Mental Stillness & Mental Health part 1
Mental Stillness and Mental Health.
I dedicate this piece to all the beautiful souls I met at the Kingston Yoga and Vegan festival last weekend and especially all those that came to my talk, Mental Stillness and Mental Health, as you are my inspiration for this post. I so enjoyed our interaction, your feedback and questions, thank you! I look forward to meeting you all again very soon, in person or online. If you have any questions or topics you’d like me to write on, please email me at dhriti@dhritimehra.com
The best way to convert the essence of the benefits of mental stillness on ones mental health is through experiencing it for oneSelf.
If you were not at the talk and are hearing this for the first time, I invite you to be open to what comes and as you read this post, to do the exercises and feel how you feel and feel how if at all it affects your mental stillness from when you started reading.
Before we start, I would like to say that there is no right or wrong experience, it is what it is, just as it happens in this moment, allow it to be.
Great, so it is time to start the experience, I invite you to take threes conscious breaths, with the intention to being fully present, here and now, as you read this article and leave everything else for the next 15minutes to the side, with the option to pick it up when you finish, if you choose to do so.
You maybe wondering what is a conscious breath? A Conscious breath is exactly as the words mean, it is to be conscious of ones breath, as one breathes in and breathes out. Not to do anything to the breathe as such, to notice your breath, becoming conscious of your breath, just as it is as you breathe in and as you breathe out. Usually we breath with no conscious thought of how we are breathing, our breath just breathes us.
So lets observe three of our breaths now.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Well done!
How did that feel?
Did you notice anything about your breath?
Where did the in breath go?
Where did the out breath come from?
Did you breath through your nose or your mouth or both?
What temperature was the breath?
Did the breath change as you observed it?
Where you able to observe it?
What were you thinking about as you observed your breath?
During the talk we got the following feedback
“My breath seemed to slow down as I observed it.”
“I felt calmer.”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything, when I was observing my breath.”
“I felt more peaceful.”
It was great to hear this feedback and I am looking forward to reading your feedback in the comments below or via email to dhriti@dhritimehra.com and if it brings up questions please ask, and I will do my best to respond.
What is wonderful about this feedback is that it is demonstrates the affects of becoming conscious of ones breathing on mental stillness and hence on mental health. As one observes the breath, doing nothing to it, just observing it, it slows down. As ones breathing slows down one feels calmer, more peaceful. As one focuses on observing ones breathing one is not thinking of anything else and hence one's mind begins to experience mental stillness as it observes the breath. It is common for most, but not all, to not be thinking of anything when observing ones breath. Hence most, experience mental stillness or more mental stillness when observing their breath. As one experiences more mental stillness one is more present in the here and now and hence not in the past or the future. This in turn helps us to respond rather than react to the world around us. Feeling calmer and more peaceful decreases the feelings of anxiety, panic, depression and can even help with better quality of sleep which has huge benefits on mental health and wellbeing.
I trust you enjoyed reading this post and your experience of conscious breathing. I will be sharing the other techniques I shared at the talk in the next few blog posts, so if you enjoyed and benefited from this one, keep an eye out for the next in the series of Mental Stillness and Mental Health.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Sending Love and Blessings to all.
Namaste.
