Learning to be mindful.

Something that i had to take part in while i was in hospital was a group called mindfulness. This group was all about learning to be in the moment. It can be considered as a type of meditation that helps people to feel more in control of their lives. Mindfulness means being aware of yourself and your surroundings. When you are being mindful you clear you mind of distracting thoughts and tune in to what you are doing at that very moment. This can often be very hard to do when you first try it I know it took me a while to get the hang of it and now I am still trying to get the hang of it. This can help you to deal with some of the hard times and also to help prevent you from self-harming.

The basic steps for learning to be mindful are very simple and easy to do:

Sit or lie quietly and notice your breath moving in and out.

Notice anything else that you feel in your body.

As thoughts come in to your head just let them go and not think about them.

Remain aware of being in the present moment.

There are many things that you can use when you are being mindful. You can eat, listen, watch, balance, and feel all mindfully just focusing on the things that you are doing. When listening to a song try and focus on the word so that song, when eating try and focus on what you are eating, when feeling try and focus on what you are feeling, when you are watching just focus on the things that you are watching. The concept is simple but it can be very hard to do. If you try to do it don’t expect to be able to do it on the first try just relax and practice it a couple of times over and over again and eventually you will be able to get the hang of it.