Episode 96 - Being well with Lauren

Episode 96 - An awareness exercise to increase happiness & reduce stress

Today we are going to do a fun exercise in awareness to help you feel happier every single day...Would you like to try that? Now this is a really simple exercise you can do at any time to help your mind learn to focus, deliberate, and essentially think more clearly ...so it is really super useful and has a range of benefits. I ask you at the beginning of this episode to bring an item or a thing which gives you comfort. We use this for the awareness practice. And yes by practice I mean this is an exercise you repeat regularly. I recommend daily. The more you practice the better you get at it. And the more you practice the happier you get. Sound good doesn't it? Now with your chosen item in your hand I want you to explore, enjoy, and immerse yourself in that item. Today I use a cup of tea( Because I just love tea and find it comforting). Throughout the episode today we notice our chosen item, we touch it, listen to it, look at it...possibly taste it. This exercise is all about really sitting in the present moment enjoying, appreciating, and focusing on what we have right in front of us. In this way we teach our minds to focus deliberately on what we have in this present moment rather than being distracted,  ruminating, over thinking or wandering away from the moment.   As we do bicep curls in order to increase our bicep strength, or we may run in order to increase our cardio fitness so we do happiness exercises in order to teach our brain to feel familiar with happiness.  In other words we train our happiness muscle. So the feeling of happiness becomes more of a ‘go- to’ emotion for our brain rather than the emotions of anxiety or negative stress.   A trained brain is also more resilient and able to think more clearly which helps with problem solving and stress. So go and get yourself an item which brings you comfort and resonates with who you are and come back and sit down and let's do a simple exercise to train our happiness muscle. Warm Regards Lauren aka the whispering mother

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