I used to thrive on stress and got sucked into the culture of over-stimulation, multi-tasking, and being forever on-the-go. I believed that gave me energy and made me effective. The notion of “recovery time” for the mind was not on my radar, let alone in my language.
Not anymore. For me, mindfulness is a life changing exercise. It is kind of like strength training for my mental muscles. It means shifting my gears to have both my mind and body in the current moment, conversation, meeting, or experience. Giving myself permission to smile and be grateful for a kindness or new insight. And it is disrupting the negative thoughts to create room for the positive ones.
When done regularly, the exercise makes me feel better physically and emotionally. It has actually been proven to rewire your brain; there are structural changes that occur in your mind that produce improved physical and emotional wellbeing.
I don’t take myself too seriously. I grab moments of mindfulness every day at exhale, in yoga, core fusion, or chill. It feels good to have my mind where my body is.
I am a work in progress.