The art of relaxation…

…yawn!  Ahgh… here he goes again, yadda yadda ‘mindfulness’ yadda…

“a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations…”
I know mindfulness is the buzz-thing at the moment, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about the wonders of McMindfulness. And, yes it’s right to be cautious because there’s a lot of shallow pap written about it.  But, in essence the ideas and the practices are worth exploring.

True awareness is NOT an easy thing to achieve.  But having a mindful ambition is a great start; ‘being’ with a ‘mindful’ approach. Truly mindful of ‘yourself’, truly mindful of ‘the space you inhabit’, truly mindful of ‘what you share’, truly mindful of the ‘people you meet’, and truly mindful of the ‘stuff’ that you encounter!  …stop, relax, breath.

We are surrounded by ‘stuff’.

Stuff picks you up and you find yourself pulled by the “gotta get/do/be…” that surrounds us.  Loud opinion, passion, aggressive obstacles, beauty, disregard, gossip, music, art, popular consumption, empty promises, amplified surface, hidden depths, bling, gestures, advertising, glum faces, abstract expressions, connection, happyville, disconnection… and creme eggs! (and the like)

Yes, “drive” is what gets things done, but a mindful drive might be more fruitful.

Perhaps Solomon said it first “diligence leads to riches as surely as haste leads to poverty” .

The beat of your heart – we are all too often picked up be a pseudo heartbeat, a pulse of the new. Rediscover your heart beat! …an ongoing, daily, or even hourly practice

Where your treasure is there is your heart also…

But the thing I wanted to share here is a book that I came across recently (thanks to Brian).

As you know AJ gets morning migraines fortnightly and we considered that the chemical imbalance might be mixed with a busyness, anxiety, eagerness thing. She’s like me and is often keen (anxious) to do, please, get done and achieve – this can become overwhelming without space and time-out. Both A and P enjoy these stories and visualisations and after a reading a the effect is notable.

Relax Kids: Aladdin’s Magic Carpet by Marneta Viegas

It’s a book of one-page relaxing visualisations (or ‘meditations’ if you want to get hippy) for kids. It’s specially written for children to help them explore and develop creativity and their personal imaginations. The visualisation stories are ideal for calming down at bedtime, but can be used at anytime of day. Designed to be read slowly to the kids, they are based on familiar tales, such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins or Treasure Island, etc. The themes are designed to help children in everyday life with and revolve around affirmations of protection, peace, freedom, strength, difference, confidence etc.

If you fancy stopping, relaxing and breathing… give it an ‘awareful’ try!

Beware… ideally mindfulness might lead to soulfulness.