Attaining Mindful Awareness
What does it mean to create a state of mindful awareness? Mindfulness practice is an ideal way to cultivate a greater awareness of the unity of the mind and body. It is a form of self-awareness that is described as “a state of being in the present moment and accepting things for what they are without judgment”. You are in a state of observation as you simply observe things around you, just as they are. You explore sensations and your own thoughts and feelings. When you make a conscious choice to take a break from your routine to sit quietly and empty your mind for a few minutes, you are creating a state of mindful awareness.
How does mindful awareness help someone with ADD? Actually, practicing mindful awareness is something that everyone can benefit from, at any time, anywhere. It has been shown to reduce stress and stress-related disorders, calm the mind, positively affect a range of autonomic physiological processes, such as emotional reactivity and lower blood pressure. Being present in the moment offers your brain a chance to “recharge” itself. It includes deliberate movement of the breath as you take in sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations within and outside your body.
It is most helpful for ADDers because it offers them an opportunity to change their focus from a reactive mode, to a non-reactive mode. Because their brains are always inputting information at such a fast rate, their ability to focus becomes diminished. They become exhausted and feel drained more quickly. They can be hypersensitive to how others view them and their own inner thoughts can sabotage them. It’s no wonder that they react to things before thinking about consequences.
Taking a few moments several times each day can help ADDers (and anyone else) to deliberately focus on lessening the stress of situations and free up the mind to not have to think. It offers a ‘space’ for simply observing. A gentleman by the name of Victor Frankl, M.D., a holocaust survivor, once said “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
The busier we become, the less we intentionally make choices and decisions. Instead, we react to stimuli as it constantly bombards us (email, calls, mail, crisis’, weather, family and work problems and pressures). The only time the brain is at rest is when we sleep. But is it truly at rest for all of us….and for how long? ADDers oftentimes have difficulty with sleep whether on medication of not. So they often wake up feeling tired. It’s no wonder many ADDers live in a reactive environment all day, every day. It has become so habitual, that it becomes ‘normal’.
If you would like to experience the power of mindful awareness, you can do it for FREE. All you have to do is send me your name and email address and I’ll send you a guided meditation mp3 called the Zone of Total Focus. It will take you on a 5-minute journey of awareness so you can capture a small piece of ‘space’ to just be present.
Celebrating YOU!
Cathy
