MINDFUL YOU: For Love & Money! By Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, Ph.D. and President of the International Hypnosis Federation
MINDFUL YOU: For Love & Money!
By Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, Ph.D. and President of the International Hypnosis Federation
When you eat, do you taste only the first bite; then gobble the rest? Or, do you savor the flavor of each bite? Eating with reverence helps digestion. Eating with reverence is mindful eating.
When you meet someone, do you look them in the eye? Or, do they blur past like a passing car. As you linger longer, here and NOW, you make better connections, and in this sound bite society, it helps to make better connections.
Look around you… What do you notice?
Whatever you notice, it’s YOUR unique awareness.
Magic happens when that awareness is present, open, and curious. In fact, research shows that a mindful focus lowers blood pressure, boosts immunity, elevates mood to bring you safely to home base. Full breath changes your mood for the better and lets you meet the real you.
Mindfulness is your key to joy because you real-eyes that you are your own instructor’s manual; you write your instructions and live the very ideas that you create. The more present you are, the more you enjoy what you think, perceive and do. It thrills me to watch a resting client awaken to their unique profound wisdom and decide what ideas are best to embrace or upgrade.
Every athlete knows that a keen focus puts you in the zone in the long run. As you consciously direct your attention to the task at hand, you advance in the direction of your goal and you do much better when you hold a keen focus.
The ancients called mindfulness “contemplation.” Tony Robbins calls it a “closed eye process.” Ministers call it “prayer,” guru’s call it, “meditation,” and yoga teachers, “savasana” for “concentration that brings insight and tranquility.” I think of mindfulness as “hypnosis in a tuxedo.” Or it could well be called “sequential single-mindedness” as it allows you to fully immerse in a focused flow to get things done. In more flowery language, “mindfulness blossoms you afresh with each breath.”
Whatever you call it, as you stand is where you are… and right now you are here and not there.
YOUR MINDFUL RESTART
Perception is your hallucination or imagination based on your Body/Brain/Nervous System that determines what you embody, think and do. Science and physics made a startling discovery: YOU’RE PART OF WHAT YOU PERCEIVE! The very process of observing in fact, changes what you observe. Once you believe and accept a notion, a neuro-logical knee-jerk response hums along as you construct, re-construct, enforce, re-enforce and occasionally, up-date the story you tell yourself. Shifting chemistry evokes you NOW. Your state of mind influences your outcome. Like a true scientist, as you put experience, limitations, instincts, senses and biases aside, you heed what you perceive. So, sit back and enjoy the wonderful experience of your perception brings.
DO THIS AND EXPAND YOUR AWARNESS FOR SUCCESS!
1. Take a nice, full easy breath and simply notice. Perhaps you feel, hear, smell, taste, see or intuit the breath as it enters your inner sanctum.
2. Now, as you let it out, release it with a big sigh… and make the sound you make when you sink into a favorite easy chair or into your cozy bed. I’ll bet you relax a little more.
3. Think of what’s important to you to do or be and ask your brain, “Brain, do you want this to be so?”
4. Now ask your heart, “Heart, do you want this to be so?”
5. Ask your gut “Gut, do you want this to be so?”
6. If so, your whole being will lead you to make it so.
7. Now, enjoy mindful breath.
FINAL THOUGHT
My buddy, Deb, went to a funeral and hugged her friend as, in her words, “something truly magical happened… The hug lasted four forever now moments and we both felt the presence of the deceased loved one.” Think about a magical moment in your past. Ah, but we regress… Better to enjoy the magic in this moment as you give NOW your full attention.
(includes excerpts from her book “Mindfulness Made Easy”)
Local Personality, Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD is a hypnotherapist, mindfulness and NLP trainer, artist and the author of 25 books. She certifies practitioners through the International Hypnosis Federation. You can call her at 310 541-4844.
