Wellness
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Akroasis is here to help you on your first steps to act on practicing healthy habits on your daily basis which will allow you to attain better physical and mental health outcomes. Several areas of your lifestyle are considered aspects of your overall wellness. Social connectedness, exercise, nutrition, sleep and mindfulness are contributor factors that have great impact on your physical and mental health. Together we will focus on mindfulness practices which some include yoga, breathwork, meditation, yoga nidra / visualization.
Mindfulness is being aware of what is going on inside and outside of our self at any given moment. Oftentimes we become so absorbed by our own thoughts forgetting about the world around us and how our bodies respond to it. As a result, we are unaware of how thoughts and emotions reflect on our physical body leaving us most of times in an overwhelming state of stress or confusion.
As a practice, mindfulness connects us with the present moment by using our senses, and live into the Here & Now. By focusing on the breath during breathwork it is easier for us to connect with the here and now. It's difficult to understand that the Now is all there is, unless we experience it with our body's senses. The health benefits of breathwork range from stress and pain relief and improved sleep patterns to a greater potential of breaking out of depression or addiction.
Yoga practices have been shown to affect how the brain works and even its structure. People who practice yoga training have shown increased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion which is generally less active in people with depression.
Mindfulness practices such as meditation, help us to become more aware of the train of thoughts and feelings that we experience and to see how we can become wrapped up in that stream in ways that are not helpful. Meditation allows us to take a step back from our thoughts and start to see their patterns. Gradually, we can train ourselves through meditation to notice when our thoughts are taking over and realize that thoughts are simply 'mental events' that do not have to control us.
Mindfulness is a way of befriending
ourselves and our experience.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Images by : Simon Wilkes & John Fornander / Unsplash
Many of us have difficulties that we struggle to let go and mindfulness can help us deal with them in a more productive way. One of the most important and basic questions to ask ourselves in similar moments is : "Will this kill me? " or "Is this true?"
This kind of perspective breaks the stream of thoughts that are based on beliefs and puts us in the scope of questioning and reframing. Awareness of this kind also helps us notice signs of stress or anxiety in advance and helps us deal with them better.
Being Mindful
The first step to mindfulness is to remind ourselves to stay in a position of observation and take notice of our thoughts, feelings, body sensations and the environment we are in. We may call those moments the 'Checking In' moments. Below there are a few tips to begin with your 'Checking In' moments :
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Notice The Everyday
Through our day you can pay attention to the sounds you hear, the sensations you feel, or observe nature like a water stream or the sea, to place yourself in the present moment. One of the greatest and most powerful exercises is to place your attention on your breathing. Not only you practice your focus on the present moment, but also it helps your nervous system to calm.
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Keep it regular & simple
Pick a regular time everyday to practice mindfulness. A regular routine can help you establish a healthy habit which relates to wellness. Have in mind that you don't need to make huge changes all at the same time. Changing your course by 1 degree will cause massive shifts through time.
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Try something new
Challenge yourself to try new things once in a while if not every single day. For example, if you have a favorite meal from that place, order something new this time.
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Watch your thoughts
Keep in mind that mindfulness isn't about making thoughts go away, but rather about watching them as inner mind movies. Imagine that you are watching those movies on mute.
You can also imagine those thoughts as a train that comes and goes without having to get on them. This becomes easier over some period of practice. Keeping your belly relaxed is a nice hack to avoid producing emotions in your body based on those thoughts. If you struggle with certain thoughts, go for a walk outdoors to process and let go of the energy that the thoughts create.
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'Tag' your thoughts & feelings
Some people find it helpful to develop an awareness of their thoughts and feelings by naming them. "Here's the thought that I won't make it through the end" and you can ask your self "Is it True? Maybe not". "This is anxiety I'm feeling in my stomach, how can I make it go away? Let's do some slow breathing".
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Thanksgiving or Gratitude
One of the most famous practices is Gratitude or Thanksgiving. Spending some time to focus on giving thanks on everything around you and everything you have in your life and writing them in a journal can help you build a habit on focusing on the positive side of life. Gratitude is also the positive magnet of things and circumstances. By practicing it in the early hours of the day, it helps you build positive momentum to go through the day.
Image by : John Vargues / Unsplash
Mindfulness Practices
Although practicing mindfulness in daily life can bring you more awareness, setting aside time to meditate, to breathe and to visualize will help you understand your self better and deeper. This is the moment when you stop doing and you start being. You become the container, the channel. You become the energy.
Mindfulness of course isn't the answer to everything, but there is evidence for its use in health, education, prisons and workplaces. Most importantly your own experience is what matters most. If you want to go deeper in these practices you can find more about meditation, breathwork and visualization / yoga nidra in the subpages of this section.