What mindfulness exercises can I do to work my brain muscles?
Our brain is a muscle which needs exercise just the same as any other muscle in our body.
A new study has suggested that an average person has 6,200 thoughts per day.
It is estimated that 70-80% of those thoughts are negative.
That’s 4960 negative thoughts.
Let’s explore how our thoughts, create emotions which form our behaviour.
Say we have an external event eg presenting 3 things about our profession or interest, delivering a 60-second pitch or a 10-minute showcase,
We have 5 senses and process 2 million bits of information.
Our brain then uses the filters to
· Delete
· Generalise
· Distort
It uses language, metaprograms, values & beliefs, decisions and memories to then use 5-9 bits of information to produce an internal representation and emotional state. These thoughts and feelings, whether positive or negative, create a physiology and determine what we do – our behaviour.
The trick is to train our brains to not dwell on the past because that event has been and gone, it was an experience which we learnt from, not to be too far in the future because we haven’t got there and lots of things can happen on the way, but to remain present and enjoy being here and now.
How can you do that?
Here are 3 mindfulness exercises that you can do
1. Check-in with yourself to become really aware of where you are in the moment - I like to use visual picture check in cards with my clients to help them explain what the picture means to them & how they are arriving at the session.
2. Breathing exercise - try moving your finger around your hand and breathe in as you go up the finger and out as you go down your finger
3. The Thinking Cap – this promotes concentration, minimises distraction and improves thinking skills. Starting at the top of the ear, gently unroll the parts of each ear simultaneously with your thumb.