I don’t know about you,but if someone said that I needed to implement mindfulness and meditation in times of crisis — I’d be so overwhelmed, I probably would’ve cried. It wasn’t until I learnt what meditation is and how to actually use it in my everyday life that I began to see its purpose.
Being mindful is being aware that your thoughts are just thoughts — not a reflection of who you are. Instead of your negative thoughts controlling your actions and your day (let’s be real, it happens to all of us) you work on controlling them.
Picture this: you’re watching traffic go by on a highway, and as you see the cars pass, sometimes you paying more attention so you notice when the cars are bigger, what colour they are, whether it’s a giant truck or tiny car…whatever the case may be.
What if every thought that you had was a passing car? You see the car, you acknowledge it, and then you watch it drive away. Comparatively, you hear your thought, acknowledge it, and then you let it go.
This is a mindfulness trick that you can practice through meditation. Like anything, practice makes perfect; it seems especially difficult at the beginning, but over time, it becomes second nature.
Next time you feel yourself getting worked up about an exam, stressed that your boyfriend who isn’t really your boyfriend won’t text you back, picture the passing cars and think of your frustrations as temporary.