Mindfulness & Setting Intentions

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a way of approaching life that focuses the mind in the present, as opposed to thinking in he mode of what has happened, or what is about to happen. The body itself, and it's 'operating system', only comprehends the present, so whenever the mind leaves the present, it's attention to the needs of the body is lessened. Over time, we learn to ignore the signals the body sends, in effect health warning signals. Over time, the body's system becomes compromised, with the risk of long term illness.

Mindfulness allows us to balance our need to explore time outside the present, without completely deserting it. This leads to greater harmony in how we experience life directly, which translates into our relationships and endeavours.

All my programmes involve the use of mindfulness and well--being techniques in some way. You can also choose to make it the prime focus of any course or programme you'd like me to create and deliver for you.

A simple process for exploring mindfulness is 'Setting Intentions".

Setting Intentions:

The following articles in this section explain various aspects of how the mind and body work together and how we learn to build up an impression of the world around us, as well as an impression of who we think we are and how we fit into that highly individual idea of ‘the scheme of things’. Firstly there are some important points to always bear in mind:

• How you see and experience the world is unique to you

• Your beliefs are not an accurate, unbiased, impartial view of life

• Your beliefs determine your experience

• You reinforce your beliefs by focusing on them

There is a great saying that goes: “We don’t see the World how it is, but how we are”.

The articles in this section seek to explain why the above statements are the case.

Generally speaking, most of us find ourselves in situations that, for whatever reason, we would like to see change. The worst thing you can do is to complain about the situation, or the person or people whom you believe are either responsible for it or contributing to it in some way. The essential paradox that we all live is: ‘wherever you focus your attention brings more of it into your experience’ and in the other articles we explore why that is the case. It is also worht bearing in mind that many of our 'beliefs' were not created by us. Further, sometimes we think we believe something, but our physical body endorses another belief, and the actual results you experience will always reflect the beleif system that the body endorses rather than that acknowledged by the mind.

Unfortunately, knowing how the human mind and body work and how this draws us towards the experiences we have doesn’t in itself effect the change we want to see. In order to do that, we need to work with the two systems (mind and body) and bring them into alignment with each other, so that they are both ‘on the same page’. It is important to understand that change itself is NOT an intellectual process. Simply knowing you have a problem doesn’t deal with the problem. You need to training your mind to search for agreeable solutions and train your body’s hormonal systems to support your efforts by supplying your body with the feelings that you would describe as ‘good, positive, happy, confident, calm, excited, engaged, interested, willing or eager to participate’. In order for an experience to fully integrated and become part of who you are, it needs to be authenticated by the body, and this can only happen experientially – not by an intellectual understanding of the problem and the solution. That is why many people read many self-help books and believe they have read something that has changed them. Intellectually they have grasped the concept, but unless the body is also enabled to understand what the mind now understands, when familiar old problems arise, you will default back to your old way of reacting and behaving.

I have developed the Intention tool in order to help you bring your mind and body into alignment and effect sustainable and lasting change. It has been designed to be experiential (simply reading it wont work) so that your body can understand and learn what you trying to do (act/ feel more confident and achieve results that reflect that). The tool can be downloaded from this site for free and should be used daily for a minimum of 14 days, but if you really want to see longer lasting results, an investment of 30 -90 days would be best. The tool explains how to set intentions, how to focus your feelings to align with your intention, and how to notice your old default patterns so that you can let them go. It also explains how you can get your body to instantly produce ‘feel good’ chemicals to support your immune system and to attract positive responses from other people by practicing appreciation. Happy trails and happy landings!