HOW TO USE YOUR BEAUTIFUL MINDFUL IN MAY JOURNAL by DR ELISE BIALYLEW

Created in a collaboration between Dream Life and Mindful in May, this journal invites you on a one-month journey, exploring ancient practices that are now scientifically proven to transform your mind and body for the better.

It will demystify meditation and teach you how to train your mind and heart towards greater happiness and wellbeing in your daily life.

Consider the month with this journal as an experiment in which you commit to these daily practices, and at the end of the month reflect on the impact it has had on your life.

Each week it covers a specific theme, and you’ll find links to unique guided meditations that relate directly to this theme, and which I encourage you to practise on the allocated days.

Although doing the same guided meditation for several days in a row may initially seem a bit repetitive, it’s only through repetition that the brain can learn new ways of operating, and over time carve out new neural pathways.

You’ll also find a written version of the guided meditation at the start of each week. This is offered for those who would prefer to read the guidance and then do the practice by themselves in silence.

The purpose of training in mindfulness meditation isn’t to become ‘better’ at meditating, but rather to become ‘better’ at life.

So, along with the daily meditation of the week, this journal includes mindful practices to try out each day, which will help you integrate mindfulness into all aspects of your life.

Over time and with repetition, these daily practices will become habitual, and you’ll start to sense how being mindful can become your default setting, supporting awareness through all aspects of your life.

In Week One we practise bringing our attention to the body and to our senses through the guided body scan and sound meditation, which is the first step to becoming more mindful.

We will also integrate mindfulness into daily activities by exploring how you can step into your senses, staying more embodied and present in daily life.

Week Two introduces a breath meditation to help us develop focus. You’ll discover daily practices that you can also bring to your work context in order to increase your effectiveness and productivity.

Week Three we turn our attention inwards, exploring the landscape of thoughts and emotions. We will bring mindfulness to our relationships and discover how this practice can create greater connection to the people in our lives and to the world at large.

Finally, in Week Four we learn the ‘lovingkindness’ meditation, which helps build connection and compassion in our lives. Then we finish the month with a guided happiness meditation that helps you develop a vision for your greatest happiness.

You’ll find guided meditations to use for each week of the program at www.mindlifeproject.com/book.

It’s important that you commit to this practice. Even on the days when you really don’t feel like meditating, have a go anyway.

Remember, meditation isn’t always going to feel good - in fact, on some days it will really highlight the underlying restlessness or agitation that you may not have noticed because you were too focused on the outside world.

Our hope is that as you commit to the practice, you’ll start to discover the benefits of a mind that is clear, focused and more present in everyday life.

Through regular practice we start to notice more detail and become more engaged in our whole lives: the exciting parts, the mundane parts and even the difficult parts that we may have previously attempted to avoid.

This is where the magic of mindfulness begins.

We are delighted to be collaborating with Kristina and Dream Life to bring you this journal.

WHO IS DR. ELISE BIALYLEW?

Elise Bialylew is a doctor trained in psychiatry, turned mindfulness expert and social entrepreneur, who’s passionate about supporting individuals and organisations to build resilience and thrive.

She’s the author of the bestselling meditation book, The Happiness Plan and founder of Mindful in May, the world’s largest online global mindfulness campaign that teaches thousands of people each year to meditate whilst raising funds to build clean water projects in the developing world.

Her work has featured in the Huffington Post, New York Times, and on Australian Television. She was recognised as the AFR top 100 women of influence and is a sought-after speaker offering corporate mindfulness training globally.


THE BENEFITS & APPLICATIONS OF MINDFULNESS

Although it may seem like mindfulness is a recent trend, it actually originated from Buddhist contemplative practices that are over 2500 years old.

The original word for mindfulness in the Pali language of the ancient Buddhist texts is sati. This has a number of different meanings, including ‘to familiarise’ or ‘to remember’.

Mindfulness training familiarises us with the nature of the mind, helping us to recognise more clearly what leads to suffering and what leads to happiness. The training sharpens our ability to ‘remember’ to return to the present moment, especially when we get lost in unhelpful thinking – the kind that unnecessarily amplifies our stress, entangling us in worries about things that usually don’t end up happening.

Learn more about this collaboration here…