Meditation on the Move

Physical symptoms of anxiety can include a clenched jaw, a tight chest, aches and pains in your joints. All signs of tension and fear. Practising this easy walking mediation daily can help reduce your symptoms. You'll also experience how you can take control back of your mind and feelings.

When you meditate, you focus your attention on a simple phrase, word, or object. When your mind wanders, you acknowledge this before you turn your attention back to your mantra. The objective is to learn to concentrate your mind.

It’s simple yet true, you can't be anxious about something when you focus your mind on your breathing.

So, the next time you walk, drop your shoulders. Physically feel the tension leave your neck and shoulders. Relax your jaw and part your lips slightly. When you relax your jaw, you automatically reduce the constant stream of conversation you have with yourself. You can’t talk with your mouth open!

Now just observe your breathing. Check-in and pay attention to its flow, its presence, its aliveness. Are you breathing through your mouth or your nose? Can you feel the breath flowing through your body? Does it feel shallow or deep?

Turn your attention inwards.

Gently begin counting one, two, as you breathe in slowly, and then one, two, as you breathe out softly and slowly. Continue doing this and find your rhythm. You will naturally feel your legs moving along in time to this rhythm. Picture the one and the two as you walk and breathe. Give the one and two a colour, a size. Do you see them as numbers or words?

Check into your shoulders, are they still down? How about your jaw, is it unclenched? Is your forehead creased or are you relaxing the muscles around your eyes and forehead? Relax your hands and arms let them swing. This is your meditation on the move!

If your mind wanders, just come back to your slow and steady one, two, and breathing. Continue focusing on your breath, your steps, your numbers.

If you want, you can add your own personal word onto the end of one, two - maybe “relax” or “peace” or “calm!”. Breathe in one, two, mantra, breathe out one, two, mantra.

Try this for a few minutes in your day and feel the difference. Mediation becomes easier the more you practice. Walking is a great way of relaxing, layering it with this simple meditation makes it even more powerful as a natural calming tool.

Just in case you were wondering: what’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

When you practice mindfulness you don’t concentrate on anything particular, just your thoughts and feelings. You learn awareness and acceptance of what is. When you practice meditation you focus your mind on a particular word or object. When your focus is distracted by your thoughts you simply acknowledge and turn your attention back. Both meditation and mindfulness involve some degree of mental stillness and concentration. Both help you relax and calm.

3 strategies to let go of self-doubt

Self-doubt is a curveball that throws worry, fear, self-sabotaging thoughts and overwhelms in your path. You become unsure, uncertain, hesitant, and lack the belief that you can do it. Inaction becomes a temporary or permanent refuge.

The antidote to self-doubt is self-confidence, which grows deep in your centre, still and calm. It needs nourishment and your careful attention to thrive. It has its root in the Latin word confidential meaning 'firmly trusting'.

When you trust firmly in yourself, you can depend on a solid self-help base. This firm self-reliance is the greatest gift you can give yourself. When the chips are down, this is what will make the difference and allow you to bounce back sooner from life’s difficulties.

People come and go, careers stop and start, possessions can be lost, your fortune can take good turns and bad turns. The only constant in your life from cradle to grave is... yourself. So, developing your own tools to nurture self-confidence and recognise and ward off self-doubt is an essential life skill.

How can you nurture and grow firm self-trust?

You become aware, observe, and then, with this knowledge, change unhelpful thoughts and create new fulfilling, vibrant and positive ones that radiate the life force you deserve.

The following three strategies can help you nurture self-confidence.

1. Pay close attention to the words you say

Both to yourself in your mind and about yourself when you speak to others. Did you know that your mind believes whatever thoughts and words you give it? Whether these are beneficial, true, useful or downright negative?

When you say words like “I’m useless”, “I’m rubbish”, “I’ll never be able to be as good as you”, “I’m not good enough”, these are etching pathways in your mind and reinforcing that belief.

Change your words, even if at first you don’t believe them! Slowly take firm control of the words you use. don’t allow them to badmouth you!

Words come from your thoughts, so make them kind and caring towards yourself.

Consider the difference between:

“I’m rubbish.”

and

“What I did was rubbish, I can certainly learn from this and do better next time.”

With the first, you are attacking your core being, with the second you are observing the facts of your behaviour.

1. Cheerlead yourself

Recognise and celebrate your successes. All too often you downplay your achievements. Comments like “Oh that, anyone could have done it” or “Oh it’s nothing really” can dampen and diminish. Compare this to when you celebrate and recognise other people’s successes. There is a double standard going on here! And one that discredits you.

Rejoice in the moment and stop seeing what you could have done better! Give yourself this pause and celebrate as if you were your own best friend.

1. Recognise self-doubt warning signs and react

When you notice that self-doubt is taking hold, stop and take stock.

What are you worrying about? Write down and externalise your fears. Take it away from the mental chaos that leaves you stressed, anxious, tense, wobbly and fearful. Once formulated on paper, you can brainstorm and put solutions in place.

Create and regularly repeat your truly personal phrases that inspire, vitalise and empower you. These are great defences against any negativity that you still harbour towards yourself. Words are powerful.

How can cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy help?

Developing self-confidence is always one of the tools you need to overcome any challenge you face. Once you believe that you can, your thoughts and actions follow suit.

Your self-doubt, that niggling sometimes all invasive thought of “I’m not good enough” or “I can’t do this”, took root over time and has infiltrated many of your thoughts, words and daily actions. Cleansing these negative thoughts and feelings is salutary.

With cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy, you learn to experience a hypnotic mindset of deep relaxation, clear focus and concentrated attention.