self care – Leona McDonnell Mindfulness and Wellness

Soothing my Soul

Leona McDonnell — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 19:50:24 +0000

The level of planning, preparing and effort that went into getting this 20 minutes to sit and read a book, by myself (well nearly by myself as the children were playing in the sand in front of me!!) was CRAZY!!!

My husband snapped this shot of me as I fully immersed myself in this moment and wrapped myself in my own cocoon of repair and restore as I got lost in this wonderful book, which I would highly recommend, called Underwater by Claire Walsh!

Why do we struggle so much in expressing our need for our own time and finding the space to get it?

The answer is probably very simple …. GUILT and LACK OF TIME. Doesn’t so much of our lives and how we choose to live them come down to these two elements? There will always be something more important to do or places to go or errands to run than actually allowing ourselves to sit, in our own company and do whatever it is that soothes and ignites our soul …. RIGHT?

100% Wrong!!

It is CRITICAL that we all create, find and take time to connect to ourselves, to our souls, to our likes and loves every day! We NEED to find and nourish the parts of ourselves that we may feel disconnected from or that we may have lost somewhere along the road of childhood to adulthood or particularly as some of us may have become parents in our journey or are perhaps caring for elderly or sickly parents.

As a mum of three children myself, the struggle to gift myself a little bit of my own time is so real. It can be extremely overwhelming at times being blessed with the incredible opportunity to look after and guide these precious young people in their lives, especially without a parenting manual guide on how to do it!!!! The constant questioning and guilt that we can feel as parents and especially as mothers about putting ourselves before our little one’s can be very intense. But yet, if you listen to the safety instructions on board an aeroplane before take-off, it is recommended that parents, guardians or carers ‘fit their own oxygen masks first in the case of an emergency’ so that they are better able to help those that are in their care. Makes complete sense but so many of us would probably try to do the exact opposite in such an emergency and can’t seem to apply this rationale in our everyday living either. We tend to make sure that everyone else has enough air and oxygen and whatever else it is that they need before we do. Where do you think this will end up??

This is why it is imperative that we don’t get lost or defined in any of the roles that we play in our lives and that we do whatever we need to do to ensure that we lively truly, happily and wholly and that we show up and be present and understanding to the best of our own individual ability, while still feeling that we are a recognisable and loving part of ourselves!

My question to you???

What are you going to do today to help to ‘Soothe and Ignite your Soul’???

To leave you with a beautiful and inspiring quote by Michael Singer from his incredible book 'The Untethered Soul':

The truth is, everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that's the only time everything will be okay.

Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul

Nourishing your ‘Heart Flower’

Leona McDonnell — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 18:37:19 +0000

What if your heart was enclosed inside a beautiful, soft, delicate but vibrant flower? It’s petals gently resting over your beating heart keeping it shielded and protected from the hurts and pains of everyday life.

If you had the option to leave this flower closed with your heart secure and tucked up inside it or if you could nourish, nurture and help this flower to slowly and gently open it’s petals, spreading them as widely as possibly and bathing in sunshine, warmth and love, letting your heart emerge and truly live, feel and love, which option would you choose?

I would absolutely choose to let my heart live and love fully and wholly! I have slowly learned that gently caring for and empowering my ‘heart flower’ to raise its petals and to allow my heart to surface and to feel the joys, hurts and pains of human existence has been the most transforming and life changing skill I have ever embodied.

Of course, we all want to keep ourselves safe and shielded from pain as who wants to feel mental, emotional or physical pain? Not many people I am sure. But unfortunately, as humans, we will all experience pain in our lives. So why not do this with a beautifully cared for and nurtured garden in your heart, where your ‘heart flower’ can fill itself full of the all the positive and nourishing elements from our environment needed to live through hurt and pain but also allowing it to gently close again when needed to shield and protect itself during times of increased stress or anxiety?

As beautifully described by Debasish Mridha:

“Nourish yourself with the water of love to grow flowers of happiness in the garden of your heart”.

This concept is something I have been working with a lot lately in my own personal daily living and I have also began to bring this learning and teaching into my daily work with children, teens and adults.

I find the analogy of planting seeds of love and kindness in our hearts and choosing to live with awareness and through acts of kindness, compassion and in particular self-compassion as a way of nourishing these seeds to full bloom so empowering!

I love how this theory and practise enhances anyone’s ability to introduce or increase their access to nature and to nature connection, whether in the mind, heart or body.

Research is mounting as to the positive health benefits of having some time connecting with nature daily. People have reported feeling less stressed, calmer with lower heart rates, lower blood pressure, better sleep, digestion and immune function after spending some time daily outdoors or through visualisation, listening to nature music or painting if time physically outdoors is not possible.

All of these examples help us to create a slower pace of living in our mind and in turn, our body positively responds!

The power of imagining your heart as being a garden and that you get to choose what kind of seeds that you want to plant in it, to prune, to nurture and to live with is incredible.

I personally find that this helps me create a softer, more loving and caring version of myself with a deep realisation that I need to invest the time, patience and energy into my own heart garden if I want to reap what I sow! I need to shower my heart garden with love and understanding if I want to help to bring it to full bloom.

In the words of Dr Armin A. Zadeh:

“Love is a delicate flower that needs nurturing and protection to bloom”.

HOW TO NOURISH YOUR HEART FLOWER:

Take regular moments throughout your day to pause and connect to your heart and soul. Place your hand upon your heart and use your breath to send life force oxygen to your beating heart.
Express thankfulness daily to your heart and every part of your body for everything it does to keep you alive every second.
Nourish your heart, mind and body with kind, caring and compassionate words and thoughts, those that will help your ‘heart flower’ to bloom into vibrancy.
Ensure that your environment is one that will help and promote the best personal growth and care for you. Plant the kind of seeds that you want to grow in your ‘heart garden’ and prune and weed out anything that you do not wish to live with daily.
Understand that just like nature, everything takes time and patience. Trust in the natural process, just like Mother Earth trusts in herself and her natural cycles.
Make time every day for self-care. Nurture your heart and body with the things that you love to do in life, things that ignite your soul and things that will help your ‘heart flower’ to open and emerge into full bloom!

Closed Heart Flower

Opening Heart Flower

Heart Flower in Full Bloom

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 9/4/2022

A ‘hybrid model’ of self motivation and fulfilment

Leona McDonnell — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 12:46:11 +0000

In recent years and in today’s constant, busy, erratic world, everything seems to be getting faster, fitter, more efficient, more effective, more robotic, more automated. It really does seem that there is a new era of this ‘hybrid’ mode of living dawning upon us all. Everything has to perform at the optimum level possible!!!

But is this really the way we want to live our lives? What ever happened to gently working towards our life purpose, our family, our homes, our jobs, our future hopes and aspirations while living wholly and presently in our daily lives? How did the simple mode of working hard and honestly but at a healthy, sustainable pace, allowing room and time for rest, repair and recovery get so lost along the way? How did we enter an ‘all or nothing’ way of living?

That used to be me. I used to push myself to the highest of levels in everything that I did. I had to be the best. I had to get the best exam results, study the hardest, work the longest hours, push my exercise and fitness to limits of exhaustion, sleep little, move fast, while competing against ‘nobody other than myself’. Needless to say, this erratic way of living and behaviour towards myself resulted in mental, emotional and physical illness that railroaded me for over 3 years.

So what was the lesson to learn? It was simple! In order to work hard, to become more efficient and effective, to push myself out of my comfort zone, to achieve my hopes and dreams, I had to ‘take my foot off the pedal’, ‘to slow down’ and ‘retract inwards’, towards my heart and soul. I had to become ‘my own inner coach’, I had to unfriend my inner critic who bullied me for so long and who was constantly pushing me to levels unsustainable to my mental, emotional and physical health.

Once I started ‘my new hybrid way of living’, of understanding, listening to, empowering and motivating myself, I started to feel more fulfilled in every ounce of my mind, body and heart than I did in my whole life! I became alive and present. I learned to accept and love myself from the inside out. I had to do as Brené Brown describes as:

“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are”

By be-friending, loving and caring for ourselves like we would for someone that we love, we are gifting ourselves the key to set free our true selves, our souls. We are rejoicing to ourselves that ‘we are enough’ and that we deserve to be treated with kindness and affection just as much as anybody else. I really feel that is the secret and most precious ingredient needed to live a happy, healthy, peaceful and fulfilled life.

A life where we can easily motivate and empower ourselves through love and kindness instead of aggression and critical thoughts and words. I believe that way of caring for and nurturing ourselves is a new type of ‘hybrid model’ in the world of positive mental and emotional health and is the one model that has the potential for ‘endless opportunities’ and ‘creating a new era of positivity, love and kindness’. As beautifully described by Shauna Shapiro:

“The key to change is recognising that shame, judgement, and perfection don’t work. When we self-judge, when we put pressure on ourselves, and when we get lost in self-criticism it actually inhibits the brain from learning”

HOW TO ACCEPT, EMBRACE AND SELF-MOTIVATE YOURSELF TO FULFILMENT

Every morning, upon waking, gently place a hand on your heart and say to yourself, “Good morning, I love you”.
While getting ready for your day ahead, take 1 minute to make direct eye contact with yourself in the mirror and say out loud, “I respect you, I am proud of you, today you will do your best and your best is enough”.
During your day, consciously remind yourself to ‘check-in’ with your mind, body and heart. Keep asking yourself, “what can I do in this moment to help myself to feel better?”
Gift yourself with small mindful moments, time to pause, notice and breathe during your day and time to connect with nature.
Every night before going to sleep, gently place a hand on your heart and say to yourself “thank you for everything that you have done for me today. Thank you for helping me to nurture and care for myself, for gifting myself with time to rest, repair and recover, for gently encouraging and motivating myself to fulfil my hopes and dreams in a beautiful kind, caring, loving and friendly manner towards myself. Thank you for being enough”.

As published by The Celtic Media Group 15/01/2022

This is YOUR story and YOU are in charge of each chapter!

Leona McDonnell — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 11:40:26 +0000

Another year has past and we now find ourselves at the beginning of a new year, a blank slate, endless opportunities, hopes, dreams, personal and/or career aspirations or maybe nothing at all. Maybe, it’s just another day and you are happy to be alive and to have made it through another year. There are no rules, we are all uniquely individual!

As we close off 2021, it’s so easy to get caught in the trap of demeaning and degrading ourselves, of feeling a sense of failure or disappointment, as perhaps we didn’t quite achieve or carry out some of the things that we would have liked to during the year. This sense of failure and inadequacy can set a really challenging tone and presence as we try to move forward and in being able to feel motivated, empowered and excited to be starting into a fresh new year ahead.

But one of things I love and we can forget is that ‘we are all in charge of our own story, the content of its chapters and the ending’. No matter what has happened to us in the past, or whatever might happen to us in the future, we ultimately have the power to choose how we want to live our lives and how we want to respond to any life stressors. We have so much more influence and insight into our own life stories and of how we want them to play out than we may realise. In the words of quotesgram.com:

“At any moment, you have the POWER to say this is NOT how the story is going to END”

I feel that by allowing ourselves to carry our hurts, pains or grievances forward, we are allowing ourselves to dampen the creativity, light and love in our hearts and souls. If you stop and think about it, when we breathe, it is not possible to take another breath in before letting the last breath go! It is physically impossible!

So in terms of our thinking, why do we find it so hard to ‘LET GO’? One reason may be that we don’t know how to actually allow or help our mind and body to do this. We may not know how to give ourselves permission to set ourselves free of our burdens and to allow ourselves to live more happily, safely and peaceful in the present moment.

So why not make a commitment to yourself TODAY that you will ‘let go’ of anything that is not serving you well, anything that is not aligned with ‘your story’? Why not embrace your individuality, your uniqueness, everything that makes you the person that you are today?

Not the person that you were yesterday and not the person that you want to be tomorrow, just the person you are NOW in this very moment. Why not take ownership of how you want your story to be written this new year ahead? Don’t let anyone else hold the pen, be in charge of what you want to put into your life story and what you would like to take out of it!

Make a commitment to yourself to surround yourself with only people who will help you to raise your vibrational level, that will help to lift you higher than you could lift yourself and that will not pull you down!!

HOW TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR OWN STORY

Here are some tips on how you can take ownership of your ‘own story’ and how you can ‘let go’ of anything that you do not want to see in its chapters:

Every morning, upon wakening, express thankfulness for being alive and for everything that you DO have in your life. Focus on your blessings rather than on the things that you don’t have.
As thoughts, worries or negativities arise in your day, ask yourself, “is this thought, worry or negativity helpful in this exact moment?” 99% of the time, the answer will be NO! Then affirm to yourself, “I give myself permission to disconnect from this thought, worry or negativity NOW and I WILL NOT ALLOW myself to become consumed by it”.
Bring your attention to your breath and consciously take three nourishing self-care breaths, in and out. If you find it difficult to focus on your breath, bring your attention to your feet and where they connect to the earth beneath you. Feel yourself becoming anchored and increasingly present in your moment.
Take a few moments after doing this practice and notice how the intensity of the original stressor has subsided and how you chose not to let it catapult itself into the writing of your story!

We are all beautifully unique and individual

As published by The Celtic Media Group w/c 01/01/2022

An outer ‘no’ is ok to help you protect your inner self

Leona McDonnell — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 11:22:04 +0000

“Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others”

(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:

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.

Setting boundaries is an act of self-love and self-care

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

If you WIN the morning, you WIN the day

Leona McDonnell — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 15:38:14 +0000

“If you WIN the morning, you WIN the day”, is a quote by Tim Ferris. The motivation, encouragement, empowerment and drive that oozes from it is and can be life changing! What an incredible uplifting attitude to start the day ahead with! The most striking thing about it and about the ‘morning routine’ in general, is that it is a personal choice we can all make as to how we want to set ourselves up for the day ahead!

When you think about an ‘effective’ and ‘beneficial’ morning routine, you may automatically think that is has to incorporate exercise, fresh air, meditation, tea or coffee! But who makes up the rules as to what your own individual morning routine should consist of? Who says it has to compromise elements that may not be suited to you or activities that may cause you more personal blocks in engaging with and implementing a solid and continuous ‘morning routine’?

Winning your own morning can mean so many different things for individual people. What works for one person might not work for the other so it’s important to take some time out and to explore different elements or activities that you would like to try to incorporate into your own ‘morning routine’ in order to become a ‘champion’ of your own day and of your own life.

I am addicted to my own personal ‘morning routine’ as I have found something that really works for me. I love and really look forward to my ‘power hour’ each morning between 6am-7am, before anyone else in my house stirs. This is ‘my’ hour, it’s my own time to reflect, to motivate, to empower and set my mind, body and soul up for the day ahead! I wouldn’t miss it for the world. My addiction to this ‘self-restore’ and ‘self-development’ time is so powerful that it happens anywhere I go, be it away for the night or even on holidays, it’s now a constant pillar in my life and very much a part of who I am. I personally love opening or stepping outside the kitchen door looking onto the garden for a few mins, breathing in the fresh, early morning air, followed by approx 30mins of meditation, stillness, quiet breathing practice, in darkness if possible, followed by approx 30mins of yoga, body stretches with more breath work is my ‘tonic’. I sometimes mix in some journaling, listening to relaxing music during breathwork or guided meditations. This is what revives and ignites my mind, body and soul for my day ahead! I can guarantee you that when you find the ‘morning routine’ that you love and works for you, you too will become addicted to it and all those dopamine and serotonin hormones that it will create!

A quote I love that highlights the importance of ‘setting up’ your mind before you start your day is:

“….you can make up your bed, make up your face but before you leave the house,
MAKE UP YOUR MIND”

(quotemaster.org)

Cultivating a belief and practice of starting each brand-new day, with a new fresh mind and attitude can really help you to become more positive, more affirming and more respectful towards yourself. Committing to yourself that each new-day is a new chapter in your life and is another chance to write or re-write your own life story is like an adrenaline. We always have the power and choice to change a thought or to change our response to a stimulus, we just need to teach our minds how to do this. One way we can learn to do this is to:

“Get up every morning and tell yourself ‘I CAN DO THIS!’”

(changeinseconds.com)

So, taking the time out to investigate, to explore and to examine different elements that may help to set you up to ‘win the morning and win the day’ can be so life changing. Some people may find that something as simple as even getting up an hour earlier each day so that they have an extra hour to ‘live’ each day is their tonic, their fuel, their empowering trigger! Others may like to read, to build a jigsaw, do a crossword, to gratitude journal, exercise, sit quietly, meditate, listen to music, watch and listen to the early morning birds and their bird song, clean the house, maybe prepare the evenings dinner. It really doesn’t matter what you choose to do. It’s about creating a personal space for you to reflect, restore, renew, empower, enhance and to set yourself up for your coming day ahead! When you establish your ‘morning routine’, you will automatically gain more clarity, purpose and commitment to yourself and to your own life. You will feel grateful to have the chance to wake up to another brand-new day and to see the new day for the amazing opportunity it is to do whatever you desire!

A thought to leave you with:

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year”.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

How to set yourself up to ‘WIN the morning and WIN the day:

The following is a guide on how to set yourself up to ‘WIN the morning and WIN the day’:

Start by preparing for your ‘morning routine’ the night before. It is just as important to ensure that you have adequate rest and sleep time the previous night. Limiting screen time the night before can also help you to rise refreshed, restored, renewed and ready to start your ‘morning routine’.

2. Try to create a few minutes in your ‘morning routine’ to write down 3-5 things that you are grateful for in your life and on that particular day. When you see them written down, it helps to create a positive, nurturing response in your body.

3. Affirm to yourself every morning that you are doing the best that you can and to the best of your ability. Confirm to yourself that ‘I CAN and I WILL’ today.

4. Incorporate whatever elements you wish to into your morning routine to help you to feel better able to focus during your day, to feel empowered, to feel like you are accomplishing your goals and dreams.

5. Every-morning, praise and tell yourself that you are ‘PROUD’ of yourself, that you are ‘GRATEFUL’ for the gift of another day of life and that you are ‘COMMITTED’ to doing what you desire to help you to feel and to become the ‘BEST’ version of yourself.

Morning routines can come in different shapes and sizes

Thank you as always to Brian O’Loughlin 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 in The Anglo Celt, Connaught Telegraph, Meath Chronicle, Offaly Independent, Westmeath Examiner and Westmeath Independent newspapers w/c 11/01/2021

Continue this journey with Leona

Build your own mindful morning practice with the self-paced online course Mindfulness and Meditation for Everyday Living.

In the Eye of the Storm

Leona McDonnell — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:22:03 +0000

“At the still point, where the calm is, in the eye of the storm, amidst the chaos of reality … There – I found myself” (Tulasi Menon)

The beauty, strength and yet serenity in this quote is so powerful, inspiring and a pure force of nature. That’s why I love it and sometimes it feels like the storm, the hurricane, the tsunami, and the destruction of Coivd-19 has really pushed so many of us deeply retract into the ‘eye of this storm’. We have had to try to find and discover strength, courage and determination deep within ourselves.

Before Covid-19 introduced itself to our world and started to batter our lands and our shores, many of us often expressed how challenging we found it trying to keep up with work, family, social commitments, with life in general. It nearly seemed that so many of us perhaps felt we were swirling around in the outer layers of the general storm and force of life.

Amazing to think that shortly after this, we all did really get caught up in the forceful, damaging and life changing storm of Covid-19. We all learned very quickly just what a force of nature this particular storm is and we were all forced to experience massive life changes on every level as a result of it. Some people have suffered great mental, emotional, physical pain, loss and grief during this storm and some have managed to avoid the direct impact of its lash but everyone is living with this constant threat, this destructible invisible force of nature.

While many of us are still coming to terms with and digesting the pandemic, we have somehow managed to find and embrace a calm, solace and serenity deep within the ‘eye of this storm’. Many people have welcomed an intimate, safe, private place to breathe inside their own homes and with their own close family and loved ones during varying levels of lockdown restrictions. It almost seemed that during Ireland’s first lockdown earlier in the year, that many of us got the chance to revert deeply back into our lives, our homes and had the opportunity to slow down from the hectic pace of life.

For me, both the first lockdown and the present one have truly transformed my ability to self soothe, to calm and relax myself, my mind, body and emotions. They have really enabled me to find my own calm, peace and serenity during an invasive, brutal and life destroying storm. I am a naturally anxious and nervous person and so I have a very easily stimulated and over reactive amygdala (the stress response centre in the brain). This means that something another person may perceive as a minimal threat or danger in life has the ability to send me into ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode, into a state of panic and fear. Many people experience this on a daily basis and some only for the first and subsequent times since the storm of Covid-19 hit.

This is where I use daily mindfulness, meditation, body movement, good food choices, water intake, extra early bed times and early rise times, walking, being outside in Mother Earth’s beauty and serenity to help me to find and maintain calmness, balance and ease of living even while being in the ‘eye of the Covid-19 storm’. What’s really surprised me is that we all have the potential to get swept up in the turmoil of its continuing swirling winds, waves, tornadoes, earth quakes and so much more but when we take the time to self soothe, to self-care, to be kind and compassionate towards ourselves, we can feel solid, grounded, earthed and balanced in the ‘eye of this storm and of our own storm’, even when everything seems completely chaotic and out of control around us.

Living with and in present moment awareness really helps us to find inner calm and peace, regardless of any external or environmental impacts. Our minds are naturally programmed to a ‘negativity bias’, which means that they will always naturally find the negative and danger elements in any situation before the positive, as a mechanism to keep us safe and on alert.

But when we tune into our present moment environment, whether there is a real threat to our continuance of life at that exact moment, rather than what our brain wants us to believe, it can become obvious that the threat we may be experiencing may not actually be happening or be real in our physical environment or in that very second of our present moment. This is how we create ‘our calm, peace and serenity’ in the eye of any storm. You can use mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion to learn to live in present moment awareness, without believing all your thoughts or what your mind wants you to believe.

I came across this quote recently, it really sums up our own power, choice and perception about any of life’s storms and about how beneficial it is to create our own calm, peaceful and safe eye in any storm:

“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter,
you’ll die a lot of times”
(Dean Smith)

HOW to create calm, peace and serenity in the ‘eye of your storm’:

The following is a step by step guide on how to create calm, peace and serenity in the eye of your storm:

When you find your mind racing or symptoms of fear and panic arising in your body, take 3 deep, calm, restoring and regulating breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

2. Bring your awareness to your feet as you anchor them firmly to the ground underneath you. Take a moment and take 3 more regulating breaths as you do so.

3. On the next in-breath, breathe in ‘peace’ and on the next out-breath, breathe out ‘calm’. Say these words to yourself as you continue for 5 more in and out breaths.

4. On the next in-breath, say to yourself ‘I am happy, I am safe, all is well’. Repeat this affirmation to yourself for 5 more in and out breaths.

5. If there is an immediate physical threat or danger to your life in this moment, trust that your body will release the stress, adrenaline and cortisol hormones into your bloodstream to help you to remove yourself to immediate safety. When you are in a safe place, start to regulate your breathing, your mind and emotions by placing one hand on your heart, one hand on your tummy and as you breathe in, say to yourself ‘I am safe, this danger will pass, all will be well’. Repeat this affirmation for 5 more in and out breaths.

6. Continue taking deep regulating breaths until you feel the fear and panic starting to subside and until you feel the calm, peace and serenity starting to present itself inside ‘the eye of your storm’.

Image by Deirdre Rusk Photography

Thank you so much to Deirdre Rusk for her amazing images! Check out more amazing images from Deirdre Rusk Photography at https://www.deirdrerusk.com/

Thank you also to Brian O’Loughlin and his team at https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/ for all their wonderful help!

As published by The Celtic Media Group in The Anglo Celt, Connaught Telegraph, Meath Chronicle, Offaly Independent, Westmeath Examiner and Westmeath Independent newspapers w/c 23/11/2020)

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Fertility Challenges (New Online Programme Now Available!)

Leona McDonnell — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 12:58:20 +0000

My article this week, one very close to my heart

‘Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Fertility Challenges’

Link to the article on my website is:
https://leonamcdonnell.com/mindfulness-and-self-compassion-for-fertility-challenges/

Having experienced Fertility Challenges personally over the past 13 years, I hope this article will help at least one person who is or who has experienced Fertility Challenges

I have also put together a complete programme called ‘Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Fertility Challenges, where I share my own experiences and life changes that have enabled me to conceive a natural pregnancy, despite the impossibility of medical findings! The programme is available now to purchase at:

Mindfulness and Self Compassion for Fertility Challenges