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Did you know that human beings are wired for survival rather than for happiness?

Our brain has evolved to facilitate survival. From a simple survival perspective, it makes sense to pay more attention to negative or threatening  experience than to the good and beautiful parts of our lives.

This is called the negativity bias. Our default position is to ruminate over the past and scan the future looking for problems. 

Appreciate fully

And, these problems don’t even have to be ‘real’!

Our buttons can get pressed by things we imagine going wrong.
Our bodies don’t discern a difference.

We interpret events not as they are but as we are.
As many of us are grouchy and under pressure now, we may imagine we have been ‘snubbed’ for instance and build a big story around something entirely fictitious, “how could she treat me like this?”

christmas mindfulness tips & clips
 

Appreciate fully :       Mindfulness  –  awake – alive – amazed

Luckily, the practice of Mindfulness helps us WAKE UP and opens our ability to be with our moment by moment experience and appreciate it fully just as it is.

…..We start to SEE more deeply… beneath the surface of first impressions….. then we can respond more skillfully and appreciate more fully.

We discover that superficial appearances are often misleading.

So, next time you notice yourself rushing from one activity to the next, doing lots of things without fully engaging, slow down… and appreciate…

Appreciate Fully when you Slow Down – all that you are and have…

Just be where you are and allow yourself to BE where and AS you are.

Breath, give yourself space so you don’t jump to conclusions or react mindlessly and go on to regret rash behaviours. You will be glad and probably discover how much there is to appreciate…

Guided Appreciative Body Scan Meditation

Click below to access an 11 minute practice, inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh

 PLAY SHORT GUIDED PRACTICE

Awakening Rights by Mark Nepo

“We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are

when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved,

and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed

and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world

but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold

and the car handle feels wet

and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being,

soft and unrepeatable.”

Mindful Christmas

Until Monday Dec 23rd… go gently and appreciate fully each precious moment…

This blog was written by Joanne O’Malley, Mindfulness at Work.
We offer Workplace Mindfulness Training that transforms peoples’ work and their lives.

Interested in learning more?

Check out our range of Training Options:
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