Someone once asked me, does mindfulness help insomnia? Well, yes it does …..
With the long days and warm evening sleeping can prove to be a difficult task for some.
Added to that could be extra ingredients such as anxiety, stress or worry. Sometimes our thoughts just keep churning over and over in our head.
So how do we stop them? The first port of call can be self hypnosis, we run regular self hypnosis workshops teaching you how to calm your mind and be kinder to yourself in general. However, not everyone can make these workshops so I’ve put together a little video showing you the real basics of how to train your mind to be quiet for a while.
It’s not difficult, in fact anyone can do it – with practice. It is a discipline and like any discipline you have to work at it but the more you practice the better you get at it.
As you can see from the video mindfulness is a very very easy thing to do, for about a minute. If you are anything like me then it can be a bit of a struggle to start with but the more you do it for then the easier it gets.
A very useful mental 1st aid kit (particularly for anxiety) is the 3 minute breathing space – and guess how long it takes …………………
First of all get yourself comfortable then close your eyes. With your eyes closed just begin to notice whatever you can notice ie how your feet feel on the floor, how you back feels, any noises inside or outside the room etc then with every out-breath just silently, mentally, say to yourself “Right now I’m aware of” and then complete the sentence to yourself. Do this for one minute…
Once you have completed that for roughly a minute begin to notice all the different physical sensations as you breathe in and out, the rise and fall of your chest, the difference in air temperature etc etc – do this for one minute.
Then finally go back to right now I’m aware of….. for one minute.
By the time you’ve finished this you should be feeling an awful lot calmer.
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