MBSR if you need more calm

Today we will dive a tad deeper into mindfulness and will try to scratch the surface of MBSR – or \”Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction\”. This is such a vast field, so in this article I will try to show, based on my experience, how it can improve our lives.

The reason I started this MBSR course was the pandemic and a whole set of PTSD symptoms. Brought along by a trauma, which was caused by the generous mr. covid19.

When I was on the tipping point, scrapbooking helped me very much, it was like a life-vest thrown at somebody lost at sea. However, after a few good months, I felt like scrapbooking was something I HAD to do. And that got me really scared. When I saw I could not enjoy scrapbooking anymore – my hobby for 12 years at that time – I started to look for ways to \”fix myself\”.

To be honest, I stopped at the first one I found out about. Not a smart strategy, I know, but I was lucky to find just what I needed. And I don\’t think that was an accident. Actually, after everything that happened in my life since the pandemic, im more convinced than ever that everything – major – in our lives happens for a reason. But that is just my opinion, ignore it if you don\’t agree :).

The course I took had a duration of 8 weeks and it contained both a theoretical part – about the brain, our mind, the stress and how it affects our body, why it\’s good for us to be grateful, self-compassion and so on. And then of course there was the practical part, that is the daily meditation practice: 7 different types of meditation – each for a different issue.

Every day we had to fill in 2 logs: 1 for the formal and 1 for the informal practice. Describing the event that triggered us and how we behaved, what we felt like: physically, mentally and spiritually and so on. I remember that some weeks I repeated a few times. And one of them was the week where we worked with difficult emotions. I repeated that week twice, because it helped me so much and it was very rewarding. See an example of the logs for that week here:

At the end of the course I found out from the organisers that many start and only a few finish this course and that it takes real motivation to stick to it. Well, I can only confirm that my motivation was scarily strong :D.

One major thing one learns from this course is HOW to meditate. Because once we start meditating we will notice that we will be interrupted by millions of thoughts. Our OWN thoughts. I remember wondering \”Where were all these thoughts of mine until now, did I always have them?!?!\”.

It turns out that YES, we all have them, permanently! But we ONLY notice them once we start meditating. Because only then we become aware of our thoughts. Until then, they kind of dominate our minds and our lives. When we start meditating we become aware of that and the power balance gets inverted – we start dominating our thoughts :). Now we\’re talking, right ;)?!

The next thing is to know WHAT to do with these thoughts once they appear. Well, all we have to do is to simply notice them and, without judging ourselves in any way whatsoever, we simply turn our attention back to the meditation.

And this is the 1st time I found out about self-compassion – a subject we will approach more in depth at some point in the near future :).

The most important thing to do once you start this journey is to be consistent. Only then will we see the results. Start slow – if you don\’t have time, even 5 minutes per day will do. And have no expectations – simply focus on the meditation itself and just give it your best, be there 100%.

Seeing how much this course has helped me and following my old interest in psychology, I took 3 more courses:

1. mindfulness coaching
2. the science behind well-being and
3. a 5-months long specialisation course in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (where I had the pleasure to learn from the founder of positive psychology himself, Dr. Martin Seligman).

After my experience, I felt a strong need to help those who have been in similar situations, who need to restore the calm in their lives and reach their life-goals. This is why I became a Positive Psychology & Mindfulness Coach. My objective is to help you better understand yourself and empower you to use your best qualities. My end goal is to assist you in gaining engagement, meaning, better relationships and wellbeing. At the end of the coaching programs you will be able to:

1. Discover who you REALLY are and what makes you flourish
2. Identify and optimize your character strengths
3. Implement positive changes, traits and behaviours
4. Obtain optimal functioning and enhanced wellbeing
5. Improve flow and fulfilment in your life
6. Reach your goals

If transformed into a life-long practice, mindfulness meditation can certainly improve the quality of our lives, by a lot!!!

So whether you want to make a change in your mentality, lifestyle or beliefs, to increase your performance, to develop your skills, confidence and level of inner calm, it is my pleasure to be your partner on this most empowering and rewarding journey.

Until next time, stay safe & positively well, lovely people ;)!