"Mindfulness can assist you in taking the power of determining what is best for you away from the "experts" and holding it firmly in your own hands (and mind and body) where it belongs." This is from Babette Rothschild's book 8Ways to Safe Trauma Recovery. I got this very useful book through our public library and am reading it to add more options to my therapy tool box for helping those that are trying to recover from the pain and darkness of their past. As I said recently, I have been reading all I can get my hands on about techniques to deal with trauma so I can empower my clients. It is unrealistic to think people can get through these traumas with simple formulas but they can use practices or techniques that will no longer let the past control their lives in the present.
This idea of mindfulness helping us to determine what is best for us is one of the reasons I teach mindfulness to all my clients and students. Most of us were raised to doubt what we felt inside, doubt what we sensed intuitively, doubt the wisdom of our gut because this inner wisdom was overrun by our ego-mind and the limiting beliefs and ideas of those who were our models. We knew what was right for us but those around us claim to know better so instead we sought the approval of others and denied our own truth. Mindfulness gets us back on track towards our own inner wisdom.
We are most empowered when we listen inward to the wisdom of our heart, our intuitive messages, our body's guidance, and our spirit's higher knowing. This inner knowing is much wiser and more trustworthy than our thoughts. The mind is a county fair circus of thoughts most of which need to be thoroughly examined. If we learn to trust what we know in the deepest part of us we automatically liberate ourselves from the tyranny of our conditioned ego-mind and open ourselves to a greater flow of possibilities and potential.
A simple mindfulness practice is to tune into the world inside of you and around you. In this practice all you have to do is pay attention to what you are aware of when you are present to your body, your thoughts, the energy of your emotions and the world around you. Set a period of time from 5 minutes to 30 minutes and just notice all you can notice, feel all you can feel, pay attention to all sensations, and hear your inner dialogue. You can do this practice daily or even throughout your day. The more you practice, the more you will be aware of yourself and your world. With more awareness you empower yourself to live the life that matters to you.
Mindfulness is not only consciousness raising but also will make your life full of the interest of discovery.