SOPHRO BALANCE for Wellbeing

In those immortal words you hear every New Year…take action this year could make you stronger…more successful…achieve your dreams…happier, which is frustratingly predictable, and you wonder how are you going to get all those things that you feel you deserve or need in your life this year.

It is probably a key time, more than any other year, when we must reflect on our life experience and draw on the things that are good to improve the life we have and get what we want for the future. Everyone talks about mindfulness but can that really be enough to make you feel so good about yourself that you can create a change?

I was a complete novice to mindfulness a year ago, thinking what is it and am I doing it right, which is how everyone feels when they try doing it for the first time. Similarly, with meditation you have to focus on the breath and when your mind wanders, which it inevitably does, bring it back to the breath. Sounds easy right, however, if like me you feel that just sitting down with no direction or intention is pointless or just doesn’t seem enough, well that is exactly how I felt and why I turned to Sophrology.

Sophrology is based on the work done by a Columbian born neuro-psychiatrist in the 1960’s who focused on treating post war victims suffering from trauma and depression, a practice that is widely used in France & Switzerland today as an adjunctive therapy for those suffering from stress and anxiety. It is a form of mindfulness that enables you to not only feel happier through simple guided movements and visualisation but when practiced regularly it has the potential to create lasting changes to your body & mind that can be transformational.

The practice consists of approx. 10-20mins a day of physical and mental exercises that can be done anytime, anywhere and when practiced regularly they typically lead to a healthy, relaxed body and a calm, alert mind.

A good example of this is a re-energising practice known in Sophrology as the Pump Technique which is useful for clearing the head:

Let’s get Pumped!

1. Stand tall with your arms by your side
2. Close your eyes and keep your back straight
3. Prepare your mind to focus on tense areas of your body
4. Clench your fists, take a deep breath, and hold the breath in
5. Now pump your shoulders, lifting them up and down until you need to breathe out
6. As you exhale, slowly relax your fists and visualise tension and anxiety draining away through your arms, hands and fingertips

It is our inner state that affects our level of happiness or how we experience it in daily life depending on how stressed we may feel so we can have some control over it. By being calmer we are less likely to be affected in the same way by stressful situations therefore losing less time over things that don’t matter as much which in turn can make us feel happier with the lives we have or choose to have in the year that follows.

If you have read something here that resonates with you or you feel you need to pause more often in a mindful way to find balance in your life, then please get in touch and together we can assess your needs more fully.

The 6 Steps to your Wellbeing

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