Life becomes much easier when you keep your mind at peace
Life throws chaos at us on a regular basis—whether it’s our finances, our relationships, or our health. Too often our minds are a storm of worry, to-dos, regrets, self-judgment, and sheer information overload.
While it may cause stress or even depression, at the very least it puts us away from a peaceful state of mind.
Being able to calm yourself at the moment is often easier said than done. There are no quick fixes when it comes to peace of mind.
If you want peace of mind, you must build better habits of mind.
So here are a few tips and inspiring stories you can learn from Veroniek Vermeulen, founder of Silatha Journey.
Silatha is an app focused on women’s emotional well-being. The app features meditations focused on specific female topics and lets you track your daily progress.
It all started when she went to Nepal for a meditation retreat, she had everything to be happy but she feels that something is missing and she needs to achieve even more to feel happy. So she radically changed her life and went on a quest to find the true meaning of her life.
She went paragliding. And on her way up, she realized she couldn’t do a better meditation course at that time than going up that mountain because she was only focused on her breathing. And it was the next day when it was acclimatizing in the Himalayas, she felt this incredible happiness from within. And it was a feeling that I could not remember having had before, she realized it has something to do with meditation.
And so when she came back, she did sign up for many meditation courses and went to different monasteries. And that changed her life.
What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?
“Mindfulness is coming to a broader scope of a way of living, and it’s mindful living. Meditation is kind of a technique to help you to be more mindful.”
“Mindfulness then is really being very focused. So what I did when I climbed up the mountain, to give a very specific example, you are so focused, that you start to be more conscious about what’s going on around you, you start to hear more the noises that you don’t hear often, you start to smell much more, you start to see.”
“Now when you live more mindful, your senses start to really become very powerful. And you will feel the energy and when you do meditate because you train your focus, you become more mindful. And so you can pick up more of the things that are going on, you will see more from another person what’s actually going on. And feel more of your environment.”
“When you live more mindful that that means you’re more in your present moment. And you can really more observe real life instead of that small little corner of it.”
In what ways meditation does benefit moms?
“I think as a mom when you give, you give everything, it’s almost that’s what you’ve been doing all day and there’s a beauty within that. But you are also still a person and you still have your own needs. And you cannot take care of others if you don’t take care of your own needs.”
“And meditation is a very powerful way. So there’s been a lot of studies done that show how meditation can support you to become more quiet in the mind, to be more connected with yourself and that has a lot of positive benefits.”
“Now, as a mom, as you’re only giving, this is the little moment in the day, that you’re taking something for yourself. It’s the little me moment where the focus is on yourself and connecting to yourself. And this brings a lot of benefits and calm.”
“So you will start to be in a present moment and then you can approach to things in a different way in a calmer way. And as you know, all moms, if you approach your kid in a calm manner, the kid will respond more incredibly. If you’re stressed, if you’re anxious, kids will feel that. So the moment you are calmer and the response you get are also in a much calmer way.”
“The thing is, as a mom, you kind of put yourself on the second rank. And it’s hard to take something for yourself. So if you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your kids. It really will create a different relationship, you will see much more of what’s going on.”
Additional Insight
When I asked whether they do the meditation practice in groups or individually, Veroniek answered that they usually do it in groups and cited some of the benefits of doing it in groups or joining a community for moms.
According to her, “It’s like a place where you’re safe to talk about how you feel, and the things that are going on in your life.”
“It’s important that to create more community where people, women and moms, can openly talk about their experience. Because as a mom, it’s often expected you be happy, and you love your kids but that doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes drive you nuts. And it should be okay to share it with other moms that know the feeling.”
Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.
-Mother Teresa
Even though it may not be easy to make them a habit of mindfulness right away. Start small, start now, and enjoy all the calm you deserve.
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Do you want to learn to build new habits that stick? Read here
