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The Power of NOW!

by Adie McDermott, inspired my Ekhart Tolle and Bec De Zero Point Yoga

If when you create something, you create intuitively like me you train your mind to not think and to be in the present moment. This has so many extraordinary health and life benefits. According to Elkhart Tolle author of The Power of Now and many other spiritual leaders around the globe, being in the present (the now) as opposed to thinking about your problems, the past or the future is a place where freedom from self-debilitating thoughts, anxiety and mental stress can be found.

A highly sensitive person as well as an empath I feel very strongly and I feel everything!!!! Learning to be in the now has been allowing me to notice what’s going on around me and my anxious, or fearful thoughts and not react to them. 

Last month, I shared with my community about my anxiety around what has been happening with my daughter (now referred to as my son) and how even though we don’t talk about it much, it does not make us weak to feel anxiety, is it ok to feel it, and that we all feel it to some extreme, sometimes. 

The power of one breath
 

Recently, my yoga teacher Bec De Zero Point Yoga has been speaking during my many yoga practices about the power of one breath. And how, one conscious, deep, in and out breath can regulate the whole nervous system.

 

Why is this important? “If we regulate our nervous systems we can handle the next stress”, she says “and if you don’t the stress response gets worse each time”. I have certainly experienced this over the last year. Have you?

Countless scientific studies have been done on this and the brain has been proven to change after just one of these breaths.

Taking one conscious breath distracts our mind and brings us back into our body
 

Today I connected it all together! A stress response comes from our mind. Our mind is wired naturally go into a fight or flight response to stress. What it is actually doing is either reacting to something that happened in the past, worrying about the future, or it thinks it feels discomfort (as in a yoga pose situation for instance). Taking one conscious breath distracts our mind and brings us back into the body. The NOW, a place where, in this very moment, everything is usually actually ok. 

It is easy to take a deep breath, the trick however is to make it deeper, longer and to really notice it. What does the breath look like? Take one deep breath in, notice where is moves to and what happens in the body. When you breathe in, your stomach and chest expands and rises. Feel it doing this. When you breathe out, your chest and stomach empty and flatten. Feel it doing this. If you have trouble noticing or feeling the breath, another trick is to count your breath. Counting to 10  when you breathe in and 10 when you breathe out helps you focus on your breath.

Bringing this goodness into your life

Taking this into your life and remembering to do this when you feel stressed or anxious is easier said than done. I know that from experience. So….what can we do to cultivate this skill and make it easier and more natural to do in a stressful situation? 

•Yoga: A difficult yoga pose, deregulates our nervous system, causing a stressful fight or flight response. In a yoga practice we learn to sit with the discomfort and use our breath to get through it

•Meditation trains us to clear our minds, watch our breath, and return to our breath when our thoughts take over 

• Intuitive painting (among many other healing life benefits) is a moving mediation. It not only produces beautiful, unique paintings, it trains our minds to not think of the past or future and to be in the present moment. 

Personally, I do all these mindful things. How about you?❤️

To try creating something for yourself check out my classes, holistic online courses and creative wellness workshops. Join my creative facebook community to connect with like mined others, try out my FREE mixed media ‘gratitude’ project or watch me make an artwork and learn more about the healing power of creativity here.

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