Hello everyone, I’m more than glad that we have met. I’m Rey and I am here to teach you how to cope with stress and life obstacles. To lead you the right path you should become familiar with my story, maybe some of you will find a piece of your own experience. A few years ago I was lost: my 60 hour work week was nothing but a series of endless tasks, meeting deadlines and satisfying clients, so I was totally overwhelmed. I couldn't find a balance between my personal life and work. My life appeared to me as a deep, limitless void, a realm of hopelessness, exhaustion and constant flurry of thoughts. I was totally overworked and after a decade, being completely burnt out, I started to suffer from eating and sleeping disorders, which were the result of work related stress.

As we all know stress is a vicious killer –  however muted and unnoticeable it may seem, never should we ignore it. We are often not aware that our poor self – esteem, rotten mood and physical complaints are connected with another conversation with a strict and malicious boss or oncoming strenuous project. Stress may cause a whole range of ailments from unstoppable nervousness, terrible migraines to cumbersome diarrhoeas. It is the main trigger of such severe diseases as depression, high blood pressure and heart problems.

So, the question arises how to overcome it. Well, mindfulness is the answer. I am living proof that it really works. I strongly believe that mindfulness saved me. What is it? Maintaining the awareness of the moment, of our thoughts, feelings, of body sensations, and surrounding environment. It is inseparable from the acceptance - which means nothing more than  paying attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them. We must remember there are no wrong or right sensations as we are doomed to feel everything. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment, right now, rather than rehashing our further past or looking ahead persistently. Mindfulness is a lesson of concentration, stopping in the moment and searching for peace and quiet – and if you are a diligent student you will master it.

Is mindfulness hard to practise? Not at all – we know it already, we simply don’t notice it! We do have the capacity of wellbeing, of being present, of being self‑aware - but we need to remind ourselves about it. We need to learn how to cultivate it, for instance by meditation, which is not secret knowledge! It involves taking the time to pay attention to where we are and in what surrounding, and then we start to be aware of our body, which is the first step to our recovery.

Let’s try it now, listen to me and do exactly what I am going to say. First take your seat, find a place where you will feel comfortable and safe. Notice your legs and cross them if you are on the floor. If you are sitting on a chair make sure your feet touch the floor. Straighten - but don’t stiffen - your upper body. The spine should be straight. Make your shoulders relaxed. Then let your hands drop onto the tops of your legs. Drop your chin a bit and let your eyelids lower, you can even close your eyes if you feel like doing so. Take a deep breath, inhale as much air as you can and then exhale it very slowly. Feel how pleasant the breathing is. Repeat it again and again. Let yourself feel the body from your feet to your head top, observe the pictures in front of your eye lids, try not to think about anything but now. If some thoughts are coming unwanted, don’t struggle with them, just accept them and let them fly away. Try to be present as long as you can.

In other words we need to unplug ourselves in order to plug our fresh selves in again: with better quality meaning better self‑understanding. Our main duty is to find balance between our personal and work life, to prioritize what is a real value for us: a job or a family, another report or our free time. Only by doing so will we be able to achieve the blessing of wellbeing. Thank you very much for participating in this lecture. Go home, meditate, breathe and don’t be afraid to feel.

Autor: Ewelina Ramotowska