LET'S TALK about MINDFULNESS Conversation Starters

Mindfulness is important because if we don’t learn to control and manage our thoughts and emotions, they’ll control and manage us. We think we are in control, but we’re not. It doesn’t matter if it’s a huge bear lumbering towards us in the forest, or someone we love criticizing our behavior. When we feel a threat of any kind (rejection, criticism, fear of failure, pain, humiliation, or loss), our body takes over and prepares for the fight/flight/freeze reaction to protect us. We DON’T think because we CAN’T think. The connections to the thinking part of the brain are blocked. That’s why people in emotional conversations become so irrational. It’s impossible to communicate with them because they aren’t able to think rationally. Their brains have been highjacked. This is when we behave badly, make poor decisions, and say or do things we later regret.
The point of mindfulness is to learn how to pay attention to what is going on in our minds and then learn to manage our thoughts and emotions so that we can pay attention to what we want, when we want, and for however long we want. We learn to pause (do nothing) and give ourselves time to manage those emotions and make decisions rationally; decisions that are in our best interest.