LIFEHACK team takes 10 to take notice
Here at LIFEHACK HQ, we’ve been working to keep ourselves well, despite a hectic schedule of meetings, events, emails and building for a big middle of the year (more about that soon!).
One of the things we keep coming back to is the need to cut through the fuzz of every day life, be more present during our time together, and turn off our brains at night to get some good restful sleep instead of lying awake thinking about the things we need to do the next day.
A big part of the answer came when we were considering one of the 5 Steps to Wellbeing – “Take Notice”.
Image credit: Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand
When we started reading up about “Take Notice” we found a lot of research and evidence pointing toward Mindfulness & Meditation as a great way in to practice this ‘way to wellbeing’ in our daily lives. We also met a lot of researchers working on this in Australia at the #Connect14 conference.
So after a particularly full on day down in Greymouth at our West Coast event, we decided to fire up our iPad and do a guided meditation as a team – it might sound strange initially but none of us had done much meditation before, so we thought we’d try one of the Apps from LifeStack (our library of digital wellbeing tools). We chose Stop, Breathe & Think – an iOS app which asks you to input some of your current mood and feelings and then it suggests some guided meditations to shift your mood. It was a revolution for us as a team, and we had some great conversations once we’d spent 10 minutes concentrating on our breathing & letting ourselves relax.
Each of us finds our own way when we’re back home in Wellington, but I’ve been recently using Headspace (a UK-based Android App) which gives you a free 10 day program called “Take 10”. I often use it during the day when I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed as well as often in the evening to clear my mind before bed.
Finally I thought we should make you aware of a great initiative called MINDFUL IN MAY. If you feel like some of the above gels with you and you’d like to try out a little mindfulness in your life (go on, it’s really not that scary!) then there’s a great chance to get involved from 1 May!
One of our good friends here in New Zealand – Marianne Elliott (@zenpeacekeeper) is also involved as one of the experts.
Mindful in May gives you the opportunity to kick off a daily practice with a free one month program, a community of people around the globe who’re doing the same thing, and a very busy hashtag to follow and post with – all in exchange for a small donation to Charity:Water.
You can also join the Lifehack team here.
We also aim to get a guest post from the excellent Dr Elise Bialylew (@meditatecreate) sometime in May to tell us how it’s all going!
Post by Sam Rye from the LIFEHACK Core Team
