Self-care practices for loud minds to open space for more ease, joy and freedom in daily life

Welcome to PlaygroundZ47, an alternative bubble for people with loud minds to practice self-care!

The purpose is opening space for more ease, joy and freedom in daily life using mindful, compassionate and playful attitude when practicing self-care practices like meditation, mindful movement, nervous system regulation practices.

Here are some important ingredients:

1. No need to change anything, come as you are -Phew!-

2. Focus on the practice rather than the expectations

3. Try to integrate to daily life whenever possible

I'd like to highlight the importance of these ingredients. If you’re into self-development, spirituality -or if you're like me even when we’re taking therapy- there’s usually a huge expectation that’s far from where you actually are.

• We want it to be finished even before we start

• We follow gurus to heal and transform

• Do one thing and expect lifelong results

• Ask questions to stars, because we want someone else to take responsibility

• Look for one size fits all type of answers for growth and enlightenment

• Find labels so we’re protected from the unknown

We really try to use shortcuts to avoid from the blood, sweat and tears on the road, don't we? :)

But why?

According to early Buddhist traditions we want to hold onto things that feel good, and avoid from what doesn’t (and this creates suffering on top of the real pain of the experience.) Modern studies explain this tendency of our mind with the "evolution".

Feel free to share in the comments what you think about that.

So, to put it simply let's use the following explanation now.

The mind has evolved to keep us alive, it’s job is to find possible dangers so we can prepare. When there’s unknown, the “danger” can be anywhere and everywhere.

As a result, even though the mind itself is not visible, it has to be loud enough to keep us going.

When you think of it that way, can you blame or shame wanting shortcuts and easy answers?

The other side of the coin

It's also true that life is constantly changing, nature, time and what others do seem to be outside of our control, the motives of our actions hardly come from conscious choices.

No surprise Cheshire cat suggests:

Let’s admit life is difficult enough, not having a break or living with a constantly loud mind doesn’t make this journey easier...

We tend to notice the voice of the mind in different ways like worry, resentment, feeling isolated, overthinking, tension in the body, chronic pain...

When we spend a lot of time inside the head we tend to miss what is actually present.

How can mindfulness and compassion and playfulness can work like self-care practice?

This space is for those who experience the struggles of the loud minds.

We practice meditation, movement, journaling, creativity and guided exercises, but practice can be anything, and the intention is doing it with a mindfulness, compassionate a playfulness.

This approach is usually different from what our minds are used to doing in daily life. With the practice we:

• observe what is present with open, friendly and non-judgemental attitude

• open up to empathy and common humanity

• explore the feelings of gratitude and joy without holding onto expectations

• practice acceptance with respect and understanding

• use techniques to bring the attention to present, ground ourselves and build more resilience

Using mindfulness and compassion and playfulness we can break the habitual negativity of the loud mind and open space for more ease, joy and freedom in daily life.

If you’re ready to give it a try and see how it’s unfolding, subscribe and join us in the playground!

One last thing before we go:

Motivational message from Bill and Ted to loud minds at Z47