Yes and no… IMO.
Today’s #Mental game is Mindfulness. The IT word. BE MINDFUL AND LIFE IS GOOD.
And yes yass yay for mindfulness, but far outttt I feel it’s a loaded word.
I’ve always struggled with the concept of mindfulness, and on the weekend, I think I figured out WHY.
It’s because I’m pretty much forcing the damn thing. “Be mindful, be mindful, BE MINDFUL”… uhhhh yes sure, brb.
Today I listened to a fascinating 9-minute TED talk on how to break a habit. It reframed mindfulness as a curiosity and in the context of trying to break a habit - instead of trying to fight a habit, be curious about it.
The example used was quitting smoking (bad habit), and the advice was to have (yes, have!) a cigarette and be curious about the experience. The experiment found that when smokers were being mindful whilst having the cigarette, they actually found it unpleasant - tasted like chemicals, etc. Who would’ve thunk it!?
Now, I’m not a smoker, so I used the same exercise for naughty (nawty) habits that were relevant to me.
Some mornings, when I wake up, all I want to do is stay indoors, guzzle coffee asap, and check my phone (bad habits). Instead of fighting that, let me do it and be curious about how it makes me feel. Plot twist(!): it makes me feel awful, especially as I know how good I feel if I do go outdoors, get morning sunlight, and wait a bit before drinking coffee - the comparison helps!
When I eat crappy food (bad habit) and don’t prioritise sleep (bad habits), let me be curious about how that makes me feel. The list goes on! Again, I think the comparison element really helps here - knowing how good you feel when you prioritise doing all of the “right” things.
What’s particularly lovely about this reframing is that curiosity is considered a positive behaviour / trait, so it feels GOOD.
To wrap this up, I’ll leave you with a goodie gum drop that blew my mind: willpower often fails under stress.
So, going forward, in times of stress, I’ll turn to curiosity. Join me, would you?
Simply curious,
Salty