When Sonya and I agreed to produce an online eight-week program on the fundamentals of mindfulness, we had no idea just what a challenge this would present. Luckily, we had mindfulness to help! As you no doubt know, we have been collaborating for more than five years on various projects aimed at reducing suffering - including, and perhaps most significantly - for those who suffer in silence, alone.
Eight Weeks to Greater Emotional Stability: Your Mindful Journey is borne out of a desire to share knowledge gained - to a much wider audience and Sonya and I have worked incredibly hard to provide a science-based program that is easy to follow, requires minimal effort, creating maximum value, at an affordable price. If you join and want an accountability partner, we’ll even offer a two-for-one bonus to help you along the way. I will provide guidance and support throughout as a mindful practitioner and counsellor, and Sonya will support any technical and resource needs. The commitment for you, having invested in yourself, is just minutes a day. Are you worth that? Obviously!
Why Mindfulness is for Us All
All of us experience, and know of others, who suffer psychological turbulence at some stage in life; for most of us, this will be on numerous occasions. We all have different reactions and responses to the challenges life presents, due to our beliefs, values, and perceptions. These beliefs and perceptions - formulated in the first decade of our life - have become embedded in our psyche as ‘who we are’ today - our ego, or persona.
Are you defined by your past, today?
Whether you suffer intermittently from the symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, or are just curious about why you do what you do, this program is a commitment to yourself of opening up to new possibilities; a new canvas on which to create a life that is based on here, now, the present moment which is all we have, our true reality. We are not our thoughts, we are not defined by our past - though we unconsciously act on old scripts as if we are.
To get out, you have to go in!
Because of our current beliefs, and the way we operate, we often feel disempowered and choice-less. However, if we ‘wake up’ to the present moment, time after time, we can see new perspectives and fresh options - being, in fact, fully empowered! But first, we must slow our minds, become aware of our thoughts – and decide ‘if’ we should act on what we ‘hear’. We must go inside.
What if it’s not what is external to us that defines how happy we can be.
Most of us, left unchecked, try to scratch our emotional itches by way of obtaining positions (ie job title, social role), possessions (ie house, car, material objects), or via our relationships. None of these things are where true and sustainable happiness or contentedness is to be found. (Sorry!)
That said, these are all things that can inspire us and can be what we aspire for. But here’s the difference. Living a life, as I once did, of it’ll be alright ‘when’, is a life lost. Instant gratification attempts… always become temporary events, leading to temporary emotions of happiness and satisfaction. So, if I choose to define my life and happiness by external influences, such as those examples above, then I will always be found ‘wanting’.
The Power of Now!
Observe young children at play. They can be seen to be in that moment; they are in that moment – playing and doing what they are wanting to do. But with age, we get to run on autopilot; we know how to do so much without a conscious thought which is helpful for conservation and efficiency of the mind. However, if the free space we create is then filled with worries of the future (a non-reality here now), or regrets and pains of the past, then we find ourselves in places over which we have little influence over, which other than acceptance, even if for now, then we are effectively ‘asleep’; sleepwalking our way through each day from the moment we wake, to the point we arrive at our bed.
It’s not just the mind that benefits!
In relearning, how to be more present - less of a human ‘doing’ and more of a human ‘being’ - we get to reduce the stressors on our physiology which is good! As our current perspectives shift into more realistic and appropriate observations of whatever it is that is going on for us and around us, we relax more. Our autoimmune and digestive systems are left to do their vital work, uninterrupted by false emotions arising from incorrect perceptions. There is little reality in perceptions of the mind, they are just ideas and beliefs!
Relationships, sleep, and performance.
Once we return to a more balanced world view, and our ‘stress’ systems reset, we become happier and more accepting of ourselves, and that which occurs. We can once again become more engaging in all our relationships. Our work, and performance at work, becomes more focused now that we have greater concentration for doing what we’re supposed to be doing. At the end of the day, we can feel and think less frazzled, be ready for sleep, unconcerned about what is to arrive the next day.
Bob Brotchie is a British Counsellor providing private services to clients in the privacy and comfort of a truly welcoming environment at his Anglia Counselling Ltd company office, located near Newmarket in Suffolk (GB). Bob also provides professional online counselling, for international clients around the world.
The therapeutic models offered, are bespoke to the client’s needs (not his) whilst integrating a Mindful approach to Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) principles.
For clients experiencing trauma and/or phobia, Bob now offers the Rewind Technique which is a rapid process that provides rapid results without re-traumatising the individual.
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