by Sarah Monk | March, 2022 | Mindfulness, Sarah Monk
Introduction Mindfulness and meditation are two of the most prolific terms in Positive Psychology and often the most misunderstood. I have not written a blog specifically on this topic since my very first one in 2017, so I thought it was time to revisit the mindfulness movement. I hope to clarify what we mean by mindfulness and meditation, the broad different types of these approaches, their varying benefits and what to think about if you are planning to engage with these practices. Mindfulness Vs Meditation First of all, mindfulness and meditation are not the same thing. Helpfully, there is also a lack of agreement on the precise definitions. These are mine, based on the literature consensus and my own experience. I have been personally engaged in these approaches for seven years. This makes me a novice by many standards. I’m always happy to be challenged and educated by those with greater expertise. Mindfulness Mindfulness is intentionally noticing what is going on right here, right now from an observational and non-judgemental perspective. This can refer to paying attention to our external world, but more commonly means our internal world of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. This means being aware, as an observer, of what is occurring in our mind, body or environment without getting caught up with or carried away by what we perceive. It does not mean having an empty mind but awareness of what is happening there. A quietened mind can be a side effect of practising mindfulness, as you develop the ability to step back from your thoughts and feelings and let them come and...
by Pinky Jangra | June, 2021 | Mindfulness, Pinky Jangra
The ever more connected, fast-developing digital world brings us so many opportunities. We can connect with, speak to and work with people thousands of miles away. Having information at our fingertips allows us to learn new things, often for free, on almost any topic in existence. We can know what’s going on across the globe at any time, we’re more informed than we’ve ever been. We can create our own social media profiles, websites and digital tools which allow us to express, share and contribute to this vast cloud of information. In many ways, it’s amazing and expansive. As with most things, there are also downsides. Information overload One of the downsides to this heavily digital era is information overload. There are many social media platforms with endless newsfeeds filling our brain with content. Our list of Zoom calls and notifications never seems to end. Whether we’re watching a cat video or having a video chat, reading a Twitter thread or checking WhatsApp, listening to a podcast or watching a movie, reading the news or looking at pictures – it’s like a tidal wave of digitalised information going into our head day in day out. We’ve gone from living in small tribes to small communities to cities, to being globally connected. We’ve gone from knowing information about a neighbouring tribe to a neighbouring community, to a neighbouring city, to any country on the planet. The wider our network of information, the more mental noise we experience. Just like overloading an electrical circuit can blow an appliance, does overloading our minds blow our brains?! I think it might. In amongst...
by Inge Beckers | March, 2020 | Inge Beckers, Mindfulness
Mindfulness seems to be the latest buzzword, not only online or in lifestyle magazines, but also in the business environment. This is good news because now more people get to know the concept of mindfulness. But it is also dangerous because misconceptions are being spread about the subject, often because people do not delve into the real meaning of it and make assumptions, which are sometimes only partially true. What is it? To understand what mindfulness is, it is important to know what it is not. Mindfulness is not about sitting in the lotus position. Yes, some people might do that, but there is no subscribed ideal meditation position. You can do mindfulness everywhere in whatever position you want, sitting down, lying down, even when walking. Mindfulness is also not ‘thinking about nothing’. It is about learning to maintain your focus and stay in the here and now. You can choose to put all your attention just on one thing, for example your breathing or you can choose to let all the environmental stimuli in. It is up to you. Mindfulness is also not about religion. Although Buddhist monks have used mindfulness exercises as forms of meditation as a way of reaching enlightenment, you don’t have to be religious, nor a Buddhist to practice it. In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn created the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program which was stripped of all religious undertones. His goal was to help counter stress and chronic pain. Since then a lot of programs were created to be used in venues ranging from schools and hospitals to sports teams. We live in a complex...
by Lisa Jones | October, 2019 | Education, Happiness, Health, Lisa Jones, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology
What am I good for? I recently attended the International Meaning Conference (IMeC) in London (July 2019), which held many inspiring talks by inspiring people. It led me to reflect on the journey of positive psychology and how it has come a long way from being all about finding happiness to a place that also values having a meaningful life. This blog reflects on a statement, inspired by Viktor Frankl, which is: Ask not ‘what makes me feel good?’ instead ask ‘what am I good for?’ Origins of positive psychology Most people with an interest in positive psychology will be aware that the seeds were planted by the thought that we should be studying the outliers of data that seemed to buck the trend of what most people experienced in life. These outliers were individuals who, despite difficulties and challenges, still flourished and thrived. Usually psychologists would ignore these oddities (they upset their charts!), but in the late 1990s Seligman, Peterson and Csikszentmihalyi decided to explore them further. What makes me feel good? Most of the researchers under the umbrella field of positive psychology wanted to understand what made people happy and satisfied in life. This was important to create better well-being in society. However over time this first wave of positive psychology was challenged by researchers and critics who thought this was far too superficial and limited. Many studies began to emerge that demonstrated that chasing happiness as a means to an end in itself led to more unhappiness. It seemed that happiness was always out of reach, like the end of a rainbow. Positive psychology had attracted...
by Emma Willmer | April, 2019 | Mindfulness
I often find myself in a state of what I call ‘forgetting to live’ and wasting my time away thinking about what I want from life, what I need to tackle and other life worries. I know this is a habit I’ve had since I was a child and every now and then I’ve tried to change it, never breaking free and always falling back into the trap of thinking this way. Frustration It frustrates me every single time I catch myself inside my own head instead of looking up at what’s around me. Over the past few months I’ve attempted to increase my focus on a gratitude practice in an effort to break free of my unwanted habit. I started daily gratitude journaling for a while in the new year and really enjoyed the act of writing down my appreciation of things during the day. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long due to suffering some increased pain from a herniated disc injury last summer which combined with some house selling stress resulted in my gratitude journaling falling by the way side. Second Attempt After my back pain settled down again, I attempted gratitude journaling a second time, but tiredness from starting a new job again meant I didn’t even achieve my normal daily journaling let alone any added gratitude journaling. So, yet again my attempt at gratitude journaling fell by the way side. Today as I sit here writing this I am now in a place where I’ve suddenly realised, I have been ’forgetting to live’ once more and it’s so frustrating. Meditation In considering what else I can...
by Helen Golstein | April, 2019 | Mindfulness
Setting the Scene I feel the need to mention here that I have experienced very little actual silence in my life. By the time I was born, there was already a big brother, followed by 2 more siblings, I then married and have had 4 wonderful children, now blessed with a grandchild… a busy working life, wonderful friends, colleagues and a thirst for learning, reading, watching TV and, more latterly, developed a not very healthy relationship with technology. And of course, all my school reports had a line in that said “Helen would learn more if she stopped talking and concentrated.” Most people who know me would at least recognise the label of chatter box…When I shared that I was going on a 5-day silent retreat they looked at me as if I had lost the plot. The Push and Pull When reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert some years ago, I was drawn to her experience of arriving in an Ashram and finding herself in silence for quite a long time. There was something about her writing that resonated with me so strongly that the pull to explore being in silence nudged away at me over the years. At the same time, the thought of silence terrified me. I recognise that we often live with the push and pull of yearning for something, while at the same, being wary and scared of it. My self-compassion practice is teaching me to recognise, and respond with kindness, to the presence of both desire and fear, allowing the existence of both. Why? I had noticed that since my mother’s death...