It’s been a while since I have given a life update, purely because there has just been so much going on. As previously mentioned here at the blog, I work as an operational administrator at the mental health CIC Mental Health First Aid England.
Last year, as we celebrated World Mental Health Day in October, I had the opportunity to attend my first ever Mindfulness class. It was then that I started to learn, about how we can cultivate our minds to focus solely on the present moment, through various techniques such as breathing and meditation. The reason why this became an important practice for me, is because I began to realise just how much of my life was spent on auto-pilot mode without being fully present in each moment. Fast forward to February this year, and I am teaching the benefits of Mindfulness to my colleagues, every Wednesday morning at 9am for 30 minutes.
There has been so much for me to learn and benefit from, when it comes to incorporating Mindfulness into my daily life, and meditating on a daily basis has truly helped me in more ways than one. I never thought that I would eventually become a teacher of the subject, and I feel very grateful to be able to do this, and spread the benefits on to my colleagues who are enjoying my weekly classes too.
I have also recently started attending an 8 week in-depth Mindfulness MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) course, and my Mindfulness classes are now also open to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, as not only do we share their building, but I gave them two back to back classes in May, during Mental Health Awareness Week. I now meditate on a regular basis and can also meditate for as long as 30 minutes (on a good day!), thanks to regular practice.
I plan to incorporate music into Mindfulness somehow, as we all know music has powerful benefits for our mind, body and soul so stay tuned for this. If you aren’t aware of Mindfulness and this is the first time you have heard about it, I highly recommend taking some time to understand the subject and seeing how it can help you in your everyday life, as you certainly won’t regret it!
Jem Girl at the Piano 