Exercise Mindfulness to Be Happier

Mindfulness works with continuous awareness of body, breath; feelings, thoughts, intentions. Our state of mind, our positive or negative attitude towards the world, is closely related to our experiences of happiness or suffering. Also known as the “feel-good” hormone, dopamine is a hormone that's an important part of our brain's reward system. Dopamine is associated with pleasurable sensations, along with learning, memory, motor system function. A small 2002 study links many of meditation's benefits to increased dopamine production during the practice. Research from 2011 also suggests that meditation can spur endorphin release. Mindfulness is a self development technique that changes the focus of our mind towards happiness.

Steps

  1. Be Aware of the Present Moment. Mindfulness [1][2] is continuous undisturbed awareness of the present moment. Fully aware of here, and now, we pay attention to what is happening right in front of us, we set aside our mental and emotional baggage. Physical, emotional, and mental stress leads to higher levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland. The continual release of this stress hormone contributes to a variety of effects on our physiological systems. To be mindful we have to re-train our mind.
  2. Silence your Mind. Free Your Mind and Think Our mind is constantly busy with thoughts and feeling about our past, present and future. The person meditating should be mindful of whatever enters the mind. Silencing the internal dialogue, observe your thoughts, and feelings without labeling them as good or bad. To stop it from useless constant chat, we must learn how to hear this noise, how to become aware of it, and to transform it through concentration into mindfulness. One of the ways is through Practice Divergent Thinking
  3. Concentrate. Sit and meditate mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness works with continuous awareness of: the body posture and breath; of the feelings, of the mind and of the mental objects that appear during the meditation. Through bare attention, we learn to see things as they really are, without judgments and preconceptions. Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925)an Austrian philosopher, and social reformer, within Guidance in Esoteric Training, [3] says: "The first condition is the cultivation of absolutely clear thinking. For this purpose a man must rid himself of the will-o’-the-wisps of thought, even if only for a very short time during the day—about five minutes (the longer, the better). He must become the ruler in his world of thought. He is not the ruler if external circumstances, occupation, some tradition or other, social relationships, even membership of a particular race, the daily round of life, certain activities and so forth, determine a thought and how he works it out. Therefore during this brief time, acting entirely out of his own free will, he must empty the soul of the ordinary, everyday course of thoughts and by his

own initiative place one single thought at the centre of his soul." Sit and meditate for 30 minutes every day. Meditate on Love

  1. Be Mindful of Your Actions. The Book of the Dead, which appeared in the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom, around 1550 BC, was commonly used until the Graeco-Roman era in Egypt and Mediterranean countries, was the humanity's first ever written law linking the benefits of eternal life with an individual's correct behavior on Earth. [4]was our first ever commitment inscribed on stone sarcophagi, wooden coffins and stone amulets, but mainly painted and drawn on long papyrus scrolls speaking of the rightful action. All religious and philosophical movements speak of the rightful action. We now know of the law of ancient Israel, and the Ten Commandments in the Bible, Buddhist, Hinduist and Confucians laws of rightful action that go beyond legally implied patterns of behavior. "I did not steal", or "I did not kill", expanded to Unselfish actions, that is to act without attachment to self, the goodness of man, acting in kindness for others,. not for personal gain. Joining an NGO is one of the ways to link your efforts to community based project that help others.
  2. Self-remember. According to Gurdjieff (Russian Philosopher 1866-1949) is a state of consciousness in which human beings are simultaneously aware of both themselves and their actions: Now when you are fully and always aware of the l' and what it is doing, you become conscious of yourself. Self-remembering is an attempt to be more conscious, and more aware. It is a form of active meditation were we work to be aware of ourselves and our environment through self-remembering. The essence of the Self-Remembering technique is that while we are doing anything: reading, singing, talking, tasting, we must be aware of the Self who is reading, singing, talking or tasting.
    • Mindful Walking. Also known as zazen in several forms of Buddhism involves movement and periods of walking between long periods of sitting meditation. Use nature to help you in your mindful walking meditation. Walking next to the sea: the sounds are there, the wind is there, we are there with the sun, with the breeze, and with our breath and awareness of our body moving, but without our thoughts. Sri Chimnoy [5] an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the West after moving to New York City in 1964, extended the walking exercise to running “In the morning if we can energise ourselves with physical activities, then we can accomplish so many things during the rest of the day. That is why I say sports and physical fitness are of supreme importance. If we neglect the physical and let the body become weak, then the mind also becomes weak.”
    • Mindful Eating. When eating, taste your food with mindfulness without external interruptions. Experience the joy of tasting food with no TV, reading, mobiles, messaging, etc... Stay conscious of what you eat. Our planet is struggling with such a population expansion. Reduce your ecological footprint. By choosing a vegetarian diet, you can dramatically reduce the amount of resources that you consume and the amount of pollution to the planet. By replacing meat with vegetarian sources of protein, Prepare a Healthy Vegetarian Meal (nuts, seeds, beans and lentils, for example), we reduce carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. The whole food production process of farm-to-plate totals 30% of all global greenhouse gas emissions
    • Mindful Showering. When showering and bathing suddenly remember yourself, and stay as long as you can – remembering the water flow, its temperature, its contact with the body. Shower with cold water it will make you aware and awake.
  3. Be Mindful of Your Thoughts. Mindfulness increases the awareness of the nature of the mind. On average, we have around 70,000 thoughts go through our waking minds on any given day. Mindfulness meditation, the practice of focusing your attention on your breath and the present moment, helps lower stress hormones. The topic has gained a lot of scientific interest in the past decade. If we learn to control our mind and listen to our souls we can consciously choose to be joyful instead of sad, peaceful and loving, alert and relaxed... Free Your Mind and Think
  4. Be Mindful of Your Feelings. Get Delighted. The quality of life is in proportion of our capacity to get delighted. Develop Both Hemispheres of the Brain The capacity for delight is within our capacity to pay attention to things around us. Pay attention to birds singing, to clouds formations, to flowers greeting you, to kids laughing, to a beautiful person that has just passed by. Be aware of synchronicity among all living beings and be alert for the presence of Divine in All.



Tips

  • With 70,000 thoughts a day and 95% of our activity controlled by the subconscious mind, no wonder that it feels as though we are asleep most of the time. To awake, we need to train self-remembering and mindfulness.
  • Mindfulness confronts us with the constant change and impermanence. The change is in the nature of life and clinging to anything will lead us to suffering. The person meditating develops the freedom to break the hold of habits.
  • Since, mind is in a constant movement, to quiet it we need to use its movement, to stop the flow of thoughts, we need to find an object of concentration. Chose an object of Beauty that inspires you and use it for your concentration. Chose a crystal, a flower, candlelight, or an emotion such as love, peace, or pure consciousness. Allowing the mind to keep ‘busy’ with the positive imagination we can enter meditation.
  • Zen meditation, zazen, or sitting starts by focusing the awareness on the breath. During 'sitting' we close down our mental and emotional activity, and through training we develop single-pointed concentration. While meditating we work on our concentration, the rest of the day we work on mindfulness.

Related Articles

References

  1. ↑ Pantović Nataša, 2017, “Mindful Being towards Mindful Living Course”. Mindfulness and Willpower (1). [Artof4elements Press, AoL Mindfulness Series Book #4]: pg43. ISBN-13: 978-9995754037
  2. ↑ https://www.artof4elements.com/images/2015-10/12-best-mindfulness-exercises.pdf
  3. ↑ https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gs-letters-asa/Subsidiary_Exercises_RS.pdf
  4. ↑ https://www.nature.com/articles/468632a
  5. ↑ https://www.srichinmoyraces.org/sri-chinmoy-running
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