How to use mindfulness to overcome stress? Countries in the East practice mindfulness. It has strong ties to Buddhism and Hinduism as well.
How to Use Mindfulness to Overcome Stress?
Mindfulness is Power – Part 1
Self-awareness is gained through mindfulness.
A lot of spiritual disciplines teach the practice of mindfulness because it helps to settle down the mind and get the person in touch with their own thoughts and emotions.
Mindfulness, as it relates to stress management, is useful in adjusting a person’s patterns of thought and mindset. It pushes the importance of conscious thinking in every situation. Far too often, we spend a good part of our existence walking around in autopilot mode because we don’t want to expend the time or energy to thoughtfully consider things.
Yet, what we save in time and energy, we end up sacrificing our own peace of mind. Living in autopilot mode can give way to some degree of chaos, which in turn can result in chronic stress.
What is so stressful about being on autopilot?
Here is a good illustration to answer that question. Normally when a telemarketer calls, the average person becomes annoyed. When you’re on autopilot, your standard response would be to disregard what the telemarketer has to say. You will feel as though your time has been wasted because of this phone call from someone you don’t know.
As common as this situation and its subsequent response are, it doesn’t mean that it is a productive response. Just the opposite. You are allowing the “stress” of getting angry because someone infringed upon your time, to infiltrate and affect you.
It is important to walk in the opposite direction of this negative path so that you can maintain a sense of calmness and self-awareness whenever you’re faced with stressful situations.
Walking the Mindfulness Path
Developing mindfulness in your life is as simple as following the guidelines below. Of course, while it may be simple, it’s not easy – but it is well worth it. You will find yourself gleaning benefits and rewards of your efforts sooner than you think.
Move Inward – It is so easy to become overwhelmed by our responsibilities and obligations of this life. We can become so preoccupied with what’s going on outside that we fail to take notice of what’s happening on the inside.
Your inner life
Because we are so focused on what’s happening on the outside, our inner life can whither due to our lack of attention. There happens a lack of balance between our emotions and thoughts. The result of this is exhaustion, anger, and frustration.
Learn how to restore the balance on the inside and learn to be comfortable in your inner life. Become more aware of your feelings and thoughts. When you are in tune with what’s happening on the inside, you will be better equipped to effectively and calmly handle anything that’s happening on the outside.
Developing Hyper-Focus – When you are plagued by tons of racing thoughts through your head and distractions in front of you, you need something that is going to effectively keep your mind in one place for a length of time. That tool is called hyper-focus.
Artists, writers, painters, and other creative types usually have a natural tendency towards being hyper-focused.
How do you know when you have achieved hyper-focus? Your mind will become laser-focused on the thing that you are working on. Distractions will not affect you, racing thoughts will not even be a factor. You will be able to enjoy unwavering focus and it will allow you to complete the task in front of you, as well as the tasks to follow with a sense of efficiency and relative ease.
Hyper-focus is regularly utilized in the Eastern religion of Buddhism. It is used in tandem with meditation to elevate positive effects. You can use the same technique to help you virtually eradicate any distractions so you can be more productive and efficient.
Practice Constant Self-Awareness – Mindfulness is a skill that you have to practice in order to become more efficient. The more you practice mindfulness, the more certain emotions and thought patterns will surface. Through the practice of mindfulness, you will be open to recoup awareness of yourself, so you can learn to be more in control during stressful times.
Focus on the Moment – Focusing on the moment is probably one of the most difficult things you will ever have to master. Just as its name suggests, it requires you to focus all your thoughts and attention on what’s happening right now. Eastern spirituality calls this “being in the moment.” Western understanding calls it “self-hypnosis.”
Whether you are aware of it or not, you are able to hypnotize yourself all the time. Whenever you read a good book, hours and hours can pass by and you never feel it. Writers, artists, and painters can work on their craft for the entire day and seemingly never get hungry or feel the need to rest.
This is an opportunity to use hyper-focus as an avenue to the practice of being in the moment. It is a tough discipline in this day and age because we pride ourselves on being multi-taskers. Yet, not everyone is naturally inclined to multi-tasking.
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Our brains can only naturally focus on one thing at a time, according to scientists. When we attempt to multi-task, our brains “light up like Christmas lights.” But because the brain can only activate certain regions for each specific task, some of the regions are not able to “light up” or be active all at the same time, because there’s not enough power to go around.
