Preparing for Mindfulness.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all fine, well and having a fantastic week so far.
Recently, I published a rather long video about my desire to begin a month of Mindfulness to share with you lovelies, before we begin this month and practice I must disclose a few things with you.
Firstly, I am not a psychologist, counsellor, therapist or mindfulness mentor, I am a person who has taken up mindfulness to try to resolve the mental challenges I am facing myself.
Secondly, I advise that if you wish to take part in mindfulness, however, life is on the hectic side right now that you wait until the situation is a lot calmer, the mind has a tendency to wonder in the best of circumstances and in those circumstances, you will find this practice a lot more beneficial as oppose.

Mindfulness is of Buddhist origin and teaches those who practice this lifestyle how to be in tune with their current situation, body and how to control their emotions and thoughts, offering their mind an alter gear known as "just being."
It has been proven to not only have mental benefits but in addition, physical benefits as well such as helping to treat heart disease, lowering blood pressure, reducing chronic pain, improving sleep and relieving stress. In terms of mental health, the practice of mindfulness meditation can decrease depression, anxiety, help control emotions, couples' conflicts, obsessive compulsive disorder and even been known to assist with substance abuse. So why aren't more people doing mindfulness? Time is the main factor as to why people often feel like they can't participate in such a practice, not many people know that mindfulness can be practiced whilst doing mundane tasks such as eating, walking to work etc. and make a massive improvement in their mood or attitude about the day ahead. Furthermore, the actual meditations themselves simply ask for 40 minutes-1 hour maximum of 6 out of 7 days a week, whilst you may think that is a lot, well one episode of Game of Thrones is one hour, why not give mindfulness a try too?

For the mindfulness practice that I will be demonstrating you will need:

• Yourselves-you are the most important factor in this and you need to be committed to yourself in order to complete this. 
• A support network of people that you trust, who understand and encourage you to continue with your practice. 
• A CD player and a mindfulness meditation guided CD (or a laptop with access to youtube videos of mindfulness meditation)
• A diary or camera-something which you can log your progress in and make notes on your timetable or plans to ensure you stick to your designated meditation time. 
• a meditation pillow such as these (http://bluebanyan.co.uk/meditation-cushions.html) (optional) 
• Meditation mat (optional) 
• a Mindfulness book (Please see my YouTube Video for some examples) (optional as you can use me as your book if you wish, but if you want to practice without my videos or instruction, I advise a book) 

I hope this helps and encourages you all! Have a fantastic week and I will see you all soon xoxo