Mindfulness, meditation and being more ‘zen’ are popular with celebs — but do they really benefit your mental health?
Celebrities from Jennifer Aniston to Prince Harry are said to be big fans of meditation, but Fab Daily's Joely Chilcott was not so sure
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MINDFULNESS, meditation and being more “zen” are real 2019 buzzwords.
However, I am pretty sure “laid-back” has never been used to describe me.
Busy, highly-strung and stressed? Definitely.
I’m sceptical of hippy babble, even if the NHS has recommended the practices for improving mental wellbeing.
Research has found they can even lessen the symptoms of the menopause.
Jennifer Aniston, Emma Watson and Prince Harry are among celebrity fans.
At New Year, I drunkenly declared that 2019 was going to be the year I cared less about things I know aren’t important.
I began with yoga. But how can anyone feel calm when your head is stuck under your a**e?
Then I tried pilates. When the soothing voice of the instructor softly said: “You should feel this stretch along your left thigh”, I felt a twinge in my right arm so swiftly left.
I downloaded the Headspace app but while listening to it, I started thinking of the mince meat I needed to buy for dinner instead. I figured I was a lost cause.
Then I heard about new book Ten To Zen by Owen O’Kane, which says taking ten minutes out of each day could be the answer to a calmer, “more authentic” life.
The sceptic in me knew the second the book told me to “follow the path to enlightenment” I’d follow it to the bin.
But author Owen, who works as a clinical lead for an NHS mental health service, promises his method is “clear and accessible” and not “airy fairy”.
This sounds more up my street. When I met him, Owen’s warm persona and Irish lilt immediately put me at ease.
He asks: “When was the last time you took some time out for yourself?” I’m stumped.
Does browsing the “New In” section on Asos count?
He explains most of us routinely clean our teeth or make cups of tea but spend no time on ourselves, so need a few minutes to check in.
The first step is to stop, close my eyes and ask myself how I’m feeling. “I guess a little tired, I slept pretty badly . . . ”
No, how I’m really feeling. That takes me a while to work out.
I feel overwhelmed with so much going on all the time. And I’m a perfectionist so I always want everything to be just right.
It was the first time I’d properly thought about how I actually feel — I’m so used to the default “I’m fine” — and it was quite emotional.
Next, Owen asks me to visualise a calm place. I try to picture a beach.
My brain doesn’t want to stay there and I can’t focus. But Owen tells me this is normal.
We try a tapping technique called bilateral stimulation to calm the mind.
It does help a little. On to the “managing your thoughts” section — identifying thought patterns, and welcoming them so they feel less intimidating. I was not prepared for this.
I’d been so convinced none of this would work that I wasn’t ready to confront the nitty gritty.
We identified one of my main thought patterns was that I wasn’t good enough.
It turns out I am mean to myself, but aren’t we all?
The next couple of minutes are for “living in the present moment”.
That’s not so easy for me . . . I’m always thinking about what I have done or should be doing but never what is actually happening.
The last minute is spent reaffirming “living with acceptance, compassion and authenticity”, which basically means being a good human.
I can do that, I hope. I decide there and then to stop only putting the good stuff on social media and to be more honest about life’s ups and downs.
Essentially, the theory of taking these ten minutes is to “bring the mind’s anxiety down notch by notch, until the brain gets the space to be able to think more clearly”.
I certainly didn’t find it easy but I definitely felt calmer afterwards and my brain felt a little less fuzzy.Perhaps we do all need a few minutes a day to just stop, even if we find it strange at first.
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Of course, the perfectionist in me asked Owen how long it would take to master mindfulness.
Looks like I still have a bit of work to do. ..
- (Bluebird) is out now, priced £10.99.