Happy Monday, Beautiful Souls!
Welcome back to Mind Reimagined, where we take a holistic view of our mental health and wellness through the arts, communication, and support. It's the start of a new week, so you know that's the opportunity for new goals, ideas, and a new mindset shift, and that is why I wanted to have the specific blog today. Often I see negative posts when it comes to Monday because we just came off a weekend of relaxation and fun, and now the workweek is starting. But I wanted to give you guys some mental training tips to begin to shift your mindset. So if that sounds like something that you need more of in your life, then keep reading.
To get better at something, we have to practice, and that includes better Mental Health. For instance, if we keep thinking negative thoughts, 9/10, our outlook on things outside of us will look gloomy. We begin to speak negatively, and it gets harder and harder to come out of that rabbit hole. So I wanted to leave a few tips below that will help jumpstart your mental training:
1.) Mindful breathing- our body continues to move because we are using our breath but have you ever really stopped to focus. Be aware of your breathing; inhale and exhale, it helps you have more awareness, a longer attention span, and calmness in mind and the body.
2.) Body scan- helps you direct your attention from just the mind to the rest of your body. Like our minds, we can become disconnected from our bodies. This allows us to pay attention to any physical discomfort that we're experiencing.
About a year ago, I started getting heavy into my mindfulness meditation practice. I'm telling you it has helped me tremendously, especially when handling grief and anxiety. So I wanted to share something called the stop practice with you guys, and this is for a time where you're having an anxious moment or in a depressed state, and you need to get back to the present moment pretty quickly. STOP is an acronym that stands for:
S- stop and just recognized any negative feelings that you have that are present.
T- taking a breath; this goes back to what I mentioned earlier about mindful breathing and focusing on your inhale and exhale and being aware of each breath.
O- observe what you're experiencing at the moment. What physical sensations are you feeling? Are you sweating, biting your nails, does your heart feel like it's about to pop out of your chest?
P- proceed with peace- think of something that would allow you to have peace at that moment. Do you need your go-to person, to take a walk, read a book, take a drive, whatever it is that would help you at that moment, do it!
By increasing mental training skills, you give yourself the ability to live a more conscious and peaceful lifestyle. You become more aware of what's going on around you and what you may need to cut off in the future so that it doesn't happen again.
I hope you all can implement these into daily life, and if you want any more tips, please don't hesitate to let me know.
This is the last blog of 2020!!! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Make sure to keep up to date with us on Facebook @mindreimagined. If you need any gifts for your loved ones during the holidays, check our shop page.
Have an excellent holiday, and go think GOOD thoughts.