Mindfulness and Stress

Note to self – do more nothing! A resolution you just might keep…

The art (skill?) of meditation has been around for centuries; I was taught about it’s benefits during my professional training, and when I first worked in a pyschiatric hospitals over 27 years ago it was being used as something helpful with patients. I have also been lucky enough to work with several Buddhists and be taught some of the techniques by them to cope with a very stressful job. At one point we had a regular lunchtime meditation group going which was much more ‘nourishing’ than a trip to the hospital canteen!

Research and Mindfulness

One of the most recent studies on the correct use of mindfulness techniques and meditation has found that it reduces the recurrence of acute depression by up to 50%. That is pretty large claim but NICE (National Institute for Health & Clinical Evidence, a UK organisation which recommends treatments to the NHS) has advised GPs to ‘prescribe’ it and they don’t do that lightly. It can help with all sorts of things, like hypertension and chronic pain.

What is Mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, is one of the founders of the mindfulness research movement. He defined mindfulness as:

“paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally”.

Other definitions include:

• an open and receptive attention to and awareness of what is occurring in the present moment

• an awareness that arises through intentionally attending in an open, accepting, and discerning way to whatever is arising in the present moment

• an attention that is receptive to the whole field of awareness and remains in an open state so that it can be directed to currently experienced sensations, thoughts, emotions, and memories

• stated simply, waking up from a life-on-automatic pilot

Do Nothing

Perhaps, at this point in the New Year rushing around filling your head with resolutions and a huge to do list is not the best thing you can be doing for yourself. Maybe you need to learn to do nothing. To simply just be for a while. There is an article here which will get you started on mindful mediation, but if you simply just sit up well, not slumped,  close your eyes and focus on your breathing, and notice what is going on in your head for 5 minutes, you will be making a beginning.

And like anything worth having, it requires practise. If you can find 10 minutes every day for a week to try it out you should see some benefits. Go, on, do nothing!

If you meditate regularly I’d love to know what benefits it brings you!

Doing Nothing Can Be Good For You

“To Do Nothing Is Sometimes a Good Remedy” Hippocrates.

Despite the fact that the changing people web site is crammed full of information and ideas which usually involve doing something, today I’d like you to think about not doing anything!

How easy do you find it to do nothing? In my experience women often find it hard. I don’t just mean collapsing into an armchair with a steaming mug of tea and relaxing (although that’s a good ploy!) Rather I mean, actually not taking action, not rushing in to solve a problem, standing back and seeing if things resolve themselves without intervention.

Mothers and Children

If you have children you will know that sometimes you have to stand back and let them do their own thing, otherwise they don’t learn to stand on their own two feet (literally!). And you will know that it’s hard to stand back, especially when you care about someone. All our instincts are to rush in and rescue and sometimes that is exactly the right thing to do. But sometimes it isn’t.

Adults are no different. Sometimes we have to flounder around in the unknowing for a while to get to where we want to be. And we may have to do that without knowing where that end result is. Einstein spent hours upon hours staring out of the window doing nothing (well, he was thinking) but when he did do something it was great!

Do Nothing Today

Try it out today. If you are normally a person who rushes in to assist, try standing back a little (in an appropriate situation!).

And if you are someone who likes to plan her day to the max, always busy, try not doing that. Put a do nothing space in your diary. Experiment with allowing your day to unfold.

Try to leave a space of nothingness and see what happens.

Take Your Time

I was recently coaching someone who had an issue she wanted resolving-fast! But actually the issue was not something that could be quickly resolved and my advice to her was ‘stop putting pressure on yourself to solve this’.

The pace of life today sometimes lulls us into the idea that everything can be done quickly and that there must be an answer.

Many of the problems to do with our lives have taken time to develop and the quick and easy answer is often only transitory and ultimately unhelpful. And some things we experience are part of the human condition. You cannot short cut grief, for example, and a loss of any kind produces a grief reaction in us. And we need to honour that time before rushing to fix ourselves.

So my advice to you today, if you are facing a difficult problem, is to let yourself off the hook for a while. You cannot be happy all the time and you cannot know the answers all the time (yes, even coaches, maybe especially coaches!). Sometimes the best and most restorative thing you can do for yourself is to accept what is happening and give yourself space to simply accept it, before you try to move on.

And you will be all the wiser for it.

Do Nothing!

Here’s an idea – do nothing! Yes, really. Sometimes the best thing we can do about a problem is to do nothing at all.

You may well have been told to ‘sleep on it’ by parents, friends etc and they are right. Haven’t you noticed how really good ideas seem to ‘just come to you’ in the moments before you drift off to sleep? Or the answer to a question that has been niggling you all day just suddenly comes to you? For example, ‘What was the name of that actor in that film, the name of which I can’t quite remember!’

Visualisation

The technique of visualisation also allows us to tap into our subconscious to find solutions and improve our performance. Sportsmen have been doing it for years. Good coaches will give their student an instruction like ‘Now close your eyes and see the golf ball soaring down the fairway and landing perfectly on the green’. They do this because it’s like a mental rehearsal.

If you get really good at relaxation and visualisation you can actually bring the body to that state of relaxation we reach just before sleep. You become very relaxed allowing your subconscious space to work, yet you are still mentally alert.

The reverse also works, so an unsporting player might point out all the potential obstacles: “Watch out for that particularly nasty bit of road on your run, everyone comes a cropper there” The person immediately starts to see themselves falling or tripping at that point giving their competitors a distinct advantage!

Relax

I use the techniques of relaxation in my seminars and books because it works.  In ‘When Work isn’t Working’ I have written one specifically to help readers tap into what they really want from a career, with a visualisation of your perfect day at work.

So if you find yourself stuck for an idea, stop trying. Allow yourself to relax, do nothing, but simply sit and stare for a while! Even Albert Einstein claimed he didn’t really have any special talent at all, other than the ability to visualise so you will be in good company.