Being mindful

I have a note book on my phone where I write down possible titles for my blog posts. One that has been in there for a while is mindfulness. I was hoping to understand this more before I wrote about it but I am still a bit of a novice on the subject. I have been hearing about this for a while now and seems to be the go to subject when treating mental health problems. I was first introduced to it a couple of years ago when my mental health was fragile. A lady came to my house and we had a couple of short sessions. She told me about focusing on the five senses and we went for a walk. I had to focus on the five senses when we were walking. What could I hear, smell, touch and see during the walk. I found this really hard to do so we tried a meditation focusing on breathing which was really good and helped my feel really relaxed. I think doing this really helped to focus on the main aim of mindfulness which is to just focus on the moment. There are lots of apps that you can get as well which you can listen to and help you focus. You are told to just focus on what it happening around you now. For example at the moment I am focusing on writing this blog. I can feel the laptop on my lap and the keys on my fingers. I can hear the taping noise that the keys make and the ticking of my clock in the room. I can see what I am writing as well as the programme on the TV in front of me. I can smell something but I am not sure what it is, probably my deodorant or the smell of my clothes. I just spent a few minutes thinking about these simple things and it does make you feel relaxed. Of course you will say there are always things around distracting you. But I have learnt that in mindfulness distractions are OK. When you realise you are distracted just focus your mind back to what you are thinking of. I had to mute the TV as it was distracting me and now I can smell my hand cream. I have been told that I practice mindful listening to audio books when I go to sleep at night. I do try to just listen to the book, perhaps imagine I am in the story. I try to just be in the moment, lying there in my bed. If my focus goes away from listening to the story I don’t get annoyed, I just refocus my thoughts to the story. I usually fall asleep quite quickly after that. I would recommend listening to a book that you have already read as it doesn’t matter so much if you fall asleep! It also works when I listen to classical music whilst going to sleep. I just imagine that I am watching the orchestra play their instruments. I am just being in the moment not focusing on what may happen tomorrow, I can think about it tomorrow when it comes. When you go to bed tonight why not try it, just lie there and think about your five senses. Just focus on what you can smell, touch, taste, hear and feel. Be mindful.