mindfulness Archives - The Health Sessions

How to Practice Alternate Nostril Breathing

Breathing exercises are an excellent tool to relax and recharge at the same time. They’re a crucial component of many relaxation methods: yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation and mindfulness. Now you’re probably familiar with deep belly breathing, but have you ever heard of alternative nostril breathing? Alternate nostril breathing is an ancient yogic practice that … Read more >

How to Do a Loving-Kindness Meditation

When you think of meditating, do you picture sitting in lotus, focusing on nothing but your breath? ‘Emptying your mind’ isn’t the only kind of meditation. You can do a relaxing body scan, practice a walking meditation or count your breaths. A little less known, but not less meaningful, is the loving-kindness mediation.

A loving-kindness meditation is a mindfulness technique used to increase feelings of warmth and goodwill towards yourself and others. As you might expect, experiencing warm feelings has several benefits for your wellbeing. In her book Positivity, Barbara Fredrickson shows how regularly practicing loving-kindness mediation produces positive emotions like joy, contentment and gratitude. Studies also found that doing loving-kindness meditation increases your compassion, helps you feel more connected and improves your self-image.

What’s less obvious, is that doing a loving-kindness mediation also supports your physical health. Because mindful awareness lowers your stress levels, having loving thoughts improves your vagal tone – a physiological marker of wellbeing – and decreases pain.

Sounds pretty good, right? If you also want to give your happiness, relationships and body image a boost, take a look at how you can do a loving-kindness meditation.

Why You Should Mind Your Mental Diet

Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.
Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions.
Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits.
Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.
Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.

— Chinese proverb

In recent years, we’ve learned to be selective about what we put into our bodies. After all, “we are what we eat”, and the food we consume forms the building blocks of our bodies and health. But how many of us ever stop to think about what we put into our minds every day?

Like the Chinese proverb above explains, we are shaped by our thoughts, feelings and beliefs. When you’re scared, angry, excited or in love, those thoughts and emotions trigger the release of specific neurotransmitters. These chemical messengers tell your body how to respond to the situation at hand – freeze, fight, flight, make love.

Much of the time, your thoughts cause temporary physiological changes, like that rush of dopamine you feel when you score a goal. But when something becomes a mental habit – like constant worrying or practicing gratitude every day – the patterns of neural activity sculpt your brain in more permanent ways. Busy regions in your brain will form new connections, which makes those neurological pathways stronger and more receptive to that specific mix of neurochemicals.

What’s more, what you repeatedly think shapes your deepest beliefs about yourself and the world. Your beliefs steer your actions, and regular actions become the habits that mold your daily life and (in part) your health.

That’s why a thought isn’t just a thought – it has the power to transform your life.

But your thoughts usually don’t appear out of nowhere. They don’t exist in a vacuum either. Your ideas, intentions, opinions, feelings and worries are sparked by the available input around you. The magazines you’re reading, the articles you’re browsing online and the TV shows you watch every week – they all have an impact on your thought patterns, mood, brain chemistry and corresponding physiological reactions.

And now that we’re bombarded with more information than ever before in history, it’s become even more important to mind your mental diet. But in a world filled with both chocolate bars and brain candy, what does a healthy mental diet look like? How can you nourish your mind with ‘nutrient-rich input’ and consume less ‘empty mental calories’?

How Yoga Calms Anxiety Holistically

This article was written by Manmohan Singh from Rishikul Yogshala.

In this age and era of professional stress and personal troubles, anxiety is the condition that afflicts a number of people. Anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders affecting people of all ages and gender.

Medications, counseling, and other forms of therapy have proven to be effective in treating anxiety. But going natural is highly recommended. Yoga science calms anxiety holistically. It equally addresses physical, mental, and emotional anxiety and produces effects that are long-lasting and healthy.

The Asanas, Pranayama, and Meditation are the core components of yoga that when practiced reduces anxiety and promotes serenity on a deeper level. These three are natural yoga techniques that affect the body,mind, and soul to release the anxiety and stress.

The Art of Savouring: 21 Ideas to Fully Enjoy Every Day

That feeling when you kick back, relax and contently take in everything that’s happening around you.

When you relish the taste of a piece of good chocolate or bask in the beauty of nature.

Savouring is the art of consciously enjoying wonderful moments. It’s about noticing and appreciating the good things in life, by consciously paying attention to pleasurable experiences. By being aware of what you feel, sense and see, you actively construct vivid memories and prolong good experiences.

According to Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, authors of Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience, savouring intensifies and lengthens positive emotions. Research suggests that those positive feelings elicited by savouring protect against the negative effects of poor health by reducing stress and increasing optimism. Practicing savouring also leads to more life satisfaction, stronger relationships and better performance.

And the good news is: you can easily enhance your wellbeing with savouring. Have a look at these 21 ideas to make the most of everyday moments.

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