Why practice mindfulness?

[larorra]

hi FeeHutch,

i Started practicing mindfulness at around the time i was attending phyisotherapy for stress management. My therapist suggestive listening t some meditation music on youtube which I did and followed on from there by reading "wherever you go there you are" by jon kabat Zinn. not long after that i found mindfulness in twitter and have enjoyed all the help from other members in the forum. mindfulness has been life changing for me. beforeI found it I let stress get the better of me resulting in 5 months off work. I nevar want to let stress affect me that way again and Thanks to mindfulness i am sure i am on right track now. I just live each day and appreciate what i have. Its early days bit i am feeling the benefits. This is for life.

[Clé]

[flash=][/flash] Last summer my world fell apart. It seemed like my marriage was crumbling and nothing made sense as I couldn't understand the whys of it all. I read Pema Chodron 'When Things Falk Apart' & Jack Kornfield 'The Wise Heart' and meditated occasionally. In October I discovered my husband had been having an affair. Reality and illusion exploded into a tangled mess of confusions. To stay? To go? To try? To give up? At moments I felt like I was going crazy - trying to make sense of things. Anger, fear, despair, sadness - bubbled to life and I struggled at times just to keep going. Then there was the books of Thich Nhat Hanh and 'Full Catastrophe Living' and Mark Walliams & in November I began an early morning rise of 15 minutes meditation and began to practise mindfulness. The early morning start was inspired by John Kabat Zinn. I've also began to bring it to other parts of my day. It has transformed me, given me strength, allowed me to shine again, to see (and be) light. Things became not only bearable but I found happiness in the midst of enormous emotional pain. I even learned (a bit) to be mindful of the deep sadness and anger. It is a long road. I am still with my husband. Mindfulness has been invaluable through the process. And continues to be.

[FeeHutch]

Thank Larorra and welcome and thank you Cle for sharing your thoughts.

I have submitted the piece now and I will post a link here when it is published but I'd like to encourage everyone to continue sharing their experiences of what drew them to mindfulness and what they gain from it.

[deltahotel66]

I suppose I have explained my reasons in my two introductory posts but I will highlight them again here. I first experienced anxiety attacks when I was 18, a terrifying experience out of seemingly nowhere which lead me slowly into a deep depression I still experience to this day, this year I will be 47. In many ways, being anxious and depressed has been my life. I have never stopped trying to recover, to find my way out of this living death. If nothing else, I have proven to myself I am resilient and persistent, sure there have been some extremely dark days when I have seriously considered throwing the towel in, if you like, but I have never picked up that towel. I have sometimes ground to a halt, exhausted but slowly I always pick myself up again and carry on.

Mindfulness was suggested to me by a mental health worker I was seeing last year but my first real exposure to the mechanisms of it came via you tube. I am currently reading the book the mindful way through depression which is very helpful for me too.

Mindfulness has given me the most precious commodity, hope.

Delta

[FeeHutch]

Hey everyone, the piece is up on the Daily Waffle
http://www.dailywaffle.co.uk/2013/01/mi ... t=FaceBook

Thank you all very much. I made tiny edits in a couple of places but hope you don't mind.

[JonW]

Hi there. I'm new to this forum. Thank you for welcoming me.
In early December 2012, I experienced a series of life events that were extremely challenging. I broke up with a woman I loved. I had two fairly major health scares. Then my father passed away. All this in the space of a fortnight.
I felt familiar feelings of depression creeping up on me and I was scared. A friend of mine mentioned mindfulness and I was immediately interested. I bought the Mark Williams/Danny Penman book, started reading and began meditating for the first time in my life. I'm 51.
Ten weeks later, I can hardly believe how much better I feel. I'm meditating daily. In fact meditation is one of the things I most look forward to when I wake up. I'm able to cope with my negative thoughts & feelings so much better and I feel so much more alert to everything in my life.
I've recently started an eight-week mindfulness course in my town (Brighton, UK) with teacher Nick Diggins and I'm loving it.
I feel that discovering mindfulness was the start of a whole new adventure in my life. I feel blessed to have discovered it.
All good things, JonW

[Steve]

Although Fiona has submitted her piece, I think it is very helpful for us and for others to hear how we each got into mindfulness - so here's my brief story:

I am very fortunate, I don't have any major health concerns but I suffer from the stresses and strains of everyday life (like most people do). Whilst securely married, I would like my relationship to get back to what it used to be but I shy away from conflict so ended up getting stressed out and fed up by any cross exchange of words. I have also been going though a stressful time at work. Although I am also financially secure, I have had to postpone early retirement following an ongoing dispute with my former partners (equal to 5 years of income) - still too much for me to walk away from. I read all sorts of self-help books and then came across meditation and took an 8 week mindfulness course. Although, I have practised on and off for a few years, every time I pick it up again, it helps me cope, is a source of peace and serenity and helps me deal with stresses and strains without taking them so personally so I get to enjoy life again rather then being perpetually caught up in worrying about the past or the future. Its great to hear how mindfulness helps those of you who have more life challenges than I (and this makes me appreciate what I have rather than worrying about what I don't have) but mindfulness is also of benefit to those of use who merely 'suffer' from the stresses and strains of everyday living.

Steve