MINDFULNESS AND THE SPIRIT
Whenever life gets chaotic or difficult, the spirit often feels worn-down, tired, and downright awful. It is important to use mindfulness to target the spirit since it is nearly impossible to appreciate life when you feel this way.
Although mindfulness does not necessarily have measurable impacts on the spirit like it does the mind, it still can improve your spirit dramatically.
Benefits Of Practicing Mindfulness For The Spirit
Since the spirit is not a measurable organ like the brain or heart, the benefits of mindfulness on the spirit are more ambiguous and less studied. This is not to say that mindfulness does not help the spirit. On the contrary, mindfulness is a great influencer on your spirit. Instead, it simply means that the results are not as easily measured or quantifiable.
Increases Your Well Being
How to improve your well being has been one of the most frequently asked questions since the ancient times. One’s “well being” often refers to their health from a holistic perspective, including the body, mind, and spirit. To improve your well being, it is crucial to focus on your spirit since it is often the most forgotten aspect of well being.
Studies have found that mindfulness is one of the best ways to improve your well being. It frees you from distraction, centers yourself on what matters, and diminishes rumination. Your spirit then becomes less restless and your well being is improved.
Increases Satisfaction With Life
One of the worst features of a worn-down spirit is feeling like life is meaningless or not finding satisfaction with life. If you do not like your life, it is easy to give in to the chaos and give up. Without satisfaction in your life, it is nearly impossible to overcome any situation, let alone a chaotic one.
Some studies have shown that mindfulness increases one’s satisfaction in life. One study actually found that those who practice mindfulness believe that the life they are living more closely matches the life they want to be living, or their ideal life.
As you focus on your spirit and become more satisfied with life, other aspects of your life are likely to improve. Life satisfaction is one of the greatest determiners of work burnout. The more satisfied you are with life, the less likely you are to feel work burnout, increasing your satisfaction and work functionality.
Life satisfaction also improves satisfaction in your relationships. The old saying goes, “Nobody can love you if you do not love yourself first.” Although other people can love you regardless, you will not believe they love you until you love yourself. If you improve your satisfaction in life, it is much easier to enjoy those around you and truly engage in healthy relationship patterns.
Enhances Self-Insight
One of the most important functions of the spirit is to reflect on one’s self and truly understand who they are as an individual. If your spirit is worn- down and tired, it can be difficult to understand or know yourself, making it imperative to use mindfulness to improve the spirit.
Recent studies have found that mindfulness is a great way to get to know yourself better and increase self-insight. Since judgmental actions and unawareness are the culprits behind inadequate knowledge of yourself, mindfulness forces you to take a close, honest, and compassionate look at yourself, allowing you to become more insightful.
As your self-insight increases, you can better understand why you make the choices you make and change the unhealthy behaviors accordingly. It will also increase your emotional stability since you will have a better understanding of yourself.
Mindfulness And The Spirit Practices
One of the best ways to improve the spirit is to repeat positive and true affirmations based on your exact needs. Most people’s spirits are worn- down because they believe hurtful and untrue things about themselves. Use affirmations to rewire the negative beliefs about yourself.
Here is how to create and use affirmations that actually enhance your life and spirit:
1. Reflection
Reflect on yourself, your feelings, and your actions. Are there any feelings that keep coming up? What has been bothering you lately? What do you want to improve about yourself? What do you wish someone else would tell you?
Reflecting on these questions will help you learn exactly what areas you need to work on within yourself. If you skip this reflection phase, you will not create affirmations that actually impact your mindset, spirit, or life.
2. Create the Affirmations
Once you have pinpointed your weak areas, you will be able to create helpful affirmations. Make sure that the affirmations directly address the issue and are short and easy to remember. Since you will be repeating these affirmations, you need to be able to remember them in a month’s time.
For example, if your reflection showed you that you are insecure with your abilities at work, create an affirmation that addresses the insecurity specifically. “I am competent and know how to fulfill my job” is a great affirmation for this issue. It is short, sweet, and directly flips the original insecurity on its head.
3. Repeat Affirmations
Affirmations take many recitations to improve your life. Repeat your affirmation morning and night, five times each, for at least one month. Even if you start feeling an improvement sooner, keep saying the affirmations for a month minimum. You may want to say the affirmations longer depending on your needs.
Recap
Your spirit is an often forgotten about part of the self. Improve your spirit by practicing mindfulness. Doing so will increase your well being, increase your satisfaction with life, and enhance your self-insight. Try creating and reciting targeted affirmations to become mindful of your spirit.