The #1 reason meditation is a kick ass self improvement tool…

Mindfulness.

Ohhhh I hear you groaning. But how does mindfulness equate to real world gains? Isn’t mindfulness just stopping to smell the roses?

Nobody has time to stop and smell the roses anymore, I get it. Even though it’s nice if you ever get the chance. But the real payoff of mindfulness is the ability to pause and recognize your own B.S. in the moment. Do you have time for that? Or would you rather hit life on ‘repeat‘?

Meditation is basically a mindfulness based stress reduction exercise, or practice. The more you lean into meditation as a regular practice, the more you experience the natural effects of mindfulness.

How does this benefit you? Well, 95% of your day is on autopilot…same thoughts…same words…Blah! You get the point. It might as well be the Groundhog Day movie over and over. This is what’s called an unconscious life. I know you may think of unconscious as being in a coma or knocked out, but very similar, and in this case I use it to explain a life on autopilot.

I hear you…‘Hey now, I don’t always do the same thing every day.’

But you react in the same way to the same things…same triggers and same reactions, essentially living the same patterns whether you are in Bali or Boston. This is why you have such a hard time changing the things you really want to. In an unconscious life, patterns rule!

Meditation is a path to consciousness and self-awareness. You’re pushing the “pause” button on the broken record.

Imagine calling yourself out on your own B.S. resulting in a better life, improving your thoughts, improving your patterns, and releasing old emotional trauma and stuck vibes.

With mindfulness you start saying things like, ‘Wow, that was a really big reaction for that circumstance!’ Or ‘Why do I always react to that person in that way?’

When you become more conscious and present in your life, you wake up to the clues about who you are and why you do the things you do. Why do you complain about the same things every week? Why do you keep getting upset at little things? Why do you have the triggers that you have?

Meditation allows us to fire up our brain in a new way that contributes to self-discovery and self-observation throughout your day.

If you change what you notice (about yourself and your life), you start changing your brain, your thoughts, your behavior, your patterns; changing your life. Meditation literally changes your brain.

The alternative is to continue to torture yourself and others by succumbing to triggers and subsequent reactions.

Have you ever had the same argument with the same person every month, maybe every day?

An unconscious life on autopilot is a series of triggers and reactions. We never really pause to find out what’s going on in ourselves because we’re too busy blaming someone else.

Mindfulness meditation trains you to watch yourself, watch your patterns, watch your thoughts and how all of those contribute to emotional reactions.

What’s the benefit of this? Who wants to dig up their own dirt? How about a more peaceful existence? More understanding in relationships. How about less stress? Less negative thoughts or at least less overreactions to them. How about overcoming yourself and the crap you were unwittingly taught from unconscious parents?

Yes, you are digging up the hatchet you thought you buried. You don’t really bury that stuff. It resurfaces until you acknowledge it.

When we catch ourselves and pause, we have a chance to dive into the reason behind the big reaction, which can result in releasing emotional trauma, applying logic to an overly emotional reaction, and determining our own happiness instead of relying on others for it.

Mindfulness is the moments you are able to observe your life as a neutral witness. Obviously this is can be a profound perspective and advantage; truly a chance to see ourselves.

Next week: Discover how mindfulness can improve your relationship!

Begin training your brain with mindfulness! Join me next week for a Guided Meditation: Mindfulness Meditation (Coming… Monday November 11, 2019)