Self-awareness is the big hurdle into inner self, inner growth, inner peace…..
all to help make your nursing practice more meaningful and easy.
Mindfulness is the path to self-awareness.
Mindfulness is the path to opening the door to Self.
There are many tools, mechanisms and processes to learn and apply along that path to self-awareness.
There are heavy lifts along that path.
How to make the beginning steps easier?
Here are 2 simple Aha’s that I have come across on my path.
#1 Meet Your Self-talk. Learn to listen to your Self-talk. Reap its Insights.
You know that gut grip that occasionally grabs you? (And did you know that one of your most powerful “mind centers” is in your gut?)
If you don’t dismiss and avoid that gut grip, and instead, listen to the thoughts that are streaming across your mind screen at that moment…You will reap some insights.
Here’s how it works.
In that moment, Simply become mindful of the following by asking yourself …
What was the trigger that caused the gut grip?
What are the thoughts and feelings that are streaming in your mind with the gut grip?
STOP, Notice … Those thoughts and feelings are a Snapshot into Self.
This snapshot is an insight into self.
Now… what you do with this insight is the next step.
- You can sit with the insight and let more thoughts and feelings come for you to see and observe.
- You can quickly write down the triggering event and the companion thoughts and feelings to explore later.
- When you sit with yourself, you can mindfully center on the trigger and insight, you can journal the insight, or mind map the insight, or doodle and color it.
- … the possibilities are yours to create
The point is to just meet it, hear it, see it, notice it ….. keep it with you to build on when the next gut grip moment or centering moment or creative practice moment comes along.
Use these triggers and insights as Building Blocks to your Self-awareness.
#2 Centering *Inner-cise (from exercise)
When you do sit with yourself and mindfully center on something, anything, Do Not Despair when you cannot seem to stay focused.
See it as an exercise.
Like body building, Centering is mind & spirit building.
A practice to align your heart, mind & breathing.
The Inner-cising is bringing your wandering mind back to your breath over and over again.
The more you do it, the stronger those pathways are , the more automatic it becomes and the more capacity you build.
Inner-cising brings your thoughts back to your heart & breath.
This creates expanded connections, which leads to increased Neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections. It’s the way experience rewires our brains.
Imagine the brain benefits of Inner-cising your Insights ….