Try your best not to let racing thoughts in your head and focus on the sounds around you; the birds, the wind in the trees, the sound of cars. What can you smell? What does the washing feel like? How does the grass feel on your feet?

By beginning each morning with two minutes of silence and mindfulness, your day will start peaceful, happy and quiet. After a long and winding journey towards motherhood, what’s something that surprised you about being a parent? So in mindfulness it's this ability to start recognising our own patterns of thinking that may not be that helpful for us. Once we start recognising those unhelpful patterns then we can start doing something about it, we can start having a choice. It's sort of reducing our reactivity and increasing our ability to respond more wisely.” You can practise mindfulness anywhere, but it can be especially helpful to take a mindful approach if you realise that, for several minutes, you have been trapped in reliving past problems or pre-living future worries. Different mindfulness practices As we go about our daily lives, we can notice the sensations of things, the food we eat, the air moving past the body as we walk. Keep it regularThat's how I see my mindfulness practices," adds Sian. "It's that ability to give me that little bit of space in which to work, to make a choice, rather than simply react to something.”

What sensations are there, right now? If you notice any tension or resistance towards painful or unpleasant sensations, gently turn towards them. Accept this as best you can. If you begin to tense around the breath, then let go a little bit with each out-breath. Soften into gravity. Notice any thoughts as they arise and pass away in the mind. See if you can let them come and go without becoming too identified with their content. Look at your thoughts, not from them. Observe them as if they were clouds in the sky. Relate to them as a flow of mental events. Remember: thoughts are not facts. We can also get so lost in our ‘over thinking’ mind constantly ‘ruminating’ over things that are in the past or in a ‘story telling’ or ‘worrying’ mode, constantly planning, trying to work out or worrying about the future. With all of this worrying (about things that are most probably not in our control) we waste so much time and energy and miss the simple things in life. Mindful Mums While brushing your daughter’s hair, for example, think about how the hair feels, think about the colour of the hair, the way the hair falls or how the curls bounce.

What is mindfulness?

When you find yourself in a testing situation, tell yourself, even say it out loud, my mind is experiencing unpleasantness. su_note note_color=”#f6ff66″ radius=”0″]My favorite phrase in the universe is “this too shall pass.”[/su_note] Firstly, let’s chat about your fantastic new book! Can you tell us a bit about Mindfulness for Mums ? I know this might sound counter-intuitive – to focus on something we are trying to stop, but this is singlehandedly the biggest technique that has helped me squash my worries.

Mindfulness is a bit of a buzz word these days. So many people are rushing through life that they actually have to be reminded that it’s important to slow down and pay attention to what they are doing. I ask this question all the time. If I’m in ahurry in a slow grocery store line up, I ask myself, “Can I fix this problem?” ifthe answer isno,getting upset isn’t going to change the outcome. When we become more aware of the present moment, we begin to experience afresh things that we have been taking for granted.

One way, I’m subconsciously creating stress; the other way I am experiencing happiness and aliveness, and reducing my stress through present-moment awareness. Becoming a mother often involves the letting go of the old you and welcoming the new you. You may not be able to do things the way you used to and that in itself can be frustrating. In these instances, be kind to yourself. The sooner you can accept that in your life, the easier it will be to enjoy actually being a mother. For many years, women have taken pride in the fact that they can multi-task, however it's now been proven that whilst this may be true, we can't actually give each task our full attention and best efforts. So being mindful of this helps us to slow down, and take one task at a time.

I can actively engage with my child and what we are doing, slow down, move, speak and act mindfully and thoughtfully. Since becoming a mother four years ago, most days I’m whipped in so many directions I’m not even sure if it’s day or night.What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favourite day,” said Pooh. A.A. Milne 2. Practice S.T.O.P & R.A.I.N