A Therapist’s Experience with Mindfulness
I am a firm believer in practicing what you preach, therefore I thought it would be helpful to share my experience with mindfulness as a counsellor. Like many clients have experienced before, I often find that my mind wonders and I am filled with many thoughts at any given time. As someone in a helping field who also experiences the impacts of life; both good and bad, I needed to find a way to help combat these thoughts in a healthy and positive way. Mindfulness has been extremely helpful for me as I have found a few different ways to practice it depending on where I am in my day. Here are a few helpful ways that I practice mindfulness.
1) I find that guided mindfulness is most helpful for me. I like to know the directive and having someone fill in those blanks brings less anxiety and allows me to fully be present in the moment. I often use videos from The Honest Guys on YouTube as they have many different styles to choose from, my favourite being any of the guided mindfulness for a restful night’s sleep. Here is the link to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jWo5kiyOCt4PnvF4jbaLg
2) I find journalling rewarding. Taking a few minutes throughout the day to write down thoughts that I can’t seem to escape from is helpful as it gets them out of my head and onto paper. I am unapologetic in my writing and by that, I mean I write whatever comes to mind and however I am feeling without giving any meaning to it or casting judgment. I let myself feel it and write it out. I find that using a journal that speaks to you can be most helpful. My favourite colour is yellow so I chose a yellow journal to do my writing in.
3) At the end of the day, I like to drive home in silence. I don’t use the radio; I don’t plug my phone into my car – I simply drive and experience the thoughts that pop into my head. I have a 15-minute drive to and from work and it is the perfect amount of time for me to be alone with my thoughts, acknowledging they are there and then releasing them as I continue to drive down the road.