Bringing some peace and tranquillity into your life
When you are feeling tired all the time, sometimes your mind can feel like your worst enemy. You have a torrent of thoughts flowing through your mind, not all of them positive and it feels like you just can’t turn the tap off.
Unhappy memories resurface, and you tell yourself to stop thinking like this, but it seems to be an almost impossible task.
Thinking like this can be exhausting.
In this blog, you will discover how mindfulness and mindful meditation practices could be your saviour, bringing some peace and quiet to your racing mind.
Does this sound familiar to you?
Unable to stop unhelpful thoughts?
You can’t stop yourself from thinking thoughts like:
“Why do I feel so tired all the time?”
You then start to worry about the future – “what can I do so I have more energy”.
You feel frustrated that you don’t have the energy to do things that you enjoy and that life has become one long chore.
You may blame yourself for getting yourself feeling so tired.
As these thoughts keep popping in, your mind doesn’t help by recalling memories of when you were feeling really tired.
An unhappy consequence is …
You feel more despondent and tired. You find yourself spiralling downwards caught up in your emotions.
You can feel helpless, disempowered, and stressed.
It can feel very bleak indeed.
If this is the reality of what you are facing now, then cultivating Mindfulness in your life could be a skill you really need.
You may be reading this and wondering ….
I’ve heard alot about Mindfulness; what is it all about?
1. Being Present – focussing on the now.
Mindfulness is about living life in the present – what’s happening now, not what you want or expect.
It’s about being fully aware of what you are doing and thinking and why; not automatically doing or thinking the same thoughts which may not be good for you.
Being fully aware can help us to see what you do have in your life and rather than focussing on what you feel you are missing or judging yourself against other people or an unachievable goal.
It can also help you to see what you truly want in life, not what you or other people think you should have. It can help you to be true to yourself.
2. Being Present - conscious of your thoughts and who you are
It’s a process of self-discovery - understanding yourself, your habits and the inner critic that can make you feel bad about yourself. It’s recognising that self-saboteur that can exist in all of us.
Why? When we understand ourselves, we can make conscious choices of how we want to act.
It’s also about being aware of your thoughts and seeing them for what they are – thoughts and not reality.
The truth is that when you are tired, unhappy or stressed you remember what went wrong in the past and your mind has a tendency to tell you that this can happen again in the future.
By recognising this, and knowing that these are thoughts and not facts, you can stop these thoughts from spiralling out of control into a negative tail-spin, worsening how you feel about yourself.
Recognising that your inner critic my not be telling you the truth, you start to feel more in control of your thoughts.
By being conscious of your thoughts you can refrain from over analysing and thinking and harshly judging yourself, which can be a real relief.
3. Being accepting of yourself and others
Mindfulness can help you to recognise that your expectations may be based on a perfectionist vision or fears of what has happened in the past, worries about the future or just not being good enough.
It helps you to recognise and accept who you are, with all your imperfections, acknowledging that none of us are perfect, no matter what their public persona is.
As you recognise who you are, you can acknowledge all your skills and abilities.
Every single one of us is unique, with our own set of talents and reflecting on this can be uplifting and a morale booster.
The practice can also help you to be more accepting and understanding of others and their imperfections – acknowledging the good and being more accepting that people may not act perfectly for a myriad of reasons.
You may be thinking, this sounds great, but how do I do it?
Use your breath as an anchor
The core to Mindfulness is mindfulness meditation, focussing on your breath as an anchor.
The practice, over time will enable you to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings, so you are able to let them come and go without feeling involved in them.
Become more aware of the world around you
You will discover the beauty of being more mindful of both what you do every day and the world around you. You will spend less time in automatic pilot, helping you to feel part of the world around you.
Catch your negative thoughts
Practice can help you to start to catch negative thoughts and feelings before they start to become a focus of your thinking.
Be kind to you
Mindfulness can help you to see the benefit of being kind to yourself as you learn about the power of self compassion.
It can help you to see that when you are suffering that the feeling is common to all humanity and you are not alone. With this understanding you are able to treat yourself like you would a close friend - with compassion and love.
It can be liberating
This can become a truly liberating practice, giving you the head space and self supportive environment to feel more energised and potentially help you to get back to the old you you were looking to re-discover again.
Go on give it a go ….
Here I share a short 3 minute practice, that you can try, to show you how a short mindfulness meditation may be able you to feel calmer and more refreshed.
Mindfulness could help to you to start to put tiredness and fatigue behind you
Mindfulness and Meditation have been practiced for centuries in the Buddhist contemplative tradition.
Western practice has been drawn from this traditional practice and has been extensively researched. It has been scientifically proven to help a range of health conditions, many of which are adversely impacted in chronic fatigue.
Mindfulness has been shown to:
· Reduce anxiety and irritation.
· Reduce the impact of chronic pain.
· Reduce inflammation which can lead to aches and pains, IBS and brain fog.
How Mindfulness helped to reduce my fatigue
It made such a difference
I started to practice mindfulness when I was experiencing CFS and I am so glad I did.
It has made such a difference as to how I think and face situations in my life.
I was initially sceptical
Initially I wondered how Mindfulness could help me, as I had previously ‘tried’ several practices and whilst they had been helpful, it hadn’t made any long term difference.
When I studied and started to practice mindfulness on a regular basis, I realised that it was so more than a quick stress relief exercise.
A little each day
With a little practice each day, I started to feel the difference and realised why ad-hoc practice hadn’t worked for me. Mindfulness is not just about the breathing, as helpful as it is, but it is about understanding and accepting myself and understanding that I am in control of my thoughts - they don’t control me and how I feel.
I have read that mindfulness is a life long journey that is full of opportunities to learn. From my experience to date, it has been just that.
It can feel scary at times, but I wouldn’t be without it now
Some times it has felt a little scary, but it is also an exciting journey that is continuing to give me positive results.
It has made such a difference to me I always recommend the practice to my clients.
As with any skill in life, it takes some commitment
You wouldn’t expect to pass your driving test after just 3 driving practices; Mindfulness is no different.
Let’s not shy away from things here, for some people it’s easier than others.
It can take just a few weeks to develop a practice
It takes time to develop a practice that has the potential to improve how you feel, but the good news is that it takes weeks, not years! It can be enjoyable too, and you will feel the benefits of the practice.
Just taking 2 minutes to focus on your breath, can help you to feel calmer and more grounded, so you may find some benefit from day 1.
Scientific research has shown that noticeable improvements in how you feel can be achieved within just 8 weeks with daily practice.
Are you ready to make mindfulness part of your daily routine?
I hope this article has given you the inspiration and courage to try a mindfulness practice to see if it will work for you.
What I think is so great about mindfulness is that it can be incorporated into your daily routine – mindfully cleaning your teeth, focusing your attention on the outside world on a bus journey, for example.
The mindful meditation practices, which I personally think are so helpful, can take as little as 2 minutes and can be practiced when you need a bit of peace and calm in your life. You can always make them a little longer, in you find this helpful and you could include them into your morning and evening routines, if you have them.
I think mindfulness is a wonderful tool to have in your feeling more energised tool box, have you been inspired to give it a go?
Your top 5 takeaways
1. Mindfulness is accessible to everyone – you just need to be aware of you and focus on the now. i
2. Mindfulness has been practiced for centuries and its many benefis have been extensively studied by scientific researchers.
3. Mindfulness can help us to accept who we are and have compassion for ourselves and others. This can be very helpful when you have CFS, accepting that you are unwell, but also accepting and knowing that you can get better.
4. Researchers have observed that mindfulness can help to reduce the feelings of stress and anxiety and promote a better memory, all problems associated with CFS and ME.
5. Mindfulness can help us to observe our thoughts and let go of negative thoughts more easily, helping our mental health and wellbeing
I can help with the emotional ups and downs
With all the symptoms and emotional ups and downs that come with feeling tired and chronic tiredness like CFS, giving mindfulness a go may prove to be one of your best decisions!
If this has inspired you to investigate how Mindfulness can support you, get in touch and we can have a chat.
There’s loads more articles and resources!
If you enjoyed reading this article, do check out my other blog posts on recovery from CFS. If you would like to be the first to know about my new blog posts, you can sign up to my mailing list.