Focus Your Mind & Appreciate The Magical Moments Of Now!

  

How frikking beautiful is this pic? Whilst it’s not my favourite picture of the weekend I think it is the most poignant (and arty). Plus I don’t really want to be plastering photos and videos of my boy finally being tall enough to go out on his bike and you probably aren’t too bothered about seeing that either! But I digress, let's get back to that lush pic of green and talk about why it’s been so important to me this weekend and how it can help you too!

Help you, you ask? Yes! Today's blog is all about focus. Focusing your mind on the present moment and letting go of everything that isn’t in the moment! Which is definitely the hardest part and the part that robs us of the reward of that mindful presence.

Within moments that delicious crystal-looking blob of water could be gone! A one-time event, a one-time moment, yes another blob of water may come along but not on the same day, with the same lighting the same vibrant shade of green so full of life, the promise of spring after a frankly miserable March. And for me, it came at a time when I was focusing on the mindset of “focus on the moments”. Spotting this glorious beautiful moment gifted to me by nature really felt like a reward for all the conscious work I had been doing. Over the weekend, I had been focusing my energies on not letting my overactive, easily distracted (suspected ADHD / ADD) brain take over. And it was no easy task!

Does any of this sound familiar to you? My brain is a busy one:

• It pings here, there and everywhere! 
• It gets so overwhelmed it completely zones out. 
• It means I miss things. 
• It means I disappoint my family sometimes because my brain is being such a distraction I’m not living the moments with them. 

Being like this isn’t all that fun, your time spent with loved ones can be overcrowded by great ideas that you immediately resent because you know that train of thought, that genius idea, will disappear likely to never rear its head again. It means you walk into things, yeah no kidding, being distracted all the time is a genuine health hazard! And a whole plethora of things that aren’t so positive. (Just so you know a lot of these things are SUPERPOWERS but in the right situation!)

So I decided to take action! Here are a few things that I did:

✨ Body jiggles - this is akin to body shakes and tremors which is a fantastic and instinctive way of rebalancing the nervous system, relieving stress and releasing trauma (yes this is a very very basic explanation) but the action of doing the shake was kind of a pathway of noticing! I noticed when my attention was being drawn away, I’d even say to my partner, “it happened again” and then I’d do a full body shake, and even add a funny “brrr” sound to go with it! Yep, it was a bit silly, but it worked! And not only that I found that my announcing that I’d noticed helped my partner know I was aware and it made my son laugh which made me laugh and we all came into that moment.

 

✨ Mindfulness breathing - This is super simple. Take in a deep deliberate breath, draw your attention to the pathway of it entering your nose, filling your lungs, notice the sounds, the feelings hold the breath refocusing your mind to your centre and release. Freeing yourself to be in the moment and allow yourself to control where your attention goes with that self-centring.

✨ Rubbing my fingertips together for 30 seconds - This is an aaaaaaaaamazing tip I picked up from a tiktok I once saw and I have no idea who the creator is, to you creator I am forever grateful, because oh my cosmos this one is a game changer for express meditation! Finding that meditation focus is HARD! So difficult and even harder when you’ve got a very “on” brain. So, take your thumb and one of your fingers and rub them very gently together feeling for the ridges of the skin. This sensation and active seeking will bring your attention to that one spot on your body, it’ll shut all the noise and truly bring you that meditation focus space. 

✨ Active smiling, then laughing - Did you know that smiling releases Neuropeptides? These amazing lil molecules fight off stress! And laughing! Wow the magic of laughing, it actively swaps cortisol (stress hormone) with the best hormones! Dopamine which can enhance learning, motivation & attention! Oxytocin which I know as the love hormone but this cheeky lil one is also the empathy hormone which is exactly what you need when you’re focusing on being present with someone! It creates a feeling of relatedness. And Endorphins, the pleasure hormone! Not only that but endorphins have an insane amount of health benefits from stress relief to improved immune systems. You can learn more about all of these in this incredible article by neuroleadership.com .

✨ Playing with my fidget rings (yes plural 🤣) - I know, you’ve been waiting for the crystals part because well, that’s what I do! They're such a fantastic tool and combined with jewellery as a mindfulness tool well, you can't go wrong, can you? So which ones did I wear?

I wore my Tourmaline fidget spinner ring one, which has one black, one pink and one green tourmaline, each with its own little superpower. The black one relates to your root chakra and grounds you, connecting you to the earth giving you a stable footing and tethering that expansive mind. The pink and green connect with the heart chakra, the pink connects to your self-love, self-appreciation and compassion, and the green connects to the giving side of your heart chakra where your love and compassion for others comes from. Completing the heart chakra's purpose of giving and receiving! Part of my focus was on appreciating family time! So this tourmaline ring was perfect for this!

 

The other one I wore was The Power of Calm, obviously because I wanted to calm the chaos of my noggin! This one has two Amazonites and one Aquamarine. Both are beautiful blue-green crystals connected to the heart & throat chakras. The Amazonite is wonderful for allowing you to access your inner strength! When you’re trying to do something like this focus practice you definitely need strength for it! But really it was the Aquamarine I was seeking out. This calming crystal of the sea has an incredible ability to help you with letting go! This incredible stone is fabulous at washing away blocks, mental, emotional and spiritual allowing you to access your deepest confidence and letting go of what no longer serves you! Which is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I wanted to let go of the distractions of the constant chatter and have the courage to just be in the moment. Which honestly feels like a kind of nakedness and well, that needs solid confidence, doesn’t it! Which is something these two crystals bring in abundance!

✨ Actively looking for the smiles of my family, noticing the beauty that's there every day, and drawing them into my heart centre - This practice of gratitude is the most powerful of all I think. Noticing the shine of their eyes, the little smiles, and the quirks of their eyebrows to name a few. Nothing is more precious than these.

This isn’t everything that I did but it’s certainly a good selection and a really solid manageable place to start your focus-mindful practice. And guess what? I had so much fun! I laughed and cried (not bad crying) and gathered so many precious moments in my heart. You can definitely do that too!! Life’s too short to give in to all the distractions and miss out on those precious moments that you have to be present for!

If you find it hard to focus, try a few of those things! When you do let me know how it goes! I’d love to know how you get on! Let me know in the comments or connect with me on socials and email!

And as a cheeky bonus when you join my email list, you get a free beginners crystal guide! Win!

With love and sparkles,

Annie xox