Mindfulness is much more about your ability to notice, often thoughts, sensations and emotions, and your ability to be kind to them all.

1. THE MANY PATHS TOWARDS
A MINDFUL LIFE
KATHERINE WINLAW

2. MYTH ABOUT MINDFULNESS
Often when people at work first hear the term mindfulness, they
immediately think of someone sitting at a quiet retreat and
luxuriating in the peaceful surrounds of a sanctuary for possibly
hours on end.
And when asked if they want to give mindfulness a go at work
respond, “Oh I haven’t got time for that sort of navel gazing, I’m
too busy”.

3. BRING A MINDFUL APPROACH TO
ANYTHING
The amazing thing about mindfulness is, it doesn’t matter where
you are or what you’re doing, you can bring a mindful approach
to anything.
Mindfulness is much more about your ability to notice, often
thoughts, sensations and emotions, and your ability to be kind to
them all.

4. AS A FIRST TIMER..
As a first timer, mediation may cause thoughts such as “my brain won’t
shut up, so I can’t be mindful”, or “I feel completely restless and can’t
possibly sit still for 5 minutes”.
These are just thoughts and sensations and in no way an indication
that you can’t “do mindfulness”.
The act of mindfulness is in noticing what you are thinking and feeling,
being able to say “wow look what I am thinking how interesting”.
The next and often most important step is not to judge what you are
thinking or feeling as good or bad, but just acknowledge it, some say
give the thought a hug and let it pass through your mind.

5. JUST STOP RESISTING
The trick is as you resist the thoughts, sensations and emotions,
they grow.
As you stop resisting whatever thought, feeling or emotion
arises, they more often than not disappear or dissipate.
Understanding why this happens and why mindfulness is so
good for us all, requires an understanding of the brain.

6. AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE BRAIN
Our brains operate quickly to process information – every second
there are 20 million billion bits of information racing through our
brains. Scientists have proven it takes 13 milliseconds to see an
image.
While speed is good, sometimes it works against us, especially
when it comes to responding to others and events in our lives.

7. THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO..
Thousands of years ago the human brain was wired to fight,
flight, freeze or rest. In the face of stress and danger we quickly
fought, fled or froze.
The threats we faced were spaced far apart so there was plenty
of rest time in between one sabre-toothed cat and the next.

8. TODAY..
Today our brains are too often parked in overdrive and experience a
constant stream of threats, or stress. These can be anything from
being late to picking up the kids to making a presentation or dealing
with conflict at work. While these seem insignificant in comparison to
the sabre-toothed cat, our brains process them exactly the same. By
turning on our limbic system, we move into fight/flight/freeze mode
and the associated physical reactions take place. Prolonged situations
of stress eventually affect our immune systems and make us more
prone to illness, injury and disease.

9. GAIN CONTROL WITH MINDFULNESS
Practicing mindfulness helps you gain control of your thinking and
emotional patterns, which in turn enable your brain to calm down and
return to the resting state rather than the stress state.
As mentioned earlier you can make this happen anywhere and anytime.
The reason mindfulness programs are so useful is they help you learn
to train your brain to rest, a bit like going to the gym for the brain
muscles. Once you develop the mindfulness muscle, you can apply it
when you’re in the slow line at the grocery store, walking to a meeting
that you aren’t looking forward to, cooking dinner for hungry kids or
on the yoga mat when you can’t bend as far as you’d like.

10. HUG YOUR NEGATIVE THOUGHT
Next time a negative thought pops up, try noticing it, instead of
identifying with it.
Hug it and let it keep moving on.
If you can do that, then you just practiced mindfulness.

11. REMEMBER
Mindfulness is like Christina Feldman (2001) says
“neither difficult nor complex; remembering to be mindful is the
greatest challenge”.

12. KATHERINE WINLAW
Katherine Winlaw studied and practiced Transcendental meditation in
her early life and then lost touch with it as life got ‘too busy’. Years
later when she experienced adrenal fatigue she looked to the ancient
art of meditation for healing properties and completed a Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction course. A daily practice of mindfulness not only
helped restore her health but helped spark her interest in health and
wellness in the workplace. She introduced mindfulness into a corporate
leadership program for all staff. Her current research is examining the
impacts of mindful art therapy on professionals wellbeing.