07 Dec Mindful Mastery of the Monkey Mind
Mindfully Mastering our Monkey Mind: Meditation and the five senses
When we allow our minds to ruminate, or get carried away by difficult feelings and life stressors, we develop neural patterns or networks in the brain, for fear and worry.
Many people turn to addictions of choice (pot, alcohol, busyness, work) to bury their emotions. Choosing the more difficult path to mindfulness around emotions, creates self-awareness and internal integrity, the only things that bring internal satisfaction and long-term peace.
Developing daily habits and mindfulness practices, helps to be more present centered, grounded, centered, mindful.
Five Senses Meditation
The five senses meditation is one of these practices. Go out into nature and just take time to observe everything around you; for instance, sit on the sand when you’re on the beach, on a walk in the mountains, or on a slow meditative walk in nature, and do a five senses meditation.
Let all of your thoughts and future worry go on a cloud just feel your feet connected into the Earth, breathe deeply, exhale even more deeply out your mouth, and let go of worries. Picture sinking the worries down into the ground through your feet.
Then look around observe mindfully everything you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. Stay in your body and in the present moment. Slowly Concentrate on your surroundings and nature around you, as if you are memorizing the colors, shapes, textures, the feeling of the sun and wind and elements on your skin, and all you hear around you….observe so carefully that you could go paint them afterwards.
Notice the wind, the birds, the sunshine on your skin. Bask in this and take it all into your body, as you walk or sit….memorize this feeling. So that your body knows how it feels, when you are calm, grounded, and peaceful.
Rest, Recharge, Reset
Let your brain know this is a time out, and also a gift you are giving it to rest, recharge, and reset. Any thoughts or feelings that come in, you will continue to grab and take, and put on the Cloud, and let go.
It is a daily practice. It’s not easy at first, but we retrain the brain with healthier ways to operate, over time, creating new neural pathways in the brain.
This also helps prevent the effects of long-term stress on the brain. Normally over a lifespan, people lose up to 5% of the gray matter in their brain due to constant bombardment of trauma and stress. Cell phones and the internet, make this crisis exponentially worse.
When we meditate, or sit and do contemplative prayer, we protect the brain from chronic stress, which can lead to dementia, and Alzheimer’s in the long term.
Meditation helps to prevent empathic distress & protect you from taking on the emotions of others, especially if you are an empath or highly sensitive person!
When we meditate, develop daily mindfulness practices, such as 5 senses walking, or contemplative prayer, we foster the resilience of gray matter in our brain. Our brains are not equipped to deal with constant bombardment of negative news, or cell phone distractions.
We need to be diligent about our daily habits, training our brain and mind to be still, to let go, to surrender to the moment, and overtime, with a daily mindfulness practice, we rebuild new neural networks in our brain, for resilience, peace and trust. These lead to a more hopeful, balanced, resilient mindset and life.
Reach Out
Please reach out on my website:
JaymaJamieson.com or text me to set up an appointment (303-351-2354).
You can begin to experience internal peace & learn how to mindfully sit with your emotions. Learn more in my next blog on breaking free from limiting beliefs.
Jayma Jamieson, MA, NCC, LPC
A Boulder Body Mind Spirit Counseling, LLC.