Day 1 Mindfulness to Share

_________

15 Dec 2020

mindfulness

Yesterday when I posted about mindfulness wellbeing, many of my friends on WeChat responded, and even thanked me for sharing. So I thought I’d start a stream of posts sharing my own experience with mindfulness and meditation.

I started to meditate as a part of my morning yoga practice around 9 years ago, while I was doing a part time masters degree while working full time as a school teacher. The work became stressful, so I started getting up an hour earlier to practice the art of clearing the mind, and waking the body. The results I reaped was instant, and positive. I started feeling rejuvenated and more alive in the day. I never again felt restless and needed less sleep. What’s best was, my mind stopped wandering to negative thoughts.

After a while, I stopped.

Of course, my body and mind slowly wandered back to its original state. Until quite recently. I started becoming aware of feeling anxious about many things, and the body reacted to it too. I developed eczema, insomnia, and started to not feel as beautiful and confident as I usually do.

The natural thing seemed quite obvious.

To start practicing meditation again.

昨天我了有关正念减压法的优点推送后，许多微信好友积极回复，有人甚至感谢我的分享。因此我准备借此机会，启一系列旨在分享我个人实践正念减压法和冥想所获经验的推送。

大约九年前，当我同时承担着全职学校老师工作和非全日制硕士研究生攻读两项任务时，我始将冥想作为我每日瑜伽晨练的一部分。由于繁重的学习和工作任务带来很大压力，我始提早一小时起床练习冥想，从而澄清思维，唤醒身躯。这一练习很快到了积极良好的效果。在白天，我始感到精力复苏，生机迸发。我摆脱了焦躁不安之苦，所需要的睡眠时间也有所减少。最棒的是，我的思维网络始与那些悲观负面的想法说再见了。

这样持续了一段时间的练习后，我停了下来。

当然，我的身体和思想逐步回到了它们的原初状态。直到最近，随着我始对许多事情感到焦虑，我的身体也始对这种思绪出负面回应。湿疹与失眠缠上了我，而我在心情上也失去了平时的愉悦与自信。

自然而然，情况已经很明显了。

是时候重拾冥想练习了！

（未完待续）