This Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re celebrating by championing the brilliant women who bring this important subject to the forefront, like Clinical Psychologist Dr. Michaela Dunbar who just launched her first book, 'You've Got This'. Here’s a little taster of this insightful and essential read…
"I’m going to be real with you. If your mind isn’t used to being still, then at times doing mindfulness can feel hard and unproductive, and doubly hard if you find it difficult to spend any time really being aware of how things feel inside your body. That’s all the more reason to do it. Start off with one minute of mindfulness practice per day and double it every day from there.
REFLECTION EXERCISE
If you’re anything like me or the people I work with, you definitely want to spend your time doing things that you actually care about instead of what your anxiety tells you you can’t do. You also want to spend good, quality time with the people you love instead of with your inner critic. If I’m right, get your pen and paper out and have a go at answering the following reflection questions from Dr Russ Harris. If I waved a magic wand so these thoughts aren’t hooking and controlling you:
What would you stop doing or start doing, do more of, or less of?
Who would you be more attentive to or present with?
What goals would you pursue?
What activities would you start or restart?
What people, places, events, activities, challenges would you approach, start, resume or contact, rather than avoid or withdraw from?
Think of the brain like any other muscle – it needs to be engaged and strengthened, and regular exercise will make it stronger over time. That’s basically what mindfulness practice is – a work-out for your attention (we covered some of this in the previous chapters).
First, you notice when you’ve been distracted. Then you redirect your attention back. Then you let the thoughts come and let them go, all while sustaining your full attention on something neutral like your breathing, or the feel of the soap suds when you’re washing the dishes, or the sounds around you. That is mindfulness. It’s allowing our thoughts to be present in our mind and then choosing to anchor our attention elsewhere.
We’re not trying to achieve perfect, infinitely sustained attention. It’s more about the ability to draw your attention back to the present any time you want, no matter how often your mind decides to go on a wander. The more frequently you do this, the quicker you will notice when your mind has gone down the rabbit hole, and the quicker you will be able to pull it back out again.
Five ways to use mindfulness when the overthinking starts
- Take ninety seconds to notice your breath; its pace and how the air feels in your lungs and the inside of your nostrils.
- Anchor your attention to any sounds you can hear in the room; see if you can notice different layers to the sounds.
- Put on some fun music and pay attention to any sensations that arise in your body; try to locate where in your body those sensations are (we spend a lot of time trying to avoid sensations in our bodies, and that’s half the issue).
- Take a slow stretch and notice any feelings you have in your body, any aches, pains, kinks, any good feeling you get from stretching. Be curious about it, but non-judgemental.
- Focus your attention on the front and back of your hand; see if you can notice anything new, any patterns, any roughness or smoothness. Again, leave judgement off the table."
If you enjoyed this excerpt from Dr. Michaela’s new book, 'You've Got This', then you’re in luck because it’s on sale now!
What’s more, all AllBright Plus members can attend (or watch on-demand later) our event, How Ambitious Women Can Master Anxiety & Overcome Self-doubt, hosted by both Dr. Michaela Dunbar and business coach Angelica Malin on Wednesday 11 May at 12pm BST.
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