As we have learned from day 1: Our thoughts have the power to change our lives. If we want a positive, uplifting, loving, healthy and happy life, we first need to adjust our thoughts accordingly. This is where we turn to mindfulness.
To keep it short and simply, practicing mindfulness is a great tool to declutter your mind, from everything that does not benefit you on your path. For a more visual example, let’s imagine a blue sky, covered by clouds. These clouds are your thoughts, emotions, habits, patterns etc., that cover your consciousness. These clouds have been created by your upbringing, your social environment, the things you learned from books etc.. If we now look at certain reactions towards people or situations, we maybe sometimes have a thought along the lines of: “Why did I just react that way? I wasn’t even that angry with this person”.
This was a typical thing that used to happen to me, when my brother would do something to annoy me. Even as a grown-up, I would fall into the same reactive behaviour I used to have as a kid. I had repeated this reaction so many times in the past, that I went into autopilot. Practicing Yoga and mindfulness helped me snap out of auto mode and to genuinely feel at peace with many things I used to react to.
The first step, like in an AA meeting, is to recognise, that there are clouds covering our “blue sky”.
EXERCISE: Take two pieces of paper. On one of them, you make a mark, every time you think something positive about yourself or others (i.e. when you look at yourself in the mirror and think to yourself: “damn, I look fly today!”). On a second sheet you will take note of all the unfavourable thoughts (i.e. “what an idiot, this guy is again late for work”). During lunchtime, I would like you to look at these two sheets and spot the difference. Try not to judge yourself (super important in mindfulness practice), but instead, acknowledge what is happening in your mind. A natural change will occur, with regular practice.
For the second half of the day, I would like you to transform the thoughts that do not benefit your life, into positive statements. For example, when you thought about the “delayed idiot”, say “stop” to yourself in your head, and readjust this thought into something more beneficial like: “he is late, but his input always adds great value to our projects and he always is the last to leave the office.” – I’m not saying you should let people disrespect you, so of course, if you feel the need to do so, you should speak to him about it. But the goal of this exercise is to minimise the attention you give to things that pull your energy down. We are gently going to start to readjust our thoughts.
This exercise will first show you some of the clouds that might have accumulated over the years. If you want to go a bit deeper into understanding yourself, it is even worth writing down the exact things you thought. This way, you can analyse the main focus of your thoughts in life: Do you think about physical appearances most or are your thoughts revolving around emotional topics? Are they loving or angry?
If you feel you need more time for this exercise, take it! This can be a real eyeopener and a great help to discover the topics that need most of your attention.