You wake at 3am and your mind is racing. At the end of the day, you wonder where the time has gone. Yet again you react badly when something hasn’t gone the way you want it to. That inner, critical voice permeates your day-to-day life. You tend to live in the past, dwelling and ruminating…Does this sound like your experience?

How do we try to deal with difficulties in our lives? Often, by trying to suppress, avoid or push away negative thoughts, feelings and situations. But how successful has such a strategy been? Do you feel calm and able to cope with what live throws at you? Extensive research suggests that our desire to push away anything negative and cling to anything positive actually exacerbates our struggles and suffering.

A common misconception of mindfulness is that you will be in a constantly happy, blissful state, never experiencing negative thoughts or emotions. Mindfulness is actually the art of being with whatever you are experiencing in a curious, kind and non-judgemental way. When you are mindful, you can hold anger, sadness or stress and observe its ebb and flow, enabling you to take a step back and respond rather than react automatically to things. Mindfulness can open you up to the joys of everyday life that pass us by unnoticed in an unmindful state.
Being mindful primarily focuses on learning to live in the present moment, rather than worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. We all have the capacity to enhance our mindful awareness, but practice is required. As with physical muscle-building, we have to build up our mindfulness “muscle”.

To find out more, please visit the website www.mindfullifenorfolk.uk Read Elizabeth’s own mindfulness blogs also to learn more.