Meditation and Mindfulness – Essential Tools & Simple Tips To Keep The Calm In Your Daily Lifestyle

In the eighth and final blog of our series with Alex Hurt, she delves into the world of meditation and mindfulness. Giving you some essential tools and simple tips to keep the calm in your daily lifestyle.

So.. curl up with your favourite wellness tea, light a candle and read Alex’s musings to put a smile on your face and some goodness into your day. 

It’s my last blog in the series, are we really done? Is this it, are we really over? Not quite…

My final words will be spoken in hush tones, with Tibetan tingsha bells and a heady air of patchouli… or perhaps not! As we head into the unknown, I don’t think you need crystals and tie dye, I truly believe we all need to tools to keep life real, remember what we’ve all learned about ourselves and to apply it. 

On this gargantuan learning curve, we all need to be patient and kind, with each other and ourselves. This week to conclude I’d like to talk about meditation and mindfulness. So, let’s tune out of the noise and into ourselves for a few moments, take a breath and pour a cup of wonderful herbal tea.

Over the last eight weeks we have explored thoughts, feelings, friendships, conditions and ways to get us through these strange times. All with a cup of Camellia’s Tea to keep us company. We have touched on meditation and mindfulness, and now let’s jump into that brew and explore how you really do it. 

It’s about tuning out, giving your racing mind a rest, being still. Abandoning thoughts of what you’re doing next and worrying about things that will never happen. It’s really not that complicated, you don’t need new work out togs, or a room mist (unless you want one), you need you, and perhaps you always have? Meditation isn’t about not thinking, it about letting your thoughts pass over without judgement. Letting them swim past, you can look at them but you don’t need to experience them here. 

I think we are all led to believe that those who meditate are in a special club. Exclusively, those blessed can sit cross legged with an incense stick and chant mantras. Don’t be daft! Seriously anyone can do it, but like most things, practice makes perfect. When I started out, I was particularly envious of those members all smug with their non furrowed brow and free thoughts. I really needed to not think at all. At times my head exploding with noise, I needed not only to find silence, I needed to find calm. 

Meditation really begins with breathing and it really is that simple. In fact, I’ve noticed that I now naturally breathe a lot deeper in times when I feel that I need to. Going back to basics, our body requires oxygen to work effectively. We only ever breathe deeply and naturally from our abdomen, when we are asleep. That’s because we are relaxed and we need to regenerate whilst we rest. Oxygen is carried throughout and distributed to our organs. Leaving the heart, we are full of oxygen, however on the return we need a top up. Exercise, movement and activity are vital to keep our body and mind healthy. In fact, when you’re tired you yawn… you need the oxygen as you being to fade. When you’re emotional, you take a bigger breath, or you sigh… this breath you need to relax and slow down.

We shallow breathe for the most part, barely ever reaching into our core for that calming breath. Why? We’re too busy to have to remember. 

Start here. 

Can you for a moment give yourself 5 minutes of silence? Sit on the floor or in a chair, close your eyes and take a deep breath inhaling through your nose slowly and exhaling out through your mouth. Your inhalation breath should be deep enough to see your tummy extend and not just your chest. Concentrate only on that breath in and out for 5 minutes. If your mind strays bring it back to the centre with your breathing. 

Just by breathing deeply for five minutes can have a profound effect of how you feel. No one else can feel what’s happening inside, but I can promise you that doing some deep breaths will only make you feel better, calmer and more in control. 

So, how about you take a walk, to a park, a field, or a road lined in trees. As you walk listen to the sounds around you and let them in, breathe your deep breaths as you walk along. Look up at the leaves, the way the air or the wind moves the trees. You’re present right now and that’s mindfulness. Did you feel that? 

Meditating is about getting into that zone, creating that place, you should be undisturbed, phones silenced. To start with you may like to use a guided meditation from you tube or an app. Guided meditation are personal, the teachers voice and content must fit your ears like a glove. Try listening before you try to meditate and definitely before you buy. There is nothing worse than a voice that makes you annoyed or content that doesn’t fit your beliefs. 

Grounding yourself as you start to meditate is great. Sit on the floor if you can, and imagine an anchor from your bottom right down to the earth, just keeping you where you need to be. As you begin your deep breaths keep your eyes open and find your focus. For some, this could be an image a symbol and for others like me, it could just simply start as a point on my wardrobe. Begin breathing, stretch if you need to, but don’t stop those deep breaths. Feel the tension in your body, and breathe it out. 

You’re doing it, that wasn’t hard was it? I think getting yourself in the headspace to do it is harder. Finding the time and the discipline to put yourself first is the battle, rather than the practice of meditation. By practicing this over and over again everyone will have a different experience. I have my own little rituals that involve incredibly loud melodic music, a hot shower and dousing myself in essential oils before I sit cross legged on the floor and let go of my day. Other times I throw myself down on the edge of a field. 

It’s addictive, it’s balancing and quite frankly it’s a necessity. Whether you meditate without any guidance, or you download an app… who cares? The point is you are self-aware, you are working on yourself and being kind. It doesn’t have to be fluffy; it just needs to work for you. 

So, as you either edge into life as we begin to return, or if you jump in with both feet try to maintain what you’ve learned about yourself. If you’ve learned that your job stresses you more than you thought, well you wouldn’t be alone! Now, what are you going to do about it? Over the last eight weeks we have covered a lot of ground, and if you cast your mind back, we talked a lot about sleep… or lack of it. So, remember your sleep directly correlates with what you eat, how you feel and how active you are. Try not to get hooked on caffeine again and reach for the alternative. 

In your first aid care package to return to work should be Relax Tea. This wellness blend joins you in support to reduce a stressed-out nervous system and reduce the feelings you may have connected with anxiety. This lemony tea with the trifecta of lemon balm, lemon verbena and lemongrass, balances your stress and leads you to wellness, mindfulness and meditation.

It’s been a pleasure, I hope you’ve enjoyed our time together, snuggled up in a chair. I raise my cup of Bobby Marley Tea to you all and in his words “love the life you live, and live the life you love”. 

Namaste,

Alex Hurt x