Stilla Friday Meditations

Today I want to share a micro practise with you. A micro practise is an exercise you can do in a matter of seconds that helps you reconnect with the present moment. Last week I invited you to take three slow and deep breaths. Great micro practise! This week I invite you too look around the room and name five things that you enjoy looking at.

Stop. Take three slow and deep breath. It takes around 30-50 seconds. Do it now. It’s quite nice, isn’t it?

You are an inconceivably tiny fraction of the great cosmos. Your life here is a mere blink in the timeline of reality. To put if frankly, you do not matter. As such, there is nothing you are supposed to do. You are not bound to any contract to fulfil some destiny or some way to be. You are not amounting to anything. You are heading the same way all of us are heading, and what happens after that we don’t know. “My life is not important.” It means you can do anything you like, it doesn’t matter anyway. This is freedom! Another perspective is that you are infinitely unique and valuable. There has never been anything like you and there will never in the lifetime of the cosmos be anything exactly like you again. Without your vibration there would be a piece missing, reality would not be THIS, and it IS! Beyond your utility, you are a unique gift to the world by simply existing. I love this paradox!

We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. - Alan Watts You are part of this world You belong here You are infinitely interconnected with everything

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Marianne Williamson If you were to stop holding yourself back in one area of your life, what would that look like to you?

The most important thing is not what happens, but how you relate to what happens and your capacity to choice your response. This is freedom.

Release your shoulders, drop that jaw, eyebrows soften, open heart, say it loudly, “Jag är bra” eeey macarena

Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. - Bil Keane Why is it a gift? The present moment, the hear and now, is the only place that can hold beauty, laughter, happiness, love, compassion, fulfilment and connection. They can never be felt in the past or in the future, only here and now. By practising again and again “waking up” from our thoughts to what is here and now we invite those beautiful aspects of life to be part of our journey.

Mindfulness has been linked to several health benefits! Stress reduction Mindfulness techniques can help individuals manage stress by fostering present-moment awareness and non-judgmental acceptance of thoughts and feelings. Improved mental health Regular mindfulness practice has been associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. It can enhance emotional regulation and resilience. Better sleep quality Mindfulness practices have been shown to improve sleep quality by reducing rumination and promoting relaxation, leading to more restful sleep. Pain Management Studies suggest that mindfulness-based interventions can help individuals cope with chronic pain by changing their perception of pain and increasing pain tolerance. Enhanced Well-being and Quality of Life Overall, mindfulness practices are associated with greater subjective well-being, increased life satisfaction, and a greater sense of overall quality of life.

Work-life balance is an important part of our mental health and mindfulness can be a helpful skill to improve it. How? Recognise signs of burnout Mindfulness practices help individuals become more aware of their thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. This heightened awareness allows them to recognise signs of stress, burnout, or imbalance in their lives, enabling them to take proactive steps to address these issues. Manage stress Mindfulness techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, and body scanning can help reduce stress levels by promoting relaxation and calming the mind. By incorporating these practices into their daily routines, individuals can better manage work-related stressors and prevent them from spilling over into their personal lives. Setting boundaries Mindfulness encourages individuals to set clear boundaries between work and personal life. This means establishing designated work hours, unplugging from technology outside of these hours, and prioritising time for self-care, hobbies, and spending quality time with loved ones. Enhanced work satisfaction Practicing mindfulness can lead to greater job satisfaction by promoting a sense of purpose, fulfilment, and engagement in one's work. When individuals find meaning and enjoyment in their professional lives, they are less likely to feel the need to overwork or sacrifice their personal time for career advancement.

Mindfulness is a useful tool for improving emotional regulation. Mindfulness practices help individuals become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and impulses in the present moment. This heightened self-awareness allows individuals to recognize their emotions as they arise, without judgment or reaction. Rather than trying to suppress or avoid difficult emotions, mindfulness encourages acceptance of them as natural parts of the human experience. By acknowledging and accepting emotions without judgment, individuals can prevent them from escalating or becoming overwhelming. Mindfulness cultivates a gap between stimulus and response, allowing individuals to pause and consider their reactions before acting impulsively. This enables them to respond to challenging situations in a more thoughtful and deliberate manner, rather than reacting automatically based on emotional triggers. Mindfulness can break the cycle of rumination, where individuals get stuck replaying negative thoughts and emotions. By staying present in the moment, individuals can let go of repetitive and unhelpful patterns of thinking, reducing emotional distress.

Mindfulness can help improve all kind of relationships in several different ways. It can help communication by increasing our capacity to listen. By being less reactive to our triggers it is easier to stay connected with our friend, colleague, children or parter in conflicts. Mindfulness cultivates empathy and compassion towards yourself and others. When you are more empathetic, you are better able to understand your partner's perspective and respond with kindness and support. Mindfulness teaches individuals to accept themselves and others as they are, without trying to change them. This acceptance fosters a sense of security and trust in the relationship. For me, this kind of acceptance is what love is.

Mindfulness makes you better at decision making. Some examples! Mindfulness practice helps you stay more present with the task at hand which naturally leads to more informed and thoughtful decisions. When you are more present with what you are doing you are more likely to earlier identify decisions that needs to be made, which prevents procrastination or impulsive reactions. Practising mindfulness helps you avoid sunk cost bias which leads to more rational decision making. As we have talked about a lot before, mindfulness helps you reduce stress and anxiety. This improves cognitive functions and your ability to analyse situations and weigh options effectively. When we are less emotionally reactive we are less likely to make impulsive decisions based on strong emotional reactions.

Mindfulness enhances creative thinking. Increased Presence Mindfulness encourages being fully present in the current moment. When you are fully engaged in the task at hand, you are more likely to notice details, think more deeply, and generate creative ideas. Breaking mental patterns Mindfulness practices can disrupt habitual thought patterns. By breaking free from automatic thinking, you create the opportunity for new connections and ideas to emerge. Embracing Uncertainty Mindfulness encourages an acceptance of the present moment without judgment. This attitude can help individuals become more comfortable with uncertainty, a key element in the creative process. Cultivating Curiosity Mindfulness fosters a curious and open mindset. Approaching situations with curiosity can lead to exploration and experimentation, essential elements in the creative process. Improved Emotional Regulation Mindfulness helps regulate emotions, preventing overwhelming feelings from hindering creative thinking. Emotionally balanced individuals often have a more expansive and flexible mindset.

Mindfulness can help you improve your productivity. The very nature of mindfulness practice is to focus on one thing for an extended period of time, such as the breath, a mantra or an object. By doing so you exercise your “concentration muscle” and will be able to keep your attention on what you want to focus on for a longer period of time. Practicing our mind to be less reactive to outer stimuli helps us to be less distracted by inner and outer noice. It becomes easier to let things be as they are and you will have more mental resources over for the task you are focusing on.

Stress can be both a positive and a negative factor when it comes to our productivity and enjoyment of work. It can help us with motivation and focus, but it can also overwhelm and poor decision making. Mindfulness can help us find the balance! The stress spiral. The mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. When we think stressful thoughts the body will respond by tensing up. When the body is tensing up it sends a stress signal to our mind which leads to more stressful thoughts and now we are in a loop. To get out this loop we need to break it and we can do that in the mind, the body or both. Often it is best to start with the body Mindfulness techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or body scans have been shown to activate the body's relaxation response, reducing the production of stress hormones like cortisol and lowering blood pressure. When we have slowed down a bit we can start dealing with the mind By observing our thoughts and emotions without judgement or immediate reaction we increase our capacity to respond calmly and thoughtfully to stressors instead of reacting on impuls. It is often experienced as if we are stepping out from being in the middle of the storm to a place where there is more space and we can observe the situation more clearly.

Take a moment to just stop and listen to the vibration of the world that permeates everything. It’s all around you. You are swimming in this vibration. It’s the vibration of reality, of what is actually happening Now. It exists before any ideas about the future or the past. Just listen. It includes everything. Every little sound, every movement big or small. And it includes you. When you listen, do it with your whole being, like a tuning fork picking up the vibrations from all around. Harmonising.

From the bottom of my heart I wish for you to be all of yourself. To hold every insecurity in the warm embrace of your compassion. To let your playful too-much-ness shine through To listen to your anger and let it show you where your outlines are To know that everything that you are looking for is already inside you, like diamonds waiting patiently for you to find them To stop giving your power away to please others or to avoid making them feel uncomfortable You are a magnificent being, trying to be anything else only dims your light Don’t turn away from yourself by trying to be someone else You are already you Every wound and pain belongs Don’t ignore Don’t run Don’t fix Feel Feel through it Let it know you care Let yourself know you stay Come home to who you really are

Stop protecting yourself from yourself. Surrender to what is real for you in this moment, no matter what it is. Don’t resist it, be true and be free. I’ll start. I found this moment almost unbearable, it’s so boring and in lack of distraction. I want the distraction because if I stay here I need to feel all of the anxiety of writing this piece. Feel all of the pressure from my mind to be clever and wise and enlightened and original and drown in the fear that I am not. I feel the pressure to be someone else than who I am. Now when I stay with this, give words to it and surrender to the fact of this moment I feel relieved. The pressure melts away and there is an opening. The need to distract myself is not so strong anymore and just staying here is easier. The discomfort that I was trying to avoid went away in 2 minutes of honesty with myself. There is something funny about that. My mind would rather choose an eternity of distraction and the lack of ease that comes with it, than to feel some discomfort for a few minutes. The problem with that strategy is that it is also uncomfortable and stressing and it leaves us disconnected from our lives. Blaise Pascal has something to say on the topic. “We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away. We try to give it the support of the future, and think how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching.

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.” - Blaise Pascal, Pensées

The whole thing is really quite simple. ‘No’ is suffering, ‘Yes’ is bliss. Not easy, but simple. Something happens when we find a ‘Yes’ to our experience in the moment. A relaxation in the middle of everything. What was stuck and stagnant can begin to flow. Sorrow can deepen and reveal the love inside. Anger can transform to strength. Pain can touch and be touched by our Being and show us what it is really about. Our ‘Yes’ helps us to let go of what we need to let go of. We become clear like when a camera finds its focus. We deepen. We open. And everything is included in our experience - Thoughts, feelings, body sensations, situation - Not understanding - Confusion - Resistance - Wanting it to go away - Looking for something more/else Can you say ‘Yes’ to your experience in this moment? And if not, can you say ‘Yes’ to the resistance?