Apologies for the delay in getting out my newsletter this month, we have had some very sad news in my road at home. Our wonderful friend and neighbour Gill passed away on Thursday last week. In a year of having chemotherapy for leukaemia she very very rarely moaned about anything and was such a strong person throughout. I enjoyed my visits with her so much and considering what her body was going through she was always upbeat and a joy to be around. She even took time and energy to listen to and encourage me in this venture. I will miss her greatly, but I am happy she was part of my life.
With Gill’s strength of mind and character at the forefront of my mind, I thought it would be useful to share some tricks I use to live more in the moment and to slow things down. We live life at break neck speed most of the time and we miss so much of what is precious, so here are some of the things that can help, if you do them!
Breathing: This may sound a little obvious but breathing is essential to you living. If we stop breathing that’s it, it isn’t like water and food that we can do without for a little while. So it is important for all of us to breathe properly, not only to stay alive but for secondary reasons like the action of breathing massages our organs and keeps fluids moving around our bodies.
Have you ever noticed when you focus on your breathing that everything else seems to slow down? This really helps us focus our mind and so I would recommend closing your eyes once a day for 2 minutes and really focus on your breathing. Feel the rise and fall of your tummy and chest and notice how that feels (if your mind wanders, which does happen to everyone, just pull it back and focus on your breathing again). I guarantee you will feel different after only a short while.
Negative Thoughts: Thoughts can really change our day! It is a lot like in my first newsletter when I wrote about making better pictures in our minds, what we think about shapes how we view our day and the type of decisions we make.
Everyone has a little elf inside them that fires off negative thoughts throughout the day, the trick is to notice when this is happening and not get caught up with the thought. Don’t allow yourself to let the thought develop. I have found that sometimes it is helpful to say the word “stop” inside my head to stop the thought in its tracks. Often however the main issue is that we don’t notice when we are running with a whole heap of negative thoughts, so we need to be a little more conscious about what we are thinking about and challenge that process.
Thankful: Being thankful is a bit like the reverse of the negative thought patterns above; if we are constantly grateful for even the small things in our lives, we are thinking more about the things we want to experience than the things we don’t. I often say thank you if I am in the car and the lights change at the right moment, little things like that. This in turn puts us in a positive frame of mind (always good!) and also drives our subconscious mind towards producing more of what we were grateful for, as we are thinking about it. It may sounds a bit quirky but it does work. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
For more information about the therapies I offer or to book an appointment please call me on 07814 019180, emailwellbeing@familymcp.com or go to my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lorimcphersonwellbeing
Health and happiness
Lori