DEATH WAR DISEASE
These are some of the words you may hear if you turn on your radio for even a few seconds in the morning. The world has indeed become a stressful place, and that is not even considering your personal issues yet (midterms, yikes).
So how do we get around this?
Are we doomed to be eternally stressed?
These are the lofty questions I decided to seek answers for, so I took upon myself to dive into the depths of the human mind and see if everyone does in fact bear the stamp of the human condition, and see the different approaches available to manage stress through mindfulness. Mindfulness is a bit of buzzword around being aware of your present state so I took it to be around mental health in general.
To find these answers, these are the areas I decided to start with to find inner peace as a student in Dublin.
Before:
After:
Research showed me the benefits to mental health from gardening, and having grown up on a farm I'm embarrassed to say I had never tried it before.
Now living in city center in Rialto it is not necessarily the most botanically inclined area, but necessity is the mother of all invention! And as you can see I took a pitiful spot of dirt, cleaned it out, added soil, fertilizer and two daffodils to create the serenity that can be seen in the second picture. I'll admit I enjoyed this considerably more than I thought I would, it was methodical, fun, really helped me to get out of my head and focus on the present.
In the end I felt like I had made a small part of the world a nicer place.
Next some of my more artistically inclined friends recommended to me a free exhibit for students going on in IMMA. So i set about on a rainy Sunday morning to head down and try to act more cultured than I am.
This ended up being another fantastic way to forget about the hustle and bustle of life. I made a point to have my phone on airplane mode which I would recommend to forget about the world outside and sink into some really interesting pieces.
I'll admit a lot of it went over my head but the experience made me feel more connected to the creative side of humanity and really did have a pleasant impact on me.
My good self in front of the shrine:
Prints:
SO now we get into the big league for mindfulness MEDITATION, I was initially going to download an app, but decided if something is worth doing it is worth doing right. So I found out there is a Tibetan Buddhist center in Kilmainham, and did a cold call on a Thursday evening to the experts for Meditation.
I asked them about meditation and mindfulness, and they spoke to me about awareness of your surroundings and blocking out the unimportant things in life. I said to them that I have tried meditation before but always struggle to clear my head, this was met with eye rolls and if looks could speak, the word "amateur" was being shouted very loudly at me from everyone in the room.
They explained to me no one is able to clear their head entirely, and it is futile to attempt that, but meditation is about being AWARE that you are thinking, its being aware of your surroundings and your mind and bringing the world down from being a swirl of stress and externalities you cannot control, to being your immediate surroundings and thoughts. Everyone swore to the benefits of decreased anxiety and worry from meditation and yoga.
There also wasn't a huge emphasis on the religious aspect if that frightens you, some people spoke about reincarnation but most people seemed to be there for the serene surroundings, beautiful garden and just an opportunity to clear out the noise. I would recommend to anyone if they have a free evening and want to talk to some interesting friendly people to tour down and see if its for you. (I'm actually heading back next week to get training in meditation).
I'll leave you with a quote that I'll admit had an impact on me,
"Western philosophy and approach to life seems to be about learning how to function in a prison, get a job, exercise, try and keep occupied,
Eastern philosophy is about digging a tunnel out of the prison"
Take from that what you will.
I don't think these needs any description.
I've had the pleasure for the last month of having Curtis Mitchell, (200m sprint world bronze medalist 2013) staying at my mothers house as he trains for the US team for the Olympics this summer, I decided to talk to him about how he keeps a level head and stays calm under the insane amount of pressure he is under.
He told me the emphasis he places on focus, and knowing what you want and not getting distracted, eating right, and early mornings. The most impactful part of the interview was when he talked about strength from control, and responding instead of reacting, he also spoke on the benefits to meditation that he finds, and being aware of what is around you in the present, and not worrying about past or future.
So after my expedition into mindfulness and keeping your head in this noisy world as a student and as a person, I found out some things about myself, and while some things I tried I preferred to others It's not my place to tell you what is right for you!
But I can tell you the only money I spent was on daffodils, so if anything in this list interests you try it out! If anything this is the first time I ever really tried to see what works for me, in regards to my own mental health, and the process itself was incredible, I do feel less anxious afterwards and most of these I will keep up in the future.
So I would recommend, to get out there, talk to your local Buddhists, hang out with cats, do some gardening, take in some culture, talk to people, and see whats right for you, you never know what you may find out about yourself!