How Mindfulness Relates to Wedding Planning
Wedding planning requires a significant emotional investment and will be time consuming and demand a lot of your attention. Your wedding planning experiences should all be positive but there will be times when you feel uncertainty, anxiety and even stress. If you have your nutrition locked down and are enjoying some form of exercise already but still feel edgy every now and again, then perhaps some practise in mindfulness will help you to regain control over your thoughts and focus your attention on the present moment. Mindfulness can help you to be more self aware and process conflicting thoughts and feelings that might be getting in the way of progressing with your planning process. Mindfulness can also be practised proactively through meditation and breathwork to create a calm and positive state of mind that will leave you focused and content.
1. A Positive Mindset
Your attitude and beliefs make up your mindset. They dictate how you view the world, how you approach challenges and they frame your sense of self. A positive mindset refers to establishing habits that will create positive thought patterns and help you to focus on the bright side of life. To do this, practise visualisation, meditation and positive affirmations. Set goals but more importantly do something small each day that will bring you closer to that goal. Consistency is key.
Wake up early and set aside the first hour of your day to focus on yourself. Break the hour into segments – one for exercise, another for meditation and visualisation and the last for personal or professional growth, for example, a twenty minute spinning session to elevate your heart rate, followed by a ten minute happiness meditation ending with thirty minutes of listening to your favourite podcast on productivity.
A simple and effective way to clear your mind and help structure your thoughts and feelings is to keep a journal. This is not a diary of plans and meetings but rather a space for you to write down what you are thinking about and how you are feeling each day. Journaling can also help to store ideas and questions for you to look back on and draw inspiration from.
2. Self Awareness
Where having a positive mindset is concerned with your thoughts and feelings, which are more focused on your environment and the world around you, self awareness is about understanding your character and emotions. Self awareness is about introspection and trying to see yourself objectively through self reflection. You can become more self aware and mindful by spending time alone, reading, writing, meditating or doing other activities such as hiking.
Pay closer attention to how you feel throughout the day. This includes when you spend time with family and friends, your work environment and when you are alone. Better awareness of your emotions will start to show you the type of thought process you are in during these situations. If you have a negative thought, you can change it by thinking of someone you love, playing your favourite piece of music or going out into nature. Feel love as often as you can, it is a very powerful emotion.
3. Self Acceptance
We all need to work on accepting our positive and negative traits and learn that the only person’s opinion that matters is our own. I think we all care too much about what other people think and this is not how life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. We all have faults and shortcomings but try to focus on the good qualities that build you up and bring you joy and see how your self worth is transformed.
Positive self-talk is very important. You might catch yourself judging a personal quality or trait that you see in yourself. This might even be habitual. In some cases you would not talk to a family member or friend the way you speak to yourself. Slow down and listen to how you speak to yourself and if it is not positive, shift your focus to something that you do love about yourself.
