Mindfulness – A Powerful Strategy for Optimal Health and Wellbeing
In this fast-paced age of technology and “living to work” culture, it may seem counterproductive to purposely slow down, simplify, and give attention to what drives you, to carve out the needed time to explore your core material, that is, the beliefs, actions, perceptions, and self-image themes from which you may unconsciously operate. Only by doing so will you know whether your core beliefs have been superimposed upon you, adopted out of necessity, or dictated by societal norms. The practice of mindfulness is a useful tool that supports self-inquiry, shining a light on what motivates you, so that you can better align with your authentic values and sustain a lasting sense of wellbeing.
Generally, your habits, feelings, actions, and attitudes reflect the ways you’ve organized yourself around your experience. You’ve also assigned meanings to your experience. While each person’s experience is unique unto themselves, here are some common themes that drive most people’s behavior and core material. Which themes do you relate to?
Social and cultural norms
Safety and belonging
Freedom and responsibility
Love, support, appreciation
Openness and honesty
Power and control
Where to Begin
If you’ve ever longed to change your way of “being” in the world, you may ask, “Where do I begin?” With the practice of mindfulness, you begin by consciously preparing for self-reflection. This may require setting aside time, clearing distractions, and being open to do the work. Noticing and naming what you discover is also part of the process.
Why is it important to explore core material and themes? It’s important because core material is constantly shaping your present experience. When you engage in self-inquiry and explore your core material, you may discover themes and behaviors that no longer serve you or that don’t harmonize with your authentic self. Awareness gifts you the opportunity to move beyond limiting beliefs and behaviors, to deepen into the beliefs, actions, or perceptions that better align with what you want to manifest in your life and relationships.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) -- A Tool for Mindfulness
In my private practice, I’ve used Somatic Experiencing® (SE; developed by Peter Levine) to teach mindfulness. This sensorimotor practice consciously explores body sensation to illuminate how you’ve learned to relate to any distressing bodily reactions that may arise when you’re faced with situations that your body interprets as threatening, stressful, or overwhelming.
SE teaches you how to actively notice, feel, describe, track, and name uncomfortable body sensations being driven by your nervous system’s response to anxiety, stress, or overwhelm. Changing how you relate to these sensations/situations can help you reorganize your nervous system’s response to stress, even transforming the meaning you’ve previously assigned to such sensations.
This naturalistic approach to anxiety, stress, trauma, and overwhelm opens the door to positive change on many levels. For example, if you experienced adverse or overwhelming events in childhood (neglect, injury, abuse, or medical intervention etc.), you may still struggle as an adult with themes of safety and belonging and/or power and control in your life. This usually occurred if there was little emotional support or repair after a distressing event in childhood. Over time, you may have come to dread your habituated physical and emotional reactions that arise in uncomfortable situations, in present time—like intense worry, fear, dread, nervousness, insomnia, palpitations, or even panic attacks. Unless you transform how you relate to your body sensations, your reaction to negative experiences and memories will always create unpleasant reactions in your body, disrupting your ability to feel calm, safe, or connected.
When you commit to self-inquiry and do the work, the rewards are long-lasting. Coming to understand yourself on a deeper level will help you reorganize your approach to life. Dampening and even resolving your response to stress also pays big dividends towards optimizing your long-term health and your capacity for resilience. Doing so becomes the foundation for establishing well-being.
