Mindfulness is an important tool to have in your toolkit for many reasons and with many widely known benefits. One use and benefit of mindfulness is its impact on relationships. When it comes to relationships, mindfulness is an important tool for you to be able to use.
It can help you to manage stress that can come with tensions or even conflicts that can occur in relationships. It will increase your sense of well-being and connection with your inner core essence, and give you better focus, meaning that we are able to be more fully present for our loved ones when we are with them. Mindfulness improves our active listening ability, the ability to listen with every pore of our being and so improve our communication skills. It increases our empathy and compassion, resulting in us becoming more understanding and accepting of the other person’s views, opinions, and experiences. We can make our relationships our spiritual practice by putting these mindfulness components into practice. By focusing on mindfulness on a regular basis, our relationships will also reap rewards.
There are a variety of techniques for beginning a meditation practice including:
observing breathing
repeating a word, or phrase (mantra)
focusing on an image held in the mind
or on an object such as a candle flame
or on a sound
Keep it simple. When your mind wanders and gets filled with other thoughts or worries, notice that it is happening. You may wish to acknowledge it to yourself “oh I’m thinking again” and congratulate yourself for bringing yourself back to the meditation focus. You are the sky and your thoughts are the clouds that are drifting across the sky.
You can try a basic meditation technique such as the one below. Even just sitting in meditation for a few minutes on most days, will bring some benefit. You can gradually increase the minutes as you are able. If you feel you are not able to sit then try a walking meditation, with or without your loved one accompanying you.
Simple Meditation Technique
Find a comfortable position, even sitting in a chair is fine, and take deep slow breaths. The breaths should begin and end in your stomach.
Say the following words to yourself in your heart, with each slow breath:
Breathing in, I know that I am alive.
Breathing out, I am grateful.
Breathing in, I know that I am here.
Breathing out, I am living in the now.
Breathing in, I know that I am connected to the earth.
Breathing out, I am balanced.
If you wish to try a guided visualization here is a link to one that I’ve written that fits with our theme on relationships. It’s called the Water Meditation http://bit.ly/2KDY3G7
By nourishing yourself and replenishing your well of energy and reconnecting with your core essence, as you are aided in doing by your mindfulness practice, you will be better able to be fully present for your loved ones when you are with them. Your mindfulness practice will help you with your active listening when your loved ones are speaking with you, and help you to manage stress when tensions or conflicts arise. Your development of compassion and empathy will also be strengthened. For these reasons, having a regular mindfulness practice is an important component of not only our spiritual practices but for our relationships.