An Honest Window into my Two-Week Mindfulness Experiment.

Mindful connection and sacred silence in the forest

Over the course of a two week period, I engaged mindfully through a process of vipassana style meditation, and documented my experiences in journals and reflected upon these in my regular meditation practise and “quiet time”.

For the past few years, I have made mindful living my main mission. In this case, this piece of writing has presented me with an opportunity to discuss my engagement into mindfulness through meditation, breathwork, visualisation and exercises that involved non-judgement over a course of two weeks. Because wandering unconsciously through life seems to be the default setting for many, mindfulness has really helped me reset when things get a little chaotic. It gives me a sense of meaning and purpose in a world that often overlooks emotions and feelings. It seems that we are mostly raised by unconscious parents, taught by unconscious people in an unconscious schooling system, and as a result we are not taught to recognise and validate our own emotions from a young age (Rubenstein, G. 2017). This appears to be the main reason people suffer so much, feeling trapped in their minds without the ability to drop into their feelings, and thus the heartspace.

My main practise of a vipassana style meditation process forms the foundation of mindfulness, which involved observing my thoughts as they arose and sitting with feelings and sensations without identifying with them, or letting them “take over”. I would find a quiet space and “sit with myself” and the challenging emotion for at least twenty minutes, engaging in a full body scan. This really helped reinforce the notion of being versus doing. Essentially, this ancient Buddhist practise helps alleviate suffering, so that one can learn to attune to themselves and others as a result of becoming better at “feeling” and dealing with emotions. Attunement, according to Hall, L. (2013) is how we focus our attention on others and take their essence into our own inner world. Furthermore, attunement is the ability to read the mood of others and appropriately respond to subtleties and emotional cues (Ash, J & Gallacher, L. 2015). Without being able to feel and attune, it is hard to empathise, and this is where mindfulness proves so effective as a daily practise.

Attunement, according to Hall, L. (2013) is how we focus our attention on others and take their essence into our own inner world. Furthermore, attunement is the ability to read the mood of others and appropriately respond to subtleties and emotional cues (Ash, J & Gallacher, L. 2015). Without being able to feel and attune, it is hard to empathise, and this is where mindfulness proves so effective as a daily practise.

I have made it a priority to bring as much meaning to each activity I engage in, and to be as mindful as possible. I can benefit by feeling totally present in the here and now rather than trying to run away from my responsibilities and commitments. Mindful walks in nature and connecting with trees really helped to ground me. According to Davis and Hayes (2011), mindfulness causes a rewiring of the brain through our repetition of positive thought patterns and encouragement of a healthier mindset, and helps to restructure the neural pathway as a result. Above all, mindfulness has been helping with my awareness and how safe I feel within the world.

I made a conscious decision to be unconditionally present with myself, noting that whenever difficult emotions arose for me, I did not abandon myself in the process. I honoured my feelings and validated them, without trying to change them or label any as “negative” or unwanted. Research by Marsha Linehan (2004, p.39) supports this idea of dropping judgement when engaging in mindfulness practise. Furthermore, this process of learning about my emotions helped me to regulate them effectively. As a result, I have been able to deepen my meditation practise by consistently bringing my awareness back to the breath whenever my thoughts begin to wander. This leads to increased acceptance over my situation, and the letting go of painful holding patterns such as addictions and other destructive behaviours.

I made a conscious decision to be unconditionally present with myself, noting that whenever difficult emotions arose for me, I did not abandon myself in the process. I honoured my feelings and validated them, without trying to change them or label any as “negative” or unwanted.

To overcome difficult situations, and negative behavioural patterns, one must be able to sit with themselves in silence.This is a very powerful technique to increase awareness and enable deep grounding. There is something so sacred about silence and just being, yet many humans find it so incredibly painful to just be with themselves - even if this is our natural state (Smith, P. 2013). I noticed my ability to sit with the silence - without feeling the need to fill the spaces - had improved considerably throughout my mindfulness practise. I managed to use silence in my own life coaching sessions, which proved to be very effective in helping hold my peer when experiencing difficult emotions. Furthermore, I am confident that the process of silence and just being with people has significantly improved my current relationships through my increased awareness.

This whole process was not without its challenges. Despite helping me ground and root myself into this reality, I did find myself giving in to old habits and addictions because this is the easy route. Through self-observation, I recognised that I am addicted to the feelings of relief that accompany these habits - and it is less about the actual act or substance. Through mindfulness practise, though, it did give me the awareness of knowing what to do each time I feel I am losing a sense of control over my vices and negative thoughts. I became the observer, and used visualisations to help change the narrative and really “live life from a higher self perspective' - which is embodying a more successful and competent version of my current self to raise my vibration in the here and now.

It feels good to be sharing with readers my personal exploration into the benefits of engaging with a mindfulness practise. I can conclude that mindfulness is a very positive thing to engage in, helping to still the mind, rewire the neural pathways and bring more peace and meaning to one’s life. It has provided me with a very grounding practise I can turn to in order to manage emotions and difficult situations. One which will certainly continue to influence my choices so that I can integrate these skills into my daily living to help improve my health and wellbeing.

If you would like to read in more depth about the process I use, you can find my blog entitled 'The Art of Being Alone: The gift of sitting with yourself and utilising sacred silence'. Link below:

https://www.willingspirits.co.uk/post/the-art-of-being-alone

Have a blessed day.

Reference List

Ash, J & Gallacher, L. (2015) Becoming attuned: Objects, affects and embodied methodology. In: Methodologies of Embodiment: Inscribing Bodies in Qualitative Research. Routledge Advances in Research Methods. pp. 69-85.Taylor & Francis, London.

Hall, L (2013), Mindful Coaching: How mindfulness can transform coaching practice. p.39, Kogan Page Press.

Hayes, D M & Hayes, J. A. (2011), What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness? A Practice Review of

Psychotherapy-Related Research, American Psychological Association, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp.198 –208.

Linehan, M (2004) Mindfulness and Acceptance: Expanding the Cognitive-behavioral Tradition. Hayes, C. (ed), p.39. The Guilford Press.

Rubenstein, G. (2017) Should Emotions Be Taught In Schools? https://ideas.ted.com/should-emotions-be-taught-in-schools/ [date accessed: 7.10.19]

Smith, P. (2013) The Power of Silence: Free Yourself from Painful Thoughts, https://tinybuddha.com/blog/power-of-silence-free-yourself-from-painful-thoughts/