Loved up for Valentines Day? Use Mindfulness to enhance your connection.
In the spirit of Valentines Day, let’s get loved up!
Thich Nhat Hanh (in his book The Miracle of Mindfulness) writes “Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognise a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes." So how do we find our way back home, to that feeling of connection that may have been dried up over the years?
Mindfulness itself is simple, it involves purposefully bringing your attention and focus to the present moment. This involves increasing your awareness of your feelings, physical sensations of your body, your actions and words as well as your perceptions. To improve your relationship, this also involves bringing attention purposefully to your partners present moment experience.
So often, couples do not realise that they have differing perceptions of the same thing. These differences become barriers when we are increasingly time poor or agitated by the lack of connection. This is often a major trigger for loneliness and isolation within marriages. Simply being aware that these differ can open opportunities to grow and understand how to respond or manage these differences – but only if you see them!
How often are you mindful of your partner or your own experience and view of the world? Of your desires, dreams, feelings, present difficulties or personal challenges? What about your partners desires, dreams, feelings, present difficulties or personal challenges?
Practice mindful awareness this Valentine’s Day by opening your mind, being present, labelling what you notice and increasing your information and knowledge of that moment. With this information we can begin to make better choices about how to respond to enhance our relationship, even if the staring point is – I don’t know where to start.