The new year is upon us. It’s time to act on all of our resolutions and promises to change for the better.
The most popular resolution is to lose weight, but what about taking care of your mental wellbeing? Why not try some mindfulness or meditation?
Meditation is a focused mental process designed to make you more aware of the internal conversations your mind has with – or without – your participation.
What does that mean?
When you start paying attention to your thoughts, you will understand that our minds seem to become their own data processing computer bank. It isn’t always accurate or reliable, yet we believe what we tell ourselves.
In other words, we pay little attention to what thoughts we have and what our brains process day-to-day. But those thought patterns impact the way we perceive the world, the way we feel about the world, and the way we interact with our world.
What if I told you that you could be your own worst enemy?
The way that you decipher your interactions with your environment, the interactions you have with random strangers, at work or with your family impact your happiness. You could be polluting your own happiness, all the social interactions you have, and your relationships.
You would probably tell me that was foolish, that it is everyone else’s fault or responsibility. It’s easy to think this way until you start actually paying attention to what is going on inside your own head.
Really, start paying attention to the thoughts that you encounter within yourself and note whether the thought is positive and uplifting or negative and belittling.
We filter the world around us based on our own experiences and those filters can be either negative or positive influences. These become the lenses that we use to analyze and participate in life with.
I challenge you to simply start paying attention to the internal conversations that are going on within your mind and decide to either live those truths or aspire to change any negative thought patterns. It could potentially be transforming.
It’s a new year and a new you!
Have questions about practicing mindfulness or meditation? Submit them to me on Facebook or Instagram and I will answer them in my next Ask Amy Instagram live series.
A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Amy Pietrowski is an Oxford-based attorney at Pietrowski Law Practice, working primarily in DUI Defense, Criminal Defense and Family Law. She can be reached at pietrowski@lawyer.com. View her complete bio here.
