The majority of us may have memories of playing outside until dark, rolling and jumping in muck and dirt, splashing in puddles, having fingertips almost frost bitten from playing in the snow and a having a feeling of infinity and of having so much time and endless hours in every day!

If you pause and observe, you will notice how blissful, how peaceful, how playful most children are and how completely immersed they are in their moment.  You can see that they are almost on a different wavelength than us adults, something that many of us may be so envious of! That’s because they are.  They are high on theta brainwaves.

Until the age of eight years, children live in this beautiful brainwave of bliss! They can download their experiences from their environments at an incredible speed, they have the ability to learn multiple languages, they see and notice everything around them, they believe everything that they see and hear and what they tell themselves.  This is also the time where their core beliefs are formed. This is the lovely dreamy, hypnotic, meditative and subconscious frequency where anything is possible!

I find that by continuously checking in with my mind, body and emotions and by asking myself the question, “what would your 8-year-old-self do in this situation”?, I am better able to take myself less seriously, to immerse myself into the lighter and less stressful side of life. I am better able to enjoy the simple pleasures that brought me so much fun and laughter as a child, like riding a bike, spinning around on roller skates, splashing in puddles, bouncing on a trampoline, going on adventures in the woods, watching the clouds pass by…

All these precious little moments and elements that help us to feel truly alive, present and very peaceful in any moment.  In the words of Dharma Mittra:

“If you open your heart and become like a child, you will always be blissful, always content”.

For example, I was out walking one of the days last week with my little baby on a cool, bright, fresh winter morning. As I got hotter, my body was screaming to me “take your coat off and enjoy the fresh cool air on your arms!”. But, my conditioned adult mind, my ego, was fighting back saying, “you can’t do that, it’s too cold, you will get a chill and get sick”. Having asked my inner child, my 8-year-old-self, “what would you do?”, I threw off my coat and I can’t describe how alive and present I felt!

It really is possible to just let ourselves go, to move outside of our comfort zone, to unleash our inner child and to wholly live and experience any moment you are in. We just need to increase our awareness as we move through each moment. This way we can truly learn how to ‘show up’, ‘be present for’ and to ‘really experience our daily lives’ and not just coast through on auto-pilot or live at the mercy of our ego!

This week, make a commitment to yourself to try to live more presently. Use any or all of your 5 senses to help you to show up in your life. Embrace nature, kick a ball, ride a bike, splash in a puddle, find a frog, pet a bird, walk on a tree plank, do something, anything that will ignite that fun loving and playful inner child inside of you!!

As beautifully put by Deepak Chopra:

“Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real”.

HOW TO CONNECT WITH AND HEAR THE VOICE OF YOUR ‘8-YEAR-OLD-SELF’:

1. To connect with and to hear the voice of your inner child, your 8-year-old-self, create an awareness of the moment you are in by using your senses and by asking yourself “what would my 8-year-old-self do?”.
2. Envision the carefree, fun loving, blissful theta frequencies that you may have experienced in your own childhood and allow yourself to embrace these feelings, emotions and memories and to feel the excitement and opportunity in your moment.
3. Allow yourself to laugh and to see the lighter side of your moment, allow yourself to find the silliness in your day!
4. Fully and wholly immerse yourself into enjoying ‘just this moment’ and treating the harder and complicated moments with the pure, innocent and unconditional simplicity that an 8-year-old child would!

© Leona McDonnell Mindfulness and Wellness 2022

(Sonia Choquette)

This is a very powerful question, “what does my body NEED right now?” But it’s also a very difficult question to answer as it requires being able to quiet the chatter of your mind and to learn how to deeply listen to the whispers of your soul. I ask myself this question most days, particularly on the tougher days and really listen for the answers, as I have learned the hard way that the body is a temple, what we put in, we get out and it deserves to be treated with tenderness, care, kindness, understanding and love.

It seems that over the last few decades, we are being conditioned to just keep going, to keep pushing on with life, with work, with family, without taking much time to consider the effect of this erratic and demanding way of living on our bodies. I personally have never been taught (before introducing Mindfulness, Kindness and Compassion into my life) to praise my body, to listen to my body and to its subtle or not so subtle signs and messages that it continuously sends to my heart and soul. Before this, I would have found it absurd to actually ask my body what it ‘NEEDS’ in any moment and even more absurd to listen and hear the responses to this question, until I learned the importance and power of doing just this!

So why do we find self-love, self-care, self-compassion and self-kindness for our bodies or indeed our minds so difficult? I guess it’s because, it can be a daunting and unfamiliar experience to turn ‘WITHIN’ ourselves, to tune into the fine frequencies deep within our hearts and souls. It can be uncomfortable for many of us to get to know our ‘true selves’, our ‘true souls’ as we are so used to just making and pushing our bodies to perform, to operate, to live. It takes courage to confront, to calm, quieten and disconnect from the stories and uncertainties that our minds will always try to convince us of. A quote I love to illustrate this is:

“Go inside and listen to your body, because your body will never lie to you. Your mind will play tricks, but the way you feel in your heart, in your guts, is the truth”

(Miguel Ruiz)

So what can we expect to hear back from our body when we ask it ‘what it NEEDS right now?’ The most common replies will most likely be sleep, better rest times, balanced nutrition, water, exercise, quiet time to rest your mind, time to spend with family and friends, time to spend in nature, time to connect with and care for ourselves and others. I feel that by continuously checking in with and tuning into our body and granting it whatever it is that it truly needs in any moment, we can live a more balanced life in the mind, body and soul. We can learn how to delicately protect our body by honouring it through active listening and therefore, we can prevent it from getting to a stage where we crack, we break, we fall apart as we are burned out. A quote to illustrate this is:

“If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to hear it scream”

(Project Happiness)

Once you learn the art of connecting with and listening deeply to your body and its messages and signals, the next part of the process is to learn to honour your body by letting go of all the pressures we regularly put on ourselves, the demands, the expectations and just ‘grant’ your body whatever it is that it needs. This is by far the hardest part because it requires making space and time in your day, in your life, for self-care and respect, in what ever shape or form that works for you. But this is the most magical part of the equation! As you listen more to what your body is telling you and as you actively implement its suggestions, you are honouring and taking care of yourself on a deep, personal, intimate level and your body will respond by helping you to feel empowered, energised, compassionate and deeply connected to your soul and you will be able to live more peacefully, with inner calmness and an enriched and nourished respect for your amazing body!

A thought to leave you with:

“Take Care
Rest your mind to stay healthy
Rest your brain to think positive
Rest your soul to keep your body alive”

(Diya)

How to ASK, LISTEN TO and RESPECT ‘what your body NEEDS right now’:

The following is a guide on how to ASK, LISTEN TO and RESPECT ‘what your body NEEDS right now’:

• During the normal moments of your day, form the habit of asking yourself ‘what does my body NEED right now?‘
• Listen intently and notice any guidance or signs that your body may send you in response. If you feel that something is not working for you at the moment, this is your ‘gut instinct’, your ‘soul’ communicating with you. You just need to really tune in and listen.
• Be courageous and respectful in granting your body whatever it is that it needs in any moment. If it is sleep, then make time to take an extra rest in your day or to go to bed earlier. If it is better food choices, tune into how the foods you eat make you feel. If it is fresh air, make time to spend some time outdoors.
• Notice any signs or signals from your body that you may be overloaded, you may be under too much stress and pressure. Your body may need you to do absolutely nothing, to just let yourself be as you are in your moment. If this is the case, trust that you are enough and grant your body what it needs.
• Express appreciation to your body for the incredible work it does to keep you alive every day. Develop a deep and nurtured connection with your body so that you can hear the whispers of your soul.

Noticing and tuning into the beauty in nature

Thank you as always to Brian O’Loughlin at The Westmeath Examiner and his team at Celtic Media Group (https://www.anglocelt.ie/, https://www.con-telegraph.ie/, https://www.meathchronicle.ie/, https://www.offalyindependent.ie/, https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/ and https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/ for all their wonderful help!

As published by The Celtic Media Group w/c 22/2/2021

(Brené Brown)

What a beautiful quote by Brené Brown in relation to our personal boundaries. Setting boundaries is something that can be so important for us all in many respects. It can be important for us to seal or fence off our homes, so that our external boundaries are set and laid out for everyone to see where our personal space starts and where the line occurs for someone to enter into that space.

Boundaries can be just as important in terms of our own mental, emotional and physical space. I feel that it is essential that we all individually establish our own personal boundaries so that we and others know what is acceptable or unacceptable in our personal lives.

This is something I struggled with for a long time. As an empath and an energy worker, it is in my nature to always want to help, fix and heal everybody and everything! I struggled so much in being able to say ‘no’ to people who may have been asking something of me even if I wasn’t in full health myself and in turn I would have been left feeling depleted or energetically drained as a result of ‘not listening’ to my own inner warning alarms.

It is a difficult task to start to respectfully listen to and hear your own inner voice and its guidance and wisdom. It takes a lot of courage to start to clearly define your own personal internal and external boundaries in order to protect and nurture your own health and wellbeing. I slowly learned that ‘saying an outer ‘NO’ is saying and inner ‘YES’ and that it is ok to do this, without feeling selfish or uncaring. A quote I love to illustrate this is:

“Boundaries are not meant to control others, they are meant to be used as guidelines for you to know what is acceptable and what is not in your life”

(sherylgriffin.com)

When we talk about boundaries in the context of mental health and well-being, it can be things like your personal lifestyle choices, your circle of family and friends, your beliefs and values and how much of yourself that you define as acceptable to invest into any of these areas on a daily basis.

It is about being able to identity and outline where your own cut off points are once your own defined boundary line is reached. When I started to establish my personal boundaries in every aspect of my life, I did feel selfish and uncaring, particularly when it came to downsizing my close/support circle of family and friends, but as time went on, I learned and felt that defining these boundaries was the best gift I could ever have given myself. It was a way of protecting myself, my energy, my beliefs and values and it enabled me to live alongside likeminded people. As so beautifully put by Mandy Hale:

“It is necessary, and even vital, to set standards for your life and the people you allow in it”

Let’s look at what a boundary is: “a definite place where your responsibility ends and another person’s begins. It stops you from doing things for others that they should do for themselves” (trans4mind.com).

It is easy to see the importance of setting up physical boundaries in our external lives, such as fencing, hedging, gates, separate entrances and so on. It is more difficult to see the importance of setting up our internal or non-tangible boundaries so that we protect our inner selves, so that we don’t let others deplete and drain us by crossing over our boundary points.

Now let’s look at what a boundary does: “a boundary also prevents you from rescuing someone from the consequences of their destructive behaviour that they need to experience in order to grow” (trans4mind.com).

So in effect, setting up your own internal and external boundaries is imperative for everyone involved. It helps to set clearly defined guidelines of what’s acceptable or unacceptable behaviour in your life. It helps to protect all parties involved from each other and helps to alleviate any confusion about your expectations.

An empowering thought to leave you with:

“Boundaries
I allow myself to set healthy boundaries
To say no to what does not align with my values
To say yes to what does
Boundaries assist me to remain healthy, honest and living a life that is true to me”

(simpleeserene.com)

HOW TO IDENTIFY AND ESTABLISH YOUR PERSONAL INTERNAL BOUNDARIES:

1. Create a space in your day where you can quietly connect with your mind and body so that you can hear what your soul wants you to know.

2. Close your eyes if you wish. Sit quietly and take 5 regulating breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth (if possible, if not just breathe in your own regular rhythm while focusing your attention on your feet resting on the floor).

3. As you continue to relax into the moment, place one hand over your heart chakra (your centre of compassion, empathy, love and forgiveness) and the other hand over your solar plexus chakra (which regulates personality, ego, identity, personal freedom, choice and authenticity, located in the upper tummy above the belly button and below the diaphragm).

4. Now ask your soul, what do you want me to know in this moment? How can I protect my personal internal space? How can I establish my personal internal boundaries?

5. Carefully listen to any thoughts, visions or feelings that you may experience in this moment. This is your soul communicating to you what you need to know. This is your gut instinct and it will never let you down.

6. Continue to breathe in your own natural rhythm while purposely letting go and releasing into the moment. Continue to ask for guidance on any area of your life that needs structure and boundaries. Carefully listen to and tune into your body so that you can hear the guidance from your inner self.

7. When you are ready, open your eyes if you had them closed and let go of this practice. Feel the flow of courage, self-love and self-respect flow through you as you start to establish and define your internal boundaries and respect your inner soul.

Thank you as always to Brian O’Loughlin at The Westmeath Examiner and his team at Celtic Media Group (https://www.anglocelt.ie/, https://www.con-telegraph.ie/, https://www.meathchronicle.ie/, https://www.offalyindependent.ie/, https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/ and https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/ for all their wonderful help!

As published by The Celtic Media Group w/c 5/4/2021

(Jon Kabat-Zinn)

‘Beginners Mind’, is a concept derived by Jon Kabat-Zinn and it is one of the essential attitudes or elements to Mindfulness. By far, I feel that it is one of the trickiest attitudes of Mindfulness to integrate into your daily living but it is definitely one of the most life changing and liberating attitudes when you do!

Living with a ‘Beginners Mind’ approach to everything you do means that you allow yourself to live each moment of your life as if it is the first time you are seeing, hearing, feeling, moving, working in the very moment that you are in. In theory, this is very true, as each moment and experience we have lived are now in our past, they are now gone, we can’t touch them anymore and each moment we have yet to live or experience are in our future, they have not yet happened nor are they guaranteed to happen.

This is a very liberating way of living your life, as you purposely choose to detach yourself from any of your mental, emotional or physical experiences and responses from your past and also from any preconceived or expected outcomes that you may have generated about your future. This in turn helps to switch off the activation of the stored memories and experiences in the hippocampus part of our brain and helps to engage the pre-frontal cortex in our brain, which helps us to make better, more informed, regulated responses and choices in any moment.

Thus, the sky’s the limit, possibilities are endless! You are setting yourself free from any fears, worries, anxieties or traumas that you may have experienced in your past and you are giving yourself liberated space and freedom to just live in the moment. You can then experience whatever it is you are doing, without all the negative and fearful chatter and critic in your mind and live as if it is the first time you are doing it, because it actually is the first time you are doing it in this moment!

This way of living does require awareness and commitment from you, so that you can catch the activation of your past experiences and intercept them before they determine how you ‘think’ your day or experience is going to turn out, based on your stored memories and sensations from your past experiences. A quote I love to illustrate this is:

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning”.

(Meister Eckhart)

For example, I am not a keen flyer so when a family wedding arose abroad a few years back, the first thing that happened me when I heard about it was my fears and anxieties from previous flying experiences, deeply stored in the hippocampus part of my brain, activated and paralysed me with similar fear I felt in the past. I didn’t feel I could take the flight because of my past worries and experiences. But when I started to prime and condition my brain with a ‘Beginners Mind’ attitude, that being that I had never taken ‘this flight, on this day, to this place’ before and that I had no way of scripting or predicting how this flight would turn out as it hadn’t yet happened, I found the mental, emotional and physical strength to take this flight and to remain very calm, while engaging my regulating breathing practice. This was a changing point in my life, as I freed myself from my own mind and what it ‘wanted’ me to believe. I just lived in the very moment, second by second and it was all ok!

Another quote I absolutely love in relation to ‘Beginners Mind’ and find very empowering is:

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them”.

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

I always say that I learn some of the most important life lessons from watching and listening to my own children and the children that I work with. All children have the most incredible ability to be present in their moment, to see the natural beauty and awe of each moment they experience. As quoted by ‘Katrina Mayer’, “there’s joy and wonder everywhere when you see the world through the eyes of a child”. They allow themselves the freedom to laugh, play, notice, be curious and just experience their moment to the full. This is what ‘Beginners Mind’ is all about!!! Allow these precious little humans to teach you this amazing and fulfilling way of living your life every day!

A thought to leave you with:

“Children naturally live in the moment and they allow that moment to be what it is; magical and beautiful in every way”.

(April Peerless)

HOW TO ADOPT AN ATTITUDE OF ‘BEGINNERS MIND’ INTO YOUR DAILY LIVING

The following is a guide on how to adopt an attitude of ‘Beginners Mind’ into your daily living:

1. Upon awakening every morning, affirm to yourself that ‘this’ day is a ‘new day’ and that you have not yet lived or experienced it.

2. Commit and allow yourself the mental, emotional and physical space and freedom to live and experience each moment of your day through the ‘eyes of a child’, full of wonder, awe, natural beauty an excitement. See the lighter side of life!

3. When past experiences and memories start to activate and hi-jack you, take 3 regulating breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth (if possible) to anchor yourself back to your present moment experience.

4. While anchored back to your present moment experience, affirm to yourself that this is the ‘first time’ you are in this moment, in this exact moment of time, and continue to use your breath or your senses to help you to live liberally in your moment.

5. Notice the beauty and simplicity of nature – flowers, plants, shrubs and trees start to bud in Spring bringing a beautiful, simple but yet powerful and innocent hope of new life dawning in each new day, just being present and fully embracing the present moment experience!

Thank you as always to Brian O’Loughlin at The Westmeath Examiner and his team at Celtic Media Group (https://www.anglocelt.ie/, https://www.con-telegraph.ie/, https://www.meathchronicle.ie/, https://www.offalyindependent.ie/, https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/ and https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/ for all their wonderful help!

As published by The Celtic Media Group w/c 15/02/2021