Can a 10 Minute Mindfulness Exercise Make a Difference?
As January takes hold and the dark nights and bad weather overwhelm us, it’s easy to end up feeling a bit low. It’s peak time for illness, divorce, and depression….sigh.
Which is why it could be an excellent time to try out a simple mindfulness exercise which could give you a huge mood boost!
I have written before about the many benefits of mindfulness (see Mindfulness and Stress). There is a growing body of bona fide research demonstrating how mindfulness can help with all sorts of stress and depression. In Your Happiness Audit there is a link to a book I highly recommend which will give you some of the sources of that research if you’d like to know more.
But reading about it is one thing, hearing it another, so I’m really pleased to share this BBC link with you for a ten minute mindfulness exercise that it very easy to do and may just become a good habit for 2012. It was part of a happiness challenge the BBC were promoting last year and it’s perfect to do in a spare ten minutes when sitting at your desk. I frequently recommend this to women when coaching and we do a modified version on my women’s courses. It’s not for everyone but if it works for you you’ve discovered a great resource for life!
Here is the link to BBC Happiness/Health/Mindfulness.
Why not try it for just one week and see how you get on? And please do share your experiences with us!
Photo Credit: Tosaporn Boonyarangkul
Your Friday Happiness Audit!
Happiness is very subjective and hard to define. What makes one person happy does not make everyone happy. But you probably know what makes you happy.
Unfortunately we’re not always good at recognising when we’re happy and living in that moment. We do seem to be quite good though, at remembering the less than fabby things and trotting them out in our heads, often. Which can give them a bigger place than they deserve in our memories.
Research on Depression
The *latest research on managing severe depression is quite clear. Dwelling on what is wrong makes you worse and reinforces the tendency towards more depression. Talking about what ails you makes it worse. Therapy which focusses on your problems, on what is wrong with your life, is unhelpful.
Happiness Tip
So here’s my tip for this week end. You know how to make yourself feel sad – think sad things. You know how to make yourself feel better, think happy things! It’s as complicatedly simple as that. Like everything you need to practise and retrain your brain from it’s habitual path of dwelling on what went wrong. As you finish up the week ask yourself:
How many good things have happened to me this week?
How many times have I smiled?
What makes me feel good?
Have a great time!
Want more? Take a look at Nostalgia Makes You Happy
*Check out ‘Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression‘ by Segal, Williams & Teasedale
Photo Credit: Cynthia Turek
Nostalgia Makes You Happy!
Have you ever thought about nostalgia as ‘mental time travel‘? That’s the rather delightful expression Fred Bryant, professor of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago, uses to describe having nostalgic thoughts. He says it increases feelings of well being if you can get in touch with good feelings from the past and bring those feelings into the present.
Editing
It doesn’t seem to matter, in terms of increasing our well being, if we edit those memories a little. It may be more about how it feels to think about those times, the sense of fulfilment, or love, and that could be quite different from what we felt originally.
Bank of Memories
Professor Bryant’s research into this topic has shown that we can increase our day to day happiness by practising a a deliberate kind of positive reminiscence, and savouring our memories. In fact, building a bank of memories to be drawn on at any time. And part of putting deposits into that memory bank is to be very aware of your feelings at the time you are experiencing them… living in the moment and being mindful when you are having good experiences.
Women and Men and Nostalgia
Says Professor Bryant:
“Men tend to reminisce about the past as a form of escapism, but women are better at drawing on past experiences to help them with a current dilemma.” We use our memories to remind us of our strengths and to think about how we have coped in previous situations. I use this technique often on my training courses for women
I’ve written about the happiness bank before so it’s great to see the research backs it up. What’s going into your happiness bank today?
Just Enjoy!
Today is my birthday. I was born in 1955 and today I am 55 years old. There seems a certain symmetry about those numbers.
Age has never bothered me and I have never lied about my age (except maybe in a pub once or twice….) OK, I have never pretended to be younger than I am!
I love the wisdom that comes with ageing. I think we should celebrate every passing year for the experience and wisdom it brings with it. And I will be doing just that, having a really joyful day with people I love.
And just to spread that joy, here is a link to one of the most uplifting videos I have seen recently. Please do watch it if you can spare 5 minutes. I guarantee it will make you smile. Dance and be happy! I will be!
Have a great day!
Tap Into Happiness
If you find yourself feeling a little low here’s an exercise you might want to try to make you feel HAPPIER.
Find a photo of yourself from a time when you were really happy.
Take a few moments to just sit and stare at it; immerse yourself in those happy memories. Try and allow all the sights, sounds, and scents from the occasion to flood in. Really take yourself back to the moment.
As you do this there are actually some physiological changes taking place which will be making you feel a little better.
Dwell in the moment a little longer, then pop the photo somewhere like your desk drawer or inside your diary. (I find the effect fades if I’m too profligate and look too often, but a peek now and again works wonders!)
The more observant among you may have noticed that the photo bears a resemblance to me. It was taken on my 50th birthday when I was surrounded by family and friends and having an amazing time. My brother took it and captioned it ‘pure joy’. He was right. Looking at it always makes me smile, and now I always wear a (toy) tiara on birthdays!
When was your last ‘pure joy’ moment!
