeling, where it sits in the body and then allow the emotion to move through or let go. Resistance will keep the emotion present. Takes practice to master! Deep breathing assists in releasing as it accesses the relaxation response (para sympathetic nervous system) in the body.
- Journal writing is a powerful tool to honour and express how you are feeling so emotions can be released and enable moving through the whole grief cycle in one sitting. It also allows underlying belief systems to surface bringing the subconscious mind to the conscious mind. This is when new neuron nets in the brain are formed as automatic patterns are interrupted.