My seaside saviour

The view from my 'mediation cave'

This time last week I sat at my computer screen, a lump of anxiety growing in my chest. My itty bitty shitty committee holding a VERY LOUD meeting in my head.  

The general order of business?: "Everything is wrong with you and with your life" ...

your business is not growing as fast as it should

you’re not qualified enough - you need another degree

your new blog post is boring

Your smoothie pictures are not gram-worthy

you have no idea how to grow and run a business

you should have stayed in law

you should really do some exercise

but you haven’t been productive enough to just swan off for a bush walk or do some yoga ...

And the discussion went on … and on ... until I was near melt down.

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that our itty bitty shitty committees (and yes, we all have them!) generate between 60-80 thousand thoughts every day - close to one every second.

So there was no way I was halting the committee meeting proceedings.   

I hate to break it to you - but we can’t just stop our thoughts! (if we could, then you’d be able to stop thinking of a red elephant when I say: ‘stop thinking of a red elephant’!)

But!

We CAN transform our relationship with our thoughts so they have less control over us. And we do it with … drum roll please … MINDFULNESS (of course)!

So, mid melt-down, I decided to take my own advice.

I marched out the door for a brisk walk on the beach (I’m ridiculously lucky to live one street back from!) to get out of my head and into my body.

On the beach I took off my shoes, and pressed my feet into the sand, bringing my awareness into the sensations in my feet and legs.

As I walked I noticed the sand shifting underfoot, the wind whipping round my face, the smell of salty sea spray tinged with the sweet smell of sand dune flowers.

And I immediately felt better.

I spied a driftwood fort in the dunes and headed over to squirrel myself away from the wind.  

It was so cosy in there I took myself through a body scan meditation - noticing the sensations in my body as I sat.  The sound of the wind and the waves my only distraction.

And in just 20 minutes I was a transformed.  

I’m not exaggerating when I say I literally floated back to the house a totally different person.

This mindfulness stuff it magic I tell ya - I wish I knew about it earlier in my life.  And now I want to share it with as many people as I can!
 

If you’d like an instant mindfulness hit in your life, you can sign up up on my homepage to receive my free mindfulness meditation series.   It includes a body scan just like the one I led myself through on the beach.

Try it and let me know how you find it - I’d love to hear how it works for you.
 

Em x