How Mindfulness Helped Me Regain Control Of My Life

Mindfulness is a psychological process wherein we bring our full attention to experiences happening at the present moment and not the past. We are fully aware of our thoughts, emotions, and feelings at this time.

Practicing mindfulness will help us understand what’s happening inside us without interpreting them or self-judging ourselves about why we are feeling the way we do.

In case you haven’t heard, the greatest power we could ever have is the power of our thoughts. The thoughts running inside our heads control our lives.

So if you want to change your life, you have to change the way you think.

So, this is how mindfulness helped me get through my depression and regain control of my life.

Honestly speaking, it didn’t heal me fully. I still get depressed and anxious from time to time, but it helps lessen my overthinking.

It helped me to realize how much power I have over my emotions and feelings. How much power I have over my thoughts.

Have you ever been blinded by your feelings? Or your overwhelming emotions, especially when you’re feeling depressed or anxious?

There are times when we’re drowning from our own feelings and emotions. There are times when we’re stuck thinking about a past event that we no longer appreciate the present.

There are times when we’re so caught up in our own little world that we forget to actually live in the moment.

We get too stuck.

Too unhappy. Too terrified.

And sometimes we get to the point when we don’t know who we are anymore. We say or do things out of anger, anxiety, and pain. We no longer care who we lose, not even ourselves.

With the help of mindfulness, I learned three things:

1. Pause.

2. Say “no.”

3. Stay in the present.

Pause.

Often, when we get these overwhelming emotions, we burst. We have this momentary lapse of reason where we forget to stop and think whether our reaction will make things better or make them hauntingly worse.

We usually forget that we do have a choice. Some situations may be out of our control, but our thoughts are our own. We either let it break us or make us better.

So, with the help of mindfulness and emotion regulation, I learned how to pause. I learned how to stop before I react and think about the consequences my actions are going to make.

It did not only improve my mood and behavior, but it also increased my feelings of self-worth and my relationship with other people.

Say “no.”

I also learned how to say “no.” I learned that it’s okay to deny people what they want if it’s going to lessen the burden of responsibility on my shoulder.

I realized that by saying no to other people, I would be saying yes to myself.

So don’t be afraid to say no if it’s going to free you.

Stay in the present.

Most of the time, we become distracted by past events that we can no longer move forward. By getting stuck, depression and anxiety will more likely be triggered.

We become so involved with what happened in the past that we forget to welcome new experiences. Mindfulness is an effective technique to remind ourselves that focusing on the present will help us get better.

That what matters most is what we are feeling and thinking right at this moment. Freeing ourselves from the past will free our minds from worry as well.

It’s not easy to forget, move on, and let go of the past. We are just human, after all.

It took me a long time. A very long one.

But as they said, happiness is always around the corner. I just kept forgetting to welcome it when it knocked on my door.

So my advice is choose it—keep choosing to be happy.