Meditation can seem a daunting task, can I do it? Will I be
good enough? I can’t settle my mind to do what needs to be done. A common
misconception about mindfulness is that you have to be into meditation, or have
to practice long hours to get any benefit from it. Neither could be further
from the truth.
A simple form of mindful meditation has you taking the time
to scan your body part by part and acknowledge each part in turn. You start at
the top of your head and end with the tips of your toes. Let’s say you start
your practice and the first thing you notice is that you have a headache. The
purpose of mindfulness is not to dwell on the fact that you HAVE a headache and
to dwell on how painful it is, but instead to acknowledge it and to continue on.
It’s not about trying to come up with the “right” answer or trying to fix
something, it’s just trying to realize what it is and say, “Yes, my head hurts
but there’s more to me than that. I am more than just a headache.”
When scanning your body there are many distractions that can
come up. Kids running around making noise, cars honking, thoughts of things
going on at the office, that’s when you pull your thoughts back to your body
scan, not with reproach but gently and kindly.
Even authors and readers use mindfulness. When you take each
word as it is written and focus solely on each one as it’s written. You can hear
the silence from when the birds stop chirping, the growl that paralyzes you in
fear. Everything you write, everything you read can be a practice in
mindfulness if you take the time to focus on each word. Take this passage for
example:
First, the birds went silent and then the bushes rustled to her right. A guttural growl sent raw fear pedaling through her veins. Had she flushed out a bear, worse, a mama bear protecting her cub? Her hands went to the straps around her neck, a foolish instinct that overrode the alarm bells roaring in her head. She slipped the camera over her shoulder, her hands shaking like leaves caught up in an eddy. When the scrub brush parted, a mountain lion strolled onto the trail. The alarm bells morphed into paralyzing fear. Holy crap, what is a mountain lion doing in this neck of the woods?When you read that you could almost put yourself in that situation, it's as if you were almost there. If you want to take some more time getting into this story check out Season, Unforgettable by Keta Diablo.
"So much action. The plot kept winding around and had me guessing the whole second part of the book. This is my first book by this author. It was so good I plan to read more. I give this five BIG stars. I loved it so much!"
"Diablo made me laugh, cry and mostly, bite my fingernails down to the quick. I thoroughly enjoyed every nail-biting page, and award Season, Unforgettable five unforgettable stars!"
About Season, Unforgettable
Her land is not for sale, not even to the gorgeous man who saved her from a mountain lion attack. Both will discover that sometimes love blooms between enemies and sometimes it's even lethal.
AVAILABLE HERE - .99 CENTS
Thanks so much for visiting today,
The first time I heard of this was from a woman whose husband had insomnia. He learned to take each part of his body, starting with his toes, and tell them to go to sleep. Not exactly the same thing, but close. Love the cover of Season, Unforgettable.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I took a course on relieving stress to use in an adult education class I taught in career development. It was based on the same principle. You start with your head and neck and relax all the muscles in that particular area until you reach your toes. It's a way of "calming" the entire body. "Season, Unforgettable" sounds like a great read. Best of luck with sales and promotion. :-)
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