3 ways mindfulness improved my life lately

And how you can do the same

Just like it can be hard to imagine how beautiful the Aurealis Borealis is until you’ve seen it, it’s hard to imagine how mindfulness will actually change your life until you’ve done it.

So here’s 3 unexpected ways mindfulness made my life better this month.

1. I’m not going to my sister’s hen party*. 

*bachelorette party for those of you across the pond

Yup, you read that right.

I’m NOT going and that’s a good thing. 

I LOVE my sister. We’re super close.

But she’s having two hen parties, and one of them is NOT my vibe.

And Old Me would have just sucked it up.

I’d have spent money I didn’t have, on a 7 day trip to Ibiza that I would have been DREADING.

All while putting on a super happy face and pretending I was loving it. 

But she wouldn’t want that. And Mindful Me knows that. 

I know I’m not a “bad sister” or “bad Maid of Honour” for not going. I know I’m “not letting her down”.

I know that she would LOVE it if I went AND enjoyed it, but that’s not the situation.

Mindfulness lets me see that clearly AND have the courage to say to her “Em, I love you dearly, but I’m not going to come”. 

2. I enjoyed work, despite being stressed enough to cry

Two days a week, I work as a lecturer at a UK vet school. 

And on Friday, the proverbial sh$t hit the fan. 

I was already struggling to keep on top of everything.

And then I heard one of my job shares (there are 3 of us in the same role; it’s a big job), has been signed off sick for 2 weeks. When the other is on annual leave. 

I just sat there looking at my laptop, my head a total whirlwind, thinking “it is physically impossible to keep all these important balls in the air on my own”. 

I wanted to cry.

And then I did something Old Me would NEVER have done. 

I took a lunch break and meditated.

And while it didn’t make the to-do list any smaller, I could see it more clearly. 

I went from “everything is absolutely essential” to “if those jobs don’t get done, it’s not the end of the world, and if that job gets pushed back a month, it’s fine”. 

I recognised it was totally reasonable to email my line manager and explain the situation and that I wasn’t being “lazy” or “slow” for not being able to do it all on my own.

Did I still feel a bit stressed? Absolutely. 

But did I also enjoy two of the meetings I had that afternoon? Yes I did. 

Old Me would have struggled to concentrate and every job would have taken twice as long as a result.

And I’d have tried (and failed) to rush those meetings, creating more work in the long-run. 

Mindful Me smashed through a load of jobs, laughed with a colleague, and went home feeling proud. 

3. I went on a spontaneous trip to a pub garden on Friday night

Old Me did NOT do spontaneity.

Not because I was against it per se, but because I didn’t have time. 

Every minute of my life was accounted for. 

So if I wasn’t already going to the pub on Friday… I’d have something else to do.

And it wouldn’t matter if the sun was shining and some friends had decided to go and it sounded lovely 🤷‍♀️

Even if I *preferred* the idea of the pub garden, that was impossible. Because 

1. I wouldn’t never let someone down if I’d already made arrangements

2. I couldn’t ever leave free time “free” because I didn’t want to waste it. 

So I regularly missed things I wanted to do 🤦‍♀️

And the ironic thing - I honestly thought that was normal. 

I remember getting frustrated at people because “you can’t just suggest things at short notice!”.

Now I rarely do things I don’t want to and I nearly always have time to do the things I do. 

Because I’m mindful about how I use my free time, and I’m ok with not booking up every minute of it in advance.

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If you want to explore how different your life could be with mindful living, I’d love to welcome you to the monthly mindful membership. 

MOMENTUM

Each month, we’ll look at a different aspect of mindful living and explore HOW to make that part of your life.

Things like

• Being honest about your feelings, even when you’re worried about letting people down

• Enjoying work even when it’s stressful (the theme for August!)

• Feeling like you’re good enough, even when you’re new at something, and without being complacent

• Releasing the need to fill every minute of your time and allowing time to rest and/or for spontaneous plans (without feeling lazy, guilty or like you’re wasting time).

These themes are deliberately specific.

It’s not just “managing stress”.

You can Google that if you want to.

It’s the detail on what to actually do.

Rather than a 5-step article telling you how to meditate by finding a quiet space, yada yada yada, I’ll give you strategies that make meditation work.

Even when you can’t stop thinking, even when you don’t have time to meditate because there’s too much to do (especially when that happens), even when you can’t go to somewhere quiet.

The strategies I needed, when I was first learning to live mindfully.

How does it work?

• One 15 minute podcast episode per week, focusing on the monthly theme.

• Unlimited access to the archives - so you can binge all previous content if you want (and why wouldn’t you?!).

• A questions thread - let me know if something’s not quite working for you, and I’ll help you through it.

It’s just £7.50/month and you cancel any time.

To sign up, become a “paid subscriber”; hit the subscribe button below, and select the paid option.

Or, go to my homepage and click “upgrade” in the top right corner.

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That’s it folks.

Whether the membership is right for you or not, I hope today’s given you some inspiration to live more mindfully.

Sending lots of love,

Lucy x