Thoughts are not FACTS!

Thoughts, feelings and emotions are PASSING mental and sensory events. Although incredibly powerful and impactful, thoughts are not fact! The problem is that we are hard wired to go down rabbit warrens of negative thinking, our brains cleverly replaying old data that matches our current mood and drags us further down into unconscious behaviours and emotional states. Without conscious awareness we can find ourselves completely lost, trying to think our way out of the hole. Neuroscience is showing us that thinking our way out of 'unpleasant' emotions and states is not the best way at all! In many cases we turn a fleeting and passing sensation (one we resist and reject) into an overwhelming problem to solve, resulting in a series of mostly self sabotaging questions around the well known theme 'self worth'! . We ALL do it: it's the nature of living as a human being! Except there isn't much 'being' going on, we might as well have been called "human doings!" The great news is we really do have the power to change this - every single one of us. When we learn how to bring awareness into play and notice how we are thinking we suddenly have a CHOICE. There are probably a handful of people throughout time who can or have achieved states of complete 'thoughtlessness' (and I don't mean they were inconsiderate) and this is an amazing achievement. But this is not the purpose or the goal for the majority of us as we live our daily lives. A lot of people think that meditation and mindfulness is something they can't do because they believe they have to be free of thoughts. But this is NOT the purpose of mindfulness practices; awareness is all encompassing, embracing and non judgemental. It means to simply notice, allow and make room for WHAT IS, without judgement and with openness and kind curiosity. It's the ability to become more aware and conscious of when we are spiralling into mental chatter and choose to stay present and switch off 'rumination mode'. When we start to introduce mindful moments into our daily experience, we very quickly see how unhelpful our 'story' can be, and with a new found gentleness and compassion we can simply return back to the awareness of what we are feeling and sensing in the first instant and try to find acceptance and peace with what is.

. #Mindfulness is freedom, power, peace, #compassion, patience, and ultimately #Love. Mindfulness is for life and for everyone!