Mindfulness Evening
Our BASE community meet-ups are created to bring people together, find support, and be surrounded by like-minded people who want to improve their health physically and mentally.
This month we brought Lorraine O Sullivan into our studio to educate us on mindfulness and how we can all use it in our day-to-day lives.
Lorraine has a BSc in Children's and General Nursing from Dublin City University. She has gained experience over the last five years working in pediatric intensive care, adult palliative care, and pediatric home care.
As a result of her experience in incredibly stressful, challenging, and emotionally heavy work environments, Lorraine is highly knowledgeable (and has personal experience) about issues such as burnout, compassion fatigue, stress and anxiety, as well as the burden of healthcare workers during the pandemic.
What is mindfulness?
"A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique".
We can use mindfulness in our everyday movements like walking, brushing our teeth or getting ready for bed. Mindfulness can help reduce stress, reduce anxiety or depression and can also help relax your body. Mindfulness is proven to improve people's moods and increase positive emotions.
Lorraine guided us through a short meditation and taught us how training your mind is just as important as training your body. Being aware of everyday moments can be tough if you are always thinking of the next thing to do. Being able to be aware of your surroundings, thoughts, feelings, and emotions at any given time is extremely helpful, but it does take practice to get there. Our brain never shuts off so allowing both negative and positive thoughts to arise while practising mindfulness without judgement is hard but we do have to accept whatever our brain thinks. Lorraine mentioned there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to think or feel in a given moment.
It is important to use the brain in the same way as we use every other muscle in the gym - one repetition at a time - when practising mindfulness.
Big thank you to all of our members and Lorraine for participating in our mindfulness night. We will be seeing Lorraine back in our studio in the near future for more guided meditations and tips.