Jul 22
As a wellbeing coach and mindfulness teacher, I don't just share from the theory of mindfulness, but from my own experience too. Here's my own story about how mindfulness and self-kindness transformed my relationship with anxiety - from outright war, to acceptance and befriending.
Mindfulness is everywhere right now, isn't it? And I do worry that it could be turning into yet another thing that people feel they have to achieve. But life for most of us is hard enough without that burden. I'm beginning to prefer to use the word 'awareness' - it doesn't seem to carry the weight of expectation, there's more room for not getting anything right.
When I first learned about the 3 emotion systems, I wished I’d know about it earlier. Having experienced several years of high stress and anxiety, I could see how this knowledge might have helped me navigate such a difficult period. Here’s a brief introduction to what these systems are, and why they are key to balancing stress.
At some point I stumbled across the idea of 'Love Mode vs Power Mode'. It made a big impact on me. I could quickly see how I operate from each mode in relationships with others. At work. As a parent. In close relationships.
It takes a massive amount of courage to accept feelings of loss and sadness, without trying to fix them - to open to them instead, fully feel them and let them transform you. At first I feared that turning towards these feelings would keep me stuck in them. But I discovered the opposite: it freed me to move forward, into something new and unknown.
