ACE Mindfulness Activity Transcript
Good morning, Mark here from Go Travel Mindfully.
I say good morning because I seem to record in the morning.
It seems to be the best time for me.
Just that early morning stillness.
I’m always aware I’m just sort of waking up.
What I thought I’d focus on today is a mindfulness exercise that you can do anywhere at any time.
And I teach it to all of my clients.
And the feedback generally is very good in terms of its ability to get us back to the present moment when our monkey brain, our very active mind, beautiful mind, that’s always trying to problem solve, is taking us somewhere else.
And that seems to happen the most when we are troubled by something, we’re worried by something, something is stressing us out.
Maybe one of those old mind stories keeps coming up, like I’m a failure, I’m not worthy, a relationship has just ended, or maybe you’re having trouble with a relationship and the I’m unlovable story is coming up for you.
It could be that, as my focus wants to be on those of us that want to travel full-time, get out of the rat race, lead a slower life, make that achievable without having to be a millionaire.
There.
It’s possible.
Many people are doing it.
And so there could be some worries there.
How do I do it?
How do I change my life?
How do I just turn it all around?
I’ve got all of my fears and my concerns and my worries and my anxieties.
The tip for me is whenever we are not feeling present, OK, what does that feel like?
OK, maybe I’ll focus on how we are feeling in the moment.
Whenever we have anxieties, we’re feeling tense, tightness in the chest or the shoulders, heart is beating faster, feeling a bit nauseous, going off your food, those type of things.
They are always indicators that we are not in the present moment.
We have left the present moment.
We’ve generally gone into the future worrying about something, concerned about something, needing to fix something, needing to control something.
And that’s that beautiful problem-solving, logical, rational brain.
Apparently, it tends to be more of the left side of the brain that gets into all of that, reduces things down, constantly thinks about how do I fix this?
How do I control it?
How do I make it go away so that I never have that unwanted thought or feeling again?
Possible in some cases.
Possible in some cases.
But with these bigger stories that we have in life, particularly if you’re entering into that transition of wanting to travel full-time, to be a full-time nomad, to travel the world, either by yourself or with somebody else, that’s a big story.
That’s not one that you just jump into that problem-solving brain and go, I’ve got the answer, right?
I’m never going to worry ever again.
Travelling full-time, being on the road, brings its own fears and worries and concerns.
But they’re all manageable.
They are manageable.
But what can happen in our default position is to jump into that problem-solving brain and what’s the answer?
I need to have the answer.
How do I fix it?
How do I control it?
And it takes away so much energy from the very present moment.
But there are activities that we can do, very simple ones, very simple ones.
I still have some clients saying they’re too busy to do this.
It’s like when you learn how to do this, it is so simple.
You can do it anywhere, anytime, no matter what you’re doing.
So what I would like you to do is focus on a concern or a worry or an anxiety.
Something that’s just on your mind a lot lately that when you think about it, it’s taking you away from the present moment.
You know, you’re off, not so much daydreaming, but your mind is taking you away and you’re worried and you’re regularly catching yourself out, not focusing on what it is that you’re actually doing at the moment.
And that is actually part of the biggest well, the biggest factor, one of the biggest factors associated with becoming very good at mindfulness is to develop that side of us that can become aware, the noticer, the observer.
I notice that I’m feeling that way.
I notice that I just got distracted.
I notice that my mind went somewhere else.
I notice that I’m not really savoring this cup of tea at the moment.
Mmm.
Beautiful.
Tea or coffee, whatever is your fancy.
You see?
So, awareness is such a big, important part of this process.
And that takes practice as well.
But we, you know, that’s why we have those beautiful feelings, believe it or not, such as worry and concern or anxiety.
However, we experience those.
Often we feel it in the body.
Tension.
Lethargy.
A heavy body.
Maybe a fidgety body.
So you can feel it in your body.
That will give you a clue.
Maybe racing thoughts or very familiar, insecure thoughts that pop into your head regularly.
It’s becoming aware of those.
And that’s what we do.
We just become aware of them.
Don’t do anything else other than be aware.
Don’t try and jump on the back of them because, as you know, if you’ve got a money worry, for example, am I going to pay that bill?
That’s a valid worry.
It’s a valid concern if it’s a big bill.
But if you’re trying to do a mindfulness exercise and come back to the present moment, as soon as you jump on the back of that money worry, it will spiral.
You’ll have a hundred thoughts coming to your head as your beautiful problem-solving brain goes, how do we fix this?
How do we control it?
I want this to go away.
How can I get rich?
This is like last week and I had that other bill.
I had two bills in one week.
Will it ever get any better?
It seems to get better and then it gets worse and I just can’t seem to fix it.
Is it me?
Am I a loser?
Am I a failure?
Am I hopeless with money?
And it just starts to spiral.
So it’s like, whoa, stop, stop.
I like to couch things as stories.
So if that was a worry that you have at the moment, a financial money worry, it becomes, ah, the money story.
The good old money story is coming up again.
It’s like you’re holding a book called The Money Story written by you and it’s, no doubt, there’s many, many chapters where money has been an issue.
So if we can call it a story, it does help us stop a little bit from jumping on the back of those thoughts again and going, yeah, you know, let’s spiral with a million other money worry thoughts and no doubts and many other things that come in as well, like, will I ever get a bigger house?
Will I ever travel?
That’s what we want to focus on.
It’s not about a big house.
It’s about how do I downscale and have confidence in that and be able to go traveling.
So that can be the first thing, okay, is the awareness, building up the awareness.
I notice that I’m worrying again.
So we tap into that.
This is actually a mindfulness process called ACE, A-C-E, acknowledging when you’re triggered, when you’ve left the present moment.
So we acknowledge it.
Ah, I acknowledge the money worry story again or I I notice the relationship story again.
Maybe if you’re having difficulties in that area, you want to go traveling but your other partner doesn’t.
You’re trying to sort out how can we do this?
How can we have a win-win situation, so to speak?
Could be the health story.
Imagine being overseas and you get sick or you have to wait for some results and you’re in a foreign country and you’re feeling a bit insecure and you don’t speak the language.
Understandable, very, very concerning situation to be in.
But again, this ACE process can help out with that.
So acknowledging, being aware is the first process.
I notice that I’m worrying.
I notice that I’m very upset.
I notice that I’m feeling anxious.
I can feel it in my body.
I can notice it.
So we acknowledge it.
We don’t try and fix it.
We don’t try and judge it, particularly if it hasn’t got a solution at the moment.
If you are waiting on some test results to come up, well, you know, you’ve got to wait.
You really can’t do anything else about that.
But we can minimize the impact.
We can turn the volume down on that worry and that anxiety.
So we acknowledge, we become aware of the worry.
I notice the worry story.
Let’s call it that.
Then what we do to come back to the present moment, which is what mindfulness is all about, is we connect with the body.
C is for connect.
And that can be as simple as wriggling your toes.
Wriggling your toes.
I invite you right now to wriggle your toes and you will notice a lot of your attention comes to the fact that you are wriggling your toes.
You’re coming back into your body and it’s not a distraction strategy.
The worry story is the distraction story because right here, right now, despite all of the worries and the concerns, 99% of the time you will find that everything is okay.
Right here, right now, I’m okay.
I may be in some discomfort if it’s a health issue, but right here, right now, I’m okay.
I am safe.
Yeah, so we connect with our body.
We get away from the distraction and we come back to the only moment that really matters, which is right here, right now.
So you wriggle your toes.
You become aware of your body and perhaps some slow, deep breathing.
That is a good way to say to the body, it’s okay, we’re okay right now, we’re safe.
That will help calm the body a little bit.
Right here, right now, we are okay.
And then the E in ACE, A-C-E, is when you come back into your body, you realise there’s a world around you.
I’m just going to take in the world around me.
Even if I’m just in a room, I will look at something that I can focus on.
I’m not going to judge it.
I mean, at the moment in the corner there, I’m looking at a plant.
And I always find the amazement of looking at something in the present moment, the complexity of what you can see, that plant, and the myriad of leaves that it has, and the light coming in through the window and how it’s shining on or lighting up one side of the pot plant that’s over there.
I should show you that.
Maybe I’ll put up a photo.
Afterwards, when I edit this video, and then the shadow on the other side where the light coming in through the window is not there.
Also, I’m looking directly at a sunrise, and there’s a yellow sky at the moment as the sun is rising, because there is some cloud cover, and it’s very still outside, and there is cloud cover, and I can look down in the valley.
It’s amazing.
The present moment is really amazing, and you get that sense that you’re back in the world.
You’ve wriggled your toes, slow deep breathing, you’re having a look around you, and all the time that you’re doing that, you’re bringing yourself back to the present moment.
And with practice, you’ve got to trust this process.
With practice, it will feel like the volume is being turned down on that worry and that anxiety that you had a moment ago.
It’s not minimizing it, it’s not making it go away, it’s not trying to solve it, it’s just getting us in a better position right here, right now, where when we get that sense that we’ve come back to the present moment, that’s when we check in with ourselves and go, that concern, that worry that I just had, can I do anything about it right now?
It is a concern, it is a worry, but right here, right now, can I do anything about it?
Sometimes, with that clarity that comes in the present moment, you’ll go, yes, yes, I’ve got to phone that person, but the magnitude of what you’ve got to do will be greatly reduced and often the answer will be, no, I can’t do anything about it.
You know, I am worried about what’s coming up next week, but it’s not happening now.
So if I can focus my energy on now, then I can say to myself, what is in my best interest right now?
What is it that will be good for my overall well-being? right here, right now.
It could be making another cup of tea or warming it up because it’s gone cold as mine has or getting a glass of water or watching that sunrise.
You will just know what is the best thing for you right here, right now.
And if you are going through a worrying period, maybe you’ve got to do that 50 times a day.
You’ve got to do ACE 50 times a day.
It will always help bring you back to now, this present moment where you’ll have greater clarity over what is in your best interest right here, right now.
ACE.
Acknowledge.
Connect.
Engage.
Thank you.
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