Mindful planning?

[Newbie]

Hi Folks,

I've enjoyed following the Everyday Mindfulness twitter feed for a while, and felt encouraged to register here and ask for some guidance.

By way of background, I've been battling with low self-esteem and mild anxiety for about 18 months now. I have perfectionistic / compulsive tendencies and I've become entrenched in bad thinking patterns revolving around feeling inadequate. There are some days where the inadequate thoughts can take over and spoil whatever I'm up to. It's something I battle with every morning, without fail.

This has led me to get interested in counselling and mindfulness, and while I haven't yet embarked on a proper 8 week mindfulness course, I've begun meditating occasionally and I'm gradually getting better at calmly noticing and accepting negative self-talk.

An area where I would like guidance is how to combine mindfulness with planning for the future. I've hit a point in life where I'm considering big questions like what to do next career-wise and where I want to live. Those questions quickly overwhelm me when I think about them! Since mindfulness is all about the 'now', how can I make plans and decisions about the future in a mindful way?

For anyone who has experience in this area or can offer advice, I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts. Best wishes to everyone.

[JonW]

Hi Newbie.
Welcome to the community. Good to have you on board.
Planning big life changes can be extremely demanding and the best time to make big decisions is not when one is feeling particularly anxious as the decisions are likely to be made from impulsiveness rather than calm, orderly reason.
Why not see how mindfulness goes for you in the next couple of months and then see if you feel better equipped to make those decisions.
Speaking from experience I'm much, much calmer and centred after nine months of mindfulness practice and I've become much better at making decisions big and small. In the last couple of months alone I've made some pretty major decisions about the future course of my life and those decisions have been made in a state of clarity that I could only have dreamed about last year.
I hope you get to go on an 8-week course. Good though it is to follow the course with the help of a book, a group environment does bring it into another dimension.
Do continue posting.
All best wishes, Jon

[rara]

An area where I would like guidance is how to combine mindfulness with planning for the future. I've hit a point in life where I'm considering big questions like what to do next career-wise and where I want to live. Those questions quickly overwhelm me when I think about them! Since mindfulness is all about the 'now', how can I make plans and decisions about the future in a mindful way?

Hey!

I actually confused myself in the same way and posted something about this just under a year ago.

And funnily enough, I'm still working on it. I'm just about to start a new business venture so yeah, even though the future doesn't really exist, that's not to say what what we do now doesn't effect what will happen next!

In other words, try this. Normal breathing meditation...when your head is clear, you will know what sort of thing it is you're looking to do. The answer will just be there...because it's what you fancy doing. Just like you fancy a drink when you're thirsty.

Second, if you want to get creative, do a mind map. These are great ways of unloading your thoughts and take a great deal of mindful attention.

[FeeHutch]

Hello Newbie and welcome to the community.

Jon and Rara have shared some really useful food for thought. I suppose the biggest thing I am noticing for myself right now, I'm also at a point of making choices for the future, that I can hear myself more clearly. I am more able to define the difference between what feels like the right choice for me to make and what is monkey mind chatter about what others may or may not expect/think/say.

I look forward to reading more of your post on the forum

[Newbie]

Thanks to each of you for your thoughts and suggestions. It sounds like the best approach may be to crack on with the practice, and allow the benefits (including calmer and clearer thinking about the future) to materialise naturally. It's a comfort to know that other people have had similar experiences and have been able to see improvements over time.

I'll certainly stay in touch!