Mental Strength Column in DER YBBSTALER: “Mindfulness”.
Since November 2022, I have been writing a column about mental strength in the newspaper “Der Ybbstaler”.
In the following I publish the text of the first column entitled “Mindfulness”:
Welcome to the mental toughness column. Here you will find tips and tricks to build their mental strength to better cope with the challenges in their daily lives and “recharge their batteries”.
Today I bring you closer to the topic of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is about focusing on the here and now. A special form of mindfulness is meditation – which I will not describe in these lines.
Practicing mindfulness helps them focus better on something. Especially in today’s world, where many impressions are constantly piling up on us and distracting us, we need to practice this again more. Otherwise, we get bogged down, we don’t finish our tasks, or we lose focus.
Mindfulness supports them in feeling themselves better. They perceive themselves, their feelings and sensations better. This helps them when the autopilot takes them out of the wheel in stressful situations and then patterns are lived again that are sometimes obstructive.
So what is mindfulness? They focus on what they are currently doing. Ideally, they do so with a certain curiosity and, above all, without judgment. Especially if you discover that your thoughts have suddenly turned and were somewhere else – register it and focus again on what you wanted to observe. Occasionally digressing is quite normal and with a little practice it becomes easier and easier to concentrate on this one thing. What they focus on is up to them. They can focus on their breath for a few minutes, count the objects of a certain color in the room, or turn off their radio and focus completely on what they notice on the way into work.
When you eat something, you can also practice mindfulness. Then perceive your food with all your senses – leave your smartphone aside and explore how the next bite smells, how it changes when you chew it, and what the “finish” is like. Wine connoisseurs practice mindfulness when they pay attention to the bouquet of the wine, how the taste develops and what the finish of the noble drop is like. All those with a sweet tooth who eat less sweet things but still want to enjoy their chocolate can try this with a small piece of chocolate. What does the chocolate smell like? What is the texture like in the mouth? How does the taste develop? What is the taste like in the mouth after swallowing? If you practice this slowly and with the appropriate curiosity, maybe they will feel like me and get by with very little chocolate. Since then I understand why there are resealable chocolate packages 🙂 .
My tip for you: try to integrate mindfulness exercises into your everyday life. Let your imagination run wild on what you are 100% focused on at that moment. Start with one minute and slowly increase over time. A minute will probably be found for their improvement of the ability to concentrate, with which they get tasks done faster.
Want to know more about today’s topic? Or would you like to learn how to better improve your mental well-being? I invite them to a free initial consultation (lasting about 30 minutes). I offer individual trainings and for companies workshops. If you are interested, contact me by e-Mail at andreas@mind-navigator.at
