Last week, we talked about mindfulness – what it is, and what the basic tenets of mindfulness are.
But how can you use mindfulness to help you manifest the life of your dreams?
As a manifestation life coach, I’m here to help you manifest the life of your dreams.
And for many people, that comes in the form of lifestyle, wellness, and health coaching.
Because when you imagine the life of your dreams, it’s a life where you’re healthy and strong, right?
And of course, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle.
Before my career as a coach to manifest abundance and a stronger mindset, I practiced as a certified holistic nutritionist.
So I understand the importance of diet, nutrition, and lifestyle as factors in the prevention of dis-ease and promotion of optimal health.
But would you guess that there’s more to health than just taking your vitamins every day?
One of the most interesting fields of my life coaching practice is in intuitive confident mindset coaching, because mindset can affect your life in so many different ways.
Believe it or not, it can even help you manifest a healthier life.
And there’s actually some interesting science behind it as well.
Let’s take a look.
Mindfulness For Anxiety Management
If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present – Lao Tzu
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath – Amit Ray
This quote might be a bit of a simplified way to look at anxiety, but it’s generally true.
Anxiety is a normal human emotion, and it’s not even a bad thing – it’s the way your brain alerts you to potential dangers.
If you feel anxious before you make a presentation at work, take a test, or make a big decision, this is perfectly normal.
By the way, here’s a pro-tip for you.
Every time you use the words “I’m anxious” in these situations, try saying “I’m excited” and see how it changes your energy and how you feel.
However, an anxiety disorder is different.
If you have an anxiety disorder, you may feel anxious in situations where there is no immediately obvious cause.
However, regardless of the cause, anxiety is based in fear of what may come in the future.
And as a result, mindfulness can help.
The basic idea of mindfulness is to be fully attentive to what’s happening in the current moment, to what you’re doing at that moment, the space you occupy, and the sensations in your body.
Our minds are wonderful, powerful tools, but they can sometimes take flight, leading us down paths of fretting about life’s inherent uncertainties.
We lose touch with what’s actually happening, with what our true experience is, while we become more and more anxious about the future.
This is common for those who were raised by parents who used guilt to control, or who had past relationships where they frequently fought with their partner.
The emotional memories we experience as a result of such events can cause us to spiral into anxiety as we worry about how our current partner will react to something we say.
The most complicated part of this, however, is that the anxiety you feel building is based around something that hasn’t actually happened.
That doesn’t make the emotional experience any less real, though.
Mindfulness helps you break the cycle of catastrophizing about what you may face in the future by helping you ground yourself in the present.
In a state of perfect mindfulness, anxiety is impossible.
Mindfulness For Depression Management
No matter how tall the mountain is, it cannot block the sun – Chinese proverb
Like anxiety, depression is also a something people experience often.
After a difficult experience, like a breakup with your best friend for example, one may experience depression.
In fact, it’s good to feel all feelings, to recognize them, give them space and to truly experience them – to deny them would be toxic positivity, which is not emotionally healthy.
Instead, journaling and meditating on your feelings can help to understand them, process them, and release and let them go.
And there’s a growing body of evidence that shows what a powerful tool mindfulness for depression management can be.
The founder of our modern concept of mindfulness, John Kabat-Zinn, developed a meditation approach called mindfulness based stress reduction, or MBSR, which, like the name suggests, was designed to help reduce stress.
However, research has been ongoing into its benefits, with some incredible results.
Researchers Asfandyar and Shaharyar Khan Niazi conducted a 2011 review of studies on MBSR, and found that it showed great promise for helping treat depression.
This is because stress and anxiety can be major triggers for depression, and as we talked about above, mindfulness for anxiety management is very effective.
Once again, science confirms what so many of us have known intuitively for centuries!
Mindfulness For Better Health
Okay, so mindfulness can help with mental health.
And that makes sense, right?
But believe it or not, it can also help with your physical health too.
By being more aware of your body and its current state, you can improve the way you hold your body, which can help you manage chronic pain.
And by reducing anxiety and depression, it can also reduce the physical symptoms that come from those disorders, like tension based pain, chronic headaches, and high blood pressure.
But the above study shows that the physical benefits of mindfulness go far beyond just that.
In fact, the above study by Khan Niazi and Khan Niazi suggests there’s a growing body of evidence that mindfulness may help with:
- Relieving some of the symptoms of diabetes
- Relieving hypertension
- Reducing some of the biological markers of HIV
- Alleviating some of the complications from receiving an organ transplant
- Relieving some of the symptoms of cancer
- Relieving some of the symptoms of psoriasis
- Relieving some of the symptoms of fibromyalgia
This list might sound wild, but it’s backed by science!
Mindfulness For Conscious Eating
A lot of what we do each day is on autopilot, and that’s true of the food we eat as well.
But while nutrition is important, it’s not just what we eat, but how we eat it.
Many of us live busy lives, and so it can be tempting to see eating as similar to putting gas in your car – shovel in the nutrients and move on with your day.
However, this can lead to unhealthy eating habits.
Without being mindful of the food we eat, we end up just eating for the sake of eating.
This can cause us to overeat, which can lead to unwanted weight gain.
It can also cause us not to chew our food enough, which means our digestive system has a more difficult time extracting the nutrients we need from it.
That’s where mindful eating comes into play.
Mindful eating doesn’t have a specific goal in mind, other than being more physically aware of the experience of eating.
As you do so, you’ll tend to enjoy your food more – and we could all use a little more of life’s small pleasures!
Beyond that, though, mindful eating helps us to listen to our body when it tells us we’re full.
This helps us avoid overeating, reduce instances of binge eating, and more.
But how do you practice mindful eating?
It comes back to the tenets of mindfulness.
Nonjudgment
Set aside your preconceived notions about what you’re about to eat, and be open to whatever your eating experience brings.
Nonstriving
Rather than striving for a specific outcome – better health, weight loss, whatever – allow the experience to play out the way it will and savour it.
Trust And Patience
Take your time to be aware of, and experience, every moment of the food you eat, and trust the feelings that come up as you do.
A Beginner’s Mind
Approach your food as though you were a complete beginner to it – look at it, smell it, feel it, listen to it, and experience the unique nuances of this food.
Acceptance
Notice each element of your eating experience, and accept it as is, whether positive or negative.
Letting Go
Let go of any previous expectations you have around the food you’re about to eat, and allow this experience to stand on its own, without any anchors to the past.
Book Your FREE Connection Call With Evelina Hovich Today
Most spiritual traditions have something similar to mindfulness in them.
Buddhists call it meditation.
Jews call it Qabalah.
Christians call it prayer.
Muslims call it Sufi.
This shows us how far science has to go to catch up with the intuitive knowledge of so many different human cultures.
When you consider all the many ways mindfulness can help, it’s a wonder we’re not taught more about it from a much younger age.
But it’s not too late to start.
Mindfulness can be a powerful tool in your journey to manifest the life of your dreams, but if you feel stuck along your path, I can help.
Book your FREE connection call with me, Evelina Hovich, today.