Monday 29 August 2016

My Experience With: Yoga and Meditation

Image Credit: https://fitnessrepublic.com/fitness/15minute-yoga-routine-thats-better-than-coffee.html

I started practising yoga just over a year ago because I had heard that it was good for dealing with anxiety, and I was at a point in my life where I was desperately looking for something to help me deal with it.

But I was massively sceptical. My entire thought process was how can glorified stretching make me feel less anxious? And I was the same with meditation. I thought it was about forcing myself to think of nothing, which for me, was impossible. But my practise over the last year or so has shown me how wrong I was.

Yoga and meditation is about accepting yourself for exactly who you are, flaws and all. Yoga is not about the perfect pose, it's about showing up and making that time for yourself. Meditation is not about thinking of nothing, it's about acknowledging your thoughts and anxieties, and then letting them pass.

Image Credit: http://www.practicingmindfulness.com/aboutmindfulness/how-to-do-mindfulness-meditation/

A year on from starting, and I'm so glad I did. It's completely changed the way I think about things.

If you're thinking that this might be the thing for you, then I've found that the best place to look is on YouTube. There's so much good stuff on there, and it's a brilliant place to start.

Sunday 21 August 2016

Melancholy Moments...

Image Credit: http://chibird.com/post/33740433482/every-day-may-not-be-good-but-theres-something

Not everyday is a good day. That is a sad and unavoidable fact of life. Sometimes, your day will be nothing but crap. And that's okay. Life is about balance, and with that comes with good days as well as bad days.

If you find yourself focusing on the bad more than the good, as I do, then I recommend taking five minutes at the end of the day to write down at least one thing you're grateful for. Some days, you'll have loads of things to write, and some days you'll struggle to think of a single thing. But by choosing to focus on the good everyday, rather than the bad, you'll soon come to realise that even if you're having a bad day, you don't have a bad life.

Sunday 14 August 2016

Being Present...

Image Credit: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/367254544595841556/

Being present in the moment is something that I really struggle with. I'm a worrier and have generalised anxiety, so forgetting everything and just living in the moment is something that I thought was impossible for me.

Today however, I experienced it. I was at my Nan's house, which is basically my second home, and I was sat in the kitchen, having a cup of tea and I suddenly felt this overwhelming sense of peace and calm. I was listening to my Grampy whistling,

Nan talking,

the clock ticking,

the wind chimes outside the front door,

and Grampy's oxygen machine humming away. I was watching the bee highway outside the window and I just felt incredibly at peace. If that's what being present feels like, then I wanna experience that everyday.