by Erin Owen | Nov 5, 2013 | Ezine
If you feel at times that your life is spinning out of control and you have too much on your plate, then you absolutely need to read this. Or if you generally feel on top of your responsibilities, but crave more time for yourself and intimacy with loved ones, then you too will benefit from reading about the practice of mindfulness.
The more our lives increase in complexity, the more we need to mindfully practice mindfulness.
But, what the heck does that mean?
The Bottom Line
When you carve out time in your day to pause and breathe and quiet your mind, you earn back the following for yourself:
- Almost immediate reduction of your stress level, with a decrease in your heart rate and blood pressure and reduced production of cortisol levels. (Increased cortisol and blood pressure are linked with weight gain, heart disease, adrenal fatigue and other issues you don’t want!)
- Calming of that inner anxiety that makes you sweat, wakes you up at night, and causes tension in your muscles. (Wouldn’t it be nice to sleep soundly and move smoothly through your day without moments of sudden panic about your “to do” list?)
- Improved cognitive function and better decision-making, with a measurable thickening of brain tissue and acceleration in the firing of the brain. (Clear out the brain fog and boost your short term memory, with faster recall of the info you need now!)
- A boost to your joy, your creativity, and your level of patience with challenging situations and people. (No need to get huffy when someone doesn’t understand you! Slow down and connect and be present to see what unfolds in life!)
And much much more.
3 Simple Steps to Mindfulness
- Use a mindfulness app like Zazen to ping you throughout the day to remember to pause, breathe, and check in with yourself: how are you feeling? What do you need? Who can support you? What can you let go of? What are you grateful for?
- Check out how Whil can help you with focus, creativity, and breakthrough thinking, by joining this new 1-minute movement started by the founders of Lululemon. All you need is one minute!
- Commit to 5 minutes each day — either upon waking or before bed — to breathe and reflect and let go of your busy monkey mind. My experience is that for each 1 minute you practice quieting your mind, you regain 10 minutes of your life. With these 5 minutes each day, you’ll earn back more than 50 minutes a day, or roughly 304 hours a year of better productivity and a more enjoyable life. That’s 7 or 8 work weeks for most of us! But maybe you’ll use some of that time for vacation.
PLUS 4 FREE Resources
Read chapter 1 in my book Refuel Recharge and Reenergize for free by clicking here. Check out reader reviews of my book on Amazon.com.
Get a taste of the simplicity and mindfulness that weaves its way through my Boost Your Performance program. Click here to read and listen to free excerpts from this foundational training designed to create more space in your life by simplifying your daily routine, your calendar, your in box, and your living & working space.
Schedule a free 15-minute call with me to talk about how you can cultivate more mindfulness in your life!
And if you missed my last post with 8 Free Energy Boosting Tips for Thriving (instead of barely surviving), click here.
Here’s to YOU getting out of the overwhelm lane and into the happy groove of conscious working and living,
Erin
P.S. Check out this recent NY Times article on Mindfulness that might interest you.
by Erin Owen | Sep 12, 2012 | General, Wednesday musings
The year was 1993. I was visiting a dear friend in
Los Angeles when, somewhere in her vast house, I
lost my Rolodex.
Now, for you younger readers, a Rolodex is like a
set of business cards all filed alphabetically —
it’s how we all used to keep track of our contacts
before smart phones.
We looked everywhere in her house. And since I had
the Rolodex when I arrived and never took it with
me when we went out, we knew it had to be there.
But, it was never found. Not to this day!
At the time I thought to myself: I wonder if there
is someone in my Rolodex that I’m not supposed to
stay in touch with. (I tend to look for meaning in
even the smallest moments and experiences.)
And sure enough, years later it became clear. I
had gathered back together every single person’s
contact information but one. [I won’t reveal his
name here!]
The reason this experience came back to me is that
yesterday I discovered that somehow nearly all of
the people on my contact list had been deleted
from the database of the contact management
website I use. It happened in the 2nd week of
August, right before I went on vacation, and right
before I sent out the final 3 email newsletters
inviting folks to my annual performance
breakthrough retreat to Bali.
We don’t know how the contacts were deleted, and
we may never know. But, what we do know is that….
…the last 4 ezines I sent out went to only 57
people. A tiny fraction of the hundreds of people
on my list. The 4th ezine was the announcement of
my new book, which we’ll be sending out again once
the list is restored.
If you’re not in the business of staying in touch
with clients and potential clients, you may not
realize that my contact list is almost the most
valuable part of my business – second only to my
own intellectual capital. It’s how I stay in touch
with my tribe, and it’s a critical tool in sharing
my latest thinking and inviting folks to study
further with me.
In the midst of trouble shooting what had happened
yesterday, I found myself pausing and wondering:
hmmmm, I wonder if this is another instance in
which I’m meant to narrow my focus to a smaller,
more relevant group of followers.
As with the Rolodex experience, only time will
tell. So, until then I need to let go of any
over-analyzing or worrying about “what ifs” –
which would simply be an inefficient and draining
use of prana (life force energy).
And if you don’t already know this already, let me
share with you that — in general — focusing your
emotions and mental energy on what is NOT happening
in the moment (worrying about the past or spinning
stories in your mind about what might happen in
the future) directly and negatively impacts your
performance at work and at home.
The good news is my assistant had made a back-up
copy of the contact database and we were able to
recreate a majority of the original list. But not
everyone.
So, yes, this is a cathartic piece of writing
meant to share with you the importance of letting
go and being open to finding meaning in the
unexpected. Even when it might initially be
perceived as a huge tragedy or loss.
This time of year is an important time of year to
pause, reflect, and notice what you’re harvesting
from seeds planted long ago. I’ll write more on
this topic in my next ezine.
If you haven’t heard from me in the past several
weeks (owing to this weird technical glitch)—or if
you’ve never received my email newsletter—I invite
you to sign-up for either my free gift (on any
page of this website) or the free first chapter of
my new book here, both of which will add you to my
list.
In the meantime, next time something seemingly
upsetting or challenging or unexpected happens to
you, I invite you to pause. Let go of any
judgments or story-telling in that monkey mind of
yours, and observe. Just watch what unfolds.
And let me know what happens in the space between
the mental chatter and worries!
More soon…
Erin
